Advertising system supporting multi-advertiser system communications

• US 8,468,055 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2012
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Enpulz LLC
• Inventors: Winslade, Christopher C., Bennett, James D.
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDY, ANDREW J
• Application Number:
  US13/523,465
• Publication Number:
  US 20120253900A1
• Time in Patent Office: 369 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.11, 705/14.23, 705/14.4, 705/14.49, 705/14.66, 705/14.68, 705/14.69, 705/26.1, 705/26.8, 705/54, 705/80, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 715/202, 715/205
• US Class Current: 705/14.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• 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: G06Q 40/08 : Insurance

Abstract

A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer'"'"'s and merchant'"'"'s coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity.

Claims

1. An advertising infrastructure that supports a plurality of independent sellers via a competitive selling environment, the advertising infrastructure comprising:

a competitive advertising database storing advertising content;

a seller service, coupled to the competitive advertising database, that uses a program interface definition, the program interface definition supporting communication flow with a plurality of seller application programs, the plurality of seller application programs running on a corresponding plurality of seller computers of the plurality of independent sellers, each of the plurality of seller application programs interacting with the seller service via the program interface definition; and

the seller service, via the program interface definition and the plurality of seller application programs, supports selective viewing and modifying relating to the advertising content.

2. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the seller service provides status information relating to the advertising content to the plurality of independent sellers.

3. The advertising infrastructure of claim 2, wherein modifying is performed based on received status information.

4. The advertising infrastructure of claim 2, wherein the status information comprises information regarding sales.

5. The advertising infrastructure of claim 4, wherein the status information indicates that a particular sales target has been met.

6. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the seller service receives input via the program interface definition that causes the modifying.

7. The advertising infrastructure of claim 6, wherein the input establishes one or more pre-defined conditions that when met, automatically cause the modifying.

8. The advertising infrastructure of claim 6, wherein the modifying comprises deleting select advertising content.

9. The advertising infrastructure of claim 8, wherein the input establishes one or more pre-defined conditions that cause the deleting.

10. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the seller service further uses a hypertext transfer interface with one or more of the corresponding plurality of seller computers of the plurality of independent sellers.

11. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the advertising content comprises one or more of an advertisement for a product and an advertisement for a service.

12. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the advertising content comprises one or more of a coupon and a rebate.

13. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the advertising content comprises a sales price amount.

14. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein modifying relating to the advertising content comprises modifying at least one sales price amount.

15. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein modifying relating to the advertising content comprises modifying a coupon or rebate amount.

16. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein modifying relating to the advertising content comprises modifying available quantity.

17. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein modifying relating to the advertising content comprises modifying advertising duration.

18. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein modifying relating to the advertising content comprises modifying applicable products.

19. The advertising infrastructure of claim 1, wherein the competitive advertising database and seller service is hosted on at least one server computer.

20. The advertising infrastructure of claim 19, wherein the at least one server computer comprises a promotion server.

21. The advertising infrastructure of claim 19, wherein the at least one server computer comprises a Multi-Seller-Interface-System.