Fintech, Payments &
E-Commerce IP
Patent Strategy for the Technology Behind Digital Transactions
Financial technology and digital commerce depend on systems that move information, verify identities, process transactions, and coordinate activity across devices, platforms, and networks.
Divergent Patent Law helps companies protect and evaluate innovations in electronic payments, financial software, identity verification, and e-commerce infrastructure. Our attorneys combine technical backgrounds with experience in patent prosecution, financial-services licensing, and disputes involving payment networks, gift-card technology, and identity-verification systems.
We connect the technical operation of these systems with patent drafting, portfolio development, licensing, and enforcement strategy.
Understanding the Technical Contribution
Effective patent strategy begins with understanding how the technology works and what the invention changes.
We work with inventors, engineers, product teams, and in-house counsel to examine system architecture, data flows, processing steps, security mechanisms, and interactions among components. That analysis helps identify the technical contribution and develop patent disclosures and claims connected to the invention’s implementation.
For example, an innovation in payment security may involve how credentials are generated, stored, transmitted, and verified. An improvement to a checkout platform may involve how distributed services coordinate transaction state, handle communications failures, or maintain consistent records.
We examine those mechanisms, capture alternative implementations, and consider how the resulting protection could support the client’s products and broader portfolio.
Technologies We Handle
We help clients protect technical innovations across payments, transaction security, digital commerce, stored-value systems, and financial software infrastructure.
Electronic Payments and Transaction Networks
Payment processing, transaction routing, payment-network communications, point-of-sale systems, digital wallets, and coordination among merchants, processors, platforms, and financial institutions.
We evaluate the technical relationships among transaction participants and the functions performed by the relevant devices, services, and network components.
Identity Verification and Transaction Security
Identity-verification platforms, authentication, credential management, tokenization, secure communications, and technical mechanisms supporting transaction security.
Our approach focuses on how the system obtains and processes information, verifies identity or authority, and controls access or transaction execution.
E-Commerce Platforms and Merchant Technologies
Checkout systems, merchant integrations, order processing, marketplace infrastructure, and coordination among commerce platforms, payment services, and backend systems.
Patent opportunities may arise from how these systems exchange information, synchronize records, manage transaction states, or coordinate processing across services.
Gift Cards and Stored-Value Systems
Gift-card platforms, stored-value processing, account activation, redemption, balance management, and communications among transaction systems.
Our team’s experience includes patent disputes involving gift-card technology and payment networks, providing practical perspective on how claims relate to commercial systems.
Financial Software and Data Infrastructure
Financial software platforms, cloud services, application programming interfaces, data-processing architectures, and distributed systems supporting financial and commercial operations.
We help clients identify technical innovations within the infrastructure and software that support their services.
How We Help
We connect the technical contribution with patent drafting, eligibility strategy, portfolio development, licensing, disputes, and commercialization.
Patent Drafting and U.S. Prosecution
We develop patent applications around the invention’s technical architecture, operation, and implementation alternatives. Our work considers the relevant components, processing steps, data relationships, and technical advantages that support the proposed claim strategy.
During prosecution, we provide recommendations on Office Actions, examiner interviews, claim amendments, evidentiary submissions, and appeals. We explain how the available approaches may affect claim scope, related applications, cost, and the client’s commercial objectives.
Patent Eligibility Strategy
Patent eligibility is an important consideration for financial software and transaction technologies. We address it during invention development, application drafting, and prosecution.
Our attorneys work with technical teams to identify the specific contribution, describe how the system achieves it, and develop claims grounded in the disclosed operation. We consider architecture, processing relationships, security mechanisms, and improvements in system performance or functionality.
Where appropriate, examiner interviews, technical explanations, evidentiary submissions, and appeals can help present that contribution clearly.
Portfolio Development and Continuation Strategy
Fintech and e-commerce platforms evolve through new integrations, security features, processing architectures, and service capabilities.
We help clients identify filing priorities, evaluate existing coverage, preserve supported claim opportunities, and consider additional applications as their technology develops. Our work can include invention harvesting, portfolio reviews, continuation planning, and coordination with foreign counsel.
The objective is a portfolio aligned with the client’s technology roadmap, competitive priorities, and commercial plans.
Licensing and Enforcement Analysis
Evaluating a patent against a payment or commerce system requires understanding both the claims and the implementation.
We assess claim scope, identify the components and participants responsible for relevant functions, and evaluate available technical evidence. Depending on the engagement, that work may include claim charts, product documentation, system communications, transaction records, and analysis of software or network behavior.
Our attorneys use that analysis to advise on licensing opportunities, portfolio evaluation, infringement questions, and enforcement strategy.
Patent Disputes and Post-Grant Proceedings
Our experience with payment-network, gift-card, identity-verification, and other computer-system disputes informs how we evaluate patent claims and prosecution records.
We handle PTAB proceedings, ex parte reexamination, appeals, and patent disputes, considering how arguments and claim amendments may affect related licensing, prosecution, and enforcement objectives.
Commercialization and Technology Transactions
Patent strategy often intersects with ownership, licensing, development agreements, technology integrations, and corporate transactions.
We help clients align portfolio decisions with commercialization plans and evaluate intellectual-property issues arising in licensing, partnerships, acquisitions, and other technology transactions.
A Practical Approach to Fintech IP
Prosecution Informed by Commercial Implementation
Payment and commerce systems frequently distribute operations among merchants, users, service providers, processors, and other participants. Understanding those relationships can influence both patent drafting and later evaluation of the claims.
We consider where important operations occur, how components interact, and what evidence may be available to demonstrate the use of a claimed feature. That perspective helps us evaluate claim language, implementation alternatives, and the consequences of prosecution decisions.
Our experience in prosecution, licensing, and litigation gives us a practical framework for connecting patent protection with the systems used in the marketplace.
Working With In-House Teams and Foreign Associates
We support companies developing new platforms, businesses managing established portfolios, and foreign associates seeking U.S. patent counsel for financial and commerce technologies.
Engagements can address an individual invention, a product platform, a portfolio segment, or a particular proceeding. We establish responsible attorneys, communication channels, review procedures, reporting expectations, and approval requirements at the outset.
Explore Enterprise Patent Operations
Explore Services for Foreign Associates
Clear Scope and Pricing
We discuss the proposed work, staffing, timing, and professional fees before substantive work begins. Patent prosecution services may use agreed professional fees, while portfolio analysis, licensing, transactions, and dispute-related work are scoped to the engagement.
Government fees and anticipated third-party expenses are identified separately so clients can evaluate the expected cost.
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Relevant Team
Our Fintech team combines patent prosecution, eligibility strategy, financial-services licensing, and dispute experience. Brandon R. Theiss developed and led a patent-licensing program at Intellectual Ventures involving software used throughout the financial-services industry. James B. Hatten’s litigation experience includes payment networks, gift-card technology, and identity-verification platforms.
Meredith Martin Addy
President & Co-Founder · Registered Patent Attorney · Electrical Engineer
An electrical engineer and registered patent attorney, Mimi draws on more than 100 district-court patent cases and more than 100 Federal Circuit appeals to advise on prosecution strategy, PTAB proceedings, licensing, and portfolio durability.
Brandon R. Theiss
Partner · Registered Patent Attorney · Licensed Professional Engineer
A licensed professional engineer and former industrial-control and medical-device engineer, Brandon advises on patent prosecution, § 101 strategy, portfolio development, and post-grant proceedings involving AI, software, cloud systems, medical devices, and automation.
James B. Hatten
Senior Counsel · Registered Patent Attorney · Computer Engineering
A computer engineer and registered patent attorney, James advises on prosecution and IP risk involving software platforms, computer architecture, telecommunications, networking, electronic payments, and identity-verification technologies.
Discuss Your Fintech or E-Commerce Patent Needs
Whether you are developing a payment technology, protecting a digital-commerce platform, expanding a software portfolio, or evaluating patents for licensing or enforcement, we welcome the opportunity to discuss your objectives.
Please keep initial inquiries general and nonconfidential. Sending an inquiry does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Representation requires conflicts clearance and a written engagement agreement.