Delivery of items for consumption by a user device

• US 9,178,744 B1
• Filed: 12/20/2012
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lattyak, John, Ryan, Thomas A., Zehr, Gregg Elliott, Kiraly, Kenneth P., Rykov, Michael V., Bajaj, Girish Bansilal, Slezak, James C., Zagorie, Aviram, Moore, Richard, Cheung, Kevin R., Fruchterman, Thomas M. J., Goodwin, Robert L., Tomay, Beryl, Saxton, Jon, Narasimhan, Subram (Narsi)
• Primary Examiner(s): JEAN, FRANTZ B
• Application Number:
  US13/722,961
• Time in Patent Office: 1,048 Days
• Field of Search: 370/312, 370/432, 715/751, 715/752, 726/3, 726/4, 713/176, 709/202, 709/203, 709/206, 709/217, 709/219
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/109 by using specially-adapted hardware at the client
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

An item-providing system supplies items to a user device for consumption at the user device via communication infrastructure. The device may correspond to a book reader device or other type of device. The item-providing system uses a content delivery module to deliver the items to the user device.

Claims

1. An item-providing system, comprising:

an item delivery system configured to provide items to a user device, wherein the item delivery system comprises;

a content delivery module configured to;

receive a request from the user device to obtain an item, wherein the item is identified in an instruction sent by the item-providing system to the user device;

access the item, in response to the request, from a content store;

verify that the user device is authorized to receive the item by determining whether providing the item will exceed a limit which restricts downloading of the item to more than a predetermined number of devices; and

provide the item to the user device if the user device is authorized to receive the item.

2. The item-providing system of claim 1, wherein the item comprises a media item.

3. The item-providing system of claim 1, wherein the item comprises an instruction-bearing item including instructions to update software stored on the user device.

4. The item-providing system of claim 1,

wherein the item includes a placeholder field and the content delivery module is configured to personalize the item for a particular user by including a name of the particular user in the placeholder field of the item.

5. The item-providing system of claim 1,

wherein the content delivery module is configured to associate an item identification number with the item prior to providing the item to the user device.

6. An item-providing system, comprising:

an item delivery system configured to provide items to a user device, wherein the item delivery system comprises;

a content delivery module configured to;

receive a request from the user device to obtain an item;

access the item, in response to the request, from a content store;

verify that the user device is authorized to receive the item by accessing a personal media library, the personal media library providing a list of items that the user device previously acquired and is authorized to receive; and

provide the item to the user device if the user device is authorized to receive the item.

7. The item-providing system of claim 6, wherein the item comprises a media item.

8. The item-providing system of claim 6, wherein the item comprises an instruction-bearing item including instructions to update software stored on the user device.

9. The item-providing system of claim 6, wherein the item includes a placeholder field and the content delivery module is configured to personalize the item for a particular user by including a name of the particular user in the placeholder field of the item.

10. The item-providing system of claim 6, wherein the content delivery module is configured to associate an item identification number with the item prior to providing the item to the user device.

11. A method for providing an item to a user device, comprising:

receiving a request from the user device to obtain an item, wherein the item is identified in an instruction sent by the item-providing system to the user device;

accessing the item, in response to the request, from a content store;

verifying that the user device is authorized to receive the item by determining whether providing the item will exceed a limit which restricts downloading of the item to more than a predetermined number of devices; and

providing the item to the user device if the user device is authorized to receive the item.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the item includes a placeholder field, and further comprising personalizing the item for a particular user by including a name of the particular user in the placeholder field of the item.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the item comprises a media item.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the item comprises an instruction-bearing item including instructions to update software stored on the user device.

15. A method for providing an item to a user device, comprising:

receiving a request from the user device to obtain an item;

accessing the item, in response to the request, from a content store;

verifying that the user device is authorized to receive the item by accessing a personal media library, the personal media library providing a list of items that the user device previously acquired and is authorized to receive; and

providing the item to the user device if the user device is authorized to receive the item.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising associating an item identification number with the item prior to delivery to the user device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the item comprises a media item.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the item comprises an instruction-bearing item including instructions to update software stored on the user device.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the item includes a placeholder field, and further comprising personalizing the item for a particular user by including a name of the particular user in the placeholder field of the item.