TEXT-TO-BUY WAP APPLICATION SERVER

• US 20080281722A1
• Filed: 05/12/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CardinalCommerce Corporation (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CardinalCommerce Corporation (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sherwin, Francis M., Balasubramanian, Chandra S., Baird, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 10,074,117 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3255 using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

An electronic platform (10) for facilitating mobile commerce transactions includes: a user interface (20) that is provided to a user (60), the user interface (20) being operable to retrieve from the user (60) a plurality of settings for different parameters that regulate a manner in which the platform (10) operates for a given entity that is being served by the platform (10); a conversation tracking engine (40) that monitors messages exchanged between the platform (10) and mobile device users (72) accessing the platform (10), the conversation tracking engine (40) being operative to recognize which ones of selected monitored messages together form a common conversation and keep track of a current state of that conversation; and, a mobile content rendering engine (30) that is operable to dynamically render mobile content in response to the platform (10) receiving a request from a mobile device (74) for mobile content, the mobile content being rendered in accordance with the parameter settings entered via the user interface (20).

Claims

1. An electronic platform for facilitating mobile commerce transactions, said platform comprising:

a user interface that is provided to a user, said user interface being operable to retrieve from the user a plurality of settings for different parameters that regulate a manner in which the platform operates for a given entity that is being served by the platform;

a conversation tracking engine that monitors messages exchanged between the platform and mobile device users accessing the platform, said conversation tracking engine being operative to recognize which ones of selected monitored messages together form a common conversation and keep track of a current state of that conversation; and

,

a mobile content rendering engine that is operable to dynamically render mobile content in response to the platform receiving a request from a mobile device for mobile content, said mobile content being rendered in accordance with the parameter settings entered via the user interface.

2. The platform of claim 1, wherein the messages monitored by the conversation tracking engine are exchanged using a stateless protocol.

3. The platform of claim 2, wherein the stateless protocol includes at least one of Short Message Service (SMS), Enhanced Message Service (EMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS).

4. The platform of claim 1, wherein the conversation tracking engine determines if message received by the platform is part of a conversation based upon at least one of:

a time the message is sent, a time the message is received, a content of the message, and an identifier of the mobile device sending the message.

5. The platform of claim 4, wherein a response by the platform to receipt of otherwise identical message content from a mobile device is different depending upon at least one of:

(i) if the message is recognized by the conversation tracking engine as being associated with a particular conversation, and (ii) the current state of the conversation.

6. The platform of claim 1, wherein the content rendering engine generates Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) pages.

7. The platform of claim 1, said platform further comprising:

a database in which the parameter settings entered via the user interface are stored.

8. The platform of claim 1, said platform further comprising:

a database in which a plurality of mobile device profiles are contained for different types of mobile devices, each profile including at least one device parameter that identifies a capability of the corresponding mobile device for receiving mobile content.

9. The platform of claim 8, wherein said content rendering engine consults the database in connection with generating mobile content for a specific mobile device and customizes the generated mobile content in accordance with the profile contained in the database corresponding to the type of mobile device for which the content is being generated.

10. A method of facilitating mobile commerce transactions, said method comprising:

providing a user interface to a user;

receiving from the user via the user interface a plurality of settings for different parameters that regulate a manner in which an electronic platform performs operations for a given entity;

monitoring messages exchanged between the platform and mobile device users accessing the platform over a wireless telecommunications network via respective mobile devices;

recognizing which ones of selected monitored messages together form a common conversation;

keeping track of a current state of the conversation;

dynamically rendering mobile content in response to receiving a request from a mobile device for mobile content, said mobile content being rendered in accordance with the parameter settings entered via the user interface; and

,

sending the mobile content to the mobile device from which the request was received.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the monitored messages are exchanged using a stateless protocol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the stateless protocol includes at least one of Short Message Service (SMS), Enhanced Message Service (EMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS).

13. The method of claim 10, wherein monitored messages are recognized as being part of a conversation based upon at least one of:

a time the message is sent, a time the message is received, a content of the message, and an identifier of the mobile device sending the message.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a response by the platform to receipt of otherwise identical message content from a mobile device is different depending upon at least one of:

(i) if the message is recognized as being part of a particular conversation, and (ii) the current state of the conversation.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the content rendered is generated as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) pages.

16. The method of claim 10, said method further comprising:

storing the parameter settings entered via the user interface.

17. The method of claim 10, said method further comprising:

storing a plurality of mobile device profiles for different types of mobile devices, each profile including at least one device parameter that identifies a capability of the corresponding mobile device for receiving mobile content.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said rendering further comprises:

consulting the stored profiles in connection with generating mobile content for a specific mobile device; and

, customizing the generated mobile content in accordance with the stored profile corresponding to the type of mobile device for which the content is being generated.