Method of providing subscription based information services through an information service provider

• US 6,850,963 B1
• Filed: 09/05/2000
• Issued: 02/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Akahori, Masahiro, Adachi, Kazuhiro, Yoshida, Takahiro, Fukuda, Katsuhisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Prieto, Beatriz
• Application Number:
  US09/655,492
• Time in Patent Office: 1,610 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/203, 709/206, 707 1- 4, 705/52
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

An information service providing method for providing an information service is provided, wherein the method includes the steps of: receiving a customer'"'"'s request for the information service to be provided with; deciding the customer'"'"'s utilization qualification with respect to the contents of the information service; determining the contents that is available to the customer according to the customer'"'"'s utilization qualification among the contents of the information service that the customer requests to be provided with; and providing the customer with the determined contents of the information service.

Claims

1. An information service providing method for providing an information service, comprising the steps of:

receiving a customer'"'"'s request for said information service to be provided with;

deciding the customer'"'"'s utilization qualification with respect to the contents of said information service;

determining the contents that is available to the customer according to the customer'"'"'s utilization qualification among said contents of said information service that the customer requests to be provided with;

displaying information as a list, the information showing correspondence relationships between services that the customer can utilize and a plurality of utilization qualifications with respect to the services;

receiving an instruction from the customer selecting a utilization qualification with respect to the services being displayed;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of old-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a voluntary member;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of latest-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a regular member; and

providing the customer with a service of a content thus determined.

2. An information service providing method for providing an information service, comprising the steps of:

receiving a customer'"'"'s data at a requesting side to generate data necessary for the provision of said information service;

transmitting said generated data to a providing side that provides said information service;

executing procedures for providing said information service using the data transmitted from the requesting side that requires the provision of said information service;

transmitting execution results obtained by said execution to the requesting side of said information service;

receiving the execution results transmitted from the providing side of said information service;

displaying information from the execution results as a list, the information showing correspondence relationships between services that the customer can utilize and a plurality of utilization qualifications with respect to the services;

receiving an instruction from the customer selecting a utilization qualification with respect to the services being displayed;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of old-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a voluntary member;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of latest-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a regular member; and

providing the customer with a service of a content thus determined.

3. An information service providing system for providing an information service, comprising:

a receipt processing portion for receiving a customer'"'"'s request for said information service to be provided with;

a utilization qualification setting processing portion for deciding the customer'"'"'s utilization qualification with respect to the contents of said information service;

a display, the display displaying information as a list, the information showing correspondence relationships between services that the customer can utilize and a plurality of utilization qualifications with respect to the services, the receipt processing portion receiving an instruction from the customer selecting a utilization qualification with respect to the services being displayed;

a contents of provision determination processing portion for determining the contents that is available to the customer according to the customer'"'"'s utilization qualification among said contents of said information service that the customer requests to be provided with, the contents of provision determination processing portion determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of old-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a voluntary member, and determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of latest-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a regular member; and

an information service provision processing portion for providing the customer with said determined contents of said information service.

4. An information service providing system for providing an information service, comprising:

a requesting side apparatus provided with a data generation processing portion for receiving a customer'"'"'s data to generate data necessary for the provision of information service, data transmission processing portion for transmitting said generated data to a providing side that provides said information service and an execution results output processing portion for receiving and outputting the execution results transmitted from the providing side of said information and;

a providing side apparatus provided with an information service execution processing portion for executing procedures for providing said information service using the generated data transmitted from the requesting side apparatus that requires the provision of said information service and an execution result transmission processing portion for transmitting execution results obtained by said execution to the requesting side apparatus of said information service,

wherein the procedures include displaying information as a list, the information showing correspondence relationships between services that the customer can utilize and a plurality of utilization qualifications with respect to the services;

receiving an instruction from the customer selecting a utilization qualification with respect to the services being displayed;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of old-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a voluntary member;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of latest-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a regular member; and

providing the customer with a service of a content thus determined.

5. A computer readable recording medium recording a program for causing a computer to function as an information service providing system for providing an information service, wherein the program when executed causes a computer to perform:

receiving a customer'"'"'s request for said information service to be provided with;

deciding the customer'"'"'s utilization qualification with respect to the contents of said information service;

determining the contents that is available to the customer according to the customer'"'"'s utilization qualification among said contents of said information service that the customer requests to be provided with;

providing the customer with said determined contents of said information service;

displaying information as a list, the information showing correspondence relationships between services that the customer can utilize and a plurality of utilization qualifications with respect to the services;

receiving an instruction from the customer selecting a utilization qualification with respect to the services being displayed;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of old-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a voluntary member;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of latest-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a regular member; and

providing the customer with a service of a content thus determined.

6. An information service providing method for providing an information service, comprising:

displaying information as a list, the information showing correspondence relationships between services that an information service user can utilize and a plurality of utilization qualifications with respect to the services;

receiving an instruction from the information service user selecting a utilization qualification with respect to the services being displayed;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of old-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a voluntary member;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of latest-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a regular member; and

providing the information service user with a service of a content thus determined,

wherein the information service user conducts an information service utilization application on an information service utilization application page in an information service providing system, the information service user and an information service provider conclude an agreement concerning said information service utilization after said utilization application, and the information service user is given a utilization qualification of said information service after the formal agreement is completed.

7. The information service providing method according to claim 6, wherein, at the time when the information service user conducts said information service utilization application, said utilization qualification is preliminary given and, if said formal agreement is not concluded by a predetermined date, said given preliminary utilization qualification is canceled.

8. The information service providing method according to claim 6, wherein, if the information service user who conducted said utilization application has a record of concluding a formal agreement with the information service provider concerning the utilization of any information service provided by the information service provider, the utilization qualification of this time of said information service is formally given at the time of conducting said information service utilization application of this time, and said formal agreement of this time is not necessary concerning said information service of this time.

9. The information service providing method according to claim 6, wherein an individual information service user presents user information such as the name and puts a seal on said formal agreement, and a corporation to which the information service user belongs or a representative of an organization in the corporation presents information concerning the corporation or the organization in the corporation such as the name of the representative and puts a seal on said formal agreement.

10. The information service providing method according to claim 7, wherein an individual information service user presents user information such as the name and puts a seal on said formal agreement, and a corporation to which the information service user belongs or a representative of an organization in the corporation presents information concerning the corporation or the organization in the corporation such as the name of the representative and puts a seal on said formal agreement.

11. The information service providing method according to claim 8, wherein an individual information service user presents user information such as the name and puts a seal on said formal agreement, and a corporation to which the information service user belongs or a representative of an organization in the corporation presents information concerning the corporation or the organization in the corporation such as the name of the representative and puts a seal on said formal agreement.

12. An information service providing method for providing an information service, comprising the steps of:

displaying an information service page to which an inquiry requesting function added to an information service user;

conducting an inquiry request from said displayed information service page by said information service user;

selecting an inquiry page conforming to said inquiry request out of an inquiry page group prepared in advance;

displaying said selected inquiry page on a screen;

prompting the information service user to input inquiry contents to said displayed inquiry page;

generating an inquiry mail from said contents inputted to said displayed inquiry page;

displaying information as a list, the information showing correspondence relationships between services that the information service user can utilize and a plurality of utilization qualifications with respect to the services;

receiving an instruction from the information service user selecting a utilization qualification with respect to the services being displayed;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of old-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a voluntary member;

determining to impose a limitation regarding a period of utilization of latest-version software if the utilization qualification contained in the instruction received is a regular member; and

providing the information service user with a service of a content thus determined.

13. The information service providing method according to claim 12, wherein said method for selecting an inquiry page conforming to said inquiry request is a method for adopting an inquiry page that is made to be related to said information service page in advance.

14. The information service providing method according to claim 12, further comprising a step of including necessary items relating to said information service page in the title, the text or the attached file of said inquiry mail.

15. The information service providing method according to claim 13, further comprising a step of including necessary items relating to said information service page in the title, the text or the attached file of said inquiry mail.