Intermediary content gateway system and method

• US 7,656,885 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2004
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sybase 365 Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Sybase 365 Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Kyle, Connor C., Tam, Derek Hung Kit, Lovell, Robert C. Jr., Rusche, Thilo
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Thong H
• Application Number:
  US10/852,101
• Publication Number:
  US 20050201392A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,079 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/224, 709/203, 709/229, 709/230, 707/10, 707/104, 707/2, 705/1, 705/65, 370/352, 455/406
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A system for enabling exchange of content over a communications network is disclosed having a first category of users comprising wireless carriers and a second category of users comprising content providers. A content gateway platform is provided having a database for storage of content. The content providers supply content to the database for use by the wireless carriers and the content is ultimately offered to end-user customers of the wireless carriers.

Claims

1. A system for enabling exchange of content over a communications network, comprising:

a content gateway platform comprising a database for storage of content, the content being received from a content provider, the content gateway being in communication with a wireless carrier that serves mobile subscribers who cause the wireless carrier to pull content from the content gateway platform in real-time in response to a given one of the mobile subscribers;

the content gateway platform providing tracking services to track one or more aspects associated with accessing the content in the database, the content gateway further configured to validate data indicating for which mobile devices the content is appropriate to account for content that is mobile device-specific, wherein the data is received from the content provider along with the content.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the content gateway platform provides marketing information to the content provider and to the wireless carrier.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the marketing information comprises information related to popularity of a particular piece of content.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the marketing information is displayed graphically.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the content gateway platform provides billing service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the content gateway platform provides settlement service.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the content gateway platform provides audit service.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the content gateway platform allocates access rights to users of the content gateway platform.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the access rights comprise at least one of viewing rights, creation rights, updating rights, and deletion rights.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the users are divided into groups and assigned allocation rights according to the groups.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein content is developed within the content gateway platform for storage in the database.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein content is developed outside of the content gateway platform and communicated to the content gateway for storage in the database via one or more communications channels.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more communications channels comprises at least one of SMTP or SMPP.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the content gateway platform transmits messages to the content provider and the wireless carrier to update status of content within the content gateway platform.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the content gateway platform provides fraud detection service.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the content comprises at least one of ring-tones, games, images, voting initiatives, or video.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the content gateway platform is administered by an entity separate from the content provider and the wireless carrier.

18. A system for enabling exchange of content over a communications network, comprising:

a content gateway platform comprising a database for storage of content the content gateway platform in communication with a content provider that supplies the content and a wireless carrier that passes the content to mobile subscribers of the wireless carrier, the mobile subscribers causing the wireless carrier to pull content form the content gateway platform in real-time in response to the mobile subscribers;

the content gateway platform receiving, along with the content, pricing information for the content, a billing model for the content, data indicating for which mobile devices the content is appropriate to account for content that is mobile device-specific, and a life expectancy of the content.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the content gateway platform provides information regarding the number of times a selected piece of content has been downloaded to both the content provider and the wireless carrier.