Method and system for illustrating where a ticket is located in an event venue

• US 7,917,398 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2006
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: StubHub, Inc.
• Original Assignee: StubHub, Inc.
• Inventors: Walsh, Liza, Correa, Gabriel Manuel, Ngo, Sandy, Salles, Benjamin Issasschar, Levi, Ronald, Lau, Steven Min, Gibson, Ashley
• Primary Examiner(s): MISIASZEK, MICHAEL
• Application Number:
  US11/552,782
• Publication Number:
  US 20080103934A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,616 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/1
• US Class Current: 705/26.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0627 using item specifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers

Abstract

A system and method of illustrating where at least one ticket is located in an event venue, comprising: accepting event criteria for at least one ticket and at least one event; accepting price criteria for the at least one ticket and the at least one event; displaying an interactive graphics-based event venue map illustrating a location of all sections at a venue with at least one ticket meeting the event criteria and price criteria; accepting section selection criteria, at least one section being selected from the interactive graphics-based event venue map; displaying ticket information in a web browsing language corresponding to the section selection criteria, the displayed ticket information in the web browsing language being able to be utilized to drill down to a specific ticket, causing a location of the specific ticket to be displayed in the interactive graphics-based event venue map; and enabling a capability to utilize the interactive graphics-based event venue map to choose a section of interest, causing corresponding ticket information to be displayed in the web browsing language.

Claims

1. A method of illustrating where at least one ticket is located in an event venue, comprising:

presenting, by a web browser of a client computing device, a filter module for allowing a user to perform a search of tickets listed for sale by a ticket service hosted by a web site;

accepting, at the filter module, event criteria for at least one ticket and at least one event;

accepting, at the filter module, price criteria for the at least one ticket and the at least one event;

calling, by the filter module, an application programming interface of a mediator application executing in the web browser;

constructing, by the mediator application, a request for filtering tickets by criteria based on the event criteria and the price criteria accepted at the filter module;

sending the request for filtering tickets by criteria to the ticket service;

receiving, at the mediator application, data representing a filtered ticket set meeting the event criteria and the price criteria from the ticket service;

displaying, by the web browser, an interactive graphics-based event venue map illustrating a location of all sections at an event venue with at least one ticket meeting the event criteria and the price criteria, the interactive graphics-based event venue map being displayed at a size corresponding to a minimum zoom level;

receiving, at the interactive graphics-based event venue map, input from the user to increase the size of the interactive graphics-based event venue map;

presenting, by the interactive graphics-based event venue map, a dragger feature for allowing the user to move the interactive graphics-based event venue map if the size of the interactive graphics-based event venue map is increased from the minimum zoom level by at least a predetermined amount;

accepting, at the interactive graphics-based event venue map, section selection criteria in response to the user selecting at least one section from the interactive graphics-based event venue map;

calling, by the interactive graphics-based event venue map, the application programming interface of the mediator application executing in the web browser;

constructing, by the mediator application, a request for retrieving tickets by section based on the section selection criteria accepted at the interactive graphics-based venue map;

sending the request for retrieving tickets by section to the ticket service;

receiving, from the ticket service at the mediator application, data representing tickets of the filtered ticket set that meet the section selection criteria; and

displaying ticket information in a web browsing language comprising a ticket listing corresponding to the tickets of the filtered ticket set that meet the section selection criteria, the displayed ticket information in the web browsing language allowing the user to drill down to a specific ticket in the ticket listing, causing a location of the specific ticket to be displayed in the interactive graphics-based event venue map.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying ticket information in the web browsing language comprising a ticket listing corresponding to tickets of the filtered ticket set located in a plurality of sections;

accepting, at the interactive graphics-based event venue map, a particular section of interest; and

displaying, ticket information in the web browsing language corresponding to the tickets of the filtered ticket set located in the particular section of interest.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

displaying the ticket information in the web browsing language corresponding to the tickets of the filtered ticket set located in the particular section of interest as an overlay on the particular section of interest on the interactive graphics-based event venue map.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the ticket listing next to the interactive graphics-based event venue map; and

marking each section corresponding to the tickets of the filtered ticket set that meet the section selection criteria on the interactive graphics-based event venue map

5. The method of claim 2, wherein further user interactions with the interactive graphics-based event venue map to select one or more different sections of interest are reflected in web browsing language ticket information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the dragger feature of the interactive graphics-based event venue map is presented if the size of the interactive graphics-based event venue map is increased from the minimum zoom level by at least 10%.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accepting other price criteria at the filter module;

displaying the interactive graphics-based event venue map illustrating the location of all sections with at least one ticket meeting the other price criteria without requiring relaunching of the interactive graphics-based event venue map.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accepting other section selection criteria at the interactive graphics-based event venue map;

displaying ticket information corresponding to the other section selection criteria without requiring relaunching of the interactive graphics-based event venue map.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a user can one or more groups of sections as the section selection criteria.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the ticket information for the tickets of the filtered ticket set that meet the section selection criteria comprises one or more of:

listing information, transaction information or bid information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the listing information comprises one or more of:

ticket information for at least one ticket that has not yet been sold at a fixed price;

ticket information for at least one ticket that has not yet been sold at a declining price;

or ticket information for at least one ticket available for auction.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying graphics-based event venue map information that is not interactive showing an exact location corresponding to an exact ticket prior to purchase of the exact ticket.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactive graphics-based event venue map is a FLASH-based event venue map.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the web browsing language is HTML.

26. The method of claim 10, wherein the transaction information comprises prices at which tickets have been sold.

27. The method of claim 10, wherein the bid information comprises prices at which buyers are willing to pay for tickets.

13. A system residing on a client computing device comprising computer code that, when executed by the client computing device, causes the client computing device to perform a method for illustrating where a ticket is located in an event venue, the method comprising:

presenting, by a web browser of the client computing device, a filter module for allowing a user to perform a search of tickets listed for sale by a ticket service hosted by a web site;

accepting, at the filter module, event criteria for at least one ticket and at least one event;

accepting, at the filter module, price criteria for the at least one ticket and the at least one event;

calling, by the filter module, an application programming interface of a mediator application executing in the web browser;

constructing, by the mediator application, a request for filtering tickets by criteria based on the event and price criteria accepted at the filter module;

sending the request for filtering tickets by criteria to the ticket service;

receiving, at the mediator application, data representing a filtered ticket set meeting the event and price criteria from the ticket service;

displaying, by the web browser, an interactive graphics-based event venue map illustrating a location of all sections at an event venue with at least one ticket meeting the event and price criteria, the interactive graphics-based event venue map being displayed at a size corresponding to a minimum zoom level;

receiving, at the interactive graphics-based event venue map, input from the user to increase the size of the interactive graphics-based event venue map;

presenting, by the interactive graphics-based event venue map, a dragger feature for allowing the user to move the interactive graphics-based event venue map if the size of the interactive graphics-based event venue map is increased from the minimum zoom level by at least a predetermined amount;

accepting, at the interactive graphics-based event venue map, section selection criteria in response to the user selecting at least one section from the interactive graphics-based event venue map;

calling, by the interactive graphics-based event venue map, the application programming interface of the mediator application executing in the web browser;

constructing, by the mediator application, a request for retrieving tickets by section based on the section selection criteria accepted at the interactive graphics-based venue map;

sending the request for retrieving tickets by section to the ticket service;

receiving, from the ticket service at the mediator application, data representing tickets of the filtered ticket set that meet the section selection criteria; and

displaying ticket information in a web browsing language comprising a ticket listing corresponding to the tickets of the filtered set that meet the section selection criteria, the displayed ticket information in the web browsing language allowing the user to drill down to a specific ticket in the ticket listing, causing a location of the specific ticket to be displayed in the interactive graphics-based event venue map.

14. The system of claim 13, further wherein:

the ticket information in the web browsing language comprises a ticket listing corresponding to tickets of the filtered ticket set located in a plurality of sections;

the interactive graphics-based event venue map accepts a particular section of interest; and

ticket information is displayed in the web browsing language corresponding to the tickets of the filtered ticket set located in the particular section of interest.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the ticket information in the web browsing language corresponding to the tickets of the filtered ticket set located in the particular section of interest is displayed as an overlay on the particular section of interest on the interactive graphics-based event venue map.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the dragger feature of the interactive graphics-based event venue map is presented if the size of the interactive graphics-based event venue map is increased from the minimum zoom level by at least 10%.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the ticket information for the tickets of the filtered ticket set that meet the section selection criteria comprises one or more of:

listing information, transaction information, or bid information.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the system consumes ticket information for multiple events.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein further user interactions with the interactive graphics-based event venue map to select one or more different sections of interest are reflected in web browsing language ticket information.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the listing information comprises one or more of:

ticket information for at least one ticket that has not yet been sold at a fixed price;

ticket information for at least one ticket that has not yet been sold at a declining price;

or ticket information for at least one ticket available for auction.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein graphics-based event venue map information that is not interactive is displayed showing an exact location corresponding to an exact ticket prior to purchase of the exact ticket.

24. The system of claim 13, wherein the interactive graphics-based event venue map is a FLASH-based event venue map.

25. The system of claim 13, wherein the web browsing language is HTML.

28. The system of claim 17, wherein the transaction information comprises prices at which tickets have been sold.

29. The system of claim 17, wherein the bid information comprises prices at which buyers are willing to pay for tickets.