Method and system for electronic distribution of product redemption coupons
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Provided is a method and system for the electronic distribution of product redemption coupons to remote personal computers located at users'"'"' homes. A centrally located repository, such as an online service provider or web site on the Internet, stores packages of coupon data for downloading on demand to the user'"'"'s computer. The user may view, select, sort and print desired coupons from the downloaded package. The user'"'"'s demographic as well as coupon selection data is provided back to the online service and coupon distributor and issuers for subsequent marketing analysis. The online service can perform subsequent coupon processing on previously downloaded coupon packages such as variation of discount amounts. The online service provider can also determine how many times a particular coupon was viewed. When the printed coupons are presented at a retail store, the discount is provided to the user. Upon redemption by the store via a coupon redeeming center transaction data is also supplied to the coupon issuers and distributor for integration into marketing analysis. The electronic coupon system is secure due to the inclusion of user-specific identification indicia printed thereon.
139 Citations
77 Claims
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1-46. -46. (canceled)
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47. An electronic coupon distribution system comprising:
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a main server system, a client system and a distributed computer network;
said distributed computer network linking said main server system with said client system, said client system being remotely located from said main server system;
said main server system calculating a device ID and assigning said device ID to said client system, said client system being identified by said device ID;
said client system receiving said device ID from said main server system, collecting information from a user, and providing said information to said main server system, said information being indicative of one or more demographic characteristics of said user while being insufficient to identify said user, said main server system associating said information with said device ID and using said information to provide coupon data to said client system, said client system using said coupon data to generate said coupon. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77)
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Specification