System and method for providing subscription content services to mobile devices
First Claim
1. A wireless communications system for providing content services to wireless devices, the system comprising:
- a content provider associated with a first content provider-specific identifier and a second content provider-specific identifier;
a first network;
a proxy server coupled with the content provider via the first network, the proxy server comprising a table, the table having the first content provider-specific identifier;
a second network; and
a wireless device server associated with a first wireless device identifier and a second wireless device identifier and coupled with the proxy server via the second network, the wireless device providing the second content provider-specific identifier;
wherein the proxy server uses the first wireless device identifier to identify the second wireless device identifier;
wherein the proxy server uses the second wireless device identifier and the second content provider-specific identifier to identify the first content provider-specific identifier on the table;
wherein the proxy server adds the first content provider-specific identifier to a header;
wherein the proxy server forwards the modified first content provider-specific identifier to the content provider; and
wherein the content provider uses the modified first content provider-specific identifier to determine an identity of the wireless device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and system for providing content services to mobile devices. The method and system should provide these content services to the mobile devices while ensuring user privacy. The method and system should also allow one or more content providers that provide the content services to collect payment for the use of the content services. In one embodiment, a user makes a request for content from an affiliated content provider (Affiliated Content Provider A). This request travels from the wireless device (where it is a request over a radio frequency) thru one or more wireless infrastructure devices until it arrives as a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request over an Ethernet to a proxy server. The proxy server then requests the source Internet Protocol (IP) address of the wireless device that sent the request. The proxy server then sends the IP address to an identity agent having a very reliable database and is given a user identifier (or UID) to that IP address from the identity agent in return. The proxy server then looks at the HTTP request to determine IP address (or service ID) for the content provider. Using an algorithm, a unique content provider-specific identifier (or subnym) is calculated as the UID and the service ID (or, if it was already calculated, it can be looked up in a table where the previous calculation was recorded). The subnym is attached to the HTTP request by means of inserting an additional header (x-access-subnym) to the request. The HTTP request is forwarded to the affiliated content provider with the appended subnym. The affiliated content provider uses the subnym to determine the identity of the user.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A wireless communications system for providing content services to wireless devices, the system comprising:
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a content provider associated with a first content provider-specific identifier and a second content provider-specific identifier;
a first network;
a proxy server coupled with the content provider via the first network, the proxy server comprising a table, the table having the first content provider-specific identifier;
a second network; and
a wireless device server associated with a first wireless device identifier and a second wireless device identifier and coupled with the proxy server via the second network, the wireless device providing the second content provider-specific identifier;
wherein the proxy server uses the first wireless device identifier to identify the second wireless device identifier;
wherein the proxy server uses the second wireless device identifier and the second content provider-specific identifier to identify the first content provider-specific identifier on the table;
wherein the proxy server adds the first content provider-specific identifier to a header;
wherein the proxy server forwards the modified first content provider-specific identifier to the content provider; and
wherein the content provider uses the modified first content provider-specific identifier to determine an identity of the wireless device. - 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)
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27. A method for providing content services to wireless devices, the method comprising:
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making a content request from a wireless device for content services from a content provider, wherein the content request is in a wireless format;
transmitting the content request from the wireless device thru a wireless infrastructure device to a proxy server;
requesting from the proxy server an Internet Protocol (IP) address assigned to the wireless device;
transmitting from the proxy server the assigned IP address to an identity agent;
corresponding a user identifier associated with the wireless device with the assigned IP address at the identity agent;
transmitting from the identity agent the user identifier to the proxy server;
determining an identity of the content provider from the request, wherein the request comprises a first content provider-specific identifier for the content provider;
using an algorithm to calculate a second content provider-specific identifier from the first content provider-specific identifier and the user identifier;
appending a header to the second content provider-specific identifier;
modifying the content request with the appended second content provider-specific identifier;
forwarding the modified content request to the content provider; and
determining from the modified content request an identity of the wireless device at the content provider. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification