Content distribution system and method
First Claim
1. A method for creating within a primary content of a digital medium a vacancy, using a data processing system, comprising:
- defining the vacancy, wherein attributes are associated with the vacancy;
reserving the vacancy as a designated region in the primary content of the digital medium to be filled by a secondary digital content, wherein the attributes of the vacancy are used to determine how and/or when the vacancy is to be filled by the secondary digital content.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention provide an electronic marketplace that matches units of content from secondary content providers with suitable vacancies from primary content providers. Vacancies may constitute, or be included in, any digital transmission containers, such as a television or radio programming, web pages, and the like. Specifically, the electronic marketplace automatically matches content offered by secondary content providers with vacancies offered by primary content providers thus filling the vacancies in these containers through a real-time content trading, placement, and distribution system. To do so, attributes associated with the vacancies and with units of secondary content are used to trade and match suitable vacancies with suitable content. This invention enables both secondary content owners and vacancy owners (primary content providers) to obtain the full commercial benefit of their secondary content and containers.
36 Citations
47 Claims
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1. A method for creating within a primary content of a digital medium a vacancy, using a data processing system, comprising:
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defining the vacancy, wherein attributes are associated with the vacancy;
reserving the vacancy as a designated region in the primary content of the digital medium to be filled by a secondary digital content, wherein the attributes of the vacancy are used to determine how and/or when the vacancy is to be filled by the secondary digital content. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for creating a unit of digital content for distributing, using a data processing system, comprising:
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defining a snap-in, wherein the digital content is associated with the snap-in and attributes are associated with the snap-in, wherein the digital content comprises textual content, binary content, video content or audio content, or a combination of two or more thereof. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for notifying a server in real-time about an available vacancy before the content containing the vacancy is distributed, the method executed in a data processing system, the method comprising:
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detecting a vacancy within a primary content at a content distributor; and
transmitting vacancy attributes to a server. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for delivering snap-in content upon request, executed in a data processing system, comprising:
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receiving a request for a snap-in;
selecting a snap-in;
acquiring the snap-in content;
preparing the snap-in for delivery; and
providing the requesting client with information corresponding to the snap-in content. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A method for filling a vacancy, executed in a data processing system, comprising:
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receiving a snap-in; and
merging information corresponding to content of the snap-in within a region reserved by the vacancy in a manner consistent with filling the vacancy. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42)
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43. A method of providing a broker for registering and discovering snap-ins and vacancies, executed in a data processing system, comprising:
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permitting each one of a plurality of vacancy providers to submit information associated with themselves and their vacancies to a database;
permitting each one of a plurality of snap-in providers to submit information associated with themselves, their snap-ins to a database;
permitting parties seeking content assets to view available snap-ins or vacancies;
permitting parties to manually select a specific snap-in or vacancy for use;
permitting parties to bind a specific snap-in to a specific vacancy, so that the snap-in content will appear in the specific vacancy. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47)
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Specification