Electronic coupon system
First Claim
1. An electronic coupon system for providing an electronic coupon to a user having a mobile communication device with a display device, said electronic coupon system comprising:
- an electronic coupon information storage device for storing information relating to said electronic coupon;
a bar code generator for generating bar code information based at least on said information relating to said electronic coupon stored in said electronic coupon information storage device; and
a bar code information transmitter for transmitting to said mobile communication device said bar code information generated by said bar code generator.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An easy to use, secure electronic coupon system provides electronic coupons to users having a cellular phone 5 with a display device. A coupon data storage device 23 stores information relating to the electronic coupons. A bar code processor 14 generates bar code data based at least on the electronic coupon data stored in the coupon data storage device 23. A bar code processor 14 sends the bar code data generated by the bar code processor 14 to the cellular phone 5. Using the cellular phone 5, electronic coupons can thus be presented in a store where a product or service is purchased, and the electronic coupons can be scanned by an existing bar code scanner connected to a POS system.
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Citations
83 Claims
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1. An electronic coupon system for providing an electronic coupon to a user having a mobile communication device with a display device, said electronic coupon system comprising:
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an electronic coupon information storage device for storing information relating to said electronic coupon;
a bar code generator for generating bar code information based at least on said information relating to said electronic coupon stored in said electronic coupon information storage device; and
a bar code information transmitter for transmitting to said mobile communication device said bar code information generated by said bar code generator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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35. An electronic coupon providing method for providing an electronic coupon to a user having a mobile communication device with a display device, said electronic coupon providing method comprising the steps of:
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storing information relating to said electronic coupon into an electronic coupon information storage device;
generating bar code information based at least on said information relating to said electronic coupon stored in said electronic coupon information storage device; and
transmitting to said mobile communication device said bar code information generated in said step of generating bar code information.
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55. An electronic coupon providing program embodied on a medium for causing a computer to provide an electronic coupon to a user having a mobile communication device with a display device, said electronic coupon providing program comprising the steps of:
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storing information relating to said electronic coupon into an electronic coupon information storage device;
generating bar code information based at least on said information relating to said electronic coupon stored in said electronic coupon information storage device; and
transmitting to said mobile communication device said bar code information generated in said step of generating bar code information. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64)
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65. A method for providing an electronic coupon to a user having a mobile communication device with a display device, said method comprising the steps of:
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in response to a request from a user, preparing bar code data based at least on predefined electronic coupon data; and
sending to said mobile communication device said bar code data prepared in said preparing step. - View Dependent Claims (66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80)
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81. A method for utilizing an electronic coupon by a mobile communication device with a display device, said method comprising the step of:
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requesting bar code data for a product or service for which the electronic coupon is valid to a center server for processing said bar code data;
receiving the bar code data from said center server;
displaying said received bar code data on said display device of the requesting mobile communication device. - View Dependent Claims (82, 83)
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Specification