METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING MENU INFORMATION

• US 20110191194A1
• Filed: 08/12/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CFPH LLC (Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P.)
• Original Assignee: CFPH LLC (Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P.)
• Inventors: Mohalanobish, Siddhant, Blosser, Christopher, Lutnick, Howard W., Sims, Colin, Jordan, Jesse
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,240 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

Methods and Apparatus related to generating representations of information. The information may include menu information for merchants such as restaurants. Referring to menus, methods may include receiving potential information for a first menu, and receiving indications of associations of the information with the first menu and/or any number of additional menus. Information and/or associations may later be updated by a desired set of users.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a tangible machine readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that cause a computing device of a delivery service to perform a method comprising;

receiving an indication of a plurality of items from a first user of the delivery service;

receiving respective pieces of information, in which each respective piece of information is associated with a respective item of the plurality of items;

determining a set of the plurality of items that may be added to a menu for a first merchant from whom customers of the delivery service may order items for delivery;

determining a respective plurality of pieces of the information that may be associated with each item;

allowing a user to include one or more of the plurality of items in a menu for the first merchant;

allowing the user to include one or more respective pieces of information from each of the respective plurality of pieces of information to include in the menu.

determining the menu based on the included items and the included information;

receiving a request for the menu;

providing the menu in response to receiving the request for the menu;

receiving a request to purchase one or more of the items; and

in response to receiving the request to purchase, facilitating delivery of the one or more items from the merchant.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, in which each respective piece of information includes an option for a respective item.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, in which each option includes an addon option.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, in which each option includes a typing option.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, in which each option includes at least one of a size option, a topping option, a crust option, a flavor option, and a filling option.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, in which allowing the user to include one or more of the plurality of items includes providing an interface for a menu template.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, in which allowing the user to include one or more respective pieces of information of each respective plurality of pieces of information includes providing an interface for a menu template.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, in which allowing the user to include one or more respective pieces of information of each respective plurality of pieces of information and allowing the user to include one or more of the plurality of items includes providing an interface for a menu template in which a user may select items from the set of items and options for those selected items from the information.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising receiving a structure for the template.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, in which the structure defines a position for each item and each option in the template.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, in which the structure defines a position for each selected item and each selected option in the menu.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising receiving a structure for the menu, and in which determining the menu includes determining the menu based on the structure.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising the computing device, in which the computing device includes a processor.