Integration of a digital asset management system with a network sales system

• US 7,840,534 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2005
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Hartmann, Joachim, Stanke, Oliver, Weber, Jutta
• Primary Examiner(s): Wassum; Luke S
• Application Number:
  US11/261,783
• Publication Number:
  US 20060179062A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,849 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/611
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

The disclosure relates to integration of a digital asset management system with a network sales system. The digital asset management system may comprise digital asset storage, search and retrieval functionality. Each digital asset may comprise one or more versions of the asset, properties of the asset, and conditions on its use. By way of the integration with the network sales system, a digital asset or digital asset version may be assigned a product identity to facilitate sale of the digital asset or digital asset version.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor; and

computer-executable instructions for execution by the processor, the instructions to implement;

a digital asset management application as part of a digital asset management system to manage digital assets structured in a hierarchy of nodes with each digital asset including a plurality of embedded versions of actual realizations of the digital asset organized in the nodes according to an asset type, with at least one digital asset appearing under a plurality of asset type nodes in the hierarchy and each version including a property identifying whether the version is active and a legal condition specifying a distribution restriction of the version,

a network sales application as part of a network sales system, the network sales application to administer a database of sales related information including sales conditions specifying a price and a medium for distributing an active version of each digital asset to a user,

an user interface application to identify active versions of digital assets organized under a node matching a user-selected criterion and compare an user-selected sales condition from the sales conditions of the identified active versions to the corresponding legal condition and commence a sale of the user-selected digital asset through the network sales application when the comparison indicates the distribution medium in the user-selected sales condition satisfies the distribution restriction in the corresponding legal condition, and

a bidirectional linkage between the digital asset management application and the network sales application.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the linkage is between a digital asset on the digital asset management system and a product master on the network sales system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein sales information is assignable to the product master.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the digital asset is sellable over the network.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the actual realization of each digital asset includes a media object.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the media object is a multimedia file embedded in the respective digital asset.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein each version of a digital asset reflects an update to the media object representing the digital asset.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the corresponding legal condition is transmitted as a separate document to the user selecting the digital asset during the commencement of the sale.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the corresponding legal condition is embedded as text in the separate document.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

classifying a version of a plurality of digital assets structured in a hierarchy in a digital asset management application on a digital asset management system as sellable with each digital asset including a plurality of embedded versions of actual realizations of the digital asset organized in nodes according to an asset type, with at least one digital asset appearing under a plurality of asset type nodes in the hierarchy, the digital asset management system containing a plurality of legal conditions specifying a distribution restriction on different versions of the digital assets;

based on the classification, automatically creating a corresponding product master in a network sales application on a network sales system for each sellable version, the corresponding product master containing a plurality of sales conditions, each sales condition specifying a price and a medium for distributing the sellable version of each digital asset to a user;

identifying the sellable versions of digital assets organized under a node matching a user-selected criterion;

commencing a sale of the sellable version of a user-selected digital asset from the identified sellable versions of digital assets when a comparison of a user-selected sales condition of the user-selected sellable version to a corresponding legal condition of the user-selected sellable version indicates the distribution medium in the user-selected sales condition satisfies the distribution restriction in the corresponding legal condition; and

automatically forming a bidirectional link through a processor between the digital asset management system and the network sales system.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising automatically propagating information relating to the digital asset to the product master via the link.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising assigning sales information to the product master.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising selling the digital asset on the network sales application.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising reclassifying the digital asset as not sellable, and based on the reclassification, causing the corresponding product to no longer be available for sale on the network sales application.

15. A machine-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions to perform a method comprising:

classifying a version of a plurality of digital assets structured in a hierarchy in a digital asset management system as sellable with each digital asset including a plurality of embedded versions of actual realizations of the digital asset organized in nodes according to an asset type, with at least one digital asset appearing under a plurality of asset type nodes in the hierarchy, the digital asset management system containing a plurality of legal conditions specifying a distribution restriction on different versions of the digital assets;

based on the classification, automatically creating a corresponding product master in a network sales application through a processor for each sellable version, the corresponding product master containing a plurality of sales conditions, each sales condition specifying a price and a medium for distributing the sellable version of each digital asset to a user;

identifying the sellable versions of digital assets organized under a node matching a user-selected criterion;

commencing a sale of the sellable version of a user-selected digital asset from the identified sellable versions of digital assets when a comparison of a user-selected sales condition of the user-selected sellable version to a corresponding legal condition of the user-selected sellable version indicates the distribution medium in the user-selected sales condition satisfies the distribution restriction in the legal condition; and

automatically forming a bidirectional link between the digital asset management system and the network sales application.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein only one version of an asset may be classified as sellable at a time.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the distribution restriction in the corresponding legal condition prevents certain users from downloading the sellable version of the digital asset.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the distribution restriction in the corresponding legal condition prevents certain users from viewing the sellable version of the digital asset.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein access control is used to enforce the corresponding legal condition.