Credit system

• US 20020007313A1
• Filed: 07/12/2001
• Published: 01/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Khanh Mai, Roland Noll, Tom Grimes
• Original Assignee: Khanh Mai, Roland Noll, Tom Grimes
• Inventors: Grimes, Tom, Noll, Roland, Mai, Khanh
• Application Number:
  US09/902,764
• Publication Number:
  US 20020007313A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0211 Determining the effectiveness of discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0218 based on score
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

A credit system and method that enables users to purchase and earn credits that may be redeemed to purchase multimedia content transmitted to a client. The credit system and method enables permissive marketing in which third-parties to reward users with credits in exchange for the users performing a requested action. The credit system and method provide a method of rewarding credits that may be used by a user to purchase multimedia content delivered to a client. The method comprises providing a permissive marketing offer. The permissive marketing offer specifies a number of credits that the user will be rewarded for performance of a requested action. The method further comprises the user performing the requested action, validating performance of the requested action, and crediting a user account with the rewarded credits. The credits in the user account may be used by the user to purchase multimedia content.

Claims

19. A method of rewarding credits that may be used by a user to purchase multimedia content delivered to a client, comprising:

selecting a permissive marketing offer that includes an offer of a credit award in exchange for the user viewing content;

transmitting the content to the client for display;

displaying the content on the client;

the client generating an event, wherein the event is proof that the content has been displayed;

the client communicating the event to a server remote from the client;

the server validating the event; and

the server crediting the credit award to a user account.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the content is an infomercial.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the content is an advertisement.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the content is provided by a third-party, the method further comprising:

the server notifying the third-party that the content has been displayed; and

transmitting, to the client, a follow-up permissive marketing offer related to the content.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the server performs the transmitting step.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the third-party performs the transmitting step.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the content is an infomercial about a product and the permissive marketing offer includes an offer for a second credit award in exchange for the user testing the product.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the permissive marketing offer is a virtual screening room offer from a third-party that requests that the user provide feedback after viewing the content, the method further comprising:

requesting feedback, wherein the feedback is the users response to the content; and

the third party receiving the feedback.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising targeting the screening room offer to certain users based on user profiles.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein the permissive marketing offer is a poll offer that offers the credit award in exchange for the user providing requested user answers in response to a poll, the method further comprising:

requesting user answers in response to the poll; and

receiving the user answers.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising targeting the poll offer to certain users based on user profiles.

30. A method of rewarding credits that may be used by a user to purchase multimedia content delivered to a client, comprising:

broadcasting an educational program, wherein the educational program specifies a number of credits that may be earned by a first user;

displaying the educational program; and

transferring the specified number of credits from a second user account to a first user account so that the first user may use the credits to purchase multimedia content.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the specified number of credits is conditional on a grade achieved by the first user, further comprising:

requesting answers from the first user to questions posed in the educational program;

grading the answers; and

determining the number of credits earned by the first user based on the grade.

32. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for rewarding credits that may be used by a user to purchase multimedia content delivered to a client, by:

displaying a permissive marketing offer, wherein the permissive marketing offer specifies a number of credits that the user will be rewarded for performance of a requested action;

generating an event, wherein the event indicates that the user has performed the requested action; and

transmitting the event to a server for validation of the event and rewarding of the specified number of credits to a user account.

1. A method of rewarding credits that may be used by a user to purchase multimedia content delivered to a client, comprising:

providing a permissive marketing offer, wherein the permissive marketing offer specifies a number of credits that the user will be rewarded for performance of a requested action;

the user performing the requested action;

validating performance of the requested action; and

crediting a user account with the rewarded credits, wherein the credits in the user account may be used by the user to purchase multimedia content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the requested action comprises the display of broadband content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the displayed broadband content is an infomercial.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an event, wherein the event provides a proof of performance of the requested action.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the client generates the event.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the validating further comprises the client transmitting the event to a server for verification.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a digital certificate, wherein the digital certificate provides a proof of performance of the requested action.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the validating further comprises the client transmitting the digital certificate to a server for verification.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the digital certificate is transmitted over the Internet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the requested action comprises testing of a product or service.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the product is a car, a boat, a suit, a computer or a telephone.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the requested action comprises purchasing of a product or service.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the user selecting the permissive marketing offer.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the permissive marketing offer is broadcast as a real-time stream to the client.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the permissive marketing offer is displayed on a web browser on the client.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the requested action comprises viewing, on the client, an infomercial provided by an advertiser and the method further comprises:

notifying the advertiser that the infomercial has been displayed; and

transmitting a follow-up permissive marketing offer to the client.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the requested action comprises viewing a real-time stream that includes a plurality of encrypted packets and the method further comprises:

he client decrypting the plurality of encrypted packets; and

the client generating an event that indicates that all of the plurality of encrypted packets has been decrypted.

18. A system comprising the client, the server, and a communication medium enables the client and the server to communicate with each other, wherein the system performs the method of claim 1.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, wherein the requested action includes the user viewing content, the computer-readable medium further comprising instructions for:

displaying the content on the client, wherein completing the displaying step triggers execution of the generating instruction.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the received proof is a digital certificate and the generating instruction generates an event that includes the digital certificate.

33-1. The computer-readable medium of claim 32, further comprising instructions for:

the client receiving proof from the user that the user has performed the requested action, wherein the client receiving proof from the user triggers execution of the generating instruction.

35. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for rewarding credits that may be used by a user to purchase multimedia content delivered by a server, by:

transmitting a permissive marketing offer to a client, wherein the permissive marketing offer specifies a number of credits that the user will be rewarded for performance of a requested action;

receiving an event, wherein the event indicates that the user has performed the requested action; and

validating the event, whereby the authenticity of the event is verified; and

rewarding the specified number of credits to a user account.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, further comprising instructions for:

transmitting a second permissive marketing offer to the client, wherein the second permissive marketing offer specifies a second number of credits that the user will be rewarded for performance of a second requested action.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 35, further comprising instructions for:

transmitting a communication to a third-party that provided the permissive marketing offer, wherein the communication indicates that the user has performed the requested action.

38. A card for use in a multimedia content delivery system that delivers multimedia content to clients and in which credits may be used by a user to purchase multimedia content for viewing, the card including:

a balance of credits, maintained in electronic form, that indicates how many credits that are available to the user for purchasing multimedia content; and

a ID number that identifies the card.

39. The card of claim 38 wherein the credits in the balance of credits may only be used to purchase multimedia content from a category of content.