Custom computer wallpaper and marketing system and method

• US 6,920,606 B1
• Filed: 02/22/2000
• Issued: 07/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Modya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Extended Digital, LLC
• Inventors: Schmelzer, Richard A., Schmelzer, Robert A., Jablonski, Tomas E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): LUDWIG, MATTHEW J
• Application Number:
  US09/510,500
• Time in Patent Office: 1,974 Days
• Field of Search: 715/501.1, 715/526, 715/517, 345/619, 345/629
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An interactive system and method is disclosed for providing wallpaper or screen saver images for display on the background of a personal computer visual display. Wallpaper (or screen saver) images may be conveniently located by a consumer and downloaded from a wallpaper web site for use on the desktop of the consumer'"'"'s personal computer. A clickable icon is incorporated into the wallpaper image or overlaid on the wallpaper image. When the icon is clicked on using a mouse, or otherwise activated by the consumer, the consumer'"'"'s personal computer is automatically connected to a predetermined location on the Internet. Furthermore, sponsors may market their goods or services to consumers by paying a fee to have their clickable icons or advertisements incorporated into or overlaid on the wallpaper images. By clicking on the clickable icons or advertisements, the consumer is automatically connected to the sponsor'"'"'s web site. In addition, a number of web sites may be affiliated with the wallpaper site, and consumers who subscribe to the wallpaper site may be able to conveniently purchase products or services from these affiliated sites by merely clicking on one or more pop-up buttons, or the like, after necessary consumer information has been given to the wallpaper web site.

Claims

1. A method of providing content to a consumer having a personal computer, said personal computer including a memory and a visual display, and being able to communicate with the Internet, said method comprising:

providing a wallpaper desktop program operational on the personal computer for displaying one or more wallpaper images on the visual display;

placing at least one wallpaper image file into the memory of the personal computer, wherein the wallpaper desktop program is capable of causing the personal computer to display the wallpaper image file on the visual display as wallpaper;

selecting a clickable icon file based, at least in part, on a profile of a user of the personal computer, wherein the clickable icon file is selected by a program module that runs on a server and communicates with the wallpaper desktop program over a computer network;

in response to selection of the clickable icon file by the program module, placing the clickable icon file into the memory of the personal computer, said clickable icon file being capable of being displayed as a clickable icon on the visual display by said wallpaper desktop program;

displaying said at least one wallpaper image on the visual display; and

displaying said clickable icon with said wallpaper image, said clickable icon being persistently displayed on a desktop of the personal computer within the wallpaper image and being capable of being activated by the consumer, whereby, if said clickable icon is activated by the consumer, said wallpaper desktop program causes the personal computer to access a predetermined URL.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the step of embedding the clickable icon in said wallpaper image by combining said clickable icon file with said image file prior to placing said image file and said clickable icon file into the memory.

3. The method of claim 1 further including the step of changing the predetermined URL by downloading a new URL and associating the new URL with the clickable icon file.

4. The method of claim 1 further including the step of providing a wallpaper web site through which the consumer may view said at least one wallpaper image prior to placing said wallpaper image file into the memory.

5. The method of claim 1 further including the step providing a sponsor, said sponsor having a web site, said predetermined URL address connecting said personal computer to said sponsor'"'"'s web site for advertising goods or services to the consumer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a clickable icon file comprises selecting the clickable icon file based at least in part on wallpaper preference data of the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a clickable icon file comprises selecting the clickable icon file based at least in part on a wallpaper image download history of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a clickable icon file comprises selecting the clickable icon file based at least in part on wallpaper search criteria specified by the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a clickable icon file comprises selecting the clickable icon file based at least in part on preference data entered by the user into a form of a web site that provides access to a database of downloadable wallpaper images.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the wallpaper desktop program includes a screen saver feature that moves the clickable icon across the visual display of the computer to refresh at least a portion of the visual display.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the URL is a URL of a web site on the Internet.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the URL is a URL of a web site on the Internet that provides an option for the consumer to purchase an item associated with the wallpaper image.

13. A method for delivering content to a consumer having a personal computer, said personal computer having a memory and a visual display, said personal computer being able to communicate with the Internet, said method comprising:

providing a wallpaper desktop program operational on the personal computer for displaying one or more wallpaper images on the visual display;

placing a wallpaper image file in the memory of the personal computer, said wallpaper image file being capable of being displayed as a wallpaper image on the visual display by said wallpaper desktop program;

selecting a clickable icon file based in part, on a profile of a user of the personal computer, wherein the clickable icon file is selected by a program module that runs on a server and communicates with the wallpaper desktop program over a computer network;

in response to selection of the clickable icon file by the program module, placing the clickable icon file into the memory of the personal computer, said clickable icon file being capable of being displayed as a clickable icon on the visual display by said wallpaper desktop program;

displaying said wallpaper image on the visual display; and

displaying said clickable icon with said wallpaper image, said clickable icon being persistently displayed on a desktop of the personal computer, whereby if said clickable icon is activated by the consumer, said wallpaper desktop program causes the personal computer to access a predetermined web site on the Internet that provides an option to purchase an item associated with said wallpaper image.

14. The method of claim 13 further including the step of providing a wallpaper web site through which the consumer may view said wallpaper image prior to placing said wallpaper image file into the memory of the personal computer.

15. The method of claim 13 further including the step of periodically transmitting to the personal computer a notice that additional wallpaper images are available for downloading to the consumer'"'"'s personal computer.

16. The method of claim 14 further including the step of providing a consumer preference form at said wallpaper web site, and requiring the consumer to provide information to said form prior to placing said wallpaper image file into the memory of the personal computer.

17. The method of claim 16 further including the step of using the information from said form to determine additional wallpaper images of interest to the consumer.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the item associated with the wallpaper image is a hard copy of the wallpaper image.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the item associated with the wallpaper image is a physical poster or a print containing the wallpaper image.

20. A method for marketing a hard copy of an image, such as a poster, print, or the like, to a consumer having a personal computer, said personal computer having a memory and a visual display, said personal computer being able to communicate with the Internet, said method comprising:

Providing a wallpaper desktop program operational on the personal computer for displaying one or more wallpaper images on the visual display;

Placing a wallpaper image file in the memory of the personal computer, said wallpaper image file being capable of being displayed as a wallpaper image on the visual display by said wallpaper desktop program;

Placing at least one clickable icon file into the memory of the personal computer, said clickable icon file based, at least in part, on a profile of a user of the personal computer, wherein the clickable icon file is selected by a program module that runs on a server and communicates with the wallpaper desktop program over a computer network;

said clickable icon file being capable of being displayed as a clickable icon on the visual display by said wallpaper desktop program

Displaying said wallpaper image on the visual display;

Displaying said clickable icon with said wallpaper image, said clickable icon being capable of being activated by the consumer, whereby, if said clickable icon is activated, said wallpaper desktop program causes the personal computer to access a predetermined web site on the Internet where the consumer can purchase a hard copy of said wallpaper image;

Providing a wallpaper web site through which the consumer may view a wallpaper image prior to placing said wallpaper image file into the memory of the personal computer;

providing a consumer preference form at said wallpaper web site, and requiring the consumer to provide information to said form prior to placing said wallpaper image file into the memory of the personal computer; and

identifying additional wallpaper images of interest to the consumer based, at least in part, on consumer preference data provided via said form, and transmitting to the personal computer a notice that said additional wallpaper images are available for downloading to the memory, wherein the step of identifying the additional wallpaper images is performed by a program module which runs on a server system that communicates over a network with the personal computer.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein displaying said clickable icon with said wallpaper image comprises displaying the clickable icon persistently on a desktop of the personal computer.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein displaying said clickable icon with said wallpaper image comprises embedding the clickable icon within said wallpaper image.

23. A method of providing content to a consumer having a personal computer with a visual display, the method comprising:

providing a wallpaper desktop program operational on the personal computer for displaying one or more wallpaper images on the visual display;

selecting a wallpaper image to display on the visual display of the personal computer, said wallpaper images represented by a wallpaper image file;

selecting a clickable image to display within the wallpaper image on the visual display of the personal computer, said clickable image represented by a clickable image file, and being associated with a URL, where the clickable image is selected by a program module based, at least in part, on user profile data, wherein the program module runs on a server system that communicates over a computer network with the wallpaper desktop program;

embedding the clickable image within the wallpaper image by combining file code of the clickable image file with file code of the wallpaper image file, to generate a modified wallpaper image that includes the clickable image; and

displaying the modified wallpaper image on the visual display as desktop wallpaper such that selection of the clickable image causes the personal computer to access the URL.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the modified wallpaper image is represented as a single image file that contains file code of both the clickable image file and the wallpaper image file.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the clickable image is an icon.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising displaying an additional icon within the modified wallpaper image by overlaying the additional icon on the modified wallpaper image, without embedding the additional icon therein.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the step of selecting the clickable image is performed by a server based on a user profile associated with the personal computer, said server being separate from the personal computer.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the user profile data includes a wallpaper image download history of a user, and said wallpaper image download history is taken into consideration in programmatically selecting the clickable image.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the user profile data includes wallpaper image search criteria specified by a user, and said wallpaper image search criteria is taken into consideration in programmatically selecting the clickable image.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the clickable image is selected by a server based on a user profile associated with the personal computer, and the step of embedding the clickable icon within the wallpaper image is performed before the wallpaper image is downloaded to the personal computer.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein the URL is a URL of a web site that provides a user option to purchase an item associated with the wallpaper image.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the item is a hard copy of the wallpaper image.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the item is a product that is shown in the wallpaper image.

34. The method of claim 23, wherein the steps of selecting the wallpaper image and selecting the clickable image are performed programmatically by a server system that communicates with the personal computer.