Combining orders for delivery

• US 9,269,103 B1
• Filed: 02/19/2015
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DoorDash, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Square Inc (Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.))
• Inventors: Varma, Ajit Kalidindi, Rhodes, Matthew, Kumar, Abhay Raj, Reiss, Jesse Lee, Din, Richard David, Bishopric, Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Haq, Naeem
• Application Number:
  US14/625,680
• Time in Patent Office: 369 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/26.2, 705/26.25, 705/26.3, 705/26.35, 705/26.4, 705 2641- 2644, 705/26.5, 705 2661- 2664, 705/26.7, 705/26.8, 705/26.81, 705/26.82, 705/26.9, 705/27.1, 705/27.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0835 Relationships between shipper or supplier and carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

In some examples, a first device associated with a first buyer may present information related to a plurality of merchants offering items for delivery. The first device may receive, as a first order, a selection of a first item offered by a selected merchant. The first device may determine that a second device is within a threshold distance of the first device, and may send, to the second device, a communication for creating a combined order, such as for dividing a delivery fee associated with the order. A second buyer may use the second device to select a second item to order from the selected merchant. At least one of the first device or the second device may send order information to a service computing device, which may send the combined order to the first merchant and schedule a courier to deliver the order to the buyers.

Claims

1. A system to establish two-way communication between mobile devices in proximity to each other system comprising:

a first mobile device including a display;

a first global positioning system (GPS) device;

one or more processors coupled to the display and the first GPS device; and

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions of an application executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions program the one or more processors to;

present a user interface on the display, the user interface presenting, for selection, information related to a plurality of merchants offering items for delivery;

determine, based at least in part on location information from the first GPS device, an indicated current location associated with the first mobile device;

receive, via the user interface, as a first order for delivery, a selection of a first item offered by a first merchant of the plurality of merchants;

send a close range radio signal to communicate with other mobile devices within range of the close range radio signal that have respective other instances of the application installed thereon, the close range radio signal including merchant identifying information;

send, to a service computing device, over a network, the current location determined from the first GPS device, the merchant identifying information, and a request that the service computing device determine other mobile devices within a threshold distance of the current location of the first mobile device that have respective other instances of the application installed thereon and send a communication including the merchant identifying information to the determined other mobile devices;

receive, a responsive close range radio communication, from a second mobile device that received at least one of the close range radio signal from the first mobile device or the communication from the service computing device, second order information for a second order for delivery, the second order information including a selection of a second item from the first merchant; and

send, to the service computing device, over the network, the first order information and the second order information, to order the first item and the second item for delivery from the first merchant as the combined order, wherein the first order information includes first buyer account information for a first buyer account associated with the first mobile device, and the second order information includes second buyer account information for a second buyer account associated with the second mobile device.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors of the first mobile device to determine that a third mobile device is within a threshold distance of the first mobile device by sending a communication including merchant identifying information through a local wireless access point, wherein both the first mobile device and the third mobile device are in radio communication with the local wireless access point.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the second mobile device receives the close range radio signal from the first mobile device and the communication from the service computing device; and

receipt of the merchant identifying information by the second mobile device causes, at least in part, the application on the second mobile device to present information for creating a combined order.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the instructions further program the one or more processors of the first mobile device to present, with the user interface, at least one of:

a virtual control that is selectable for receiving, via the user interface, a time indicative of a threshold time for receiving the second order information from the second mobile device;

or

a virtual control that is selectable for adding a comment related to the merchant, and to include the comment with at least one of the close range radio signal sent to the second mobile device, or the communication sent to the second mobile device by the service computing device.