Business card and contact management system

• US 6,883,000 B1
• Filed: 02/12/1999
• Issued: 04/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Robert L Gropper
• Inventors: Gropper, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Application Number:
  US09/249,269
• Time in Patent Office: 2,258 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/26, 705/27, 709/222, 709/229, 707/104, 707/200
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

An Internet (or World-Wide-Web or other such public or private network) based business card and contact management system capable of conveying and managing advertising as well as traditional and other non-traditional business contact information. The invention is a system that: (1) accepts a Universal Contact Locator (UCL) as encoded on a business card in man and/or machine readable format and, when the Universal Contact Locator (UCL) is entered into a client program running on a client computer, (2) causes a web browser (or like program) and associated communications software to establish a communications session with a remote server computer which (3) accesses the stored contact and advertisement and news information of the card issuer associated with the Universal Contact Locator and (4) downloads the business contact and/or personal contact information and targeted advertisements and news items associated with the Universal Contact Locator to a client program running on a client computer which (5) loads the contact data into the Contact Management or Personal Information Management (PIM) system of the users choosing running on the users client computer and (6) stores the advertisements and news items downloaded from the server computer on the client computer'"'"'s secondary storage device (i.e. hard disk) and (7) causes the advertisements and news items stored on the client computer'"'"'s secondary storage device to be displayed to the user on a predetermined schedule in a portion of the client computer'"'"'s output device (i.e. CRT or LCD panel).

Claims

1. A computer method within a network, comprising:

(a) receiving on a client computer a universal contact locator identifying a party and transmitting the universal contact locator from the client computer to a remote server computer;

(b) on the server, accessing stored contact information for the party associated with the universal contact locator and downloading the contact information to the client computer; and

(c) when the server downloads the contact information to the client computer, the server computer gathers an identification of the client computer and automatically transmits to the party identified by the universal contact locator said identification.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the contact information includes information about a person identified by the universal contact locator as well as one or more other people who work with the person.

3. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 2.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein, when the party identified by the universal contact locator submits to the server computer an update to the contact information after the server computer has downloaded the contact information to the client computer, the server computer automatically transmits the updated contact information to the client computer.

5. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 4.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein:

(a) the contact information is organized with a high level of detail and a low level of detail;

(b) the low level of detail is sent by the server computer to the client computer unless the party identified by the universal contact locator has indicated to the server computer that a class of client computers including the client computer should receive the higher level of detail, in which case the high level of detail is sent.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein, when the party identified by the universal contact locator indicates to the server computer, after the client computer has already received the low level of detail, that a class of client computers including the client computer should receive the high level of detail, the server computer automatically updates the client computer with the high level of detail.

8. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 7.

9. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when r on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 6.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the contact information is automatically loaded into a contact management system'"'"'s persistent memory for the client computer.

11. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 10.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the identification is transmitted to the party identified by the universal contact locator as part of an e-mail message.

13. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 12.

14. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 1.

15. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 8.

16. A computer method within a network, comprising:

(a) receiving at a client computer a universal contact locator identifying a party and transmitting the universal contact locator to a remote server computer;

(b) on the server, accessing stored contact information for the party associated with the universal contact locator and downloading the contact information to the client computer; and

,

(c) when the party identified by the universal contact locator submits to the server computer an update to the contact information after the server computer has downloaded the contact information to the client computer, in response, the server computer automatically transmits the updated contact information to the client computer.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the updated contact information includes replacement information such that, if the party identified by the universal contact locator has been replaced by another party, the updated contact information includes contact information about the replacement party.

18. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 17.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the contact information includes information about a person identified by the universal contact locator as well as one or more other people who work with the person.

20. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 19.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein, when the server transmits the contact information to the client computer, the server computer gathers an identification of the client computer and automatically transmits to the party identified by the universal contact locator said identification.

22. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when rug on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 21.

23. The method of claim 16 wherein:

(a) the contact information is organized with a high level of detail and a low level of detail;

(b) the low level of detail is sent by the server computer to the client computer unless the party identified by the universal contact locator has indicated to the server computer that a class of client computers including the client computer should receive the higher level of detail, in which case the high level of detail is sent.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein, when the party identified by the universal contact locator indicates to the server computer, after the client computer has already received the low level of detail, that a class of client computers including the client computer should receive the high level of detail, the server computer automatically updates the client computer with the high level of detail.

25. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 24.

26. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 23.

27. The method of claim 16 wherein the contact information is automatically loaded into a contact management system'"'"'s persistent memory for the client computer.

28. The method of claim 16 wherein the updated contact information is transmitted to the client computer as part of an e-mail message.

29. A computer method within a network, comprising:

(a) receiving on a client computer a universal contact locator identifying a party and transmitting the universal contact locator to a remote server computer;

(b) on the server, accessing stored contact information associated with the universal contact locator which information is organized with a high level of detail and a low level of detail and;

(c) downloading the contact information at the low level of detail to the client computer unless the party identified by, the universal contact locator has indicated to the server computer that a class of client computers including the client computer should receive the higher level of detail, in which case the high level of detail is sent.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein, when the party identified by the universal contact locator indicates to the server computer, after the client computer has already received the low level of detail, that a class of client computers including the client computer should receive the high level of detail, the server computer automatically updates the client computer with the high level of detail.

31. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 30.

32. The method of claim 29 wherein, when the server transmits the contact information to the client computer, the server computer gathers an identification of the client computer and automatically transmits to the party identified by the universal contact locator said identification.

33. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 32.

34. The method of claim 29 wherein, when the party identified by the universal contact locator submits to the server computer an update to the contact information after the server computer has downloaded the contact information to the client computer, the server computer automatically transmits the updated contact information to the client computer.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the updated contact information includes replacement information such that, if the party identified by the universal contact locator has been replaced by another party, the updated contact information includes contact information about the replacement party.

36. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 35.

37. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 34.

38. The method of claim 29 herein the contact information includes information about a person identified by the universal contact locator as well as one or more other people who work with the person.

39. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 38.

40. A computer readable data carrier containing data comprising a set of computer programs which, when run on computers on a network, cause the computers to perform the method of claim 29.