NETWORK ADVERTISING AND GAME PLAYING

• US 20090186704A1
• Filed: 02/23/2009
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beneficial Innovations Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Beneficial Innovations Incorporated
• Inventors: Goldberg, Sheldon F., Antwerp, John Van
• Granted Patent: US 8,065,702 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/409 Data transfer via television network
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3227 Configuring a gaming machine, e.g. downloading personal settings, selecting working parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 : Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 : Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 : by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17354 : in an intermediate station common to a plurality of user terminals

Abstract

The a method and apparatus is disclosed for collecting information about network (Internet) users for determining advertising to be presented to the users. User profiles may be determined, and advertising is selectively provided by comparing user personal information in such profiles with a desired demographic profile. The advertising may be presented in combination with the users playing games. User responses to advertising are used for evaluating advertising effectiveness. Test marketing of products, and advertisements may be performed.

Claims

1. A method for presenting advertisements on a network, comprising:

for each player, P, of a plurality of players communicating with a first network node for playing one or more games, the steps (i) and (ii) following are performed;

(i) combining advertising related data and game information for a corresponding one of the games, thereby resulting in combined data;

wherein the advertising related data is for at least one advertiser;

(ii) transmitting on the network, according to programmatic instructions performed at the first network node, the combined data to a node of the network for the player P when the player P plays the corresponding one game at the node for the player P;

wherein a game instance presentation, including a presentation for presenting the game information and advertising corresponding to the advertising related data, is presented at the node for the player P, the advertising selectively determined from a plurality of advertisements so that the advertising is selected according to one or more criteria related to;

(a) information indicative of the player P, or (b) a geographic location related to the player P; and

wherein responsive data from an input by the player P to the game instance presentation is transmitted on the network;

wherein at least a portion of the responsive data is used in providing the at least one advertiser with one of;

(a) information related to advertising provided to the players, and (b) information for determining an effectiveness of the advertising.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are performed by transmitting communications on the network, wherein each of the players communicates with a game playing node on the network by using a network node spaced apart from each of the other of the players.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the games played by the at least one of players includes a card game and further including the steps of:

generating electronic card representations for playing the card game;

receiving player identification information prior to the at least one player playing the card game, wherein the identification information is used to identify additional information related to the at least one player for use in subsequent instances of the card game; and

first playing a first instance of the card game between the at least one player and a substantially electronic dealer module, wherein said dealer module is dealt a first sequence of said card representations.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one of the games played by the at least one of players includes a card game for playing electronically, further including the steps of:

generating one or more card representations for playing the card game;

first playing a first instance of the card game in a tournament between the at least one player and a dealer module, wherein the at least one player receives a first sequence of card representations;

second playing the card game between a second of the players and the dealer module, wherein play by the at least one player and the second player overlap in time.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the advertising is presented while the player P plays the game, further including the steps of:

transmitting one or more advertising related presentations to the player P for presentation during a playing of the game, wherein for at least a duration of time between a pair of some of the player P plays, a first advertising related presentations is presented to the player P, wherein said first advertising related presentation was not presented to the player P during a different pair of some two of the player P plays of the game, and wherein for at least one of said advertising related presentations, (a) and (b) following hold;

(a) the at least one advertising related presentation has associated therewith network linking information identifying a corresponding one of a plurality of nodes connected to the network, said network linking information being identical for transmissions of said at least one advertising related presentation to a plurality of the players; and

(b) the at least one advertising related presentation is capable of providing a responsive transmission for transmitting on the network, the responsive transmission having corresponding data related to one or more responses by the player P to said at least one advertising related presentation.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of:

transmitting from the first network node to the corresponding node of at least one of the players, the ranking of a second of the players, wherein said ranking is indicative of a proficiency of the second player in playing the game, and said ranking is updated to present a change in said ranking while the at least one player is playing the game.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for at least one of the players, a presentation related to one of a product and a service is viewed during a playing of one of the games, further including:

presenting a first advertising presentation to the at least one player, wherein the first advertising presentation is presented between two plays of the game, and wherein said first advertising presentation is capable of being replaced by a different second presentation without changing a play of the game;

detecting an action by the first network node in response to said first advertising presentation by the at least one player.

8. A method for presenting advertisements on a network, comprising:

for at least one advertiser, and for each player, P, of a plurality of players communicating with a first network node for playing one or more games, the steps (i) and (ii) are performed;

(i) combining, for the first network node, advertising related data and game information for a corresponding instance of one of the games, thereby resulting in combined data;

wherein the advertising related data is for at least one advertiser;

(ii) transmitting on the network, according to programmatic instructions performed at the first network node, the combined data to a node of the network for the player P when the player P plays the corresponding one game at the node for the player P;

wherein a presentation for the game information is presented together with a presentation for the advertiser related data is presented together to the player P; and

wherein at least a portion of data obtained from interactions by at least one of the players with an activation of a corresponding one of the games is for providing the at least one advertiser with one of;

(a) information for an advertising related purpose different from playing the corresponding game, and (b) information for determining an effectiveness of advertising for the at least one advertiser.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein for at least one of the players, data obtained from game interactions is used in providing the at least one advertiser with one of:

information indicative of the at least player'"'"'s interest in a product or service.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein for at least one of the players, data is obtained from an activated hyperlink associated with the presentation for the advertiser related data.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein for at least one of the players, further including a step of obtaining data from the at least one players interactions with a corresponding one of the games, an indication of a personality characteristic of the least one player.