System for marketing leisure activity services through prepaid tickets

• US 20050274795A1
• Filed: 08/15/2005
• Published: 12/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Experiential Payment Technologies Holdings Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Utix Group Incorporated
• Inventors: Roth, Anthony G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,156,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/380
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/00 Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled logic circuits H03K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3678 e-cash details, e.g. blinded, divisible or detecting double spending
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

One-time-use tickets containing a unique identification code that allow for prepayment of entertainment or personal services are distributed and sold. When a ticket is sold, it is activated by the seller notifying a ticket information manager of its sale, at which time the ticket'"'"'s unique identification code is recorded by the ticket information manager. Part of the sale price is transferred by the vendor to an account maintained by a ticketing program manager. Ticket-holders present the ticket for redemption of the particular service from an agreed service provider. The service provider verifies the ticket'"'"'s validity by checking with the ticket information manager that the ticket'"'"'s unique identification code is valid and that the ticket has been activated. While the purchase price of the ticket is fixed, service providers will receive their agreed payment price from the ticketing program manager'"'"'s account when a ticket user redeems a ticket regardless of whether that price is higher or lower than the ticket purchase price.

Claims

1. A method for provision of prepaid services, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing service specific tickets, each ticket possessing a substantially unique product identifier and representing an initial value to be remitted for use of a desired service, each said ticket to be valid for incremental quantity of services at any one of a plurality of service providers;

(b) upon purchase of a ticket by a customer, activating said ticket by a seller thereof, said activating including validation of the unique product identifier of the ticket; and

(c) enabling a variable rate redemption of the ticket for service provided by one of the plurality of service providers, by;

allowing a ticket-holder to select one of the service providers among the plurality of service providers for redemption in exchange for a unit use of a desired service from said selected service provider;

upon presentation of the ticket by the ticket-holder to the selected service provider, debiting a price set by the selected service provider for the desired service, wherein price debited for said service by at least certain of said service providers being different from price debited by others of said service providers for the same said service, such that the ticket is redeemed at a variable rate among the plurality of service providers for said same service; and

effecting payment at the price debited for said service by said selected service provider.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ticket is redeemable for a certain service from the selected service provider, as opposed to a cash value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of absorbing any differences in prices debited by the plurality of service providers for the same service, and optionally adjusting price of the ticket redeemable for the service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the ticket is a one-time-use ticket.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising permitting optional purchase of additional incremental value above a base ticket value on the ticket;

and presenting the ticket by a ticket-holder to one of a plurality of service providers in exchange for use of the provider'"'"'s service where the price debited by said service provider can be higher than the base ticket value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said additional incremental value is an upgrade of a service.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said additional incremental value is also useable to redeem services from the service provider for more than one person when the ticket is presented for use on a given occasion.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein said one-time-use ticket has a maximum value that may be added to the ticket and further comprising the additional step of verifying that any additional value to be added does not exceed the maximum value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the ticket is valid for redemption for a limited period of time after activation and further comprising the additional step of the service provider'"'"'s verifying an expiration date of the ticket.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein customer information is recorded at the time of purchase and further comprising at least one of said customer and ticket-holder obtaining a replacement ticket upon presentation of customer identification after the original said ticket is lost or stolen and has not already been accepted by a service provider.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating between the ticket holder and a processor over a public communications network for checking a ticket status, said processor having access to stored ticket data, wherein said communicating excludes reporting of any monetary value associated with the ticket but includes reporting incremental credit information.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the computer implemented step of:

(d) maintaining a listing indicating the plurality of service providers and respective services.

13. A prepaid services account management system, comprising:

(a) means for providing and validating service specific tickets usable in a merchant payment network, each ticket having a respective unique product identifier and an initial value remittable for use of a desired service, different tickets being redeemable for different services and ticket validation being based on at least respective unique product identifiers;

(b) inclusion listing means for identifying among all service providers that are authorized participants in the merchant payment network, a subset of participants that are authorized service providers for at least one service, wherein for tickets redeemable for a same service, each ticket is redeemed at a variable rate among the authorized service providers for said same service; and

(c) processor means for;

(i) communicating to the validating means the unique product identifier of a ticket received from a service provider, the processor means signaling refusal if the validating means indicates that the ticket is not properly redeemable as presented; and

(ii) crediting the service provider at a variable rate for redemption of the ticket for a respective service, wherein price debited for said service by at least certain of the service providers is different from price debited by others of said service providers for the same service, such that the ticket is redeemed at a variable rate among the plurality of service providers for said same service,

wherein the service provider is selected by a ticket-holder among said subset of participants of the inclusion list.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the ticket is redeemable for a certain service from the selected service provider, as opposed to a cash value.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

(d) means for determining whether the ticket presented to the service provider has exceeded an expiration date.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

(d) means for the ticket-holder to purchase additional incremental value on said ticket; and

(e) means for a service provider to verify the amount of additional incremental value added to the ticket.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein said communications in (c) include transmission and reception of communications over a communications network.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the ticket contains indicia of a credit card comprising at least one of a printed numerical code, an embossed 16 digit unique numerical code, and code represented by at least one of optical, magnetic and electronic encoding, which code is readable using standard point of sale equipment.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the merchant payment network is a standard credit card network.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the ticket contains a recordable medium and wherein the recordable medium has a blank area when received by a seller, and validation information and purchase data are recorded on said recordable medium in conjunction with purchase from the seller.

21. The system of claim 13, further comprising a processor coupled to the providing and validating means, wherein the processor is programmed to report to the ticket-holder credit value information associated with the ticket, while refraining from reporting an associated monetary value thereof.