Delivery of items for consumption by a user device

• US 9,888,005 B1
• Filed: 10/15/2015
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• 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, Narasimhan, Subram (Narsi), Rykov, Michael V., Moore, Richard, Tomay, Beryl, Ryan, Thomas Aquinas, Bajaj, Girish Bansilal, Cheung, Kevin R., Saxton, Jon, Kiraly, Kenneth Paul, Zagorie, Aviram, Goodwin, Robert L., Zehr, Gregg Elliott, Slezak, James C., Fruchterman, Thomas M. J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jean, Frantz
• Application Number:
  US14/884,476
• Time in Patent Office: 845 Days
• Field of Search: 709203, 709206, 370312, 370432, 707741, 707621
• 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, wherein the item delivery system comprises;

one or more processors configured with executable instructions to;

receive a request from a user device to obtain an item, the user device being associated with an account;

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

determine a number of devices associated with the account that have previously received the item;

determine a device limit defining a total number of devices of the account that the item may be provided to;

determine that providing the item to the user device will not exceed the device limit; and

provide the item to the user device.

2. The item-providing system of claim 1, wherein the item comprises an electronic book, an issue of a magazine, an album, a newspaper, a newsletter, or video content.

3. The item-providing system of claim 1, wherein the item comprises a chapter in an electronic book or a song in an album.

4. The item-providing system of claim 1, wherein the item comprises instructions to update software stored on the user device.

5. The item-providing system of claim 1, wherein the item includes a placeholder field and wherein the one or more processors configured with executable instructions further to include a name of a particular user in the placeholder field of the item.

6. The item-providing system of claim 1, wherein the item includes a placeholder field and wherein the one or more processors configured with executable instructions further to include a message, for a particular user, in the placeholder field of the item.

7. The item-providing system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors configured with executable instructions further to associate an item identification number with the item prior to providing the item to the user device, the item identification number identifying a type of the item.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving a request from a user device to obtain an item, the user device being associated with an account;

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

determining a number of devices associated with the account that have previously received the item;

determining a device limit defining a total number of devices of the account that the item may be provided to;

determining that providing the item to the user device will not exceed the device limit; and

providing the item to the user device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the item includes a placeholder field, and further comprising including a name of a particular user in the placeholder field of the item.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the item includes a placeholder field, and further comprising including a message, for a particular user, in the placeholder field of the item.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the item comprises a media item comprising an electronic book, an issue of a magazine, an album, a newspaper, a newsletter, or video content.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising associating an item identification number with the item prior to delivery to the user device, the item identification number identifying a type of the item.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the item comprises instructions to update software stored on the user device.

14. An item delivery system, comprising:

one or more processors configured with executable instructions to;

receive a request from a user device to obtain an item, the user device being associated with an account;

receive the item from a content store;

determine a number of devices associated with the account that have previously received the item;

determine a device limit defining a total number of devices of the account that the item may be provided to;

determine that providing the item to the user device will not exceed the device limit; and

provide the item to the user device.

15. The item delivery system of claim 14, wherein the item includes a placeholder field, and further comprising including a name of a particular user in the placeholder field of the item.

16. The item delivery system of claim 15, further comprising:

associating an item identification number with the item prior to providing the item to the user device, the item identification number identifying a type of the item.

17. The item delivery system of claim 15, further comprising:

including metadata with the item prior to providing the item to the user device.

18. The item delivery system of claim 17, wherein the metadata comprises a message for the particular user.

19. The item delivery system of claim 17, wherein the metadata comprises a name of an author of the item.

20. The item delivery system of claim 17, wherein the item comprises text content, and the metadata comprises information that specifies a location where the text content of the item starts.