Content distribution system and method
First Claim
1. A method for creating within a primary content of a digital medium a vacancy, the vacancy including a spatial and/or temporal region within the primary content, comprising:
- defining the vacancy with at least one data processing system comprising at least one memory for storing instructions and at least one processor for executing said instructions by associating attributes that describe the vacancy with the vacancy;
reserving the vacancy, with the at least one data processing system, as a designated region in the primary content of the digital medium to be filled by a secondary digital content whose attributes match those of the vacancy,wherein the attributes of the vacancy are used by the at least one data processing system to determine how and/or when the vacancy is to be filled by the secondary digital content.
3 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention provide an electronic marketplace that matches units of content from secondary content providers with suitable vacancies from primary content providers. Vacancies may constitute, or be included in, any digital transmission containers, such as a television or radio programming, web pages, and the like. Specifically, the electronic marketplace automatically matches content offered by secondary content providers with vacancies offered by primary content providers thus filling the vacancies in these containers through a real-time content trading, placement, and distribution system. To do so, attributes associated with the vacancies and with units of secondary content are used to trade and match suitable vacancies with suitable content. This invention enables both secondary content owners and vacancy owners (primary content providers) to obtain the full commercial benefit of their secondary content and containers.
66 Citations
47 Claims
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1. A method for creating within a primary content of a digital medium a vacancy, the vacancy including a spatial and/or temporal region within the primary content, comprising:
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defining the vacancy with at least one data processing system comprising at least one memory for storing instructions and at least one processor for executing said instructions by associating attributes that describe the vacancy with the vacancy; reserving the vacancy, with the at least one data processing system, as a designated region in the primary content of the digital medium to be filled by a secondary digital content whose attributes match those of the vacancy, wherein the attributes of the vacancy are used by the at least one data processing system to determine how and/or when the vacancy is to be filled by the secondary digital content. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for creating a snap-in for distributing, wherein the snap-in includes a unit of digital content comprising:
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defining a snap-in with at least one data processing system comprising at least one memory for storing instructions and at least one processor for executing said instructions by associating attributes that describe the snap-in with the snap-in; and associating, with the at least one data processing system, a unit of digital content with the snap-in; wherein the unit of digital content comprises textual content, binary content, video content or audio content, or a combination of two or more thereof; wherein the attributes are used by the at least one data processing system to distribute the snap-in; and wherein the unit of digital content is rendered by the at least one data processing system into an appropriate form for the digital medium and/or context to which the snap-in is distributed. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for notifying a server in real-time about an available vacancy before the content containing the vacancy is consumed, the method comprising:
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detecting a vacancy with at least one data processing system comprising at least one memory for storing instructions and at least one processor for executing said instructions prior to consumption of the primary content; and transmitting with the at least one data processing system vacancy attributes that describe the vacancy to a server prior to the consumption of the primary content. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for delivering snap-in content upon request, comprising:
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receiving with at least one data processing system comprising at least one memory for storing instructions and at least one processor for executing said instructions a request for a snap-in; selecting with the at least one data processing system a snap-in, wherein attributes of the selected snap-in match attributes of the request; acquiring with the at least one data processing system the snap-in content; preparing with the at least one data processing system the snap-in for delivery; and providing with the at least one data processing system the requesting client with information corresponding to the snap-in content. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A method for filling a vacancy, comprising:
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receiving with at least one data processing system comprising at least one memory for storing instructions and at least one processor for executing said instructions a snap-in, the snap-in comprising snap-in attributes that match vacancy attributes that describe the vacancy; and merging with the at least one data processing system information corresponding to content of the snap-in within a region reserved by the vacancy in a manner consistent with filling the vacancy. - View Dependent Claims (41)
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42. A method for filling a vacancy, comprising:
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receiving with at least one data processing system comprising at least one memory for storing instructions and at least one processor for executing said instructions a snap-in, the snap-in comprising snap-in attributes that match vacancy attributes that describe the vacancy; and merging with the at least one data processing system information corresponding to content of the snap-in within a region reserved by the vacancy in a manner consistent with filling the vacancy, wherein the merging of information corresponding to the snap-in content comprises running an adapter software either in a network proxy with the content distribution software, linked with the content distribution software, or connected with the content distribution software, such that the adapter software is able to pre-process the content before consumption, knows the position of the vacancy either through embedded data in the content, or through metadata associated with the content, and the adapter software inserts the snap-in content in an appropriate place as defined by the vacancy.
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43. A method of providing a broker for registering and discovering snap-ins and vacancies, comprising:
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permitting with at least one data processing system comprising at least one memory for storing instructions and at least one processor for executing said instructions each one of a plurality of vacancy providers to submit information associated with themselves and their vacancies to a database, wherein information associated with vacancies includes, for each vacancy, vacancy attributes that describe the vacancy; permitting with the at least one data processing system each one of a plurality of snap-in providers to submit information associated with themselves and their snap-ins to a database, wherein information associated with snap-ins includes, for each snap-in, snap-in attributes that describe the snap-in; permitting with the at least one data processing system parties seeking content assets to view available snap-ins or vacancies; permitting with the at least one data processing system parties to manually select a specific snap-in or vacancy for use; permitting with the at least one data processing system parties to bind a specific snap-in to a specific vacancy, so that the snap-in content will appear in the specific vacancy if the snap-in attributes of the specific snap-in match the vacancy attributes of the specific vacancy and/or the information associated with the snap-in provider matches the information associated with the vacancy provider of the specific vacancy. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47)
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Specification