EVENT TICKET PURCHASING

• US 20100082374A1
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Data Services India Pvt Limited (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Data Services LLC (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Gogineni, Gangadhar R., Sureka, Ashutosh, Charania, Rahim A., Srinivasan, Prakash, Kalia, Puneet
• Granted Patent: US 8,510,136 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services

Abstract

A method may include aggregating information regarding events, where for each event the aggregated information includes an event name, an event time, and an event venue. The method may further include receiving a request for a list of events or a list of venues from a user device and obtaining, from the user device, a profile of a user of the user device. The method may further include generating, based on the profile and the aggregated information regarding events, the generated list of events or the list of venues and sending, to the user device, the list of events or the list of venues.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

aggregating information regarding events, where for each event the aggregated information includes an event name, an event time, and an event venue, and wherein the aggregated information is stored in a memory in a network device;

receiving a request for a list of events or a list of venues from a user device;

obtaining, from a memory in the user device, a profile of a user of the user device;

generating the list of events or the list of venues based on an analysis, performed by a computing system, of the profile and the aggregated information regarding events; and

sending, to the user device, the list of events or the list of venues;

receiving, from the user device, a selection of a venue from the list of venues or a selection of an event from the list of events; and

transmitting, to a navigation device separate from the user device and associated with the user, information indicative of a geographical location of the selected venue or a venue associated with the selected event.

2. The method of claim 1, where the profile includes a list of events to which the user has previously purchased tickets or indicated an interest.

3. The method of claim 2, where the profile includes a list of venues to which the user has previously purchased tickets or indicated an interest.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein, when the list of venues is sent to the user device, the method further includes sending, to the user device, a list of events hosted by the selected venue;

and

wherein, when the list of events is sent to the user device, the method further includes sending, to the user device, a list of venues hosting the selected event.

5. The method of claim 4,

wherein, when the list of venues hosting the selected event is sent to the user device, the method further includes

receiving, from the user device, a selection of a venue in response to sending the list of venues hosting the selected event;

and

wherein, when the list of events hosted by the selected venue is sent to the user device, the method further includes

receiving, from the user device, a selection of an event in response to sending the list of events hosted by the selected venue.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

querying a venue server regarding purchasing a ticket to the selected event at the selected venue; and

recording in the profile, stored in the user device, information regarding the selected event at the selected venue.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the user device is non-mobile.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

sending, to a mobile communication device associated with the user, the information regarding the selected event at the selected venue.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

sending, to the user device, a list of times associated with the selected event at the selected venue;

receiving, from the user device, a selection of one of the times;

querying a venue server regarding availability of a ticket at the selected time; and

receiving an instruction from the user device to purchase the ticket to the event for the selected time.

10. The method of claim 1, where sending the list of events or the list of venues includes sending a plurality of images, each of the plurality of images associated with one of the events or one of the venues, the method further comprising:

displaying the plurality of images one at a time next to at least two events in the list of events or at least two venues in the list of venues.

11. A user device comprising:

a receiver to receive a list of events or a list of venues for which a user of the user device may purchase tickets, and to receive a plurality of images, where each of the images is associated with one of the events or venues;

a memory to store the list of events or the list of venues and the plurality of images, where the memory stores a profile of the user, wherein the profile includes a list of events and venues for which the user purchased tickets or expressed an interest; and

a display to show, to the user, the list of events or the list of venues next to one or more of the plurality of images, where the display automatically cycles through showing the one or more of the plurality of images so as to display all of the plurality of images over a period of time.

12. The user device of claim 11, where the display shows only one of the images at a time.

13. The user device of claim 12, where the display shows the plurality of images in a random order.

14. The user device of claim 11, further comprising:

a processor, coupled to an input device, to receive a request, from a user, for information indicative of a geographical location of one of the venues to be sent to a navigation device;

a transmitter to send a signal to initiate sending of the information indicative of the geographical information to the navigation device, wherein the navigation device is separate from the user device.

15. A system comprising a network device, the network device comprising:

a memory to store event information for a plurality of events, where, for each event, the event information includes an event name, an event time, and an event venue;

a receiver to receive, from one of a plurality of user devices, a request for events or venues, where the receiver receives, from the one of the user devices, a profile of a user associated with the one of the user devices, where the profile includes information indicative of preferences of the user with respect to venues and events;

processing logic to generate, based on the profile and the event information, a list of events or a list of venues in response to the request; and

a transmitter to send, to the one of the user devices, the list of events or the list of venues,

wherein the receiver is configured to receive, from the one of the user devices, a selection of a venue from the list of venues or a selection of an event from the list of events, and wherein the receiver is configured to receive an instruction to send information indicative of a geographical location of the selected venue or a venue associated with the selected event, and

wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit, to a navigation device separate from the user device and associated with the user, the information indicative of the geographical location of the selected venue or the venue associated with the selected event.

16. The system of claim 15, where the profile includes a list of events and a list of venues to which the user has previously purchased tickets or expressed an interest.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising the one of the plurality of user devices, the one of the plurality of user device comprising:

a display to show the list of venues or the list of events to the user; and

a transceiver to send, to the network device, a selection of a venue in response to displaying the list of venues, and receive, from the network device, a list of events hosted by the selected venue,

where the transceiver is configured to send, to the network device, a selection of an event in response to displaying the list of events, and receive, from the network device, a list of venues hosting the selected event.

18. The system of claim 17,

where the receiver in the network device is configured to receive, from the one of the user devices, a selection of a venue in response to sending the list of venues hosting the selected event;

and

where the receiver in the network device is configured to receive, from the one of the user devices, a selection of an event in response to sending the list of events hosted by the selected venue.

19. The system of claim 18,

where the transmitter in the network device is configured to send a query to a venue server regarding purchasing a ticket to the selected event at the selected venue;

and

where the transmitter in the network device is configured to send, to the one of the user devices, information regarding the ticket for storing in the profile in the user device.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the one of the user devices is non-mobile.

21. The system of claim 18,

where the receiver in the network device is configured to receive a request for a confirmation associated with the purchased ticket;

and

where the transmitter in the network device is configured to send, to a mobile communication device associated with the user, the confirmation associated with the purchased ticket.

22. The system of claim 18,

wherein the transmitter in the network device sends, to the one of the user devices, a list of times associated with the selected event at the selected venue;

wherein the receiver in the network device is configured to receive, from the one of the user devices, a selection of one of the times;

wherein the transmitter in the network device is configured to send a query to a venue server regarding availability of a ticket at the selected time; and

wherein the receiver in the network device is configured to receive an instruction from the one of the user devices to purchase the ticket to the selected event at the selected time.

23. The system of claim 15, where the system further comprises the one of the user devices, the one of the user devices including:

a display to show the list of venues or the list of events and a plurality of images, where each of the plurality of images corresponds to one of the events or one of the venues, where the display shows one of the plurality of images at a time next to the display showing at least two events the list of events or at least two venues in the list of venues.

24. A computer-readable memory device including instructions executable by at least one processor, the computer-readable medium comprising:

one or more instructions to receive a request for a list of events or a list of venues from a user;

one or more instructions to send, from a user device to a network device, a profile of the user of the user device for the generation, based on the profile, of the list of events or the list of venues, where the profile includes a list of events or venues to which the user has previously purchased tickets or indicated an interest;

one or more instructions to receive, in the user device from the network device, the list of events or the list of venues;

one or more instructions to receive, from the user, a selection of a venue from the list of venues or a selection of an event from the list of events; and

one or more instructions to receive, from the user, an instruction to transmit, to a navigation device separate from the user device and associated with the user, information indicative of a geographical location of the selected venue or a venue associated with the selected event.

25. The computer-readable memory device of claim 24, further comprising:

one or more instructions to receive a plurality of images, each of the plurality of images associated with one of the events or one of the venues in the list of events or the list of venues; and

one or more instructions to display the plurality of images one at a time next to the list of events or the list of venues.