Entertainment event ticket purchase and exchange system
First Claim
1. A system for the sale and exchange of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
- a market-making system which establishes a price for entertainment event tickets based upon bids submitted by patrons;
a patron interface via which patrons can submit bids for event tickets and purchase electronic tickets for entertainment events;
a storage system for storing information regarding electronic tickets purchased by patrons;
a trading system via which patrons having electronic tickets stored in said storage system can transfer the electronic tickets to other patrons; and
an entry system which is responsive to the presentation of information pertaining to a patron to determine whether that patron is an owner of an electronic ticket for a given event, and to permit those patrons who are owners of electronic tickets to enter the venue at which the event is being presented.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic ticket exchange system enables venue owners to sell tickets to patrons at a fair market value for each event, and patrons to more easily trade and transfer the tickets among one another after they have been purchased from the venue owner. Tickets for an event are initially offered to the public by the venue owner, using a market-making system. Patrons submit bids over a limited time period, for seats of different quality, and an initial price is established for each quality of seat. A trading system provides for a secondary market in which patrons who have purchased tickets for an event can readily transfer them to other patrons, without requiring the services of a broker or the like. In this system, physical tickets are not required. Rather, all of the rights associated with a ticket, such as entry into the venue, parking privileges, designated seating, etc., are stored in a electronic form. An electronic venue entry control system verifies that a person owns an electronic ticket property right, and authorizes the privileges associated with the ticket, such as access to parking facilities, entry to the venue, purchase of concessions and/or merchandise, and the like. A seating system is employed to determine an optimal seating configuration based upon patron-specific preferences, after the initial sale of tickets and prior to entry into the venue. The specific assigned seats are indicated to the ticket holder at the time of entry. Patrons who regularly purchase tickets can join an organization associated with the ticket exchange system. All transactions carried out within the system can then be easily accomplished through a single membership number, which is permanent and unique to the member. Each such member can be provided with a suitable device which interfaces with the entry system to provide access to the venue, and parking if appropriate.
405 Citations
96 Claims
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1. A system for the sale and exchange of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
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a market-making system which establishes a price for entertainment event tickets based upon bids submitted by patrons;
a patron interface via which patrons can submit bids for event tickets and purchase electronic tickets for entertainment events;
a storage system for storing information regarding electronic tickets purchased by patrons;
a trading system via which patrons having electronic tickets stored in said storage system can transfer the electronic tickets to other patrons; and
an entry system which is responsive to the presentation of information pertaining to a patron to determine whether that patron is an owner of an electronic ticket for a given event, and to permit those patrons who are owners of electronic tickets to enter the venue at which the event is being presented. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 78, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86)
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13. A system for the sale and exchange of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
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a patron interface via which patrons can purchase electronic tickets for entertainment events;
a storage system for storing information regarding electronic tickets purchased by patrons;
a trading system via which patrons having electronic tickets stored in said storage system can transfer the electronic tickets to other patrons;
a seating system which determines an allocation of seats at said venue for electronic tickets for the event; and
an entry system which is responsive to the presentation of information pertaining to a patron to determine whether that patron is an owner of an electronic ticket for a given event, and to permit those patrons who are owners of electronic tickets to enter the venue at which the event is being presented. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 79)
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24. A system for the sale and exchange of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
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a patron interface via which patrons can purchase electronic tickets for entertainment events;
a storage system for storing information regarding electronic tickets purchased by patrons;
a trading system via which patrons having electronic tickets stored in said storage system can transfer the electronic tickets to other patrons;
a payment system which stores information regarding payment accounts of patrons and automatically debits and credits said accounts for purchases and trades of electronic tickets made by patrons; and
an entry system which is responsive to the presentation of information pertaining to a patron to determine whether that patron is an owner of an electronic ticket for a given event, and to permit those patrons who are owners of electronic tickets to enter the venue at which the event is being presented. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 80)
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34. A system for the sale of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
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a patron interface via which patrons can submit bids for event tickets and purchase tickets for entertainment events;
a market-making system which establishes a price for entertainment event tickets based upon bids submitted by patrons; and
a notification mechanism which informs patrons who submit bids at or above the established price that their bids were successful. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 66, 67, 68)
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39. A system for the sale of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
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a patron interface via which patrons can purchase tickets for entertainment events;
a seating system which determines an allocation of seats at said venue for tickets for the event; and
an entry system which permits those patrons who are owners of tickets to enter the venue at which the event is being presented, and provides patrons with an identification of seats that are allocated to their tickets at the time that entry is permitted. - View Dependent Claims (40)
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69. A system for the sale and dissemination of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
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a patron interface via which patrons can purchase tickets for entertainment events;
a storage system for storing information regarding tickets purchased by patrons;
a notification system which automatically provides a notification to individuals that a patron has purchased tickets to an event and such tickets are available to be transferred to said individuals; and
an entry system which is responsive to the presentation of information pertaining to an individual to determine whether that individual is an valid holder of a ticket for a given event, and to permit those individuals who are valid holders of electronic tickets to enter the venue at which the event is being presented. - View Dependent Claims (70)
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71. A system for the sale of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
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a patron interface via which patrons can purchase tickets to entertainment events for both themselves and other patrons as part of a group transaction;
a storage system for storing information regarding tickets purchased by patrons; and
an entry system which is responsive to the presentation of information pertaining to a patron to determine whether that patron is an owner of an electronic ticket for a given event, and to permit those patrons who are owners of electronic tickets to enter the venue at which the event is being presented. - View Dependent Claims (72, 73)
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74. A system for the sale of tickets for entertainment events, comprising:
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a patron interface via which patrons can submit bids for event tickets and purchase tickets for entertainment events;
a market-making system which establishes a price for entertainment event tickets based upon bids submitted by patrons; and
a notification mechanism which informs patrons who submit bids at or above the established price that their bids were successful and provides patrons who qualify as season ticket holders with a right of first refusal to purchase tickets for a new season at the established price if their bids were below said established price. - View Dependent Claims (75, 76)
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77. A system for controlling access to entertainment events, comprising:
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a patron interface via which patrons can enter information which authorizes them for access to at least one entertainment event;
a storage system for storing information regarding the patrons who are authorized for access to said event; and
an entry system which is responsive to the presentation of information pertaining to a patron to check the information stored in said storage system and determine whether that patron is authorized for access to said event, and to permit those patrons who are authorized to enter a venue at which the event is being presented. - View Dependent Claims (87, 88, 89, 90, 91)
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92. A system for controlling access to entertainment events, comprising:
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a plurality of portable identification devices each of which contains data that identifies a respective patron as a member of an organization affiliated with said system;
a storage system for storing information regarding the patrons who are members of the organization; and
an entry system which is responsive to the presentation of one of said identification devices to check the information stored in said storage system and determine whether that patron is authorized for access to an event, and to permit those patrons who have authorized access to enter a venue at which the event is being presented. - View Dependent Claims (93, 94, 95, 96)
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Specification