PRODUCT ACTIVATION/REGISTRATION AND OFFER ELIGIBILITY

• US 20090171747A1
• Filed: 12/26/2007
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lanning, Van Stephen, Mackey, Michelle C., Thoresen, Taj Lamon
• Application Number:
  US11/964,056
• Publication Number:
  US 20090171747A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

An offer may be provided to a user in conjunction with activating or registering a software product. A request for activation of the software product or registration of the software product may be sent to a server via a network. In response to receiving the request, the server may send an activation code to the processing device, or may record the registration of the software product, respectively. The server may work with components of the system to determine whether the user is eligible to receive one or more offers based on the software product and user information. The user may accept one of the one or more offers and the system may provide a corresponding order, along with at least some of the user information, to a processing device of a vendor.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for making offers to a user, the machine-implemented method comprising:

performing one of electronically registering or activating a software product;

determining at least one offer for which the user is eligible in conjunction with and based, at least in part, on the one of electronically registering or activating the software product; and

electronically providing the at least one offer to the user.

2. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically determining one or more additional offers for which the user is eligible; and

electronically delivering the one or more additional offers by pushing the one or more additional offers to the user.

3. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the performing of one of electronically registering or activating a software product further comprises:

authenticating the user.

4. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the performing of one of electronically registering or activating a software product further comprises the activating of the software product; and

the machine-implemented method further comprises;

authenticating the user; and

filtering ones of the at least one offer based on stored user information about the user.

5. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the performing of one of electronically registering or activating a software product further comprises the activating of the software product, the activating of the product further comprising;

receiving product information and processing device information with respect to a processing device on which the software product is installed;

determining whether the software product is authorized for activation on the processing device based on the product information and the processing device information; and

sending an activation code to the processing device to enable all features of the software product.

6. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determining of at least one offer for which the user is eligible in conjunction with and based, at least in part, on the one of electronically registering or activating the software product further comprises:

determining a location of a processing device having the software product installed;

accessing user information with respect to the user; and

determining the at least one offer for which the user is eligible based, at least in part, on provided product information regarding the software product, the determined location of the processing device and the user information.

7. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically determining one or more additional offers for which the user is eligible; and

delivering the one or more additional offers via email or a Rich Site Summary feed.

8. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

electronically receiving an acceptance of one of the at least one offer;

accessing user information with respect to the user in response to electronically receiving the acceptance of the one of the at least one offer; and

electronically providing an order, with respect to the acceptance of the one of the at least one offer, and the user information to a vendor'"'"'s processing device.

9. A system for activating a software product and providing at least one offer, the system comprising:

a product activation component to receive product information, describing the software product, and processing device information, describing a processing device on which the software product is installed, to determine whether the software product is authorized for activation on the processing device, and to send an activation code to the processing device to enable all features of the software product when the software product is determined to be authorized for activation;

an offer eligibility engine to determine the at least one offer for which a user of the processing device is eligible based, at least in part, on the software product to be activated; and

an offer providing component to provide the at least one offer to the processing device for display.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein:

the offer eligibility engine further determines a location of the processing device, a product type, and a product sub-type and determines the at least one offer based, at least in part, on the product type, the product sub-type, and the location of the processing device.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a user authenticating component to authenticate the user and provide access to user information, wherein

the offer eligibility engine further determines the at least one offer based, at least in part, on the user information.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the offer providing component is further for electronically providing the at least one offer via email or a Rich Site Summary feed.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

an offer acceptance component for accepting one of the at least one offer and providing information with respect to one of the at least one offer and user information to a vendor.

14. A machine-implemented method for activating a software product and determining eligibility for at least one offer, the machine-implemented method comprising:

receiving software product information from a processing device having the software product installed thereon;

receiving user identifying information from the processing device;

authenticating the user based on the user identifying information;

determining whether the software product is authorized to be activated based on the received software product information;

sending an activation code to the processing device when the software product is determined to be authorized to be activated;

accessing user information based on the user identifying information when the user is authenticated;

determining whether the user is eligible for at least one offer based, at least in part, on the software product information and the user information; and

providing information with respect to the at least one offer.

15. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

filtering a plurality of offers to provide the at least one offer for which the user is eligible based, at least in part, on the user information.

16. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

filtering a plurality of offers to provide the at least one offer for which the user is eligible based, at least in part, on the user information; and

sorting an order of the filtered at least one offer based on at least one criterion.

17. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining, periodically, whether the user is eligible for at least one additional offer based, at least in part, on at least one software product associated with the user and the user information; and

pushing, periodically, information, with respect to the at least one additional offer, to the user.

18. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining, periodically, whether the user is eligible for at least one additional offer based, at least in part, on at least one software product associated with the user and the user information; and

providing, periodically, the user with information with respect to the at least one additional offer via email or Rich Site Summary feed.

19. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, wherein:

the user information includes billing information; and

the machine-implemented method further comprises;

receiving an acceptance of one of the at least one offer; and

providing the billing information and an order based on offer information to a processing device of a vendor.

20. The machine-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the providing of the information with respect to the at least one offer further comprises:

providing an activation status of the software product and a list of the at least one offer.