Controlled entertainment spending account

• US 20070118475A1
• Filed: 10/12/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Restricted Spending Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation), Third Act, LLC
• Original Assignee: Restricted Spending Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Inventors: Butch, Peter, Picciallo, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,653,595 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/2295 Parent-child type, e.g. where parent has control on child rights
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A computer-based method for allocating parental funds in preestablished accounts for use by children, including the steps of: providing a bank or credit account containing parental funds for allocation to at least one child; creating a secondary account file with an internet video file supplier accessible by a child for spending on internet video file purchases; and periodically transferring directly and automatically to the secondary account file from the bank or credit account an allowance payment for use by the child to purchase and transfer video files over the internet using a personal computer; wherein the steps of creating a secondary account file and periodically transferring funds from the bank or credit account to the secondary account are performed using information supplied by the parent over the internet using a personal computer.

Claims

1. A computer-based method for allocating parental funds in pre-established accounts for use by children, comprising:

providing a bank or credit account containing parental funds for allocation to at least one child;

creating a secondary account file with an internet video file supplier accessible by a child for spending on internet video file purchases; and

periodically transferring directly and automatically to said secondary account file from said bank or credit account an allowance payment for use by said child to purchase and transfer video files over the internet using a personal computer;

wherein said steps of creating a secondary account file and periodically transferring funds from said bank or credit account to said secondary account are performed using information supplied by said parent over the internet using a personal computer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing information on said internet video purchases.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of supplying to said parent said purchase information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said supplying step is performed periodically.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said allowance payment is transferred weekly or monthly.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of limiting how said allowance payment in said secondary account file may be spent in response to command instructions from said fund depositor, wherein said limit on said allowance payment is a limit on transaction amount or a limit according to video content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said limit on said allowance payment is a limit on transaction amount.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said limit on transaction amount is a periodic limit.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said limit on transaction amount is a weekly or monthly limit.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein said limit on said allowance payment is a content limit.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said content limit is according to artist, genre or content rating.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said video file is a music video.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said video file is a movie.

14. The method if claim 1, wherein said video file is a video game.