ADVERTISING SYSTEM SUPPORTING MULTI-ADVERTISER SYSTEM COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20120253900A1
• Filed: 06/14/2012
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Enpulz LLC
• Inventors: Bennett, James D., Winslade, Christopher C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,468,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• 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 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 : Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 : Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 : Insurance

Abstract

A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer'"'"'s and merchant'"'"'s coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity.

Claims

1. An advertising infrastructure that supports a plurality of independent sellers via a competitive selling environment, the advertising infrastructure comprising:

a competitive advertising database storing advertising content;

a seller service, coupled to the competitive advertising database, that uses a program interface definition, the program interface definition supporting communication flow with a plurality of seller application programs, the plurality of seller application programs running on a corresponding plurality of seller computers of the plurality of independent sellers, each of the plurality of seller application programs interacting with the seller service via the program interface definition; and

the seller service, via the program interface definition and the plurality of seller application programs, supports selective viewing and modifying relating to the advertising content.

2. The infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the seller service provides status information relating to the advertising content to the plurality of independent sellers.

3. The infrastructure of claim 2, wherein modifying is performed based on received status information.

4. The infrastructure of claim 2, wherein the status information comprises information regarding sales.

5. The infrastructure of claim 4, wherein the status information indicates that a particular sales target has been met.

6. The infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the seller service receives input via the program interface definition that causes the modifying.

7. The infrastructure of claim 6, wherein the input establishes one or more pre-defined conditions that when met, automatically cause the modifying.

8. The infrastructure of claim 6, wherein the modifying comprises deleting select advertising content.

9. The infrastructure of claim 8, wherein the input establishes one or more pre-defined conditions that cause the deleting.

10. The infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the seller service further uses a hypertext transfer interface with one or more of the corresponding plurality of seller computers of the plurality of independent sellers.

11. A competitive selling infrastructure that supports a plurality of competing sellers via a plurality of seller systems, the competitive selling infrastructure comprising:

a seller service, coupled to the competitive advertising database, that simultaneously uses both a program interface and a hypertext transfer interface, the program interface servicing a first group of the plurality of seller systems, while the hypertext transfer interface servicing a second group of the plurality of seller systems; and

the seller service, via both the program interface protocol and the hypertext transfer interface, supporting selective viewing and modifying of data relating to competing advertisements, a first portion of the data being received by the seller service from the first group of the plurality of seller systems and the second portion of the data being received by the seller service from the second group of the plurality of seller systems.

12. The infrastructure of claim 11, wherein the seller service provides status information relating to the data.

13. The infrastructure of claim 12, wherein modifying is performed based on received status information.

14. The infrastructure of claim 12, wherein the status information comprises information regarding sales.

15. The infrastructure of claim 14, wherein the status information indicates that a particular sales target has been met.

16. The infrastructure of claim 11, wherein the seller service receives input via the program interface or the hypertext transfer interface that causes the modifying.

17. The infrastructure of claim 16, wherein the input establishes one or more pre-defined conditions that when met, automatically cause the modifying.

18. The infrastructure of claim 16, wherein the modifying comprises deleting a select advertisement.

19. The infrastructure of claim 18, wherein the input establishes one or more pre-defined conditions that cause the deleting.

20. A computer program for instructing a seller'"'"'s computer to perform a method supporting sales, the method comprising:

directing the seller'"'"'s computer to accept a first plurality of advertising data regarding a first sales offering;

directing the seller'"'"'s computer to accept a second plurality of advertising data regarding a second sales offering;

directing the seller'"'"'s computer to store the first plurality of advertising data and the second plurality of advertising data in local storage; and

directing the seller'"'"'s computer to interact with a remote, multi-seller database via a program interface, the interaction including a single transaction delivery of both the first plurality of advertising data and the second plurality of advertising data to the remote, multi-seller database for remote storage and competitive selling use.

21. The computer program of claim 20, wherein the method comprises directing the seller'"'"'s computer to receive status information relating to one or both of the first sales offering and the second sales offering.

22. The computer program of claim 20, wherein the method comprises directing the seller'"'"'s computer to accept input modifying one or both of the first plurality of advertising data and the second plurality of advertising data.

23. The computer program of claim 22, wherein modifying is performed based on received status information.

24. The computer program of claim 23, wherein the status information comprises information regarding one or both of the first sales offering and the second sales offering.

25. The computer program of claim 24, wherein the status information indicates that one or more sales target has been met.

26. The computer program of claim 20, wherein the single transaction delivery includes modification data that causes a modification to one or both of the first plurality of advertising data and the second plurality of advertising data.

27. The computer program of claim 26, wherein the modification data defines one or more pre-defined conditions that when met, automatically cause the modification.

28. The computer program of claim 26, wherein the modification comprises deletion of one or both of the first plurality of advertising data and the second plurality of advertising data.

29. A computer program for instructing a buyer'"'"'s computer to perform a method supporting interaction with a sales portal, the sales portal providing support for browser based interfacing and program based interfacing, the method comprising:

directing the buyer'"'"'s computer to establish a stored, buying related configuration according to first buyer input;

directing the buyer'"'"'s computer to reestablish the stored, buying related configuration to support tailored interactions with the sales portal via the program based interfacing; and

directing the buyer'"'"'s computer to carry out purchasing related to advertising data from the sales portal via the program based interface.

30. The computer program of claim 29, wherein the buyer'"'"'s computer is further enabled to use a hypertext transfer interfacing to interact with the sales portal.