SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRONIC COUPONS

• US 20080215438A1
• Filed: 01/17/2008
• Published: 09/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quotient Technology Inc.
• Original Assignee: Coupons Incorporated (Quotient Technology Inc.)
• Inventors: Boal, Steven R., Reihaneh, Nahrin, Muthugopalakrishnan, Manickababu, Desaraju, Durgamba
• Granted Patent: US 10,796,347 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

A system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network including a processing circuit configured to receive a display request for an advertisement, to determine an advertisement display limit and a number of times the advertisement has been displayed. The processing circuit is also configured to provide access to display the advertisement based on the advertisement display limit and the number of times the advertisement has been displayed.

Claims

1. A system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network comprising:

a processing circuit configured to receive a display request for an advertisement, to determine an advertisement display limit and a number of times the advertisement has been displayed, and to provide access to display the advertisement based on the advertisement display limit and the number of times the advertisement has been displayed.

2. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to be partially operated on a server.

3. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to be partially operated on a client computing device.

4. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 1, wherein the advertisement display limit is stored on a server.

5. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit determines that the display limit has not been exceeded based on the comparison and transmits the advertisement to the computing device.

6. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 1, wherein the user is transferred to a website corresponding to the advertisement based on a request for more information.

7. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit determines that the display limit has been exceeded and the advertisement is not sent to the computing device.

8. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 1, wherein the advertisement comprises a coupon.

9. A method for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a network by a client application operating on a client computer, comprising:

determining a computer identifier for the client computer, the computer identifier being assigned to the client computer based on data received from the client computer;

receiving a first request from the client application to display the advertisement, the first request including the computer identifier assigned to the client computer;

transmitting a second request to the advertisement database, the second request including an advertisement identifier assigned to the advertisement;

identifying a display limit, the display limit being a number of times that the client computer is permitted to display the advertisement;

determining a number of times that the advertisement has been displayed by the client computer based on at least one of the computer identifier and the advertisement identifier;

comparing the number of times the advertisement has been displayed to the display limit; and

providing the client computer with access to display the advertisement based on the comparison.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising sending to the client computer the advertisement based on the comparison, wherein the comparison determines that the display limit has not been exceeded.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transferring the user to a website corresponding to the clickable advertisement based on the comparison, wherein the comparison determines that the display limit has not been exceeded.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the advertisement is a clickable advertisement.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising refusing access for the client computer to the advertisement based on the comparison, wherein the comparison determines that the display limit has been exceeded.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a message is sent to the client computer to be displayed on the client computer indicating that access has been refused.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising incrementing a display counter based on receiving the first request from the client application operating on the client computer to access the advertisement.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising transmitting an advertisement display report.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the advertisement comprises a coupon.

18. A method for controlling access to clickable advertisements in a network, comprising:

assigning an identifier to a client computer;

receiving a request from a client application operating on the client computer to view one or more clickable advertisements, the request including the identifier assigned to the client computer, each of the one or more clickable advertisements having a display limit, the display limit is a number of times that the client computer is permitted to click on a clickable advertisement;

determining a number of times each of the one or more clickable advertisements has been clicked on by the client computer based on the identifier; and

making available to the client computer only the clickable advertisements of the one or more clickable advertisements that have been determined to have been clicked on fewer times than their corresponding display limit.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising transferring the user to a website corresponding to a clickable advertisement clicked on by the client computer in response to a click from a pointing device.

20. The method according to claim 18, further comprising incrementing a counter associated with an electronic coupon in response to the request, the counter corresponding to the number of times the clickable advertisement has been clicked on by the client computer.

21. A system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network comprising:

a processing circuit configured to receive a display request for an advertisement, to determine a revenue counting display limit and a number of times the advertisement has been requested for display, and to increment a revenue counter based on a comparison of the revenue counting display limit to the number of times the advertisement has been requested for display.

22. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 21, wherein the revenue counter is not incremented if the number of times the advertisement has been displayed exceeds the revenue counting display limit.

23. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 21, wherein the revenue counter is incremented if the number of times the advertisement has been displayed does not exceed the revenue counting display limit.

24. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 21, wherein the processing circuit is configured to be partially operated on a server.

25. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 21, wherein the processing circuit is configured to be partially operated on a client computing device.

26. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 21, wherein the revenue counting display limit is stored on a server.

27. The system for displaying an advertisement from an advertisement database on a client computer on a network of claim 21, wherein in response to the request for display, the processing circuit is configured to display the advertisement from the advertisement database on the client computer.