Products and processes for establishing multi-transaction relationships with customers of vending machines

• US 8,666,874 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2012
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Inventor Holdings LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Inventor Holdings LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Inventors: Gelman, Geoffrey M., Tedesco, Robert C., Breitenbach, Paul T., Lee, Sih Y., Signorelli, Paul D., Tulley, Stephen C., Tedesco, Daniel E., Jorasch, James A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Havan, Thu Thao
• Application Number:
  US13/561,863
• Publication Number:
  US 20120310409A1
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 40
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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: G07F 17/0014 for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere else in G07F17/00 meter-controlled dispensing of liquid, gas or electricity G07F15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/42 for ticket printing or like apparatus , e.g. apparatus for dispensing of printed paper tickets or payment cards
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 5/18 specially adapted for controlling several coin-freed apparatus from one place
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/001 Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/002 Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

Disclosed herein are various systems and methods for improving the establishment and management of vending machine subscriptions, including systems and methods for constructing, communicating, and registering subscriptions, as well as various methods for processing the redemption of vending machine subscription items. Several additional embodiments are disclosed, including various alternate methods of promoting longitudinal machine-customer relationships.

Claims

1. A vending machine configured to accept a subscription code from a customer, determine a positive number of units remaining in a subscription account identified by the subscription code, and provide access to, in response to an instance of the determining, at least one unit of a product in accordance with a term of the subscription account.

2. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein an instance of the acceptance of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, from a mobile electronic device of the customer, a wireless transmission indicative of the subscription code.

3. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein an instance of the acceptance of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, from a remote server device, a signal indicative of the subscription code.

4. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein an instance of the acceptance of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, via an input device of the vending machine and from the customer, input indicative of the subscription code.

5. A machine, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in communication with the processer, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor result in;

accepting a subscription code from a customer via a customer interface of the machine;

determining, based on the subscription code, a positive number of units remaining in a subscription account identified by the subscription code; and

providing, in response to an instance of the determining of the positive number of units remaining in the subscription account, at least one unit of product in accordance with a term of the subscription account.

6. The machine of claim 5, wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, from a mobile electronic device of the customer, a wireless transmission indicative of the subscription code.

7. The vending machine of claim 5, wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, from a remote server device, a signal indicative of the subscription code.

8. The vending machine of claim 5, wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, via an input device of the vending machine and from the customer, input indicative of the subscription code.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processing device result in:

accepting a subscription code from a customer via a customer interface of the machine;

determining, based on the subscription code, a positive number of units remaining in a subscription account identified by the subscription code; and

providing, in response to an instance of the determining of the positive number of units remaining in the subscription account, at least one unit of product in accordance with a term of the subscription account.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, from a mobile electronic device of the customer, a wireless transmission indicative of the subscription code.

11. The vending machine of claim 9, wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, from a remote server device, a signal indicative of the subscription code.

12. The vending machine of claim 9, wherein an instance of the accepting of the subscription code from the customer, comprises:

receiving, via an input device of the vending machine and from the customer, input indicative of the subscription code.