Billing system for distributing third party messages to form a community of subscribers to negotiate a group purchase from the third party

• US 6,493,722 B1
• Filed: 04/13/1999
• Issued: 12/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RevChain Solutions LLC (Windstream Holdings II LLC)
• Original Assignee: Daleen Technologies, Inc. (Magic Software Enterprises Limited)
• Inventors: Yin, John Z., Daleen, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Corrielus, Jean M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tam V
• Application Number:
  US09/290,804
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/104, 707/10, 707/14, 707/104.1, 707/102, 707/101, 707/200, 707/203, 709/219, 455/419
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system, a method and a computer readable medium for distributing messages from a third-party to a group of subscribers by using subscriber information and subscriber preferences stored in a database so that the group of subscribers can form a community to negotiate a group purchase of a good and/or service from the third party. A subscriber selection system is used for querying the database using one or more subscriber criteria to form a group of one or more subscribers. The one or more subscriber criteria used to query the database is chosen by the third party, which allows the subscriber selection system to form a group of subscribers who satisfy the criteria for a type of subscriber that the third-party wants to send a message, such as an advertisement, to. A billing system, which is coupled to the database receives one or more messages from a third-party and then provides the one or more messages from the third party to the group of subscribers that was formed by the corresponding query of the database. The present invention allows the messages from the third-party to be distributed to the group of subscribers without revealing to the third party any of the potentially valuable or sensitive subscriber information stored in the database. In other words, all that a third-party knows is that its message is being sent to a group of subscriber who meet the criteria which the third-party selected. The message includes a contact address which is sent along to the subscribers in the group to form a community for pup purchasing of a good and/or service from a third party. The group of subscribers formed are sent the contact address with the messages received from the third party. The group purchase allows individuals and businesses to reduce costs by buying items in quantities.

Claims

1. A system for distributing messages from a third-party for forming a community of subscribers for a group purchase, the system comprising:

an interface to a database for storing subscriber information for one or more subscribers;

a subscriber selection system using one or more subscriber criteria for querying the database for storing subscriber information, so as to form a group of one or more subscribers with subscriber information that matches the subscriber criteria, wherein the subscriber criteria are chosen by a third party such that the group of one or more subscribers satisfies the subscriber criteria for a type of subscriber who the third party wants to send one or more messages to;

a billing system coupled to the database for providing bills to one or more subscribers, wherein the billing system is capable of receiving one or more messages from the third party and providing the one or more messages to the subscribers as selected by the subscriber selection system, without revealing to the third party any of the subscriber information in the database so that the privacy of the subscriber information is maintained and not sent to the third party, wherein the one or more messages includes at least one contact address;

a usage collector coupled to the database for receiving a reply at the contact address from any of the subscribers in the group wishing to form a community by providing contact information to other subscribers; and

means for notifying the subscribers that form the community so that each of the subscribers in the community can contact at least one other subscriber in the community to negotiate a group purchase from the third party.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the contact address is one of an e-mail address, a telephone number and a postal address.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the means for notifying the subscribers that form tho community so that each of the subscribers in the community can contact at least one other subscriber in the community to negotiate a group purchase of a good and/or a service from the third party.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein a bill is sent electronically with the contact address to the group of subscribers.

5. The system according to claim 2, wherein the hill is printed and the contact address is mailed along with the bill to the group of subscribers.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the subscriber selection system provides the total number of matches to the database that meet the criteria of the query for subscriber information.

7. The system according to claim 4, wherein the contact address is embedded as an electronic address in the bill so that the contact address is selectable by one or more subscribers so as to form the community;

and

wherein the usage collector updates the database for each subscriber based on the contact address selected by the subscriber.

8. The system according to claim 7, further comprising:

an address redirector for rerouting the contact address selected by the subscriber to the third party.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the bill is sent for a service billed by the billing system which is not a service available from the third party that provides the one or messages to the group of subscribers.

10. The system according to claim 9 wherein the database holds subscriber preferences for one or more subscribers, and the subscriber selection system is capable of querying the database for subscriber preferences relating to one or more subscribers.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the billing system provides one or more messages to subscribers along with a bill.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the bill is sent electronically to one or more subscribers.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the bill is printed and the message mailed along with the bill.

14. The system according to claim 10, wherein the subscriber selection system provides a total number of matches to the database that meet the criteria of the query for subscriber preferences.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein the contact address is an electronic address embedded in the bill so that the address is selectable by one or more subscribers so as to form the community;

and

wherein the usage collector updates the database for each subscriber based on the contact address selected by the subscriber.

16. The system according to claim 15, further comprising:

an address redirector for rerouting the contact address selected by the subscriber to the third party.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein a bill is sent for a service billed by the billing system which is not a service available from the third party that provides the one or messages to the group of subscribers.

50. The system according to claim 1, wherein the message is an advertisement from the third party.

51. The system according to claim 1, wherein the third-party selects subscriber criteria from a group of subscriber criteria consisting of age, gender, zip code, house-hold income, employment, and education.

52. The system according to claim 1, wherein the billing system does not reveal to the third-party subscriber information consisting of name, address, telephone number, and social security number.

18. A method for distributing messages from a third-party for forming a community of subscribers for a group purchase, the method comprising the steps of:

storing subscriber information for one or more subscribers in a database;

querying the database using a subscriber selection system that uses one or more subscriber criteria to form a group of one or more subscribers, wherein the subscriber criteria are chosen by a third party such that the group of one or more subscribers formed satisfies the subscriber criteria for a type of subscriber who the third party wants to send one or more messages to; and

coupling a billing system to the database for providing bills to one or more subscribers;

receiving one or more messages from the third party to the billing system; and

providing one or more messages to the subscribers as selected by the subscriber selection system, without revealing to the third party any of the subscriber information in the database so that the privacy of the subscriber information is maintained and not sent to the third party, wherein the one or more messages includes at least one contact address;

coupling a usage collector to the database for receiving a reply at the contact address from any of the subscribers in the group wishing to form a community by providing contact information to other subscribers; and

notifying the subscribers that form tho community so that each of the subscribers in the community can contact at least one other subscriber in the community to negotiate a group purchase from the third party.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of providing further comprises providing the contact address as one of an e-mail address, a telephone number and a postal address.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the step of notifying further comprises:

noting the subscribers that form the community so that each of the subscribers in the community can contact at least one other subscriber in the community to negotiate a group purchase of a good and/or a service from the third party.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein the step of providing further comprises sending electronically a bill with the contact address to the group of subscribers.

22. The method according to claim 19, wherein the step of providing further comprises printing the bill and mailing the contact address along with the bill to the group of subscribers.

23. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of querying further comprises the sub step of:

providing a total number of matches to the database that meet the criteria of the query for subscriber information.

24. The method according to claim 21, further comprising the steps of:

embedding the contact address in the bill so that the contact address is selectable by one or more subscribers so as to form the community;

wherein the usage collector receives subscriber selections; and

updates the database for each subscriber based on the contact address selected by the subscriber.

25. The method according to claim 24, further comprising the step of:

redirecting the address through an address redirector for rerouting the contact address selected by the subscriber to the third party.

26. The method according to claim 18, wherein the step of storing further comprises storing subscriber preferences for one or more subscribers in the database;

and the step of querying further comprises querying the subscriber selection system the database for subscriber preference relating to one or more subscribers.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the step of providing further comprises providing the bill is sent for a service billed by the billing system which is not a service available from the third party that provides the one or messages to the group of subscribers.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the step of providing further comprises providing one or more messages to subscribers electronically.

29. The method according to claim 27, wherein the step of providing further comprises providing one or more messages to subscribers in a printed form and mailing the message along with the bill.

30. The method according to claim 26, wherein the step of providing further comprises providing a total number of matches to the database that meet the criteria of the query for subscriber preferences.

31. The method according to claim 29, further comprises the steps of:

embedding the contact address in the bill so that the contact address is selectable by one or more subscribers so as to form the community;

wherein the usage collector receives subscriber selections; and

updates the database for each subscriber based on the contact address selected by the subscriber.

32. The method according to claim 31, further comprising the step of:

redirecting an address through an address redirector for rerouting the contact address selected by the subscriber to the third party.

33. The method according to claim 18, further comprising the step of:

sending a bill for a service billed by the billing system which is not a service available from the third party that provides the one or messages to the group of subscribers.

34. A computer readable medium containing program instructions for distributing messages from a third-party for forming a community of subscribers for a group purchase, comprising the instructions of:

storing subscriber information for one or more subscribers in a database;

querying the database using a subscriber selection system that uses one or more subscriber criteria to form a group of one or more subscribers, wherein the subscriber criteria are chosen by a third party such that the group of one or more subscribers formed satisfies the subscriber criteria for a type of subscriber who the third party wants to send one or more messages to; and

coupling a billing system to the database for providing bills to one or more subscribers;

receiving one or more messages from the third party to the billing system; and

providing one or more messages to the subscribers as selected by the subscriber selection system, without revealing to the th party any of the subscriber information in the database so that the privacy of the subscriber information is maintained and not sent to the third party, wherein the one or more messages includes at least one contact address sent to one or more subscribers in the group;

coupling a usage collector to the database for receiving a reply at the contact address from any of the subscribers in the group wishing to form a community by providing contact information to other subscribers; and

notifying the subscribers that form the community so that each of the subscribers in the community can contact at least one other subscriber in the community to negotiate a group purchase from the third party.

35. The computer readable medium according to claim 34, wherein the instruction of providing further comprises providing the contact address as one of an e-mail address, a telephone number and a postal address.

36. The computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein the instruction of notifying further comprises:

notifying the subscribers that form the community so that each of the subscribers in the community can contact at least one other subscriber in the community to negotiate a group purchase of a good and/or a service from tho third party.

37. The computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein the instruction of providing further comprises sending electronically a bill with the contact address to the group of subscribers.

38. The computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein instruction of providing further comprises printing the bill and mailing the contact address along with the bill to the group of subscribers.

39. The computer readable medium according to claim 34, wherein the instruction of querying further comprises the sub-instruction of:

providing a total number of matches to the database that meet the criteria of the query for subscriber information.

40. The computer readable medium according to claim 37, further comprising the instructions of:

embedding the contact address in the bill so that the contact address is selectable by one or more subscribers so as to form the community;

wherein the usage collector receives subscriber selections; and

updates the database for each subscriber based on the contact address selected by the subscriber.

41. The computer readable medium according to claim 40, further comprising the instruction of:

redirecting the address through an address redirector for rerouting the contact address selected by tho subscriber to the third party.

42. The computer readable medium according to claim 35, wherein the instruction of storing further comprises storing subscriber preferences for one or more subscribers in the database;

and the instruction of querying further comprises querying the subscriber selection system the database for subscriber preference relating to one or more subscribers.

43. The computer readable medium according to claim 42, wherein the instruction of providing further comprises providing the bill is sent for a service billed by the billing system which is not a service available from the third party that provides the one or messages to the group of subscribers.

45. The computer readable medium according to claim 43, wherein the instruction of providing further comprises providing one or more messages to subscribers in a printed form and mailing the message along with the bill.

46. The computer readable medium according to claim 42, wherein the instruction of providing further comprises providing a total number of matches to the database that meet the criteria of the query for subscriber preferences.

47. The computer readable medium according to claim 45, further comprises the instructions of:

embedding the contact address in the bill so that the contact address is selectable by one or more subscribers so as to form the conunlinity;

wherein the usage collector receives subscriber selections; and

updates the database for each subscriber based on the contact address selected by the subscriber.

48. The computer readable medium according to claim 47, further comprising the instruction of:

redirecting an address through an address redirector for rerouting the contact address selected by the subscriber to the third party.

49. 1the computer readable medium according to claim 34, further comprising the instruction of:

sending a bill for a service billed by the billing system which is not a service available from the third party that provides the one or messages to the group of subscribers.

44. The computer readable medium according to clam 43, wherein the instruction of providing further comprises is providing one or more messages to subscribers electronically.