Access control

• US 8,254,880 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2008
• Issued: 08/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Aaltonen, Janne, Antikainen, Ismo, Ahopelto, Timo
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro, Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lebassi, Amanuel
• Application Number:
  US12/019,433
• Publication Number:
  US 20080287096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,678 Days
• Field of Search: 455/406, 455/405
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

A monitoring device makes decision on whether a service requested by a consumer is a sponsored service to the specific consumer or not based on sponsoring rules, i.e. the delivery of the requested service to the consumer can be sponsored if a sponsoring value of the consumer is sufficient in relation to a charge of delivery of the requested service. The sponsoring rules contain various pieces of information for recognizing a sponsored service and for determining the sponsoring value and the cost of the delivery. The sponsoring of different services to different consumers can be controlled, created, deleted, maintained or modified by means of the sponsoring rules. The sponsor, such an advertiser is able to control the cost of sponsoring by affecting the sponsoring value.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request for a service from a mobile terminal of a communication recipient;

determining a resource requirement for provision of the service to the mobile terminal, wherein the resource requirement is indicative of a cost to deliver the service to the mobile terminal, determined by;

identifying a size of the service;

identifying a data plan of the recipient; and

calculating the cost to deliver service to the mobile terminal based on the identified size of the service and the identified data plan of the recipient;

if the service is a sponsored service, determining for a sponsored service a sponsoring value for sponsoring provision of the service to the mobile terminal based on sponsoring rules, wherein the sponsoring value represents an amount of money which a sponsor is willing to pay to subsidize the delivery of the service to the mobile terminal and the value varies depending on a profile of the recipient; and

sponsoring the provision of the service to the mobile terminal if the sponsoring value of the communication recipient meets a predetermined level in relation to the resource requirement, wherein the resource requirement is indicative of a cost to deliver the service to the mobile terminal and the sponsoring value is indicative of an amount which a sponsor is willing to subsidize the delivery of the service to the mobile terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling an unsponsored provision of the service to the communication recipient if the sponsoring value of the communication recipient for the service is not sufficient in relation to the resource requirement for provision of the service or if the service is not the sponsored service.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising informing the communication recipient of a sponsoring party, if the provision of the service is sponsored.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating a sponsoring database with data indicative of sponsoring the provision of the service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein sponsoring comprises at least one of free delivery, a discounted resource requirement for delivery, and an extra benefit associated with delivery.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a resource quota for the provision of the service to an account associated with a sponsoring party.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the service includes at least one of a web page, a browsing, a file download, a video download, a picture download, a music download, a document download, a streaming service, a video service, a voice service, a messaging service, a music service, digital content, and a digital service which can be accessed through a communications system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the sponsoring rules include at least one of predetermined sponsoring values for sponsoring the service to a specific recipient and an algorithm for determining sponsoring values for sponsoring the service based on at least one further piece of information contained in the sponsoring rules.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the sponsoring rules include at least one of a data plan indicating resource requirements for each sponsored service to a specific recipient, and data size of the sponsored service.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the sponsoring rules include an algorithm for determining the resource requirement for provision of the service based on at least one other piece of information in the sponsoring rules.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the sponsoring rules include at least one of a data plan indicating resource requirements for each sponsored service to a specific recipient, profiles of recipients, a first data plan indicating resource requirements for each sponsor, a second data plan indicating resource requirements for each service request receiver, status of recipients, a list of services which are sponsored to which recipients, recipient groups, recipient profiles, an allowed number of accesses to the sponsored service, a number of accesses already made to the sponsored service, a recipient location, historical data of recipient behavior, historical data on a behavior of a profile of recipients, information of direct advertisement sent to the recipient, information of at least one of content vouchers and coupons sent to the recipient, codes of at least one of vouchers and coupons sent to the recipient, at least one of a time of day, a time of week, a time of month, and a date of a sponsored access, an amount of time which can be used to access the sponsored service, amount of data which can be consumed when accessing the sponsored service, amount of money which can be used when accessing the sponsored service, list of sponsored services, actions to be made after a sponsoring event, actions related to the sponsoring event, and actions to be made before the sponsoring event.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating a lack of sponsoring to the communication recipient if the provision of the service is not sponsored.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating a quota of the sponsored resource to the communication recipient if the provision of the service is not fully sponsored.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the communication recipient to choose between continuing and aborting access to the service if the provision of the service is not sponsored.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending at least one advertisement message to the customer at least one of before, during, and after the provision of the service.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the advertisement message contains an indication of at least one sponsored service.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is a search query.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

sending to a customer a search query response containing search results; and

indicating in the search query response one of the search results which is linked to sponsored services.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an initial search query response containing search results from a search service provider;

determining which ones of the search results are linked to services which are sponsored to the customer based on the sponsoring rules;

providing sponsoring information which indicates the search results in the initial search query response which are linked to sponsored services; and

sending both the initial search query response and the sponsoring information to the customer.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an initial search query response containing search results from a search service provider;

determining which ones of the search results are linked to services which are sponsored to the communication recipient based on the sponsoring rules;

modifying the initial search query response to indicate the search results which are linked to sponsored services to yield a modified search query response; and

sending the modified search query response to the communication recipient.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising receiving at least one piece of information for the sponsoring rules from the search service provider.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving, from a search service provider, the search query response containing search results, the search query response being arranged to indicate the search results which are linked to sponsored services; and

sending the search query response to the communication recipient.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising sending to the search service provider, in association with a search query, a data plan indicating resource quotas for each sponsored service to a specific recipient to enable the search service provider to determine which search results are linked to sponsored services.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the service request from the mobile terminal of the communication recipient is responsive to activation of one of the search results in the search query response by the communication recipient.

25. The method of claim 18, further comprising billing the provision of the service to the search service provider.

26. A system, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a request for a service from a mobile terminal of a communication recipient;

a processor of a computing device configured to determine a resource requirement for provision of the service to the mobile terminal, wherein the resource requirement is indicative of a cost to deliver the service to the mobile terminal, determined by;

identifying a size of the service;

identifying a data plan of the recipient; and

calculating the cost to deliver service to the mobile terminal based on the identified size of the service and the identified data plan of the recipient;

if the service is a sponsored service, the processor is further configured to determine for a sponsored service a sponsoring value for sponsoring provision of the service to the mobile terminal based on sponsoring rules, wherein the sponsoring value represents an amount of money which a sponsor is willing to pay to subsidize the delivery of the service to the mobile terminal and the value varies depending on a profile of the recipient; and

a billing component configured to sponsor the provision of the service to the mobile terminal if the sponsoring value of the communication recipient meets a predetermined level in relation to the resource requirement, wherein the resource requirement is indicative of a cost to deliver the service to the mobile terminal and the sponsoring value is indicative of an amount which a sponsor is willing to subsidize the delivery of the service to the mobile terminal.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the system is at least partly embodied in a charging gateway of a communication system.

28. The system of claim 26, further comprising a database for storing the sponsoring rules.

29. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions thereon for causing a computing device to perform steps comprising:

receiving a request for a service from a mobile terminal of a communication recipient;

determining a resource requirement for provision of the service to the mobile terminal, wherein the resource requirement is indicative of a cost to deliver the service to the mobile terminal, determined by;

identifying a size of the service;

identifying a data plan of the recipient; and

calculating the cost to deliver service to the mobile terminal based on the identified size of the service and the identified data plan of the recipient;

if the service is a sponsored service, determining for a sponsored service a sponsoring value for sponsoring provision of the service to the mobile terminal based on sponsoring rules, wherein the sponsoring value represents an amount of money which a sponsor is willing to pay to subsidize the delivery of the service to the mobile terminal and the value varies depending on a profile of the recipient; and

sponsoring the provision of the service to the mobile terminal if the sponsoring value of the communication recipient meets a predetermined level in relation to the resource requirement, wherein the resource requirement is indicative of a cost to deliver the service to the mobile terminal and the sponsoring value is indicative of an amount which a sponsor is willing to subsidize the delivery of the service to the mobile terminal.

30. A system comprising:

a communication device configured to receive a search query from a communication recipient'"'"'s mobile terminal;

a search device configured to carry out a search and obtain at least one search result in response to receiving the search query; and

a processor configured to determine which of the at least one search results is linked to services which are sponsored to the communication recipient based on sponsoring rules,

wherein the processor determines if a link is sponsored by performing the following operations;

determining a resource requirement for provision of the service linked to the at least one search result to a communication recipient, wherein the resource requirement is indicative of a cost to deliver the service to the mobile terminal, determined by;

identifying a size of the service;

identifying a data plan of the recipient; and

calculating the cost to deliver service to the mobile terminal based on the identified size of the service and the identified data plan of the recipient;

determining, for a sponsored service, a sponsoring value for sponsoring provision of the service linked to the at least one search result to the communication recipient, if the service linked to the at least one search result is a sponsored service, wherein the sponsoring value represents an amount of money which a sponsor is willing to pay to subsidize the delivery of the service to the mobile terminal and the value varies depending on a profile of the recipient; and

determining that a service linked to the at least one search result is sponsored if the sponsoring value of the communication recipient is at least a predetermined level in relation to the resource requirement for provision of the service, wherein the resource requirement is indicative of a cost to deliver the service to the mobile terminal and the sponsoring value is indicative of an amount which a sponsor is willing to subsidize the delivery of the service to the mobile terminal.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the processor is further configured to provide a search query response which indicates which of the at least one search results are linked to sponsored services.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the communication device is further configured to send the search query response to the communication recipient.