The patent applies only to the US. It is also limited in that it only applies to "contact" transactions where the card is inserted into the machine.
It does make it complicated when you consider that transactions made elsewhere in the world may be routed through a US based server, or that cards issued in the US will be used out of country and cards from teh rest of the world may at one stage be used in the US.
Also to liven up things later on there are other cards that contain a chip and are inserted into a reader to make a connection to a network. These may include Foxtel cards to activate their boxes, hotel or other loyalty cards (my Rydges card is like this) library cards and probably dozens (or hundreds) more.
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