ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,277,573, issued on April 15, was assigned to INMAR CLEARING INC. (Winston-Salem, N.C.).

"Digital promotion processing system including promotion terms preference data based promotion generation and related methods" was invented by Jeffrey Sandgren (Kernersville, N.C.), Forrest Gullion (Melrose, Fla.), Bobbi Iacovelli (Jeannette, Pa.), Richard Polhemus (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Meggan Salmon (Wynnewood, Pa.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A digital promotion processing system may include a shopper device associated with a given shopper, and a promotion processing server. The promotion processing server may be configured to determine availab...