ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,299,659, issued on May 13, was assigned to Block Inc. (Oakland, Calif.).
"Reduced friction for merchant interactions" was invented by Sivan Whiteley (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) and Kirupa Pushparaj (Santa Clara, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Improvements to existing technologies associated with point-of-sale transactions and merchant ecosystems to, among other things, reduce in-person contact and, in some examples, improve the efficiency at which point-of-sale transactions are completed (i.e., reduce friction) are described. In some examples, such reduced in-person contact and/or improved efficiencies can limit transmission of infe...