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

• US 8,209,241 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2010
• Issued: 06/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: StubHub, Inc.
• Original Assignee: StubHub, Inc.
• Inventors: Gibson, Ashley, Walsh, Liza, Correa, Gabriel Manuel, Lau, Steven Min, Salles, Benjamin Issasschar, Ngo, Sandy, Levi, Ronald
• Primary Examiner(s): Misiaszek, Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/983,014
• Publication Number:
  US 20110099092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 543 Days
• Field of Search: 705 261- 272
• US Class Current: 705/27.2
• 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 locations of available tickets 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;

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

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

displaying a ticket listing corresponding to tickets of the filtered ticket set located in a plurality of sections of an event venue;

displaying, by the web browser, an interactive graphics-based event venue map for the event venue illustrating locations of sections having tickets of the filtered ticket set;

accepting, at the interactive graphics-based event venue map, a particular section of interest in response to the user selecting the particular section from the interactive graphics-based event venue map;

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

displaying ticket information in a 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.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein user interactions with the interactive graphics-based event venue map to select one or more different sections of interest are reflected in the ticket information.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. The method of claim 5, 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.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the transaction information comprises prices at which tickets have been sold.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the bid information comprises prices at which buyers are willing to pay for tickets.

9. 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.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the interactive graphics-based event venue map is a FLASH-based event venue map; and

the web browsing language is HTML.

11. 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 locations of available tickets in an event venue, the method comprising:

presenting, by a web browser, 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;

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

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

displaying a ticket listing corresponding to tickets of the filtered ticket set located in a plurality of sections of an event venue;

displaying, by the web browser, an interactive graphics-based event venue map for the event venue illustrating locations of sections having tickets of the filtered ticket set;

accepting, at the interactive graphics-based event venue map, a particular section of interest in response to the user selecting the particular section from the interactive graphics-based event venue map;

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

displaying ticket information in a 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.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein user interactions with the interactive graphics-based event venue map to select one or more different sections of interest are reflected in the ticket information.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

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.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

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.

15. The system of claim 11, 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.

16. The system of claim 15, 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.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the transaction information comprises prices at which tickets have been sold.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the bid information comprises prices at which buyers are willing to pay for tickets.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

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.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the interactive graphics-based event venue map is a FLASH-based event venue map; and

the web browsing language is HTML.