Method and apparatus for collecting data for an item

• US 8,554,600 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2011
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Convergent Media Solutions LLC (Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Teleshuttle Tech2 LLC
• Inventors: Reisman, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Application Number:
  US13/213,956
• Publication Number:
  US 20120046994A1
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.29
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

A sale of a product or service may trigger a third party, such as a payment provider, to arrange for the collection of individual post-sale market data from the customer. Alternatively, such post-sale market data may be directly provided by smart devices and the like. Dependent upon the type of product or service involved, a schedule for continuously submitting post-sale market data for the product or service may be provided and the consumer may be encouraged to submit post-sale market data in accordance therewith through a variety of incentives. The received, individual, post-sale market data may be aggregated by one or more sources to determine aggregate post-sale market data for the product or service. The submitted individual data and/or the determined aggregate post-sale market data may then be provided to consumers in order to assist them in making purchasing decisions.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer-implemented service, comprising:

detecting a trigger event;

associating a unique identifier with an item; and

receiving from over the Internet data corresponding to the item and a particular consumer, subsequent to and decoupled from a transaction which provides rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer; and

determining, based on the data, whether the particular consumer has an entitlement relating to the item;

wherein the computer-implemented service comprises an asset management service, the item comprises at least one of content and software,

a party other than a provider of the asset management service sold, leased, licensed or otherwise provided the rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer the rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer, and

the receiving and determining are each performed by a computer.

2. A method performed by a computer-implemented service, comprising:

receiving from over the Internet data corresponding to an item associated with a particular consumer, subsequent to and decoupled from a transaction which provides rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer; and

determining, based on the data, whether the particular consumer has an entitlement relating to the item;

wherein the computer-implemented service comprises an asset management service, the item comprises at least one of content and software,

a party other than a provider of the asset management service sold, leased, licensed or otherwise provided the rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer,

the receiving and determining are each performed by a computer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the item is a media file, and wherein the receiving is unsolicited.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the receiving the data includes receiving at least one of a rating corresponding to the media file and usage data representing playing of the media file.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

obtaining a category associated with the item, including at least one of (a) receiving an indication of the category via the Internet from a digital device of the particular consumer, and (b) determining the category in dependence on the data; and

storing information representing the category in a computer-readable storage accessible to the computer-implemented service in association with the particular consumer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the method further comprises receiving from over Internet for each one of a plurality of items associated with a particular consumer; and

obtaining the category includes obtaining a category for each one of the plurality of items.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises using a computer-implemented service to generate a recommendation for an additional item in dependence upon at least one of (a) the category associated with each one of the plurality of items, and (b) the information stored in the computer-readable storage, and transmitting the recommendation to the particular consumer.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving from over the Internet data for each one of a plurality of items associated with the particular consumer, and storing information related to the plurality of items; and

receiving from over the Internet data for sets of items associated with respective, other consumers, and storing information related to the sets of items associated with the respective, other consumers.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises generating aggregated data in dependence on the information related to the plurality of items and the information related to the respective sets of items, generating a recommendation for a purchase of a particular item in dependence on the aggregated data, and transmitting the recommendation to a digital device associated with a consumer.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the entitlement is used to determine whether the particular consumer is entitled to a particular service related to the item.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the item comprises content and the particular service comprises providing access to the content.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the particular service comprises providing access to the content in the form of at least one of subscription-dependent use of the content or payment per use of the content.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the item comprises software and the particular service comprises providing access to the software.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the particular service comprises identification of relevant software updates and provisioning access to identified relevant software updates.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining whether the particular consumer is entitled to a particular service related to the item comprises tracking disposition of the item.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein the item comprises content that is subject to digital rights management and wherein the entitlement is used to verify whether the particular consumer possesses entitlement to use the content that is subject to the digital rights management.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving includes receiving the data from an intelligent appliance associated with the particular consumer, the intelligent appliance including at least one of a smartphone, a music player, a video player, an e-book, a PC, a tablet computer, a PDA, a consumer content server, a consumer electrical appliance, a home environmental system, or an automotive system.

18. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in response to the determining that the particular consumer has the entitlement relating to the item, permitting the particular consumer to use the item, conditioned on network access.

19. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in response to the determining that the particular consumer has the entitlement relating to the item, permitting the particular consumer to use the item during a disconnected state.

20. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in response to the determining, enabling the particular consumer to download the item.

21. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in response to the determining, streaming the item to the particular consumer.

22. The method of claim 2, where the receiving includes receiving a user ID associated with the particular consumer and storing the data in association with the user ID.

23. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining is dependent on whether the item is an existing possession of the particular consumer.

24. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the particular consumer is associated with plural user devices; and

the determining is dependent upon tracking disposition of the item on each of the plural user devices.

25. The method of claim 2, wherein the item comprises one of a set of items from a plurality of independent suppliers, the management of each of which is supported by the asset management service.

26. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the data from a device associated with the particular consumer.

27. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the data from a remote service provider used in conjunction with the item.

28. An asset management system, comprising:

means for receiving from over the Internet data corresponding to an item associated with a particular consumer, subsequent to and decoupled from a transaction which provides rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer; and

means for determining, based on the data, whether the particular consumer has an entitlement relating to the item;

wherein the item comprises at least one of content and software, and a party other than a provider of the asset management system sold, leased, licensed or otherwise provided the rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer.

29. The asset management of claim 28, wherein the means for receiving includes means for receiving from over the Internet data corresponding to respective sets of items, each set associated with a respective consumer, including the particular consumer, and wherein the means for determining includes means for determining, based on the data corresponding to the respective sets of items, whether each respective consumer has entitlement for each item in the associated set.

30. An asset management system, comprising:

a server operable to receive from over the Internet data corresponding to an item associated with a particular consumer, subsequent to and decoupled from a transaction which provides rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer; and

a server operable to determine, based on the data, whether the particular consumer has an entitlement relating to the item;

wherein the item comprises at least one of content and software, and a party other than a provider of the asset management system sold, leased, licensed or otherwise provided the rights relating to the item'"'"'s use to the particular consumer.

31. The asset management system of claim 30, wherein the item is a media file, and wherein the server operable to receive the data is operable to receive the data on an unsolicited basis.

32. The asset management system of claim 31, wherein:

the asset management system further comprises a computer-readable storage;

the server operable to receive the data is also operable to receive at least one of a rating corresponding to the media file and usage data representing playing of the media file; and

the asset management system is further operable to store the at least one of the rating and the usage data in the computer-readable storage.

33. The asset management system of claim 32, wherein:

the server operable to receive the data is also operable to obtain a category associated with the item; and

the asset management system is further operable to store information representing the category in the computer-readable storage in association with the particular consumer.

34. The asset management system of claim 33, wherein:

the server operable to receive the data is further operable to receive from over the Internet data for each one of a plurality of items associated with the particular consumer, and to obtain a category for each one of the plurality of items; and

the asset management system further comprises a server operable to generate a recommendation for an additional item in dependence upon at least one of (a) the category associated with each one of the plurality of items, and (b) the information stored in the computer-readable storage, and to transmit the recommendation to the particular consumer.

35. The asset management system of claim 30, wherein:

the server operable to receive the data is further operable to receive from over the Internet data for each one of a plurality of items associated with the particular consumer, and to obtain a category for each one of the plurality of items;

the asset management system further comprises a computer-readable storage, and further, is operable to store information related to the plurality of items in the computer-readable storage; and

the asset management system further comprises at least one server operable to receive from over the Internet data for each item in sets of items associated with respective, other consumers, and to store information related to the sets of items associated with respective, other consumers in the computer-readable storage.

36. The asset management system of claim 35, further comprising a server operable to generate aggregated data in dependence on the information related to the plurality of items and the information related to the respective sets of items, a server operable to generate a recommendation for a purchase of a particular item in dependence on the aggregated data, and a server operable to transmit the recommendation for purchase to a digital device associated with a consumer.

37. The asset management system of claim 30, wherein the server operable to determine whether the particular consumer has the entitlement is further operable to determine whether the particular consumer is entitled to a particular service related to the item.

38. The asset management system of claim 37, wherein item comprises content, and the particular service is operable to provide access to the content.

39. The asset management system of claim 38, wherein the particular service is operable to provide access to the content in the form of at least one of subscription-dependent use of the content or payment per use of the content.

40. The asset management system of claim 37, wherein the item comprises software, and the particular service is operable to provide access to the software.

41. The asset management system of claim 37, wherein the particular service is operable to identify relevant software updates and to provide access to identified relevant software updates.

42. The asset management system of claim 37, where the server operable to determine whether the particular consumer is entitled to the particular service is further operable to track disposition of the item.

43. The asset management system of claim 30, wherein the item comprises content that is subject to digital rights management and wherein the server operable to determine is further operable to verify whether the particular consumer possesses entitlement to use the content that is subject to the digital rights management.

44. The asset management system of claim 30, further comprising a server operable to stream the item to the particular consumer in response to a determination that the particular consumer possesses entitlement to the particular item.

45. The asset management system of claim 30, wherein:

the particular consumer is associated with plural user devices; and

the server operable to determine is operable to determine whether the user possesses an entitlement dependent upon tracking disposition of the item on each of the plural user devices.