Apparatus and method for broadcasting messages to selected group (s) of users

• US 20060059495A1
• Filed: 03/16/2004
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gula Consulting Limited Liability Company (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Shelley J. Spector
• Inventors: Spector, Shelley J
• GRANTED PATENT: US 7,224,957 B2
• Time in patent office: 0 Days
• US Class Current: 719/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing, e.g. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards; Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/00 Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations

Abstract

There is disclosed a method and apparatus for transmitting a message to at least one group of users selected from a population of the users. The method comprises the steps of assigning to each member of the one group a common characteristic or indication, collecting from each member of the population an address to which the message may be sent, selecting the common characteristic of a group of message recipients and determining therefrom the users of a particular group or groups based upon the selected common characteristic, whereby messages may be quickly and efficiently sent to all of the users of the selected group(s).

Claims

1. A method of transmitting a message to at least one group of users selected from a population of users, said method comprising:

a) assigning to each member of the one group a common characteristic;

b) collecting from each member of the population an address to which the message may be sent;

c) providing a selected message;

d) selecting the common characteristic;

e) determining each user of the group with the selected common characteristic; and

f) transmitting the selected message to each member of the group with the selected characteristic.

2. The method of transmitting as claimed in claim 1, wherein the common characteristic is a region to which the user is associated.

3. The method of transmitting as claimed in claim 2, wherein the region includes at least one zip code.

4. The method of transmitting as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method is implemented over the Internet, and said step of collecting an address comprises the step of programming a server to download over the internet a screen prompting each user to input its address to where the message may be sent.

5. The method of transmitting as claimed in claim 4, wherein the address is saved in a database.

6. The method of transmitting as claimed in claim 5, wherein said step of transmitting captures the stored address and inserts it into the message whereby the message is sent to each user of the group with the common characteristic.

7. Apparatus for transmitting a message to a plurality of groups of users selected from a population of users, said apparatus comprising:

a) a database; and

b) a server programmed to implement the following steps;

1) facilitating each member of the population of users to transmit via an Internet and to store in said database an address whereby the message for that user may be sent to the user;

2) facilitating each user to select a characteristic of the group to which the user belongs and to store the selected characteristic in said database;

3) facilitating an administrator to select and to transmit via the Internet a characteristic to the server;

4) determining each user of the group which has the selected common characteristic, and

5) transmitting a selected message to each member of the group with the common characteristic.

8. Apparatus for transmitting a message as claimed in claim 7, wherein said apparatus comprises a plurality of user terminals, each of said plurality of terminals facilitate a corresponding user to select the common characteristic of the group to which the users belong.

9. Apparatus for transmitting a message as claimed in claim 8, where each of said plurality of user terminals is connected by the Internet to said programmed server.

10. Apparatus for transmitting a message as claimed in claim 8, where there is further included a message communication system for transmitting messages to one of said terminals of the user.

11. Apparatus for transmitting a message as claimed in claim 10, wherein said message communicating system transmits messages in the form of a text message to a portable text message receiving device.

12. Apparatus for transmitting a message as claimed in claim 11, wherein said portable message text message receiving device is selected from a group comprising, a portable personal computer, a workstation and a portable digital assistant.

13. Apparatus for transmitting a message as claimed in claim 12, wherein there is further included an internet service provider which is connected to the internet to transmit messages from said server via said internet and said internet service provider to one of said portable message text receiving devices.

14. Apparatus for transmitting a message as claimed in claim 10, wherein said message transmitting system transmits messages in the form of an audio message to a portable audio message receiving device.

15. Apparatus for transmitting a message as claimed in claim 14, wherein there is further included a telecommunications provider which is connected to the internet to transmit messages from said server via said Internet and said telecommunication provider of said portable audio message receiving devices.