Method and system for facilitating access to a promotional offer

• US 9,626,688 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2013
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Retailmenot Incorporated (J2 Global, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Retailmenot Incorporated (J2 Global, Inc.)
• Inventors: King, Guy Phillip William
• Primary Examiner(s): Schmucker, Michael W
• Application Number:
  US14/081,072
• Publication Number:
  US 20140074579A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,250 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1423, 705 1416, 705 1439
• 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 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A method of facilitating access to a promotional offer, the method comprising: receiving at a server system a page request from a client device; and sending program code executable in a browser application to the client device in response to the page request, the program code being executable to display at least one promotional offer and a promotional code, to provide a flash object at a display position of the promotional code and, in response to selection of the flash object, to cause the promotional code to be copied to a user-accessible memory of the client device and to open a new browser display of the browser application.

Claims

1. A system configured to operate a content-sharing website in a network in which a third party server tracks content distribution, the content-sharing website facilitating content engagement by serving instructions that when executed on a client computing device effectuate loading a user selected content code into a clipboard memory of the client computing device for pasting into an input of a content author website, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors effectuate operations comprising;

receiving, from a client computing device, at a content-sharing website server, one or more serve requests for web content items;

sending, in response to the one or more serve requests, from the content-sharing website server, the web content items to the client computing device;

receiving, with the client computing device, the web content items;

executing, with the client computing device, instructions included with the web content items and thereby effectuating operations comprising;

displaying a web-page specified by the web content item at the client computing device in a browser application of the client computing device, the web-page having a content item comprising;

a display portion overlaid with a coupon code and a flash object or other object having associated therewith script or code permitted by the browser application to copy characters to a clipboard memory of the client computing device,

a description of the content, and

a feedback portion indicative of historical user'"'"'s views on the content;

receiving a selection of the flash object or other object by a user;

after receiving the selection of the flash object or other object by the user, automatically performing steps comprising;

copying the coupon code from within a secure sandbox of the browser application to the clipboard memory of the client computing device, the copying to the clipboard memory being caused at least in part by the selection of the flash object or other object; and

sending a second serve request from the client computing device to the content-sharing website server, the second serve request including an identifier of the content item having the selected object;

after receiving the second serve request, at the content-sharing website server, sending to the client computing device a uniform resource locator (URL) of a third-party server that tracks content distribution and instructions that direct the client computing device to the URL of the third party server and instructions that when executed by the client computing device effectuate operations comprising;

sending a third serve request to the third party server addressed by the URL, wherein the third serve request identifies the content-sharing website to the third party server, such that the third party server receives information sufficient to cause the third serve request to be associated with the content-sharing website by an author of the content item;

receiving, from the third party server instructions that direct the client computing device to a content author website to which the content item pertains; and

displaying the content author website on the client computing device, the content author website including a field to enter the coupon code, while displaying the content author website, the coupon code remains in clipboard memory of the client computing device such that, after receiving direction from the user, the client computing device is operative to paste the coupon code from the clipboard memory of the client computing device into the field to provide the coupon code to the content author website.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the feedback portion comprises a positive and a negative voting button, wherein selection of the positive or negative voting buttons causes the client computing device to transmit a message to the content-sharing website server indicating a status of a vote.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the display portion associated with the coupon code displays the coupon code.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the flash object or other object is a flash movie that is transparent, is overlaid on the coupon code, and is an empty flash movie.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein copying the coupon code comprises using the other object as a basis for copying the coupon code, wherein the other object is an object other than the flash object.