Domain-based management of distribution of digital content from multiple suppliers to multiple wireless services subscribers

• US 7,299,033 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2003
• Issued: 11/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unwired Planet LLC (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Kjellberg, Rikard M., Liang, Sheng, Lund, Tomas G., Chan, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): SANTIAGO CORDERO, MARIVELISSE
• Application Number:
  US10/601,022
• Publication Number:
  US 20040054787A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141-4143, 455/406, 4554561-4563, 709217-219, 709/220, 709/221, 709/222, 709/223, 709/224, 379/114.11, 705 26- 27
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42178 by downloading data to substation equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

A network server system includes a download manager that manages the publication, purchase and delivery of digital content from multiple content suppliers to wireless services subscribers in multiple domains. Each domain is defined as a different grouping of subscribers, such as a wireless carrier or subsidiary thereof, a business enterprise, or other defined group of subscribers. The download manager maintains data defining the multiple domains and associations between the domains and wireless services subscribers. Digital content suppliers can publish and manage their products on the server system via a computer network and make their products available to the subscribers for purchase or licensing. The subscribers in each of the domains can access the server remotely to purchase rights to download and use the digital content on associated wireless communication devices.

Claims

1. A method of providing access to digital products for use in wireless communication devices, the method comprising:

operating a server system to store domain data defining a plurality of domains, each domain corresponding to a different subset of a plurality of wireless services subscribers, each said subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers including more than one wireless services subscriber, each of the domains further corresponding to a particular billing relationship between a business entity and the corresponding subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers, each of the domains having assigned thereto to a particular set of digital products designed for use in wireless communication devices that are accessible to the wireless services subscribers in that domain;

operating the server system to enable a plurality of digital products suppliers to publish on the server system digital products designed for use in wireless communication devices via a computer network such that the digital products are accessible to the plurality of wireless services subscribers; and

operating the server system to enable wireless services subscribers in each of the plurality of domains to acquire the digital products via at least one wireless network and to use the acquired digital products on associated wireless communication devices.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of domains further correspond to a delegation of administrative responsibilities for the digital products and the subscribers.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein:

each of the subscribers is a member of exactly one of the domains.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the domains has an associated currency for use in presenting digital products to the subscribers and for billing the subscribers for digital products, where the currency of each domain can be set independently of the currency of every other domain, the currency of each domain being indicated in the server system by the domain data corresponding to each said domain.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the domains has an associated language for use in communicating with the subscribers belonging to the domain, where the language of each domain being can be set independently of the language of every other domain, the language of each domain being indicated in the server system by the domain data corresponding to each said domain.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising operating the server system to enable the digital products suppliers to manage their respective digital products stored on the server system via the computer network.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining a price for each of the items of digital products, where the price of each of the items of digital products can be set independently for each of the plurality of domains.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from one of the subscribers to access digital products;

identifying the domain in which the subscriber is included in response to the request;

determining a language which corresponds to the domain in which the subscriber is included;

causing a product catalog including descriptions of available digital products to be presented to the subscriber in said language, based on the domain in which the subscriber is included;

receiving a selection from the subscriber of an item of digital products in the product catalog;

determining a price and a currency for the selected item based on the domain in which the subscriber is included; and

causing the price to be presented to the subscriber in terms of said currency.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, the plurality of domains further being defined such that each of the subscribers is able to view descriptions of digital products for a domain with which the subscriber is associated but is not able to view descriptions of digital products of any domain with which the subscribers is not associated.

10. A method comprising:

maintaining, in a server system, data defining a plurality of domains, each domain corresponding to a different subset of a plurality of wireless services subscribers, each said subset including more than one wireless services subscriber, each of the domains corresponding to a particular billing relationship between a business entity and the corresponding subset of a plurality of wireless services subscribers, including specifying for each of the domains a language for purposes of allowing wireless services subscribers to identify and obtain digital products, where the language for each domain can be set independently of the language of every other domain, and further including specifying for each of the domains a currency in which digital products is to be expressed to wireless subscribers for purposes of wireless services subscribers obtaining digital products, where the currency for each domain can be set independently of the currency of every other domain;

enabling a plurality of digital product providers to publish the digital products on the server system;

enabling each of the subscribers to view descriptions of at least some of the digital products and to request the digital products from the server system, such that each of the subscribers is able to view descriptions of digital products for a domain with which the subscriber is associated but is not able to view descriptions of digital products of any domain with which the subscriber is not associated; and

provisioning the requested digital products in wireless communications devices of the subscribers via at least one wireless network.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein said maintaining data defining a plurality of domains comprises maintaining, in the server system, data defining an association between each of the subscribers and one of the domains.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, further comprising executing a payment process to charge the subscribers for said provisioning.

13. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising maintaining a product catalog containing descriptions of the digital products.

14. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising enabling the digital product suppliers to manage digital products which they have caused to be published on the server system.

15. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising determining a price for at least one of the digital products independently for each of the plurality domains.

16. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a request from one of the subscribers to access digital products;

identifying the domain of which the subscribers is a member in response to the request;

determining a language which corresponds to the domain of which the subscriber is a member;

causing a product catalog including descriptions of available digital products to be presented to the subscriber in said language;

receiving a selection from the subscriber of a digital product included in the product catalog;

determining a price and a currency for the selected digital product based on the domain of which the subscriber is a member; and

causing the price to be presented to the subscriber in terms of said currency.

17. A system comprising:

means for maintaining an association between each of a plurality of subscribers of wireless services and one of a plurality of domains into which the plurality of subscribers are grouped, each domain corresponding to a group of the wireless services subscribers and including a different subset of the plurality of subscribers, each said subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers including more than one wireless services subscriber, each of the domains further corresponding to a particular billing relationship between a business entity and the corresponding subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers, each of the domains having assigned thereto a particular set of digital products designed for use in wireless communication devices that are accessible to the wireless services subscribers in that domain; and

means for managing publication, management and delivery of digital products by a plurality of digital products suppliers to the subscribers in each of the plurality of domains.

18. A system as recited in claim 17, the plurality of domains further being defined such that each of the subscribers is able to view descriptions of digital products for a domain with which the subscriber is associated but is not able to view descriptions of digital products of any domain with which the subscriber is not associated.

19. A system as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

means for specifying for each of the domains a language for purposes of allowing wireless services subscribers to identify and obtain digital products, where the language for each domain can be set independently of the language of every other domain; and

means for specifying for each of the domains a currency in which content is to be expressed to wireless subscribers for purposes of wireless services subscribers obtaining digital products, where the currency for each domain can be set independently of the currency of every other domain.

20. A system to provide digital products from a plurality of digital products suppliers to a plurality of wireless services subscribers using a plurality of wireless communications devices, the system comprising:

a domain manager to maintain an association between each of the wireless services subscribers and one of a plurality of domains into which the plurality of wireless services subscribers are grouped, each domain corresponding to a different subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers, each said subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers including more than one wireless services subscriber, each of the domains further corresponding to a particular billing relationship between a business entity and the corresponding subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers, each of the domains having assigned thereto a particular set of digital products designed for use in wireless communication devices that are accessible to the wireless services subscribers in that domain;

a product manager to manage publication of digital products designed for use in wireless communication devices on the system by the plurality of digital products suppliers;

a delivery manager to manage delivery of an item of digital products designed for use in wireless communication devices to a wireless communications device of a requesting subscriber via a wireless network in conjunction with a received request for the item of digital products; and

a payment manager to execute a payment process for charging the requesting subscriber for the item of digital products.

21. A system as recited in claim 20, further comprising:

a product catalog containing descriptions of available digital products, and

a pricing manager to determine and indicate a price for an item of digital products in response to a signal from the wireless communications device of the requesting subscriber, wherein the price is determined according to a domain of which the requesting subscriber is a member.

22. A system as recited in claim 20, wherein each of the subscribers is a member of exactly one domain of the plurality of domains.

23. A system as recited in claim 20, wherein the plurality of domains corresponds to a delegation of administrative responsibilities for the digital products and the subscribers.

24. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein:

each of the subscribers is a member of exactly one of the domains.

25. A system as recited in claim 20, the plurality of domains further being defined such that each of the subscribers is able to view descriptions of digital products for a domain with which the subscriber is associated but is not able to view descriptions of digital products of any domain with which the subscriber is not associated.

26. A system as recited in claim 20, the domain manager further to enable specification, for each of the domains, of a language for purposes of allowing wireless services subscribers to identify and obtain digital products, where the language for each domain can be set independently of the language of every other domain;

and

the domain manager further to enable specification, for each of the domains, of currency in which digital products is to be expressed to wireless subscribers for purposes of wireless services subscribers obtaining digital products, where the currency for each domain can be set independently of the currency of every other domain.

27. A system to manage publication and delivery of digital products to users of a plurality of wireless communications devices operating on a wireless network, the users being wireless services subscribers, the plurality of wireless client devices being registered to and operable by the users to access the wireless services, the system comprising:

a domain manager to maintain data defining an association between each of the subscribers and one of a plurality of domains into which the subscribers are grouped, each domain defined as a group of the wireless services subscribers and including a different subset of the plurality of subscribers, each of the domains corresponding to a particular billing relationship between a business entity and a particular subset of the plurality of subscribers, each subscriber being a member of exactly one of the domains, each said subset of the plurality of wireless services subscribers including more than one wireless services subscriber, each of the domains having assigned thereto a particular set of digital products designed for use in wireless communication devices that are accessible to the wireless services subscribers in that domain;

a set of protocol handlers, each protocol handler to enable the system to communicate with wireless client devices over at least one wireless network using a separate associated protocol;

a product manager to manage submission and publication of digital products by a plurality of digital products suppliers, wherein the product manager includes

a product catalog containing descriptions of available digital products, and

a pricing manager to determine and indicate a price for an item of digital products in response to a signal from a wireless communications device of the plurality of wireless communications devices, wherein the price is determined according to a domain in which a requesting subscriber is included;

a delivery manager to manage delivery of the item of digital products to the mobile client device via at least one wireless network in conjunction with a received request for the item of digital products; and

a payment manager to execute a payment process for charging the requesting subscriber for rights to use the item of digital products.

28. A system as recited in claim 27, the plurality of domains further being defined such that each of the subscribers is able to view descriptions of digital products for a domain with which the subscriber is associated but is not able to view descriptions of digital products of any domain with which the subscriber is not associated.

29. A system as recited in claim 28, the domain manager further to enable specification, for each of the domains, of a language for purposes of allowing wireless services subscribers to identify and obtain digital products, where the language for each domain can be set independently of the language of every other domain;

and

the domain manager further to enable specification, for each of the domains, of a currency in which digital products is to be expressed to wireless subscribers for purposes of wireless services subscribers obtaining digital products, where the currency for each domain can be set independently of the currency of every other domain.