Patent Law Practice Center

Apple Applies for Patent on Parental Controls for Debit Cards

Lately, I’ve been trying to publish articles every week on IP Watchdog about Apple patents and published patent applications. I have long told students and others that if you work in an area where Apple innovates and you are looking for good, well-written patents to read and learn from, then read whatever Apple patents you can find. Of course, there is a cult following for everything Apple, so there may be at least a little pandering on my part. But patents are patents and to learn you have to read, so why not read interesting patents? At least that was always my philosophy when teaching law school classes.

This week,  a particular Apple published patent application jumped out at me.  U.S. Patent Application No. 20130018792, simply titled Parental Controls, seeks to give parents the option of allowing children to have debit cards while allowing parents to define limitations for use.

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