UNIVERSAL SERVICE CODE FOR RESERVATIONS
First Claim
1. A method for facilitating the reservation of services by clients, said method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a request from a service provider for a universal service code;
generating a universal service code that is uniquely associated for a period of time with an offer of available services by the service provider;
transmitting the universal service code to the service provider;
receiving an inquiry message including the universal service code from a client; and
sending an acknowledgment message to the client, wherein the acknowledgment message includes information based on the universal service code included in the inquiry message.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Reservation of services using, for example, a computer network based universal reservation system (CNBURS) is facilitated by the use of universal service codes (USCs). In one embodiment, a CNBURS enabled reservation scheduling process (100) includes receiving (110) a request from a service provider for a USC, generating (120) a USC uniquely associated for a period of time with an offer of available services, transmitting (130) the USC to the service provider, presenting (140) information about the offer of available services including the USC to a client by, for example, advertising (150) the services on a one-way communication media, receiving (160) an inquiry message including the USC from a client using the CNBURS, sending (170) a reservation message to the service provider, and sending (180) an acknowledgment message using the CNBURS to the client that includes information based on the USC confirming a reservation and/or informing the client about further steps to take to finalize a reservation.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A method for facilitating the reservation of services by clients, said method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a request from a service provider for a universal service code; generating a universal service code that is uniquely associated for a period of time with an offer of available services by the service provider; transmitting the universal service code to the service provider; receiving an inquiry message including the universal service code from a client; and sending an acknowledgment message to the client, wherein the acknowledgment message includes information based on the universal service code included in the inquiry message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for facilitating the reservation of services by clients using a computer network based universal reservation system (CNBURS), said method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a request from a service provider for a universal service code; generating a universal service code that is uniquely associated for a period of time with an offer of available services by the service provider, wherein the offer of available services is made using the CNBURS; transmitting the universal service code to the service provider; receiving an inquiry message including the universal service code from a client, wherein the inquiry message is received using the CNBURS; and sending an acknowledgment message to the client, wherein the acknowledgment message includes information based on the universal service code included in the inquiry message, and wherein the acknowledgment message is sent using the CNBURS. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification