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Auctioning of announcements

  • US 9,836,785 B2
  • Filed: 07/05/2011
  • Issued: 12/05/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method, comprising:

  • providing, by a computing apparatus, a communication interface causing, over a network, display of at least one webpage of a website on computing devices of a plurality of auction participants, the communication interface configured to communicate with the computing devices regarding an opportunity to communicate with a consumer after a respective announcement condition selected by each of the auction participants is satisfied, the plurality of auction participants including a first merchant, and the respective announcement condition comprising criteria including a presence of the consumer in a zone;

    receiving, by the communication interface, a profile from a first computing device of the first merchant;

    notifying, by the computing apparatus, over the network, the computing devices of the plurality of auction participants of the opportunity;

    receiving a plurality of bids, from the computing devices, over the network, one from each of the plurality of auction participants, including a bid from the first computing device;

    selecting a winning bid of the first merchant from the plurality of bids;

    storing, in a database, transaction information regarding transactions of the consumer;

    receiving an electronic transmission including data obtained from a GPS receiver of a portable consumer device of the consumer;

    determining, using the data from the portable consumer device, a location of the consumer;

    receiving, by a transaction handler, an authorization request addressed from a point of interaction terminal in a store location of the merchant;

    making a comparison of data in the authorization request with the transaction information stored in the database;

    determining, based at least in part on the comparison, in real-time with the receiving of the authorization request, whether the respective announcement condition of the first merchant is satisfied, including determining whether the location is in the zone based at least in part on co-location of the user and the point of interaction terminal to generate the authorization request, wherein the determining whether the respective announcement condition of the first merchant is satisfied further comprises accessing logic rules, stored in the database, the logic rules comprising criteria to match in order to determine that the respective announcement condition is satisfied, and the logic rules requiring that data stored in the database match both a first criterion and a second criterion, and wherein the determining whether the respective announcement condition of the first merchant is satisfied further comprises deriving data using received data, and comparing the derived data to one of the criteria of the respective announcement condition of the first merchant; and

    in response to determining that the respective announcement condition of the first merchant is satisfied, facilitating delivery, in accordance with the profile, of an electronic announcement from the first computing device to the portable consumer device, wherein the facilitating delivery includes electronically sending, over a network, a transmission including data about the consumer to the first computing device, the transmission to cause the first computing device to send an electronic communication to the portable consumer device, the electronic communication to cause display of a link on the portable consumer device, and sending of an acceptance communication to the first computing device when the link is activated by the portable consumer device.

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