ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,333,544, issued on June 17, was assigned to SUPERTAB AG (Steinhausen, Switzerland).

"Methods for access point systems and payment systems therefor" was invented by Cosmin-Gabriel Ene (Munich), Achim Luft (Braunschweig, Germany), Martin Hans (Bad Salzdetfurth, Germany) and Tom Nemec (Schwabisch Gmund, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods for access points and corresponding payment systems which facilitate access to a data network by a user device for payments of very small monetary amounts in an access now and pay latter arrangement. The method for such a payment system for at least one access point or access point server relies...