Products and processes for establishing multi-transaction relationships with customers of vending machines

• US 8,234,207 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2010
• Issued: 07/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Biotest AG (OGEL GmbH), Inventor Holdings LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Walker Digital LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Inventors: Breitenbach, Paul T., Lee, Sih Y., Signorelli, Paul D., Tedesco, Daniel E., Jorasch, James A., Tulley, Stephen C., Gelman, Geoffrey M., Tedesco, Robert C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Havan, Thu Thao
• Application Number:
  US12/775,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20100211218A1
• Time in Patent Office: 816 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 38
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0014 for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere else in G07F17/00 meter-controlled dispensing of liquid, gas or electricity G07F15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/42 for ticket printing or like apparatus , e.g. apparatus for dispensing of printed paper tickets or payment cards
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 5/18 specially adapted for controlling several coin-freed apparatus from one place
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/001 Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/002 Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

Disclosed herein are various systems and methods for improving the establishment and management of vending machine subscriptions, including systems and methods for constructing, communicating, and registering subscriptions, as well as various methods for processing the redemption of vending machine subscription items. Several additional embodiments are disclosed, including various alternate methods of promoting longitudinal machine-customer relationships.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, by a vending machine and based on profit management considerations, a subscription to at least one product available for sale by the vending machine, the subscription including at least one term that defines a number of units of product that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription;

outputting, by the vending machine, an offer to purchase the subscription;

receiving, by the vending machine, an indication of an acceptance of the offer by a customer;

registering the subscription by;

prompting, by the vending machine, the customer to define a subscription code;

prompting, by the vending machine the customer to define an authorization code;

receiving, by the vending machine and after the registering, (i) an indication of the subscription code, (ii) an indication of the authorization code, and (iii) a request to redeem at least one unit of a product pursuant to the subscription;

determining, by the vending machine and based on at least one of the received subscription code and the received authorization code, that the requested at least one unit of the product is less than or equal to the number of units of product that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription; and

providing, by the vending machine and in response to the determining that the requested at least one unit of the product is less than or equal to the number of units of product that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription, the requested at least one unit of the product to the customer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscription further includes at least one term that defines a category of products that

may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription, further comprising:

determining, by the vending machine and based on at least one of the received subscription code and the received authorization code, that the requested at least one unit of the product is in the category of products that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscription code is defined by information received by a fingerprint reader.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorization code is defined by information received by a keypad.

5. A vending machine, comprising:

a processing device; and

a memory device in communication with the processing device, the memory device storing instructions that when execute by the processing device result in;

determining, based on profit management considerations, a subscription available for sale by the vending machine, the subscription including at least one term that defines at least one of (i) a number of units of product that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription and (ii) at least one product available for sale via the vending machine that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription;

outputting an offer to purchase the subscription;

receiving an indication of an acceptance of the offer;

registering the subscription;

outputting a code indicative of the subscription; and

receiving, subsequent to the outputting of the code, a request to redeem a unit of product pursuant to the subscription.

6. A vending machine, comprising:

a processing device; and

a memory device in communication with the processing device, the memory device storing instructions that when execute by the processing device result in;

receiving an input of a code;

determining a subscription that corresponds to the code, the subscription including at least one term that defines a number of units of product that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription;

determining, based on the code, a financial account identifier;

determining whether the number of units of product that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription is below a predetermined threshold;

extracting, in the case that the number of units of product that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription is below the predetermined threshold, payment utilizing the financial account identifier; and

increasing, based on the payment extracted, the number of units of product that may be redeemed pursuant to the subscription.