SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CENTRALLY DISTRIBUTING MOBILE CONTENT

• US 20110130125A1
• Filed: 11/17/2010
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Glidden, Jody Daniel, LeBlanc, Michael, O'Reilly, Jacob Samuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,364,128 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals

Abstract

There are provided methods, systems, devices and computer program products for distributing mobile content, on behalf of mobile content providers, to mobile devices. A central mobile content delivery system and a central mobile content delivery store system are provided. Interfaces permit a mobile content provider to author and publish mobile content in association with subscription data. Content offers may be defined from such data and offered to mobile device user subscribers such as in a catalog system. Content is delivered on behalf of the content providers in accordance with the subscriptions concluded by the store system. Subscriptions may relate to single packages of mobile content or a plurality of packages (e.g. in a series of publications) such as previously or subsequently published mobile content. Subscriptions are provided to the central delivery system to assign and deliver mobile content to devices.

Claims

1. A method for centrally distributing mobile content for delivery to mobile devices, the method comprising:

receiving mobile content and associated subscription data from respective content providers, the subscription data for defining content offers and subscriptions, on behalf of said content providers, for subscribers to receive said mobile content;

storing said mobile content for delivery to respective mobile devices of said subscribers in accordance with respective subscriptions;

forwarding the subscription data to a mobile content store system on behalf of said content providers, said store system providing the content offers to deliver the mobile content to subscribers and completing respective subscriptions to receive the mobile content in accordance with the content offers; and

receiving respective subscriptions from said mobile content store system for configuring delivery of mobile content to said mobile devices.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the subscription data comprises information describing the mobile content for defining a content offering and information describing subscription terms for concluding an ecommerce transaction.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile content comprises interactive components.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising assigning mobile content to subscribers in accordance with said subscriptions and delivering said mobile content.

5. The method of claim 4 comprising defining a content package from said mobile content and delivering the mobile content in accordance with a push delivery model for delivering content packages.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein a particular subscription is associated to a plurality of mobile content defining respective content packages and wherein delivering comprises delivering a one of said content packages and a list of assigned mobile content for subsequent retrieval by said mobile device.

7. The method of claim 5 comprising defining a manifest for said content package and push delivering said manifest to the mobile device to enable retrieval of said content package.

8. The method of claim 5 comprising defining said content package in response to a type of mobile device to which the content package is delivered.

9. The method of claim 1 comprising downloading a mobile content player to the mobile device and registering said player to receive and play mobile content.

17. A computer program product comprising a memory storing instructions and data to configure a processor of a central mobile content delivery system to perform the method of claim 1.

10. A central mobile content delivery system comprising:

a processor and memory coupled thereto;

a communications subsystem for communicating with;

at least one mobile content provider system for content providers to author and publish mobile content,

at least one mobile content store system for offering the mobile content for delivery to mobile devices in accordance with concluded subscriptions therefor; and

at least one mobile devices to delivery mobile content according to the subscriptions; and

a storage subsystem for storing the mobile content received;

the central mobile content delivery system configured by one or more subsystems and/or components to;

receive mobile content and associated subscription data from respective content providers, the subscription data for defining content offers and subscriptions, on behalf of said content providers, for subscribers to receive said mobile content;

store said mobile content for delivery to respective mobile devices of said subscribers in accordance with respective subscriptions;

forward the subscription data to a mobile content store system on behalf of said content providers, said mobile content store system providing the content offers to deliver the mobile content to subscribers and completing respective subscriptions to receive the mobile content in accordance with the content offers; and

receive respective subscriptions from said mobile content store system for configuring delivery of mobile content to said mobile devices.

11. The central mobile content delivery system of claim 10 further configured to assign mobile content to subscribers in accordance with said subscriptions and delivering said mobile content.

12. The central mobile content delivery system of claim 11 further configured to define a content package from said mobile content and deliver the mobile content in accordance with a push delivery model for delivering content packages.

13. The central mobile content delivery system of claim 12, wherein a particular subscription is associated to a plurality of mobile content defining respective content packages and further wherein when delivering in response to a new subscription to a plurality of mobile content, the central mobile content delivery system is configured to deliver a one of said content packages and a list of assigned mobile content for subsequent retrieval by said mobile device.

14. The central mobile content delivery system of claim 12 further configured to define a manifest for said content package and push deliver said manifest to the mobile device to enable retrieval of said content package.

15. The central mobile content delivery system of claim 11 further configured to define said content package in response to a type of mobile device to which the content package is delivered.

16. The central mobile content delivery system of claim 10 further configured to download a mobile content player to the mobile device and register said player to receive and play mobile content.

31. A communications system for distributing mobile content to mobile communication devices, the communication system comprising:

at least one computing device configured as a mobile content delivery system in accordance with claim 10;

at least one computing device configured as a mobile content provider system in accordance with claim 22; and

at least one computing device configured as a mobile content store system in accordance with claim 29;

wherein said computing devices cooperate to deliver mobile content to a plurality of mobile communication devices in accordance with respective subscriptions therefor.

18. A method of publishing mobile content for distribution to a mobile device comprising:

associating subscription data with particular authored mobile content, said subscription data comprising information for defining a content offer and a subscription to receive the mobile content at a mobile device;

publishing the mobile content and associated subscription data to a central mobile content delivery system configured to;

store said mobile content on behalf of content providers and deliver said mobile content to mobile devices in accordance with respective subscriptions therefor;

forward said subscription data on behalf of content providers to a mobile content store system, said store system providing the content offers to deliver the mobile content to subscribers and completing respective subscriptions to receive the mobile content in accordance with the content offers; and

receive respective subscriptions from said mobile content store system for configuring delivery of mobile content to said mobile devices.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the subscription data comprises either a) terms for defining a subscription to receive an individual content package comprising only the mobile content;

or b) terms for defining a subscription to receive a plurality of respective content packages comprising the mobile content and at least one of previously published mobile content or subsequently published mobile content defining a series of publications;

or both a) and b).

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the subscription data comprises pricing terms for the subscription.

21. The method of claim 19 comprising defining the subscription data to associate the mobile content with a publication series comprising a plurality of respective content packages each comprising associated mobile content.

22. A computing device having a processor and a memory, said memory storing instructions and data to configure the processor, when executed to provide a mobile content provider system to perform the method of claim 21.

23. A computer program product comprising a memory storing instructions and data to configure a processor of a computing device to provide a mobile content provider system to perform the method of claim 18.

24. A method of distributing mobile content on behalf of others comprising:

receiving subscription data for defining a content offer to deliver mobile content in association with a subscription;

completing a subscription with a subscriber to deliver the mobile content; and

forwarding the subscription to a central mobile content delivery system, said system delivering the mobile content in accordance with the subscription.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the subscription data comprises either a) terms for defining a subscription to receive an individual content package comprising only the mobile content;

or b) terms for defining a subscription to receive a plurality of respective content packages comprising the mobile content and at least one of previously published mobile content or subsequently published mobile content defining a series of publications;

or both a) and b) wherein the method comprises defining the content offer accordingly.

26. The method of claim 24 comprising:

providing an electronic catalog of content offers to subscribers;

receiving a selection of a particular content offer from a subscriber; and

conducting an ecommerce transaction to complete the subscription for the particular content offer.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein the subscription data comprises terms to associate the mobile content in a series of publications comprising at least one of previously published mobile content and subsequently published mobile content.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein a subscription subscribes for delivery of any previously published and any subsequently published content in the series.

29. A computing device having a processor and a memory, said memory storing instructions and data to configure the processor, when executed to provide a mobile content store system to perform the method of claim 27.

30. A computer program product comprising a memory storing instructions and data to configure a processor of a computing device to provide a mobile content store system to perform the method of claim 27.