System for digital yearbook with advertising

• US 8,595,294 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2012
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WolfPack Products LLC
• Original Assignee: WolfPack Products LLC
• Inventors: Olson, Anthony M., Winquist, Jennifer Kay, Richard, Joseph G., Liebenow, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazaro, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHAW, ROBERT A
• Application Number:
  US13/723,846
• Publication Number:
  US 20130103506A1
• Time in Patent Office: 340 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

A customized digital yearbook system includes advertisements that are inserted into each of the individual customized yearbooks. Preferably, a fee is paid by the advertisers for keeping the advertisements in the individual customized yearbooks for a period of time, which is renewable. If not renewed, in some embodiments, a new advertiser pays a fee and the advertisements are replaced with new advertisements from the new advertiser(s).

Claims

1. A system for providing a customized digital yearbook, the system comprising:

a server;

a user device having an associated display, wherein media content is presented on the display of the user device;

yearbook software running on the server receives yearbook data through a network and stores the yearbook data as unapproved content; and

the yearbook software extracts approved yearbook data from the unapproved content and stores the approved yearbook data as approved content, the approved yearbook data being a subset of the yearbook data that is approved for distribution in the customized digital yearbook;

the yearbook software merges the approved content with customized content pertaining to a particular user and external content, the external content including advertising, stores the advertising in digital form on the server, and delivers the customized content and the external content including the advertising into a customized digital yearbook for the particular user; and

the customized digital yearbook is accessed by the user device of the particular user;

wherein a fee is collected for each advertisement in the advertising, each of the fees being for presentation of a corresponding advertisement of each of the advertisements for a corresponding period of time and a new fee is collected for a new advertisement and after one of the corresponding periods of time, the yearbook software replaces the corresponding advertisement with the new advertisement in the customized digital yearbook accessed by the user device of the particular user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the yearbook software merges the approved yearbook data with external content when the customized digital yearbook is published.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the yearbook software merges the approved yearbook data with updated external content after the customized digital yearbook is published.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein access to the customized digital yearbook is provided to the user device through a network connection.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein access to the customized digital yearbook is provided to the user device through social networking.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the customized digital yearbook is provided to the user device on a physical storage medium and when the user device accesses the physical storage medium, the updated external content is accessed through a network connection.

7. A method for providing a customized digital yearbook comprising:

collecting fees for an advertisement, the advertisement stored in digital form in a database;

the fees being for inclusion of the advertisement in the customized digital yearbook for a corresponding period of time;

capturing yearbook content for a yearbook into the database;

editing and organizing the yearbook content within the database;

determining approved yearbook content, the approved yearbook content being a subset of the yearbook content that is approved for distribution in the customized digital yearbook;

creating a customized digital yearbook pertaining to a user, the customized digital yearbook comprising any or all of the approved yearbook content, and the advertisement; and

accessing the customized digital yearbook pertaining to the user, including the advertisement, by user devices associated with the user;

collecting new fees for a replacement advertisement, the replacement advertisement stored in digital form in the database; and

after the period of time corresponding to the fees collected for the advertisement, replacing the advertisement in the customized digital yearbook with the replacement advertisement from the database and

accessing the customized digital yearbook in which the replacement advertisement is included by the user devices whereby the replacement advertisement is presented.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of accessing is performed through a social network.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of accessing is performed through a network connection.

10. A method for providing a customized digital yearbook, the method performed by a computer having computer-executable instructions stored on non-transitory computer-readable media, the non-transitory computer-readable media interfaced to a computer, the computer executing the computer-executable instructions to implement the method comprising the steps of:

capturing content for a yearbook;

storing the content in a database;

editing and organizing the content within the database, including extracting approved content from the content, the approved content being a subset of the content that is approved for distribution in the customized digital yearbook;

storing an advertisement in the database for a prescribed period of time associated with the advertisement;

producing a customized digital yearbook for a particular user, the customized digital yearbook including some or all of the approved content, and the advertisement; and

delivering the customized digital yearbook to a device associated with the particular user;

after the prescribed period of time associated with the advertisement, replacing the advertisement with a new advertisement in the database; and

redelivering the customized digital yearbook to the device associated with the particular user, the customized digital yearbook including the new advertisement.

11. The method for providing a customized digital yearbook of claim 10, wherein the step of storing an advertisement in the database further includes a step of collecting a fee for inclusion of the advertisement in the customized digital yearbook for a period of time.

12. The method for providing a customized digital yearbook of claim 11, wherein the step of replacing the advertisement with the new advertisement further includes a step of collecting a second fee for inclusion of the new advertisement in the customized digital yearbook and the step of replacing the advertisement with the new advertisement is performed after the period of time elapses.

13. The method for providing a customized digital yearbook of claim 10, wherein the step of delivering the customized digital yearbook to the device associated with the particular user is performed over a network connection.

14. The method for providing a customized digital yearbook of claim 10, wherein the step of delivering the customized digital yearbook to the device associated with the particular user is performed through a social network.

15. The method for providing a customized digital yearbook of claim 10 wherein the step of delivering the customized digital yearbook to the device associated with the particular user includes copying the customized digital yearbook onto a digital medium and accessing the digital medium by the device associated with the particular user, and responsive to the step of replacing the advertisement with a new advertisement in the database, retrieving the new advertisement through a network and redelivering-the customized digital yearbook including the new advertisement to the device associated with the particular user.