Delivery, organization, and redemption of virtual offers from the internet, interactive-TV, wireless devices and other electronic means
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of distributing promotional offers to consumers, the method comprising:
- a) establishing a list of electronic contact addresses for a plurality of consumers;
b) creating a plurality of enabled promotional offers, each enabled promotional offer including validation information that identifies it with a particular consumer;
c) distributing the enabled promotional offers via the electronic contact addresses for the plurality of consumers, wherein the enabled promotional offers can be electronically accepted by at least some of the particular consumers with whom they are identified without redeeming the accepted offers;
d) upon the electronic acceptance of at least one of the enabled promotional offers by at least one consumer, placing the unredeemed accepted promotional offer in a coupon database associated with the at least one consumer;
e) establishing or maintaining an association of the at least one consumer'"'"'s coupon database with the at least one consumer'"'"'s payment system; and
f) electronically receiving a redemption of the accepted promotional offer by means of the consumer'"'"'s presentment of the associated payment system for purchasing the subject matter of the accepted promotional offer.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed are methods and systems for redeeming virtual coupons by associating the coupons with consumers'"'"' credit cards for redemption. In disclosed methods, coupon databases are associated with consumers and associated with the consumers'"'"' credit cards. Coupon offers are stored in the coupon databases and are redeemed by consumers by the use of the credit cards that are associated with the consumers'"'"' coupon databases.
-
Citations
33 Claims
-
1. A method of distributing promotional offers to consumers, the method comprising:
-
a) establishing a list of electronic contact addresses for a plurality of consumers; b) creating a plurality of enabled promotional offers, each enabled promotional offer including validation information that identifies it with a particular consumer; c) distributing the enabled promotional offers via the electronic contact addresses for the plurality of consumers, wherein the enabled promotional offers can be electronically accepted by at least some of the particular consumers with whom they are identified without redeeming the accepted offers; d) upon the electronic acceptance of at least one of the enabled promotional offers by at least one consumer, placing the unredeemed accepted promotional offer in a coupon database associated with the at least one consumer; e) establishing or maintaining an association of the at least one consumer'"'"'s coupon database with the at least one consumer'"'"'s payment system; and f) electronically receiving a redemption of the accepted promotional offer by means of the consumer'"'"'s presentment of the associated payment system for purchasing the subject matter of the accepted promotional offer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
-
28. A method of distributing promotional offers to consumers, the method comprising:
-
a) establishing a list of electronic contact addresses for a plurality of consumers; b) creating a plurality of enabled promotional offers, each enabled promotional offer including validation information that identifies it with a particular consumer; c) establishing a coupon database for each of the plurality of consumers; d) registering a payment system for each of the plurality of consumers; e) distributing the enabled promotional offers to the electronic contact addresses for the consumers with whom the promotional offers are identified, wherein the enabled promotional offer can be electronically accepted by the identified consumer without redeeming the offers; f) upon the electronic acceptance of the enabled promotional offer by the identified consumer, placing the unredeemed accepted promotional offer in the coupon database associated with that consumer; and g) electronically receiving a redemption of the accepted promotional offer by means of the consumer'"'"'s presentment of the associated payment system for purchasing the subject matter of the accepted promotional offer. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
-
Specification