US 8,140,417 · Granted 2012-03-20

Sharp's Fax Machine Patent for Getting Your Money Back When Calls Fail

Sharp patented a way to automatically refund your money when a fax fails to send—without you having to wait around or complain to customer service. The machine detects when the transmission went wrong and sends a refund notification directly to the phone number or email you gave it.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a fax transmission system that automatically detects when data transmission fails due to communication errors, then sends refund information to a user-specified contact address. What's protected here is the combination of (1) receiving payment upfront for fax transmission, (2) detecting transmission failures in real time, and (3) automatically notifying the user at a pre-registered address that a refund is due—without requiring manual intervention or the user to be present.

Why it matters

This patent addresses a real friction point in pay-per-use fax services: users paid for failed transmissions and had to go through hassle to get refunds. By automating the detection and notification process, Sharp's invention removes the need for customer complaints and manual refund processing. This made their fax machines more user-friendly in an era when faxing was still a primary business communication tool, reducing customer frustration and potentially increasing adoption of coin-operated or prepaid fax stations.

Real-world use

When you send a fax at a FedEx Office or business center and the connection drops, the system automatically credits your account or sends you a receipt showing the refund—no need to argue with the attendant.

Original USPTO abstract

A data transmission system is provided that enables a user to move away before the completion of data transmission regardless of whether a refund is made in association with occurrence of a communication error when a data transmitting apparatus performs data transmission and collects a consideration. The data transmitting apparatus includes a consideration receiving portion that receives a consideration of FAX data transmission, a report destination input portion that inputs a report destination of a user, and a FAX transmission error detecting portion that detects a communication error at the time of the FAX data transmission. In case the FAX transmission error detecting portion detects a communication error, the system including the data transmitting apparatus transmits refund information for refunding the consideration of the FAX data transmission with the communication error to the report destination input through the report destination input portion.

Patent details

Publication number: US 8,140,417
Filing date: 2008-05-09
Grant date: 2012-03-20
Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
Inventor(s): SHIBATA TETSUYA
CPC class: H04N1/00217

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