METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LAUNCHING A WEB BROWSER IN RESPONSE TO SCANNING OF PRODUCT INFORMATION

• US 20090248892A1
• Filed: 10/21/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: LV Partners LP (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: PHILYAW, JEFFRY JOVAN, MATHEWS, DAVID KENT
• Granted Patent: US 7,979,576 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

A method for interconnecting a user'"'"'s location to a destination location on a network. The unique information is received at the user'"'"'s location, which unique information has no associated routing information embedded therein. Network routing information is associated with the received unique information in response to receipt thereof. The user'"'"'s location is then interconnected to the destination location across the network in accordance with the routing associated therewith in the step of associating.

Claims

1. A method for interconnecting a user'"'"'s location on a network to a select one of a plurality of destination locations on the network, comprising the steps of:

receiving unique information at the user'"'"'s location before being connected to select one of the plurality of destination locations on the network; and

in response to the step of receiving;

assembling a data transmission containing a representation of the unique information;

forwarding the data transmission to an intermediate location on the network;

receiving from the intermediate location on the network instructional code that was generated at the intermediate location as a result of the forwarding of the data transmission thereto, which instructional code includes routing information that instructs the user location to connect to one of the plurality of destination locations on the network that has a defined association with the representation of the unique information defined in a database at the intermediate location on the network, which defined association is required to provide for the unique information to be associated with the one of the plurality of destination locations on the network and without which the unique information can not be associated with one of the plurality of destination locations on the network, and which defined association is defined by the intermediate location and can be changed at the intermediate location and is in the possession of the intermediate location; and

interconnecting, in response to the step of receiving from the intermediate location on the network instructional code and without any intervention at the user location, the user'"'"'s location to the one of the plurality of destination locations across the network in accordance with the received network routing information and in accordance with the received instructional code such that connection to the one of the plurality of destination locations is controlled by the intermediate location in accordance with the defined association between the representation of the unique information received at the user location and the routing information to the one of the plurality of destination locations on the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a global communication network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving the unique information comprises receiving machine readable code having unique information embedded therein.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of receiving the machine readable code comprises scanning the machine readable code, decoding the machine readable code and outputting the information encoded within the machine readable code as the representation of the unique information.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the machine readable code comprises a product code, which product code is fixedly associated with an associated product.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the product code comprises a barcode.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the product code comprises an ISBN number associated with printed materials.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the product code comprises an EAN barcode.

9. The method of claim 1, and further comprising the step of receiving from the one of the plurality of destination locations at the user location display information generated by the one of the plurality of destination locations which is displayed to a user at the user location after interconnection to the one of the plurality of destination locations by the step of interconnecting.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving from the intermediate location on the network instructional code comprises the steps of:

comparing the received representation of the unique information at the intermediate location with a database of routing information, which database of routing information includes a plurality of associative relationships between predetermined representations of unique information and locations of various ones of the plurality of destination locations on the network; and

if an association between the received representation of unique information and routing information to any of a plurality of destination locations on the network exists within the database, returning the associated routing information as part of the instructional code back to the user location for effecting a network connection to the one of the plurality of destination locations indicated by the routing information in the step of interconnecting.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of interconnecting includes the step of activating a web browser program which facilitates the interconnection over the network in response to receiving the instructional code including the routing information, which web browser program is operable to at least provide the interconnection of the user location to the destination location in accordance with the associated routing information under control of the intermediate location.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of assembling a data transmission comprises assembling a message packet containing a representation of the unique information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of assembling the message packet comprises forming a data transmission that is comprised of a first field having associated therewith source information as to the location on the network of the user location, a second field having associated therewith destination information as to the location of the intermediate node on the network and a third and data field having associated therewith the representation of the unique information.

14. A method for causing a user node disposed at a user location on the network to be connected to a select one of a plurality of destination locations on a network, comprising the steps of:

receiving unique information at the user node before being connected to a select one of the plurality of destination locations on the network;

in response to the step of receiving the unique information;

assembling a message packet containing a representation of the unique information, and

forwarding the message packet to an intermediate node disposed at an intermediate location on the network in accordance with intermediate node routing information available at the user node;

receiving from the intermediate node on the network instructional code that was generated at the intermediate node as a result of the forwarding of the message packet thereto, which instructional code includes destination routing information that instructs the user location to connect to one of the plurality of destination locations on the network that has a defined association with the representation of the unique information defined in a database at the intermediate node, which defined association is required to provide for the unique information to be associated with the one of the plurality of destination locations on the network and without which the unique information can not be associated with one of the plurality of destination locations on the network, and which defined association is defined by the intermediate location and can be changed at the intermediate location and is in the possession of the intermediate location; and

in response to the step of receiving from the intermediate location on the network the instructional code and without any intervention at the user location, using the instructional code to interconnect the user node to the one of the plurality of destination locations across the network in accordance with the received destination routing information and in accordance with the received instructional code such that connection to the one of the plurality of destination locations is controlled by the intermediate node in accordance with the defined association between the representation of the unique information received at the user location and the routing information to the one of the plurality of destination locations on the network.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of receiving comprises receiving machine readable code having encoded therein the unique information by scanning the machine readable code, decoding the machine readable code and outputting the information encoded within the machine readable code as the representation of the unique information.

16. The method of claim 14, and further comprising the step of receiving from the one of the plurality of destination locations at the user node display information generated by the one of the plurality of destination locations which is displayed to a user at the user node after interconnection to the one of the plurality of destination locations by the step of using the instructional code to interconnect.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of receiving from the intermediate node instructional code comprises the steps of:

comparing the received representation of the unique information at the intermediate node with a database of destination routing information, which database of destination routing information includes a plurality of associative relationships between predetermined representations of unique information and locations of various ones of the plurality of destination locations on the network; and

if an association between the received representation of unique information and destination routing information to any of a plurality of destination locations on the network exists within the database, returning the associated destination routing information as part of the instructional code back to the user node for effecting a network connection to the one of the plurality of destination locations indicated by the routing information in the step of using the instructional code to interconnect.