ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,682,373, issued on July 14, was assigned to TA Connections IL LLC (Schaumburg, Ill.).

"Maintenance of virtual credit card pool for airline passenger vouchers" was invented by Ted Scislowski (Inverness, Ill.), Brian Olson (Maple Grove, Minn.) and David Velasquez (Scottsdale, Ariz.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods and apparatus are disclosed for the maintenance of a virtual credit card pool for vouchers. An example system includes server(s) that are configured to determine whether the virtual credit card pool includes a virtual credit card having a card value that equals a voucher value of an accepted offer. In response to determinin...