SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VERIFIED MONETIZATION OF COMMERCIAL CAMPAIGNS

• US 20110035265A1
• Filed: 08/06/2009
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: King, Simon P., Davis, Marc Eliot, Higgins, Christopher William
• Granted Patent: US 10,223,701 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0211 Determining the effectiveness of discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising

Abstract

A system and method for verified monetization. A definition of a commercial campaign is received wherein the definition comprises an identification of an advertiser and an advertisement, at least one trigger condition, at least one monetization condition, at least one verification policy, and at least one monetization action, wherein trigger conditions relate to the occurrence of trigger events, the monetization conditions relate to location data relating to at least one person, verification policies relates to the reliability of the location data, and the monetization actions relates to payments to payees. When an indication of an association between a user and the advertisement is received, the user is associated with the commercial campaign. When the occurrence of trigger events is detected, if the campaigns monetization conditions and verification policies have been satisfied, payees are paid according to the campaign'"'"'s monetization actions.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving, over a network, a definition of a commercial campaign, wherein the definition comprises an identification of an advertiser, an identification of an advertisement, at least one trigger condition, at least one monetization condition, at least one verification policy, and at least one monetization action, wherein the at least one trigger condition relates to the occurrence of at least one trigger event, the at least one monetization condition relates to location data relating to at least one person, the at least one verification policy relates to the reliability of the location data relating to the at least one person, and the at least one monetization action relates to a payment to at least one payee;

receiving, over a network, an indication of an association between a user and the advertisement;

associating, using at least a first computing device, the user with the commercial campaign;

detecting, using at least a second computing device, the occurrence of the at least one trigger event;

determining, using at least a third computing device, that the at least one monetization condition and the at least one verification policy have been satisfied, wherein the at least one person is the user;

paying, using at least a fourth computing device the at least one payee according to the at least one monetization action,

wherein the first, second, third and fourth computing device are each implemented using at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first, second, third and fourth computing device are the same computing device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger event is an action performed by the user that is capable of electronic detection.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the an action performed by the user that is capable of electronic detection is a user interface action performed by the user on a website.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the an action performed by the user that is capable of electronic detection is the user'"'"'s presence at at least one location.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the an action performed by the user that is capable of electronic detection is the co-location of the user with at least a second person.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the an action performed by the user that is capable of electronic detection is a purchase of at least one item.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the an action performed by the user that is capable of electronic detection is the user'"'"'s attendance at an event.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger event is the passage of a time interval after a user interface action performed by the user on a website.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger event is the receipt by the user of a targeted advertisement.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger event is the redemption by the user of a targeted advertisement.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one monetization condition relates to location data relating to at least two persons wherein a first one of the at least two persons is the user and a second one of the at least two persons is a second user, wherein the purpose of the at least one monetization condition is to verify a co-location of the at least two persons.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the at least one verification policy relates to the reliability of location data relating to the at least two persons, wherein the purpose of the at least one verification policy is to verify that the co-location of the at least two persons has at least a threshold level of reliability.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one verification policy additionally relates to the granularity of the location data relating to the at least one person.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one monetization condition relates to a classifier, wherein the classifier is used to match at least one pattern in the location data relating to the at least one person.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the commercial campaigns are stored on a database.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication of an association between a user and the advertisement relates to a user interface event on a website.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication of an association between a user and the advertisement is relates to a promotion registration.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication of an association between a user and the advertisement relates to a publically displayed advertisement, wherein the fact the user viewed the advertisement was determined biometrically.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is associated with a campaign by updating a database comprising entries for each association.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining step comprises the steps of:

formulating, using the third computing device, a location verification request;

submitting, over the network, the location verification request to a verified presence system;

receiving, over the network, a response to the location verification request.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one payee is a publisher that published the advertisement.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one payee is the user.

24. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one payee is a second person user that facilitated the redemption by the user of the targeted advertisement

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one payee is at least one owner of a corroborating data source used to determine the at least one verification policy have been satisfied.

26. A system comprising:

a campaign definition manager comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for receiving, over a network, definitions of commercial campaigns, wherein each definition comprises an identification of an advertiser, an identification of an advertisement, at least one trigger condition, at least one monetization condition, at least one verification policy, and at least one monetization action, wherein the at least one trigger condition relates to the occurrence of at least one trigger event, the at least one monetization condition relates to location data relating to at least one person, the at least one verification policy relates to the reliability of the location data relating to the at least one person, and the at least one monetization action relates to payment to at least one payee;

a user association manager comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for receiving, over the network, indications associations between user and advertisements and associating users with commercial campaigns associated with the respective advertisements;

a campaign tracking manager comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for determining when monetization conditions and verification policies have been satisfied within commercial campaigns for persons associated with the respective commercial campaigns; and

a monetization manager comprising one or more processors programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for paying payees associated with campaigns whose monetization conditions and verification policies have been satisfied according to the at least one monetization action of the respective campaigns.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the at least one monetization condition relates to location data relating to at least two persons wherein a first one of the at least two persons is the user and a second one of the at least two persons is a second user, wherein the purpose of the at least one monetization condition is to verify a co-location of the at least two persons.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the at least one verification policy relates to the reliability of location data relating to the at least two persons, wherein the purpose of the at least one verification policy is to verify that the co-location of the at least two persons has at least a threshold level of reliability.

29. The system of claim 26 wherein the at least one verification policy additionally relates to the granularity of the location data relating to the at least one person

30. The system of claim 26 wherein the at least one monetization condition relates to a classifier, wherein the classifier is used to match at least one pattern in the location data relating to the at least one person.

31. The system of claim 26 wherein the campaign tracking manager is further programmed to execute software code retrieved from a computer readable storage medium storing software for

formulating location verification requests, submitting, over the network, the location verification requests to a verified presence system, and receiving, over the network, responses to the location verification requests.

32. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for a method comprising the steps of:

receiving, over a network, a definition of a commercial campaign, wherein the definition comprises an identification of an advertiser, an identification of an advertisement, at least one trigger condition, at least one monetization condition, at least one verification policy, and at least one monetization action, wherein the at least one trigger condition relates to the occurrence of at least one trigger event, the at least one monetization condition relates to location data relating to at least one person, the at least one verification policy relates to the reliability of the location data relating to the at least one person, and the at least one monetization action relates to a payment to at least one payee;

receiving, over a network, an indication of an association between a user and the advertisement;

associating, using at least a first computing device, the user with the commercial campaign;

detecting, using at least a second computing device, the occurrence of the at least one trigger event;

determining, using at least a third computing device, that the at least one monetization condition and the at least one verification policy have been satisfied, wherein the at least one person is the user;

paying, using at least a fourth computing device the at least one payee according to the at least one monetization action,

wherein the first, second, third and fourth computing device are each implemented using at least one processor.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the first, second, third and fourth computing device are the same computing device.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the at least one monetization condition relates to location data relating to at least two persons wherein a first one of the at least two persons is the user and a second one of the at least two persons is a second user, wherein the purpose of the at least one monetization condition is to verify a co-location of the at least two persons.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 34 wherein the at least one verification policy relates to the reliability of location data relating to the at least two persons, wherein the purpose of the at least one verification policy is to verify that the co-location of the at least two persons has at least a threshold level of reliability.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the at least one verification policy additionally relates to the granularity of the location data relating to the at least one person

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the at least one monetization condition relates to a classifier, wherein the classifier is used to match at least one pattern in the location data relating to the at least one person.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 32 wherein the determining step comprises the steps of:

formulating, using the third computing device, a location verification request;

submitting, over the network, the location verification request to a verified presence system;

receiving, over the network, a response to the location verification request.