System and Method for Web-Based Consumer-to-Business Referral
First Claim
1. A method in a computer system for automatically crediting a registered user for referring a candidate third-party entity to an online system that facilitates transactions between a plurality of users and a plurality of participating third-party entities, wherein the third party entity is at least one of a commercial, government, or non-profit entity, and wherein the online system maintains a personal account for each registered user;
- the method comprising;
receiving a transaction request from the candidate third-party entity;
receiving an identifier associated with the transaction request, wherein the identifier corresponds to the registered user;
identifying the registered user using the identifier;
retrieving a crediting rule associated with the transaction request; and
automatically crediting the registered user in accordance with the crediting rule.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for automatically crediting a registered user for referring a candidate third-party entity to an online system, where the candidate entity is at least one of a commercial, government, or non-profit entity where the online system facilitates transactions between a plurality of users and a plurality of participating third-party entities, and where the online commercial system maintains a personal account for each registered user, includes receiving a transaction request from the candidate third-party entity, receiving an identifier associated with the transaction request such that the identifier corresponds to the registered user, identifying the registered user using the identifier, retrieving a crediting rule associated with the transaction request, and automatically crediting the registered consumer in accordance with the crediting rule.
96 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method in a computer system for automatically crediting a registered user for referring a candidate third-party entity to an online system that facilitates transactions between a plurality of users and a plurality of participating third-party entities, wherein the third party entity is at least one of a commercial, government, or non-profit entity, and wherein the online system maintains a personal account for each registered user;
- the method comprising;
receiving a transaction request from the candidate third-party entity; receiving an identifier associated with the transaction request, wherein the identifier corresponds to the registered user; identifying the registered user using the identifier; retrieving a crediting rule associated with the transaction request; and automatically crediting the registered user in accordance with the crediting rule. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
- the method comprising;
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14. An online system facilitating commercial interactions between a plurality of registered users and a plurality of participating business entities, the system comprising:
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a profile storage module to store a plurality of user profiles corresponding to the plurality of respective registered users; a communication interface to receive a transaction request from a candidate business entity associated with commercial activity and a referral code associated with the transaction request, wherein the referral code corresponds to a referring one of the plurality of registered users; and an award engine communicatively coupled to the profile storage and the communication interface, the award engine including; a first routine to store a referral indication in one of the plurality of user profiles associated with the referring one of the plurality of registered users, wherein the referral indication corresponds to the transaction request; a second routine to retrieve an award condition associated with the transaction request; and a third routine to apply a referral award to the user profile based on the stored indication and the award condition. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method in a computer system for reliably crediting a registered user of an information gathering system for an entity referral comprising:
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registering a plurality of users for participation in a service provided by the information gathering system, wherein each of the plurality of users receives awards points redeemable for a product or a service for interacting with a plurality of participating entities in a predefined manner; assigning a respective referral code to at least some of the plurality of users, wherein each referral code corresponds to exactly one of the plurality of users; receiving a transaction request from a candidate entity, wherein the candidate entity is one of a commercial, government, or non-profit entity, and wherein the transaction request is associated with a directed commercial campaign; receiving a referral code associated with the transaction request, wherein the referral code corresponds to one of the plurality of users; processing the transaction request to generate an award eligibility indication; and conditionally allocating a referral award to the one of the plurality of users in accordance with the award eligibility indication. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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Specification