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Internet-based method of and system for managing and serving consumer product advertisements to consumers in retail stores

  • US 20050251456A1
  • Filed: 02/17/2005
  • Published: 11/10/2005
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/25/1996
  • Status: Abandoned Application
First Claim
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1. A retail-based consumer product information search and delivery system installed in a retail store environment and driven by a manufacturer-managed Internet-based consumer product information management and delivery network, said retail-based consumer product information search and delivery system comprising:

  • a subsystem of shelves for supporting one or more UPN-labeled consumer products; and

    a plurality of Internet-enabled consumer product information kiosks operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet, and mounted relative to said subsystem of shelves, and configured for reading UPN-encoded symbols on said UPN-labeled consumer products and automatically displaying a plurality of URLs pointing to one or more consumer product information resources on the Internet that have been linked to the read UPN, by the manufacturer of the consumer product and/or an agent thereof;

    wherein said manufacturer-managed Internet-based consumer product information management and delivery network enables manufacturers and/or their agents to manage and deliver manufacturer-specified consumer product information resources to consumers having access to any one of said plurality of Internet-enabled consumer product information kiosks installed within said retail store environment, and wherein said manufacturer-managed Internet-based consumer product information management and delivery network comprises;

    a relational database accessible by the manufacturer of a plurality of UPN-labeled consumer products offered for sale within said retail store environment, or by an agent thereof, for storing therein information elements representative of (1) a plurality of universal product numbers (UPNs) assigned to a plurality of UPN-labeled consumer products manufactured by said manufacturer and registered with said relational database, and (2A) a trademark (TM) symbolically linked to each said UPN, (2B) a product description (PD) symbolically linked to each said UPN, and (2C) one or more uniform resource locators (URLs) symbolically linked to each said UPN, wherein each said URL specifies the location of a consumer product information resource located on the Internet related to one of said plurality of UPN-labeled consumer products registered with said relational database by said manufacturer, and wherein a UPN/TM/PD/URL data link is created and maintained in said relational database for each UPN-labeled consumer product registered with said relational database by the manufacturer;

    an Internet information server, operably connected to the infrastructure of the Internet and said relational database server, and being capable of servicing a request made by one or said Internet-enabled consumer product information kiosks, for information on the Internet about one of said plurality of UPN-labeled consumer products registered with said relational database by said manufacturer;

    a plurality of Internet-enabled product information servers, each operably connected to the infrastructure of Internet and storing consumer product information resources located at one or more of said plurality of URLs stored in said relational database, and being related to one or more of said plurality of UPN-labeled consumer products; and

    wherein each said Internet-enabled consumer product information kiosk being capable of automatically transmitting to said Internet information server a request for consumer product information resources on the Internet about a UPN-labeled consumer product registered with said relational database;

    wherein each said request may include either the UPN, TM and/or PD symbolically linked to the UPN assigned to a registered UPN-labeled consumer product on which consumer product information on the Internet is being sought by a consumer within said retail store environment, whereby each request transmitted by said Internet-enabled consumer product information kiosk is received by said Internet information server, and the UPN, TM and/or PD contained in said request is recovered by said Internet information server and used to access said URLs symbolically linked to the UPN, TM and/or PD and stored in said relational database, and said URLs accessed from said relational database are transmitted to said Internet-enabled consumer product information kiosk for display thereon and use by a consumer in accessing consumer product information resources stored in said Internet-enabled product information servers, at said URLs.

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