Consumer offer redemption methods and systems

• US 8,489,456 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2012
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Burgess Media LLC
• Original Assignee: Linkable Networks Incorporated (Parminder Limited)
• Inventors: Burgess, Thomas, Correra, Francis, Spear, Douglas M. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alvarez, Raquel
• Application Number:
  US13/483,860
• Publication Number:
  US 20120239475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 412 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.1, 705/14.47, 705/14.49, 705/14.56, 705/14.51
• US Class Current: 705/14.47
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A computer-implemented offer redemption method includes the steps of: (a) storing information on a consumer and a payment account associated with the consumer in a computer storage system; (b) receiving activation of an offer from the consumer covering a product or service or a purchase from a retailer; (c) linking the offer to the consumer'"'"'s payment account; (d) monitoring transactions in the consumer'"'"'s payment account; and (e) when the consumer has purchased the product or service or made a purchase from the retailer covered by the linked offer using the consumer payment account, making payment for offer settlement to a payment processor managing the consumer'"'"'s payment account to be credited to the consumer'"'"'s payment account.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented offer redemption method comprising:

(a) storing information on a consumer and on a consumer'"'"'s payment account associated with the consumer in a computer storage system;

(b) receiving activation of an offer from the consumer covering a product or service available from a retailer prior to the consumer purchasing the product or service and storing it in the computer storage system;

(c) linking the activated offer to the consumer'"'"'s payment account after receiving activation of the offer from the consumer;

(d) monitoring transactions made over a period of time in the consumer'"'"'s payment account using the computer storage system;

(e) using the computer storage system to determine whether a transaction in the consumer'"'"'s payment account is potentially covered by the linked offer by filtering out ineligible transactions in the consumer'"'"'s payment account that do not meet offer criteria;

(f) when the transaction is determined to be potentially covered by the offer, transmitting a verification request to an offer issuer or third party data provider using the computer storage system to verify that the transaction is covered by the offer by matching a unique identifier of a product or service purchased in the transaction with a unique identifier specified in the offer;

(g) when the transaction is verified by the offer issuer to be covered by the offer, making payment for offer settlement to a payment processor to be automatically credited to the consumer'"'"'s payment account_using the computer storage system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique identifier comprises a stock-keeping unit (SKU) code or a radio-frequency identification (RFID) code.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein verifying that the transaction is covered by the offer comprises determining whether the product or service was purchased by a specified date or from a specified retailer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (e) comprises determining whether the transaction has a price that equals or exceeds the price indicated by the unique identifier or determining whether the transaction was made by a date specified in the offer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the payment processor comprises a bank, a credit or debit card issuer, an online money transfer service, a mobile payment service, an alternative currency issuer, a points or rewards processing system, or a third-party settlement provider.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the payment account comprises a credit card account, a debit card account, an online money transfer account, a mobile payment account, a virtual money account, or a rewards or points account.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer comprises a rebate.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting offers to consumers through a mobile advertisement, an online display advertisement, an out of home, digital out of home, an email, direct mail, a radio advertisement, a television advertisement, a print advertisement, or an advertisement presented in a kiosk.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the consumer can activate the offer by clicking-on the advertisement, texting a response to an advertisement, scanning a quick response (QR) code, a tag code, or a barcode in an advertisement, or using a **code.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the steps of the method are performed by a server computer system communicating over a communications network with client devices operated by consumers, payment processors, third party data providers, or offer issuers.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein making payment for offer settlement to a payment processor comprises transferring funds to the payment processor or authorizing the payment processor to withdraw funds from a specified account.

12. A computerized offer redemption system, comprising:

at least one processor;

memory associated with the at least one processor; and

a program supported in the memory for processing offers provided to consumers, the program having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

(a) store information on a consumer and on a consumer'"'"'s payment account associated with the consumer in a memory;

(b) receive activation of an offer from the consumer covering a product or service available from a retailer prior to the consumer purchasing the product or service;

(c) link the activated offer to the consumer'"'"'s payment account, after receiving activation of the offer from the consumer;

(d) monitor transactions made over a period of time in the consumer'"'"'s payment account; and

(e) determine whether a transaction in the consumer'"'"'s payment account is potentially covered by the linked offer by filtering out ineligible transactions in the consumer'"'"'s payment account that do not meet offer criteria;

(f) when the transaction is determined to be potentially covered by the linked offer, transmit a verification request to an offer issuer or third party data provider to verify that the transaction is covered by the offer by matching a unique identifier of a product or service purchased in the transaction with a unique identifier specified in the offer;

(g) when the transaction is verified by the offer issuer to be covered by the offer, automatically making a payment for offer settlement to a payment processor to be credited to the consumer'"'"'s payment account.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the unique identifier comprises a stock-keeping unit (SKU) code or a radio-frequency identification (RFID) code.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein to verify that the transaction is covered by the offer comprises to determine whether the product or service was purchased by a specified date or from a specified retailer.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein (e) comprises determine whether the transaction has a price that equals or exceeds the price indicated by the unique identifier or determine whether the transaction was made by a date specified in the offer.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the payment processor comprises a bank, a credit or debit card issuer, an online money transfer service, a mobile payment service, an alternative currency issuer, a points or rewards processing system, or a third-party settlement provider.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the payment account comprises a credit card account, a debit card account, an online money transfer account, a mobile payment account, a virtual money account, or a rewards or points account.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the offer comprises a rebate.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the program further comprises instructions for presenting offers to consumers through a mobile advertisement, an online display advertisement, an out of home, digital out of home, an email, direct mail, a radio advertisement, a television advertisement, a print advertisement, or an advertisement presented in a kiosk.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the consumer can activate the offer by clicking-on the advertisement, texting a response to an advertisement, scanning a quick response (QR) code, a tag code, or a barcode in an advertisement, or using a **code.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the computerized offer redemption system communicates over a communications network with client devices operated by consumers, payment processors, third party data providers, or offer issuers.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein to make payment for offer settlement to a payment processor comprises to transfer funds to the payment processor or authorize the payment processor to withdraw funds from a specified account.

23. A computer-implemented offer redemption method comprising:

(a) storing information on a consumer and on a consumer'"'"'s payment account associated with the consumer in a computer storage system;

(b) receiving activation of an offer from the consumer prior to purchase and storing it in the computer storage system;

(c) linking the activated offer to the consumer'"'"'s payment account after receiving activation of the offer from the consumer;

(d) monitoring transactions made over a period of time in the consumer'"'"'s payment account using the computer storage system;

(e) using the computer storage system to filter out ineligible transactions in the consumer'"'"'s payment account that do not meet the offer criteria;

(f) transmitting a verification request using the computer storage system for any transactions remaining in the consumer'"'"'s payment account that are potentially covered by the linked offer;

(g) matching a unique identifier of a product or service purchased in the transaction with a unique identifier specified in the offer to verify that the remaining transaction in the consumer'"'"'s payment account meets the linked offer criteria;

(h) making payment for offer settlement to a payment processor to be credited automatically to the consumer'"'"'s payment account using the computer storage system.