Background advertising system

• US 6,633,850 B1
• Filed: 05/09/2000
• Issued: 10/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Creative Internet Concepts LLC
• Original Assignee: Creative Internet Concepts LLC
• Inventors: Chaffins, Bruce R., Gabbard, Chuck E., Howerton, Everett B. III
• Primary Examiner(s): ROSEN, NICHOLAS D
• Application Number:
  US09/567,250
• Time in Patent Office: 1,253 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/14, 707/513, 709/204, 709/206, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into an end user communication message a background reference to an advertisement. In some embodiments, the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, or watermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mail message or public posting. A message server inserts the background reference after receiving a message originally sent from an end user originator and before sending the message to be delivered to an end user recipient. When necessary, the message server will convert at least a portion of the message into a proper format, such as HTML, before inserting the background reference to an advertisement, which is preferably selected in accordance with end user recipient demographic information and/or ad exposure statistics. The advertisement itself, often a graphical file, is preferably not transmitted with the message, but is typically stored at the message server or other location remote from the end user recipient. Preferably, the message server maintains and refer to records on each end user recipient to allow for selective enablement of background reference insertion and overwriting based upon end user preferences. According to various “non-web” example embodiments, the message server transmits an SMTP, POP3 or NNTP message with an HTML portion for a respective HTML-compatible client. In other “web-based” example embodiments, the message server transmits the entire message in HTML to be used as a stand-alone web page or as a portion of a larger page employing frames or tables.

Claims

1. An advertising method for associating a background reference to a stored advertisement with an end user communication message in a communications network, said method comprising the steps:

determining, by computer processing, if an end user communication message includes a background reference to a stored advertisement; and

associating a background reference responsive to said end user communication message not already including a background reference.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of associating includes the step of inserting a background reference to the stored advertisement into said end user communication message.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said background reference is operative for enabling background tiling of said advertisement at a receiving site on the communications network.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said end user communication message includes an Internet e-mail message.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said end user communication message includes a public posting.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the steps of transforming said end user communication message into hypertext markup language (HTML), and transmitting said end user communication message in a web-based e-mail system to a web browser at a receiving site on the communications network.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including the step of transmitting said end user communication message in a post office protocol (POP) format.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said associating step includes selecting the stored advertisement based on user demographic information.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said associating step includes selecting the stored advertisement based on advertisement exposure for a pool of advertisers.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said associating step includes inserting a hypertext markup language (HTML) background reference tag into the end user communication message.

11. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said stored advertisement is stored at at least one of a transmitting site and a receiving site.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said stored advertisement is stored at a site remote from a receiving site, wherein said background reference includes a file address remote from said receiving site.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said stored advertisement is a graphical image file.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the steps of identifying and recording all intended recipients of the end user communication message and forming associational demographic relationships.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of changing said stored advertisement that is referenced by said background reference, whereby when said end user communication message is subsequently viewed, a different advertisement is displayed.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of extracting revenue in exchange for said associating step.

17. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said advertisement is advertised for an entity other than an end user.

18. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving an end user communication message at at least one of a transmitting site and a receiving site before associating.

19. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of associating includes the step of selecting from at least one of multiple stored advertisements.

20. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting an end user communication message after associating.

21. An advertising system for associating an advertisement pointer in a background of an end user communication message, said advertising system comprising:

means for determining if a background of an end user communication message includes an advertisement pointer; and

means for associating an advertisement pointer responsive to the end user communication message not already including an advertisement pointer.

22. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the means for associating includes means for placing the advertisement pointer in the background of the end user communication message.

23. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said advertisement pointer includes means for enabling background tiling of an advertisement.

24. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the end user communication message includes an Internet e-mail message.

25. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the end user communication message includes a public posting.

26. The system as claimed in claim 21, further comprising means for transforming the end user communication message into hypertext markup language (HTML), further comprising means for transmitting the end user communication message in a web-based e-mail system to a web browser.

27. The system as claimed in claim 21, further comprising means for transmitting the end user communication message in a post office protocol (POP) format.

28. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said means for associating includes means for selecting a stored advertisement based on user demographic information.

29. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said means for associating includes means for selecting a stored advertisement based on advertisement exposure for a pool of advertisers.

30. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said means for associating includes means for inserting a hypertext markup language (HTML) background reference tag into the end user communication message.

31. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said advertisement pointer includes an address of a stored advertisement graphic file.

32. The system as claimed in claim 31, wherein said address is a remote address.

33. The system as claimed in claim 21, further comprising means for changing said advertisement that said pointer points to, whereby when said end user communication message is subsequently viewed, a different advertisement is displayed.

34. The system as claimed in claim 21, further comprising means for extracting revenue in exchange for said associating means.

35. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein said advertisement pointer points to an advertisement that is advertised for an entity other than an end user.

36. The system as claimed in claim 21, further comprising means for receiving an end user communication message at at least one of a transmitting site and a receiving site before associating.

37. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the means for associating includes means for selecting from at least one of multiple stored advertisements.

38. The system as claimed in claim 21, further comprising means for transmitting an end user communication message after associating.

39. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium for associating a background reference to a stored advertisement with an end user communication message, said computer program comprising:

logic configured to determine if said end user communication message includes a background reference to a stored advertisement; and

logic configured to associate a background reference responsive to said end user communication message not already including a background reference to the stored advertisement.

40. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, wherein said background reference is operative for enabling background tiling of said advertisement at a receiving site.

41. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, wherein the end user communication message includes an Internet e-mail message.

42. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, wherein the end user communication message includes a public posting.

43. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, further comprising logic configured to transform the end user communication message into hypertext markup language (HTML), further comprising logic configured to transmit said end user communication message in a web-based e-mail system to a web browser.

44. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, further comprising logic configured to transmit said end user communication message in a post office protocol (POP) format.

45. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, further comprising logic configured to select said background reference based on demographic information.

46. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, further comprising logic configured to, select said background reference based on a pool of advertisers.

47. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, further comprising logic configured to change said advertisement that is referenced by said background reference, whereby when said end user communication message is subsequently viewed, a different advertisement is displayed.

48. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, further comprising logic configured to extract revenue in exchange for the association of said background reference.

49. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, wherein said advertisement is advertised for an entity other than an end user.

50. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, further comprising logic configured to receive an end user communication message at at least one of a transmitting site and a receiving site before associating.

51. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, wherein the logic configured to associate includes logic configured to select from at least one of multiple stored advertisements.

52. The computer program as claimed in claim 39, further comprising logic configured to transmit an end user communication message after associating.

53. A method for associating a background reference to a stored image with an end user communication message in a communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

determining, by computer processing, if an end user communication message includes a background reference to a stored image; and

associating, by computer processing a background reference responsive to said end user communication message not already including a background reference.

54. The method as claimed in claim 53, wherein the step of associating includes the step of inserting the background reference to the stored image into said end user communication message.

55. The method as claimed in claim 53, wherein said image is an advertisement, wherein said background reference is operative for enabling background tiling of said image at a receiving site, wherein said end user communication message includes an Internet e-mail message, and wherein said image is stored at a location remote from said receiving site.

56. The method as claimed in claim 53, further comprising a step of changing said stored image that is referenced by said background reference, whereby when said end user communication message is subsequently viewed, a different image is displayed.

57. The method as claimed in claim 53, further comprising a step of extracting revenue in exchange for said associating step.

58. The method as claimed in claim 53, wherein said image is displayed for an entity other than an end user.

59. The method as claimed in claim 53, further comprising the step of receiving an end user communication message at at least one of a transmitting site and a receiving site before associating.

60. The method as claimed in claim 53, wherein the step of associating includes the step of selecting from at least one of multiple stored advertisements.

61. The method as claimed in claim 53, further comprising the step of transmitting an end user communication message after associating.