Berkeley, Calif.-based Blaze Mobile announced it has received a patent for a payment sticker using near field communications (NFC) and a mobile wallet.

According to the company's release, the patent awarded to Blaze covers an NFC payment sticker affixed to mobile devices not equipped with internal NFC capabilities and a mobile wallet product that interacts with it. The mobile wallet app for smartphones allows those devices to access NFC programs such as mobile payments, banking and mobile coupons. Feature phones with the sticker affixed to them can access a version of the mobile wallet based on SMS messages to make payments at the point of sale even without a data plan.

Blaze said it first invented the NFC payment sticker in 2006. According to the company's CEO, Michelle Fisher, Blaze was looking to find a way to spur adoption of NFC when there were few NFC-enabled phones available for consumers. In the company's announcement, Fisher said the continued lack of NFC phones on the market — only Google's Nexus S currently has NFC capabilities — means the company's NFC sticker "remains a relevant NFC-enabling solution."

The phrase "mobile wallet" may sound like Blaze is looking to enter the increasingly heated NFC wallet space with the likes of Google, but Fisher said in the announcement that Blaze "is not in competition with Google's Nexus NFC phone, or any other NFC phone." She explained the company believes an embedded NFC solution is where the market is heading, but the company will "offer consumers an alternative so they do not have to buy a new phone, or wait until more NFC phones are released."

"Our vision has always been to develop a universal digital wallet that works on any mobile device, any carrier and with any bank to drive consumer adoption and ignite the marketplace," Fisher said in the announcement.

The company said the patent confirms that Blaze Mobile originated the NFC payment sticker technology and gives the company the credit it is due.