USA Technologies, Inc. announced that the U.S. Patent Office has granted USAT its 87th patent. U.S. Patent 8,596,529, titled Interactive Interface Effectuated Vending, adds to the collection of intellectual property USAT has accumulated over a number of years as self-serve retail markets, such as vending, transition from cash-only to cashless and other value-added offerings enabled by a connected technology platform.
"Through this patent and others, USAT has accumulated what we believe is a meaningful portfolio of intellectual property around, among other things, cashless payment, remote diagnostics and interactive transaction capabilities in a vending machine — one of the largest segments of the self-serve retail market that remains in the early stages of cashless adoption," said Stephen P. Herbert, chairman and chief executive officer of USA Technologies, in a prepared statement.
"This latest patent is a reminder to our customers that we continue to actively protect our intellectual property and afford them the benefits of that intellectual property via our ePort® products and ePort Connect® service. In addition, as cashless continues to proliferate in the vending/self-serve retail market we believe our intellectual property will be of increasing value to the marketplace. As a result, we anticipate increasing our licensing efforts as part of our strategy as the market continues to develop," said Herbert.
