Management of ancillary content delivery and presentation

• US 9,474,976 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2014
• Issued: 10/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Capati, Allister, Huang, Ennin
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoffman, Brandon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Michael D
• Application Number:
  US14/308,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20140304328A1
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 726/4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/73 Authorising game programs or game devices, e.g. checking authenticity
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/75 Enforcing rules, e.g. detecting foul play or generating lists of cheating players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/552 for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5573 player location
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5586 for enforcing rights or rules, e.g. to prevent foul play
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2109 Game systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 : Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 : Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2143 : Clearing memory, e.g. to prevent the data from being stolen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 : Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 : Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 : Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 : for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 : Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 : using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 : Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address delivery of content, including advertising, in an online or networked digital environment. Undesirable content or content that needs to be removed from the digital environment may be eliminated through invocation of a ‘kill switch’ that terminates further delivery of the aforementioned content. The ‘kill switch’ may also eliminate certain instantiations of that content already delivered to end-user client devices. In order to lessen the need for termination of content following delivery to the digital environment, content developers and content providers may view content scheduled for delivery in digital environment ‘mock ups’ prior to actual delivery. Content developers and content providers, too, may control certain attributes related to content scheduled for delivery to further obviate post-delivery termination or modification.

Claims

1. A method for mediating requests for content-related services, the method comprising:

receiving a request for a location-dependent content-related service sent from an end-user client device, wherein the end-user client device is determined to be in a geographic location;

assigning a location-dependent service provider from a plurality of service providers to provide the requested location-dependent content-related service to the end-user client device based on the determined geographic location of the end-user client device;

generating, by way of a mediation server, configuration information based on an indication that the end-user client device is located in the geographic location, wherein the configuration information specifies whether the end-user client device has access to the requested location-dependent content-related service;

sending, by way of the mediation server, the configuration information to the end-user client device; and

using the configuration information to;

provide the requested location-dependent content-related service over a communication network to the end-user client device in accordance with a set of identified permissions, wherein the set of permissions is based on the determined geographic location of the end-user client device, and

determine what online information is tracked and reported with respect to online activity associated with the requested location-dependent content-related service on the end-user device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes information regarding how to communicate with the service provider.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the mediation server, a request for a content-related service from an end-user client device, and wherein the configuration information includes information regarding the requested content-related service.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes information regarding service options.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of identified permissions indicates parameters for tracking and evaluating the activity associated with the requested content-related service.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by way of the mediation server, the set of identified permissions.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the set of identified permissions is generated based on geographic location information provided in a request for content-related service from the end-user client device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a service provider from a plurality of service providers to an end-user client device based on a type of end-user client device; and

generating the configuration information, by way of a mediation device, based on an indication that the end-user client device is associated with the type of end-user client device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a service provider from a plurality of service providers to an end-user client device based on a user age; and

generating the configuration information, by way of a mediation device, based on an indication that a user of the end-user client device is of the age.

10. A system for mediating requests for content-related services, the system comprising:

a mediation server that;

receives a request for a location-dependent content-related service sent from an end-user client device, wherein the end-user client device is determined to be in a geographic location,

assigns a location-dependent service provider from a plurality of service providers to provide the requested location-dependent content-related service to the end-user client device based on the determined geographic location of the end-user client device,

generates configuration information based on an indication that the end-user client device is located in the geographic location, wherein the configuration information specifies whether the end-user client device has access to the requested location-dependent content-related service, and

sends the configuration information to the end-user client device; and

wherein the service provider uses the configuration information to;

provide the requested location-dependent content-related service over a communication network to the end-user client device in accordance with a set of identified permissions, wherein the set of permissions is based on the determined geographic location of the end-user client device, and

determine what online information is tracked and reported with respect to online activity associated with the requested location-dependent content-related service on the end-user device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the configuration information includes information regarding how to communicate with the service provider.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the mediation server further receives a request for a content-related service from an end-user client device, and wherein the configuration information includes information regarding the requested content-related service.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the configuration information includes information regarding service options.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of identified permissions indicates parameters for tracking and evaluating the activity associated with the requested content-related service.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the mediation server further determines the set of identified permissions.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the mediation server determines the set of identified permissions based on geographic location information provided in a request for content-related service from the end-user client device.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the mediation server further:

assigns a service provider from a plurality of service providers to an end-user client device based on a type of end-user client device; and

generates the configuration information, by way of a mediation device, based on an indication that the end-user client device is associated with the type of end-user client device.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the mediation server further:

assigns a service provider from a plurality of service providers to an end-user client device based on a user age; and

generates the configuration information, by way of a mediation device, based on an indication that a user of the end-user client device is of the age.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied there on a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for mediating requests for content-related services, the method comprising:

receiving a request for a location-dependent content-related service sent from an end-user client device, wherein the end-user client device is determined to be in a geographic location;

assigning a location-dependent service provider from a plurality of service providers to provide the requested location-dependent content-related service to the end-user client device based on the determined geographic location of the end-user client device;

generating configuration information based on an indication that the end-user client device is located in the geographic location, wherein the configuration information specifies whether the end-user client device has access to the requested location-dependent content-related service;

sending the configuration information to the end-user client device; and

using the configuration information to;

provide the requested location-dependent content-related service over a communication network to the end-user client device in accordance with a set of identified permissions, wherein the set of permissions is based on the determined geographic location of the end-user client device, and

determine what online information is tracked and reported with respect to online activity associated with the requested location-dependent content-related service on the end-user device.