Method and system for mediating and provisioning services

• US 9,288,315 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Smartcom Labs OY
• Original Assignee: Bookit Oy Ajanvarauspalvelu
• Inventors: Salonen, Jukka
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates, Kevin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huang, Chen-Liang
• Application Number:
  US13/616,525
• Publication Number:
  US 20130024493A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,278 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/202
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks

Abstract

Equipments and methods for a mediator server controlling communication between clients and service provider(s). Clients are associated with a client identifier address. The mediator uses multiple addresses for receiving communications from the clients regarding the provider(s). The mediator sends to the clients a set of inquiry messages pertaining to the service provider, in a first communication format and associated with a particular reply address. The mediator receives reply message(s) from the clients at the particular reply address, the reply message including the client identifier address and a reply generated at the client terminal device. The mediator sends the client terminal device(s) service continuation information by which the client(s) can continue service provisioning in a second communication format which is different from the first communication format.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

utilizing a mediator server controlling communication between a plurality of clients and at least one service provider, wherein each client is associated with a set of client identifier addresses and uses a set of client terminal devices to communicate with the mediator server,

wherein the mediator server is configured to use a plurality of mediator server addresses for receiving communications from the set of client terminal devices regarding the at least one service provider;

the method comprising performing, at the mediator server, the following acts for each of several pairs of client and service provider;

sending to a first client terminal device a set of two or more service provisioning messages pertaining to the service provider, wherein at least a first one of the service provisioning messages is in a first communication format, wherein at least one of the one or more service provisioning messages is associated with a particular reply address, which is selected from the plurality of mediator server addresses;

receiving, from a second client terminal device, at least one reply message to the service provisioning messages at the particular reply address, the at least one reply message including the client identifier address; and

sending to a third client terminal device service continuation information by which a fourth client terminal device is able to continue service provisioning in a second communication format which is different from the first communication format;

wherein the first through fourth client terminal devices are the same or different client terminal devices in the set of client terminal devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first communication format or the second communication format is based on technology in which the reply message to the service provisioning message does not automatically include an explicit reference to the service provisioning message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first communication format or the second communication format is a message compliant with Short Message System [“

SMS”

], and the other communication format, which is not compliant with SMS, comprises at least one of a network address and a reference to a network address.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one of the network address and the reference to the network address is provided in a link formatted so as to be activated upon a user navigation act to the link.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the communication format that is not compliant with SMS is a voice call and the network address comprises at least one telephone number of a recipient of the voice call.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the communication format that is not compliant with SMS is an e-mail and the network address comprises at least one e-mail address.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the communication format that is not compliant with SMS comprises Hypertext Mark-up Language [“

HTML”

] messages and the network address comprises a Uniform Resource Locator [“

URL”

].

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the communication format that is not compliant with SMS comprises Hypertext Mark-up Language [“

HTML”

] messages and the network address comprises an Internet Protocol [“

IP”

] address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular reply address associated with the each of the one or more service provisioning messages is derivable only from the service provisioning message that the particular reply address is associated with.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining which reply message was received from each of the plurality of the clients by using at least two information items selected from:

the client identifier address, the particular reply address at which the received reply message was received and the reply generated at the client terminal device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising re-using a particular reply address for a same client terminal device only if that client terminal device has sent a reply message to the service provisioning message associated with the particular reply address and/or if a lifetime of the service provisioning message has expired.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the service provisioning messages contains an ordered list of choices and the act of receiving the reply message from the client terminal device comprises processing a selection of the choices made at the client terminal device.

13. A method comprising:

utilizing a service providing computer configured to communicate with a plurality of clients via a mediator server, wherein each client is associated with a set of client identifier addresses and uses a set of client terminal devices to communicate with the mediator server, and the mediator server is configured to use a plurality of mediator server addresses for receiving communications from the set of client terminal devices regarding the at least one service provider;

performing the following acts, at the mediator server, for each of several pairs of client and service provider;

causing the mediator server to send to a first client terminal device a set of two or more service provisioning messages pertaining to the service provider, wherein at least a first one of the service provisioning messages is in a first communication format, wherein each of the one or more service provisioning messages is associated with a particular reply address, which is selected from the plurality of mediator server addresses;

causing the mediator server to receive, from a second client terminal device, at least one reply message to the service provisioning messages at the particular reply address, the at least reply message including the client identifier address;

causing the mediator server to send to a third client terminal device service continuation information by which a fourth client terminal device is able to continue service provisioning in a second communication format which is different from the first communication format;

wherein the first through fourth client terminal devices are the same or different client terminal devices in the set of client terminal devices.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein one of the first communication format or the second communication format is a message compliant with Short Message System [“

SMS”

], and the other communication format, which is not compliant with SMS, comprises at least one of a network address and a reference to a network address.

15. A mediator server controlling communication between a plurality of clients and at least one service provider, wherein each client is associated with a set of client identifier addresses and uses a set of client terminal devices to communicate with the mediator server, wherein the mediator server uses a plurality of mediator server addresses for receiving communications from the set of client terminal devices regarding the at least one service provider;

wherein the mediator performs the following acts for each of several pairs of client and service provider;

sending to a first client terminal device a set of two or more service provisioning messages pertaining to the service provider, wherein at least a first one of the service provisioning messages is in a first communication format, wherein each of the one or more service provisioning messages is associated with a particular reply address, which is selected from the plurality of mediator server addresses;

receiving, from a second client terminal device, at least one reply message to the service provisioning messages at the particular reply address, the at least one reply message including the client identifier address; and

sending to a third client terminal device service continuation information by which a fourth client terminal device is able to continue service provisioning in a second communication format which is different from the first communication format,

wherein the first through fourth client terminal devices are the same or different client terminal devices in the set of client terminal devices.

16. The mediator server of claim 15, wherein one of the first communication format or the second communication format is a message compliant with Short Message System [“

SMS”

], and the other communication format, which is not compliant with SMS, comprises at least one of a network address and a reference to a network address.

17. A service providing computer configured to communicate with a plurality of clients via a mediator server, wherein each client is associated with a set of client identifier addresses and uses a set of client terminal devices to communicate with the mediator server, and the mediator server is configured to use a plurality of mediator server addresses for receiving communications from the set of client terminal devices regarding the at least one service provider, wherein the service providing computer is configured to perform the following acts for each of several pairs of client and service provider:

causing the mediator server to send to a first client terminal device a set of two or more service provisioning messages pertaining to the service provider, wherein at least a first one of the service provisioning messages is in a first communication format, wherein each of the one or more service provisioning messages is associated with a particular reply address, which is selected from the plurality of mediator server addresses;

causing the mediator server to receive, from a second client terminal device, at least one reply message to the service provisioning messages at the particular reply address, the at least one reply message including the client identifier address; and

causing the mediator server to send to a third client terminal device service continuation information by which a fourth client terminal device is able to continue service provisioning in a second communication format which is different from the first communication format,

wherein the first through fourth client terminal devices are the same or different client terminal devices in the set of client terminal devices.

18. The service providing computer of claim 17, wherein one of the first communication format or the second communication format is a message compliant with Short Message System [“

SMS”

], and the other communication format, which is not compliant with SMS, comprises at least one of a network address and a reference to a network address.

19. A non-transitory computer program carrier having encoded thereon computer program instructions executable in a mediator server for controlling communication between a plurality of clients and at least one service provider, wherein each client is associated with a set of client identifier address and uses a set of client terminal devices to communicate with the mediator server, wherein execution of the computer program instructions causes the mediator server to perform the following acts for each of several pairs of client and service provider:

sending to a first client terminal device a set of two or more service provisioning messages pertaining to the service provider, wherein at least a first one of the service provisioning messages is in a first communication format, wherein each of the one or more service provisioning messages is associated with a particular reply address, which is selected from the plurality of mediator server addresses;

receiving, from a second client terminal device, at least one reply message to the service provisioning messages at the particular reply address, the at least one reply message including the client identifier address; and

sending to a third client terminal device service continuation information by which a fourth client terminal device is able to continue service provisioning in a second communication format which is different from the first communication format,

wherein the first through fourth client terminal devices are the same or different client terminal devices in the set of client terminal devices.

20. A tangible computer program carrier having encoded thereon computer program instructions executable in a service providing computer configured to communicate with a plurality of clients via a mediator server, wherein each client is associated with a set of client identifier address and uses a set of client terminal devices to communicate with the mediator server, and the mediator server is configured to use a plurality of mediator server addresses for receiving communications from the set of client terminal devices regarding the at least one service provider, wherein execution of the computer program instructions causes the service providing computer to perform the following acts for each of several pairs of client and service provider:

causing the mediator server to send to a first client terminal device a set of two or more service provisioning messages pertaining to the service provider, wherein at least a first one of the service provisioning messages is in a first communication format, wherein each of the one or more service provisioning messages is associated with a particular reply address, which is selected from the plurality of mediator server addresses;

causing the mediator server to receive, from a second client terminal device, at least one reply message to the service provisioning messages at the particular reply address, the at least one reply message including the client identifier address; and

causing the mediator server to send to a third client terminal device service continuation information by which a fourth client terminal device is able to continue service provisioning in a second communication format which is different from the first communication format,

wherein the first through fourth client terminal devices are the same or different client terminal devices in the set of client terminal devices.