System for generating revenue using electronic mail and method for its use

• US 7,904,336 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2001
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Besecker, Bret J., McGregor, G. Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAMPAGNE, DONALD
• Application Number:
  US09/832,767
• Publication Number:
  US 20020026360A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,618 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/14.66, 705/14.69, 709/246
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• 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 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

A system and a method whereby e-mail users may send e-mail messages appended with advertising. E-mail sent from the e-mail user'"'"'s e-mail account is routed through a standard email delivery system. The e-mail message is further processed by a software means which appends thereto another software means operable to cause an advertisement to appear when the e-mail message is opened by the e-mail recipient. In one embodiment, a portion of the revenue generated by the advertising may be distributed to a charitable organization. The e-mail user sending the e-mail message may designate a charitable organization to receive such contributions. The present invention may be used with any e-mail technology.

Claims

1. A method for generating revenue using electronic mail, comprising the steps of:

receiving an e-mail message addressed to at least one e-mail recipient from a first client computer through at least one computer network, wherein the e-mail message comprises an e-mail address of an e-mail user sending the e-mail message, an e-mail address of the at least one e-mail recipient, a subject, and a body;

appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message transmitted from the first client computer, wherein the advertisement retrieval software means comprises information about at least one of a plurality of advertisements retrievably stored in a database that are not from the e-mail user sending the e-mail message; and

transmitting the e-mail message to a second client computer through the at least one computer network based upon the e-mail address of the at least one e-mail recipient for displaying the e-mail message on the second client computer, wherein when the email message is first displayed on the second client computer the advertisement software retrieval means is operable at the second client computer to retrieve at least one of the advertisements retrievably stored in the database for display within the e-mail message on the second client computer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing profile information about the e-mail user in the database, and wherein the information about the at least one of a plurality of advertisements stored in the database comprises target characteristics associated with each of the plurality of advertisements, and wherein the step of appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message comprises the steps of;

reading the e-mail address of the e-mail user sending the e-mail message from the e-mail message;

identifying the e-mail user sending the e-mail message according to the e-mail user'"'"'s e-mail address;

retrieving profile information about the e-mail user sending the e-mail message from the database;

comparing the e-mail user'"'"'s retrieved profile information against the target characteristics associated with the advertisements;

selecting at least one advertisement comprising target characteristics which correlate positively to the e-mail user'"'"'s profile information; and

appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message, the advertisement retrieval software means comprising information about the at least one selected advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing profile information about the e-mail user in the database, and wherein the information about the at least one of a plurality of advertisements stored in the database comprises at least one keyword associated with each of the plurality of advertisements, and wherein the step of appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message comprises the steps of;

reading the e-mail address of the e-mail user sending the e-mail message from the e-mail message;

identifying the e-mail user sending the e-mail message according to the e-mail user'"'"'s e-mail address;

parsing the subject and body of the e-mail message to identify keywords which may be present therein;

updating the e-mail user'"'"'s profile information in the database;

retrieving updated profile information about the e-mail user sending the e-mail message from the database;

comparing the e-mail user'"'"'s retrieved profile information against the at least one keyword associated with the advertisements;

selecting an advertisement comprising at least one of the associated keywords which correlates positively to the e-mail user'"'"'s profile information; and

appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message, the advertisement retrieval software means comprising information about the at least one selected advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a return communication from the second client computer when the e-mail message is displayed on the second client computer; and

accounting for advertising revenue and advertising expense in response to the receipt of the return communication.

5. A method for sending e-mail messages appended with advertising, comprising the steps of:

storing an identifier for an entity selected by an e-mail user sending an e-mail message;

receiving the e-mail message addressed to at least one e-mail recipient from a first client computer through at least one computer network, wherein the e-mail message comprises an e-mail address of the e-mail user sending the e-mail message, an e-mail address of the at least one e-mail recipient, a subject, and a body;

appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message transmitted from the first client computer, wherein the advertisement retrieval software means comprises information about at least one of a plurality of advertisements retrievably stored in a database, the at least one of the plurality of advertisements are not from the e-mail user sending the e-mail message;

transmitting the e-mail message to a second client computer through the at least one computer network based upon the e-mail address the of at least one e-mail recipient for displaying the e-mail message on the second client computer;

transmitting at least one of the plurality of advertisements stored in the database for display within the e-mail message on the second client computer; and

accounting for a contribution to the entity identified by the stored identifier.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of:

storing profile information about the e-mail user sending the e-mail message in the database, and wherein the information about the at least one advertisement stored in the database comprises target characteristics associated with each advertisement, and wherein the information about the e-mail user sending the e-mail message stored in the database comprises profile information about the e-mail user sending the e-mail message,

and wherein the step of appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message comprises the steps of;

reading the e-mail address of the e-mail user sending the e-mail message from the e-mail message;

identifying the e-mail user sending the e-mail message according to the e-mail user'"'"'s e-mail address;

retrieving profile information about the e-mail user sending the e-mail message from the database;

comparing the e-mail user'"'"'s retrieved profile information against the target characteristics associated with the advertisements;

selecting at least one advertisement comprising target characteristics which correlate positively to the e-mail user'"'"'s profile information; and

wherein the step of appending comprises appending information about the at least one selected advertisement to the e-mail message.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of:

storing profile information about the e-mail user in the database, and wherein the information about the at least one advertisement stored in the database comprises at least one keyword associated with each advertisement, and wherein the information about the e-mail user stored in the database comprises profile information about the e-mail user, and wherein the step of appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message comprises the steps of;

reading the e-mail user'"'"'s e-mail address from the e-mail message;

identifying the e-mail user according to the e-mail user'"'"'s e-mail address;

parsing the subject and body of the e-mail message to identify keywords which may be present therein;

updating the e-mail user'"'"'s profile information in the database;

retrieving updated profile information about the e-mail user from the database;

comparing the e-mail user'"'"'s retrieved profile information against the at least one keyword associated with the advertisements;

selecting an advertisement comprising at least one of the associated keywords which correlates positively to the e-mail user'"'"'s profile information; and

appending advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail message, the advertisement retrieval software means comprising information about the at least one selected advertisement.

8. A method for advertising using electronic e-mail comprising:

receiving an e-mail composed by an e-mail user from a first client computer;

appending a sub-message associated with an advertisement to the e-mail while the e-mail is enroute to a recipient based upon preferences of the e-mail user that composed the e-mail;

delivering the appended e-mail to a second client computer operated by the recipient for displaying at the second client computer the advertisement associated with the sub-message;

receiving a return communication from the second client computer when the advertisement is displayed by the second client computer; and

accounting with the host server for advertising revenue in response to the receipt of the return communication,

wherein the step of appending comprises appending an advertisement retrieval software means to the e-mail, and

wherein the step of displaying comprises retrieving an advertisement from a host computer with the advertisement retrieval software means, and displaying the retrieved advertisement.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of appending comprises:

obtaining the sub-message associated with an advertisement from a data base with a third computer; and

appending the sub-message associated with an advertisement to the e-mail enroute to the recipient with the third computer.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining profile information regarding the e-mail recipient;

comparing the profile information with target characteristics associated with the advertisement; and

selecting the sub-message to be appended to the e-mail enroute to the recipient based upon the comparison.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining profile information regarding an e-mail account used to compose the e-mail;

comparing the profile information with target characteristics associated with the advertisement; and

selecting a sub-message associated with an advertisement based upon the comparison, and wherein;

the step of appending a sub-message associated with an advertisement to the email enroute to the recipient comprises appending the selected sub-message.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

accounting for a contribution to an entity designated by the e-mail user that composed the e-mail in response to the receipt of the return communication.