{
  "patent_number": "US 7225154",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Digital Systems Pool Money from Many People for One Goal",
  "original_title": "Methods and systems for coordinating pooled financial transactions",
  "summary": "A system that lets multiple people contribute small amounts of money toward a shared goal, only releasing the total funds to a recipient once specific conditions are met.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent describes a central host system that manages group payments. It allows multiple people to contribute funds from different locations using various devices, like credit card terminals or online interfaces. The system holds these partial payments in a virtual pool until a predefined set of conditions—such as reaching a target dollar amount or a specific deadline—is satisfied. Once the host system confirms the conditions are met, it automatically transfers the accumulated money to the intended beneficiary.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover direct peer-to-peer transfers that do not involve a central host system managing pooled conditions.",
    "Does not cover simple escrow services where funds are held for a single buyer and seller without a multi-contributor pool.",
    "Does not cover offline, manual collection of funds that are not processed through a networked host system.",
    "Does not cover systems where the beneficiary has direct control over the funds before the conditions are met."
  ],
  "filed": "2003-03-17",
  "granted": "2007-05-29",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "First Data Corp",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/first-data-corp",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Kurt Hansen",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/kurt-hansen"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 9,
  "tags": [
    "finance",
    "ecommerce",
    "software"
  ],
  "abstract": "Methods and systems are provided for processing a financial transaction. A set of conditions is received that define circumstances for execution of the financial transaction. Funds are collected for each of a plurality of partial payments prior to satisfaction of the set of conditions, with at least two of the partial payments being collected from different persons. The collected funds are accumulated for support of the financial transaction until satisfaction or failure of the set of conditions.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7225154/amazon-marketplace",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7225154/amazon-marketplace/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US7225154",
  "relatedPatents": []
}