Booking method and system

• US 20110131286A1
• Filed: 12/20/2010
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartcom Labs OY
• Original Assignee: Bookit Oy
• Inventors: Salonen, Jukka
• Granted Patent: US 9,177,268 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3221 Access to banking information through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3255 using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/37 E-mail addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 : Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/71 : Hardware identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/72 : Subscriber identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 : Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 : Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 : Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

There is disclosed herein a method and system for communicating over a telecommunications network between a service provider and one or more users, wherein the service provider can have access to multiple distinct addresses in the telecommunications network and each user is identified by an address, more specifically where a first message can be sent over at least a portion of the telecommunications network to a user'"'"'s address and based on a response from the user determining the message to which the response is a reply to.

Claims

1. A mediator that controls communications of messages between a service provider having at least a first reply address and a client terminal device having a client identifier address, the mediator being configured to;

for each sent message from the service provider, store at least two pieces of information selected from;

the content of the message, the reply address and the client identifier address,

for each received message from the client identifier address by one of the different addresses, store at least the address the message was received by or the content of the message, and

determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to based on the stored information.

2. A mediator in accordance with claim 1, wherein said service provider has a plurality of distinct reply addresses.

3. A mediator in accordance with claim 1, wherein received messages do not include an explicit reference to the sent message which it is a reply to.

4. A mediator in accordance with claim 3, wherein determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to is based solely on the stored information selected from the content of the sent message, the reply address of the sent message, the client identifier address and the content of the received message.

5. A mediator in accordance with claim 1, wherein at least one of the reply address is associated with a single message and determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to includes determining the address that the received message was received at.

6. A mediator in accordance with claim 1, wherein at least one sent message is an inquiry having a predetermined number of responses and determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to includes determining if a portion of the content of the received message matches one of said responses.

7. A mediator in accordance with claim 6, wherein each response is a unique response and wherein the sent message is determined by determining if the content of the received message matches a unique response.

8. A mediator in accordance with claim 7, wherein at least some of the responses are single alphanumeric characters.

9. A mediator in accordance with claim 6, wherein at least some of the responses are ‘

y’ and

‘

n’

.

10. A mediator in accordance with claim 6, wherein determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to further includes determining the address that the received message was received at

11. A mediator in accordance with claim 10, wherein at least one reply address has associated with it at least two separate inquiry messages, each inquiry message has associated with it at least one response and none of the inquiries for a single reply address share a response.

12. A mediator that controls communications of messages between a service provider having a at least one reply address and a client terminal device having a client identifier address, the mediator comprising a storage medium and a processor, the processor being configured to;

for each sent message from the service provider, store in the storage medium at least two pieces of information selected from;

the content of the message, the reply address and the client identifier address,

for each received message from the client identifier address by one of the different addresses, store in the storage medium at least the address the message was received by or the content of the message, and

determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to based on the stored information.

13. A mediator in accordance with claim 12, wherein said storage medium comprises a database in which said information is stored.

14. A mediator in accordance with claim 13, wherein said database is a dynamic dialogue matrix.

15. A mediator in accordance with claim 12, further comprising a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer readable program executable by said processor for performing the functions of said processor.

16. A computer program product comprising a recording medium, having encoded thereon a computer readable program executable by a computer, for performing the functions of a mediator for controlling communications between a service provider and a client terminal device having a client identifier, the mediator functions comprising;

for each sent message from the service provider, store at least two pieces of information selected from;

the content of the message, the reply address and the client identifier address,

for each received message from the client identifier address by one of the different addresses, store at least the address the message was received by or the content of the message, and

determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to based on the stored information.

17. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein no received message includes an explicit reference to the sent message which it is a reply to.

18. A computer program product in accordance with claim 17, wherein determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to is based solely on the stored information selected from the content of the sent message, the reply address of the sent message, the client identifier address and the content of the received message.

19. A computer program product in accordance with claim 16, wherein at least one sent message is an inquiry having a predetermined number of responses and determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to includes determining if a portion of the content of the received message matches one of said responses.

20. A computer program product in accordance with claim 19, wherein determining the sent message to which each received message is a reply to further includes determining the address that the received message was received at.