System and method to strengthen advertiser and consumer affinity

• US 20060085254A1
• Filed: 03/17/2005
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, John D., Schmidt, Christopher I., Grim, Clifton III
• Granted Patent: US 8,688,590 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.190
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards

Abstract

A system and method is provided for an on-demand advertising information vault so that advertisers may establish accounts for distributing advertisements on-line to potential subscribers. The on-demand information vault also provides for consumers to subscribe to advertisements from advertisers based on the consumer'"'"'s preferences of categories of products or services. An advertiser may also establish rewards for viewing their advertisements for inducing consumers to subscribe to their advertising service. In this way, a consumer may agree to receive only certain types of advertisements and receive remuneration for viewing the advertisements. The vault mechanisms may also provide for protecting the identities of the consumer and advertiser and avoids misusing personal data by others by employing security measures.

Claims

1. A secure information repository system, comprising:

data storage for securely storing information, associated with an account holder;

a deposit system for securely depositing information into the data storage;

an information access system for accessing the information stored in the data storage; and

an advertising system that registers advertisements into the data storage and delivers the advertisements to subscribers of the advertising system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage, the deposit system, the information access system, advertising system and an information withdrawal system are services of an on-demand advertising information vault and each service accessible via a network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the deposit system, the advertising system, the information access system, the advertising system, and an information withdrawal system use a dual key security mechanism to authenticate a transaction.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a charging system for charging a user for at least any one of a deposit of information into the information vault, a withdrawal of information from the information vault, information propagated by the vault and viewed, a response received triggered by accessing information propagated by the vault, subscribing to a service provided by the vault, and an access to information in the data storage.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage stores information associated with the account holder including at least any one of a credit card information, a demographic information, a medical record, a user identification information, an age, a date of birth, an address, and a financial information.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the deposit system provides for a registered advertiser to deposit advertising information for distribution to subscribers.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the information access system provides for a user to access a subscription service associated with the advertising system for subscribing to the advertisements.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the user chooses a category of advertising information subscriptions to receive from the advertising system.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the advertising system provides the advertising information subscriptions to the user based on user preferences.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisements are viewed by potential subscribers and the advertisements include at least any one of a banner advertisement information, a classified advertisement information and a fixed advertisement information.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tracking system for logging at least any one of a deposit to the data storage, a withdrawal from the data storage, a deletion to the data storage, an account creation, an account deletion, any propagation of information from the data storage, a subscription to the advertising system, and an access to the data storage.

12. A system for providing a protected information repository, comprising:

means for securely creating an advertiser account in an information vault;

means for securely depositing advertising information in the information vault;

means for accessing the advertising information provided by the information vault; and

means for charging or crediting fees for transactional activity involving the advertising information.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for tracking transactional activity involving the information vault; and

means of mutually authenticating parties using the digital certificate during a transaction with the information vault.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for expiring information associated with the advertiser account in the information vault;

means for removing advertising information from the account;

means for reading advertising information from the account; and

means for deleting the advertising account.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for creating a second party contract;

means for a second party contract fulfillment;

means for a advertising information deposit by a first party; and

means for accessing the advertising information deposited by the first party.

16. A method of providing an information repository, comprising the steps of:

accessing an on-demand advertising vault to perform a transaction involving a item of advertising information stored in the on-demand advertising information vault;

authenticating an identity of an entity performing the accessing;

executing the transaction when the identity of the entity is authenticated; and

logging the transaction.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising charging or crediting a fee for the transaction.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein at least a portion of the fee is remitted to at least any one of an owner of the item of advertising information and a subscriber to the on-demand advertising information vault.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the item of advertising information is associated with an account and the item of advertising information is propagated to a subscriber of the on-demand advertising vault.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising accessing the propagated item of advertising to receive compensation.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

creating a subscription for a subscriber to a advertising service of the on-demand advertising information vault;

defining a preference for types of advertising to be sent to the subscriber; and

presenting one or more advertisements to the subscriber based on the preference.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of crediting an account of the subscriber when the one or more advertisements are accessed by the subscriber.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

propagating one or more surveys to the entity, wherein the entity is a subscriber;

crediting an account of the subscriber for submitting at least one of the one or more surveys; and

debiting an account of an advertiser when the at least one of the one or more surveys is received by the advertiser.

24. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

selecting one or more subscribers of the on-demand advertising information vault based on demographics of the one or more subscribers; and

sending the item of advertising information to the one or more subscribers based on the demographics.

25. The method of claim 16, further comprising selecting one or more advertising parameters for rendering the item of advertising information to at least one subscriber to the on-demand information vault.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the entity performing the accessing is a second party other than an owner of the item of advertising information, the accessing comprises:

reading a message sent by the on-demand advertising information vault; and

returning a response to the on-demand advertising information vault after accessing the message,

wherein the message is tracked and provided to the owner for commercial use.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising crediting an account of the second party when the response is received at the on-line advertising information vault.

28. A method of rewarding for advertising, comprising the steps of:

depositing advertising data by an owner into an advertising service of an information vault;

establishing a subscription for at least one entity and enabling access to the advertising data by the at least one entity;

accessing the advertising by the at least one entity according to terms of the advertising system; and

awarding a credit for accessing the advertising data.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising debiting an account of the owner.

30. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

deposit advertising data by an owner into an advertising service of an information vault;

establish a subscription for at least one entity and enabling access to the advertising data by the at least one entity;

access the advertising by the at least one entity according to terms of the advertising system; and

award a credit for accessing the advertising data.

31. A method of providing an advertising service, comprising the steps of:

creating a on-demand advertising information vault;

soliciting advertisers to create advertising accounts in the on-demand advertising information vault; and

providing advertisements to subscribers of the on-demand advertising information vault based on subscriber preferences, wherein the subscribers receive a reward for viewing the advertising.