Visa Patent for MAC Checkout System

ChangeBridge: Patent Grants - Business Methods (G06Q)

Published March 24th, 2026

Detected March 25th, 2026

Summary

The USPTO has granted Visa International Service Association a patent for a MAC checkout system using challenge-response authentication. This system aims to protect personal information during transactions by authenticating parties through encrypted challenges.

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What changed

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted patent US12587386B2 to Visa International Service Association for a "Checkout with MAC" system. This patent describes a method for protecting personal information using a challenge-response authentication mechanism involving message authentication codes (MACs). The system authenticates a first party to a second and third party by encrypting a challenge and verifying the resulting MAC, thereby limiting the compromise of payment instrument details during transactions.

While this is a patent grant and not a regulatory rule, it signifies a technological advancement in payment security that may influence future industry standards and practices. Compliance officers in the financial services and retail sectors should be aware of such patented technologies as they may become integrated into payment processing systems, potentially impacting data security protocols and customer authentication methods. No immediate compliance actions are required, but monitoring the adoption of this technology is advisable.

Source document (simplified)

← USPTO Patent Grants

Checkout with MAC

Grant US12587386B2 Kind: B2 Mar 24, 2026

Assignee

Visa International Service Association

Inventors

Hari Krishna Annam, Selva Ganesh Vasudevan

Abstract

A system for protecting personal information uses a challenge and an encrypted copy of the challenge in the form of a message authentication code (MAC) to provide authentication among multiple parties. The challenge is received by a first party from a second party. The challenge is encrypted by the first party to form the MAC and then both the challenge and the MAC are returned to the second party. The second party authenticates the first party by confirming the challenge. The second party sends the MAC and challenge to the third party. The third party decrypts the MAC using a key shared with the first party. When the decrypted MAC matches the challenge, the first party is authenticated to the third party. The process is applicable to transaction processing to limit compromise of payment instrument details.

CPC Classifications

H04L 9/3242 H04L 9/0822 H04L 9/0825 H04L 9/088 H04L 9/14 H04L 9/3273 H04L 2209/46 H04L 2209/56 H04L 63/04 H04L 63/08 H04L 9/3271 G06Q 20/363 G06Q 20/3674 G06Q 20/3823 G06Q 20/388 G06Q 20/401 G06Q 2220/00