December 2019, Apple has filed several patent applications for inventions in the United States including an application US 20200213311 A1 entitled “PROVIDING VERIFIED CLAIMS OF USER IDENTITY”.
The idea of the development arose due to problems with the technical possibilities of identifying a user when working with the Apple Pay application and making payments. According to the vice-president of Apple, to be legal, the person must be identified by the government using the documents identifying that person. But, in this case, what about Internet payments, which require the user identification to succeed? Apple found the answer to this question and suggested a way to use a smartphone as an electronic form of identification.
An invention proposed by Apple describes security protocols that allow users of the Apple devices to scan their personal documents, such as, for example, a passport, driving license, etc., and obtain their digital versions for further use. The applications texts are, of course, complicated, but in simple terms, they refer to the process of certification for connecting mobile devices to servers of the governmental authorities through certain protocols. Actually, the claimed method itself includes downloading any of the user’s personal documents, whether it is an identity card, passport, driver’s license, etc., in any Apple device, connecting the device system to the authority that issued the document, and performing authentication via special protocols.
Thus, Apple aims to not only simplify the use of their applications for payments, but also to avoid the time-consuming bureaucracy when, for example, renewing an identity card or suspending the validity of the document when it is lost or stolen.
Of course, one of the first steps for the introduction of the Apple novel technology became filing a patent application in order to obtain a monopoly for its development (with opening opportunities for licensing or patents selling). Do not miss a possibility to protect your ideas. For this, a variety of strategies and intellectual property objects can be used. Intectica and our Research and patent department will help you with this.
