63 results about "Digital goods" patented technology

Methods and apparatus are described which enable transactions in electronic networks relating to digital assets, e.g., digital goods or services, through the use of title objects. A title object may have a number of elements and attributes which identify one or more digital assets and define access rights to the corresponding digital asset(s).

Methods and apparatus are described which enable transactions in electronic networks relating to digital assets, e.g., digital goods or services, through the use of title objects. A title object may have a number of elements and attributes which identify one or more digital assets and define access rights to the corresponding digital asset(s).

Methods and apparatus are described which enable transactions in electronic networks relating to digital assets, e.g., digital goods or services, through the use of title objects. A title object may have a number of elements and attributes which identify one or more digital assets and define access rights to the corresponding digital asset(s).

A method and system for advertising selection, placement management, payment and delivery in a dynamic, real-time environment wherein the production, listing, procurement, payment, real time management, re-allocation and financial settlement of all types of digital advertising mediums, with optional automated delivery for advertisement and messaging for such ads is performed. The planning, purchasing, delivery and payment for on-line and traditional media advertising is automated, standardized and tracked across multiple mediums, such as TV, Internet, satellite, radio, wireless telephone, outdoor screens, and other digital mediums that display dynamic content. As a result, transparency and discovery of price, performance and availability segmented by specific markets and customer profiles for specific products is achieved. A buyer / seller real time feedback is provided to allow both buyers and sellers to dynamically change existing ads, ad space, prices, etc, in a real time environment based on real time sale / conversion feedback.

A method and system for remotely building a shopping list for remote shopping and ordering merchandise electronically. A shopping list can be built any time, anywhere by scanning, speaking, or keying-in barcode numbers such as UPC codes into a data collection device that can be an intricate part of the terminal or interfaced to the terminal The terminal is used for ordering merchandise through a direct distance dial or wireless telephone network, that could utilize or connect to the Internet, to connect to a shopper assistance portal that maintains information relating to a plurality of merchants and a plurality of product offered by the plurality of merchants. The merchandise is identified by barcode numbers in the form of individual digital merchandise codes. The geographical location of order placement can be configured by the user to select only merchants that service the location. When a shopper selects a merchant, a link is executed to the merchant's e-commerce server where the shopper could proceed with the order through the order receiving system that the merchant has incorporated into their e-commerce system. A shopper may purchase all, one, or selected products. Purchases and return transactions are preferably conducted between the shopper and the individual merchant. The targeted product specific advertising program searches the shopper's list for specific products that a shopper in the merchant's service area is planning to buy. Ads are displayed on the terminal relevant to items that match specific barcode numbers. If the shopper clicks through on the ad, the shopper will enter the merchant's site through a special URL along with their active shopping list in an attached data packet.

Various methods and systems are provided to manage on-line transactions by categorizing users who request refunds of purchases (e.g., digital goods) and requiring certain conditions to be met before a refund is issued or processed. The conditions change for different categories of users. In one embodiment, a refund process is made progressively harder or burdensome as users are categorized in worsening refund abuse categories.

This is a method for limiting access to selected features of a freely distributed multimedia file, by disabling selected features of the file (using encryption, compression, or other access denial), distributing the file with some enabled features as an inducement to new users, and offering to enable more features when a new user attempts to use a disabled feature. A licensing system then receives a request from the user's system, identifying a specific operating context and one or more features desired by the corresponding user. Accounting is done and an authorization is sent to the user or the user's system to enable the features. However, the authorization is uniquely associated with the measured operating context of the user and the features remain enabled only for said operating context, thus limiting full operation to authorized users, while permitting new users access to limited operations.

An implementation of a technology is described herein for recognizing the perceptual similarity of the content of digital goods. At least one implementation, described herein, introduces a new hashing technique. More particularly, this hashing technique produces hash values for digital goods that are proximally near each other, when the digital goods contain perceptually similar content. In other words, if the content of digital goods are perceptually similar, then their hash values are, likewise, similar. The hash values are proximally near each other. This is unlike conventional hashing techniques where the hash values of goods with perceptually similar content are far apart with high probability in some distance sense (e.g., Hamming). This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

The inventive system includes a method to let participants in a value chain of digital and physical goods to package resources into sellable services and products, keep track of consumption of the resources and calculate charges to the end users and revenues to all participants. The participants to such supply chain include but not limited to resource suppliers, distributors, aggregators, resellers and service providers. The resources include but not limited to digital goods such as computing capacity, storage, content, software applications, data depository or special data acquisition instruments and physical goods such as commodity and manufactured items. Through this invention, resource supplies and consumptions and thus charges and revenues can be tracked and accounted for simultaneously. Any participants to the supply chain can host such system on behalf of itself and other participants. A participant can package resources into sellable units, track the resource supply by its suppliers and consumption by its customers, determine end users charges and revenues according to pricing structures and business rules including end user charges, loyalties, commissions, reseller fees, and roaming tariff, etc. When compared with the traditional methods, this invention tracks in real time all resource supplies and consumptions across the value chain simultaneously, in both actual resource unit and economic value. The invention can be realized in a combination of both hardware and software.

A system, method and computer program product that allows real-time, secure access to digital multimedia files over a communications network (e.g., the Internet) is provided. The system allows a user to receive large amounts of multimedia data without requiring a high bandwidth data path to an Internet server. The method and computer program product allow the user to employ a selection process from a hypertext data page to obtain and view / play the contents of specific sets of multimedia data which are stored in a storage device local to the user. The files on the local device are unusable without the instructions from the hypertext page. The present invention involves no change to standard WWW protocols, allows the user to interact in a regular-fashion with all other WWW servers and controls the multimedia server over a standard Internet connection.

Systems and methods are provided for pricing, selling, and / or otherwise distributing electronic content using auction mechanisms. A randomized auction mechanism is used to determine both the number of goods that are sold and the selling price. The auction mechanism automatically adapts to the bid distribution to yield revenue that is competitive with that which could be obtained if the vendor were able to determine the optimal fixed price for the goods. In one embodiment a set of bids is randomly or quasi-randomly partitioned into two or more groups. An optimal threshold is determined for each group, and this threshold is then used to select winning bids from one or more of the other groups. In another embodiment, each bid is compared to a competing bid that is randomly or quasi-randomly selected from the set of bids. If the bid is less than the randomly-selected competing bid, the bid is rejected. Otherwise, the bid is accepted and the bidder buys the auctioned item at the price of the randomly-selected bid.

The described invention consists of system and the computer methods of generating and manipulating value or gift cards which are cryptographically assigned to a person's identity and stored on double entry ledger called block chain. A functional module of the system allows the transfer of such value or gift cards to other persons. The functional module in the system further allows a person owning a card to split it into multiple value or gift cards, merge more than one value or gift cards to a single card, exchange a value or gift card with a specific merchant card, redeem a value or gift card at a store front in exchange for physical or digital good or cash it out in the currency it was issued. Each transaction associated with a customer is cryptographically signed and stored on the block chain.

A method and system for management of digital goods is provided that allows digital goods vendors to model and manage complex product relationships involved in electronic distribution of digital goods, such as software. A variety of interactive tools to define associations among a variety of primary objects are provided that allow a vendor to create a product hierarchy that mirrors the marketing descriptions and organization of the vendor's product set. The various products are uploaded to a server for electronic distribution to end-users. A system operator implements the system across a publicly accessible network such as the Internet. The system operator, typically on a subscription basis, hosts each digital goods vendor. Each subscribing digital goods vendor provides each of their customer accounts a personalized software maintenance portal branded to the vendor that integrates with vendor's web site.

An apparatus and method to detect consumer choices of products by use of RFID tags associated with a product and RFID readers to detect movement of the tag, which can initiate a presentation of relevant digital media based on the event and tag detected. The present invention is a new method of utilizing digital merchandising software, and RFID tags or other similar emitter identification tags as a potential input technology. The concept of the present invention can be considered a concept of “reverse RFID”, where the RFID reader and supporting CPU keeps track of tags in proximity to the reader and then triggering events based on separation from reader (i.e. the RFID reader no longer detects the presence of an RFID tag because the tag has been moved out of the range of the reader). The movement of the tag out of the detection range of the reader can be the result of a potential customer picking up a product and removing it from the shelf, where the product has an RFID tag associated therewith.

A system and a method generate a recommendation on a mobile device. The system and the method may use a time, a location, a venue and / or an event to generate the recommendation. Further, the system and the method may use an event database to determine current interests of the user. Still further, the system and the method for generating a recommendation on a mobile device may use a transactional history of the user and / or behavior of other users to generate the recommendation. The system and the method may recommend, for example, digital media, news and event information, editorial content and / or physical or digital merchandise. As a result, the system and the method may generate a recommendation that corresponds to the current interests of the user.

A system and method for managing branded digital items is provided. One embodiment generates a branded digital item in response to an agreement between a brand client and a content provider to use a branded product in a digital environment of the content provider, wherein the branded digital item is a recognizable graphical object; generates a branded digital item blockchain that includes a non-fungible token associated with the branded digital item; receives information corresponding to a purchase of the branded digital item by a user; and updates the non-fungible token to memorialize purchase of the branded digital item by the authorized user, wherein the updated non-fungible token is returned to a ledger of the branded digital item blockchain.

The invention belongs to the technical field of block chains and provides a vending machine data processing method based on a block chain. The method includes the steps that when a vending machine is out of stock, a replenishment request is sent to a digital goods exchange; after the digital goods exchange receives the replenishment request, goods meeting requirements are screened out, and ordering is conducted; after the vending machine is replenished with goods, goods supply confirmation information is sent to the digital goods exchange; after the digital goods exchange receives the goods supply confirmation information, the screened goods are subjected to asset transfer, and the goods supply confirmation information is embedded in transaction information. The invention further discloses a vending machine system based on the block chain. The system comprises a vending machine and the digital goods exchange. By means of the vending machine system based on the block chain and the data processing method, lacking goods and the number are automatically selected by the vending machine for ordering, and payment for goods of suppliers is automatically made.

The invention provides a method and apparatus for limiting access to a selected release of a software Product and / or associated License Keys to a subset of the manufacturer's customers who are entitled to receive the software Product or digital good, within an electronic software delivery and management system. A Product release is transmitted to the system for storage and limited distribution to a subset of entitled customers. A user interface enables the manufacturer, or partner such as a reseller, to specify distribution parameters that restrict distribution of the product version to specified customers. At least one customer is selected, such as, for example, one or more customers authorized to receive the product version. The product version is further designated as a restricted product version for the selected customers. Finally, the customer restriction information is stored in appropriate tables within a database.

A method and system are provided for monitoring use of a licensed digital good, such as software, digital audio or video, text, and web pages. Each licensed digital good is associated with a shared resource, such as a record in a remote database in a license server. The shared resource is updated with data, such as a sequence or periodic transmission, from each instance of the licensed digital good when each instance is used. By detecting if the data in the shared resource has experienced a race condition, the use of multiple instances of the licensed digital good is detected. The method and system can also be used to determine a number of unlicensed uses of the digital good for purposes of automatically selling additional licenses.

A system and a method generate a recommendation on a mobile device. The system and the method may use a time, a location, a venue and / or an event to generate the recommendation. Further, the system and the method may use an event database to determine current interests of the user. Still further, the system and the method for generating a recommendation on a mobile device may use a transactional history of the user and / or behavior of other users to generate the recommendation. The system and the method may recommend, for example, digital media, news and event information, editorial content and / or physical or digital merchandise. As a result, the system and the method may generate a recommendation that corresponds to the current interests of the user.

Systems and methods are provided for pricing, selling, and / or otherwise distributing electronic content using auction mechanisms. A randomized auction mechanism is used to determine both the number of goods that are sold and the selling price. The auction mechanism automatically adapts to the bid distribution to yield revenue that is competitive with that which could be obtained if the vendor were able to determine the optimal fixed price for the goods. In one embodiment a set of bids is randomly or quasi-randomly partitioned into two or more groups. An optimal threshold is determined for each group, and this threshold is then used to select winning bids from one or more of the other groups. In another embodiment, each bid is compared to a competing bid that is randomly or quasi-randomly selected from the set of bids. If the bid is less than the randomly-selected competing bid, the bid is rejected. Otherwise, the bid is accepted and the bidder buys the auctioned item at the price of the randomly-selected bid.

An e-commerce system where progressive incentives are displayed to entice shoppers to purchase goods is disclosed. The e-commerce system includes a database with a region of memory having data related to a first inventory of physical goods and a second inventory of digital goods. The e-commerce system also includes a website configured to facilitate an event, where the website is coupled to the database for accessing the first inventory in response to the event. The event may be a purchase of one or more physical goods. The e-commerce system further includes a webpage configured to display at least a portion of the first inventory that is available for sale, and to display one or more digital goods, where the webpage presents a locked digital good before the event occurs, and in response to one or more events occurring, the webpage presents an unlocked digital good.

An e-commerce system where progressive incentives are displayed to entice shoppers to purchase goods is disclosed. The e-commerce system includes a database with a region of memory having data related to a first inventory of physical goods and a second inventory of digital goods. The e-commerce system also includes a website configured to facilitate an event, where the website is coupled to the database for accessing the first inventory in response to the event. The event may be a purchase of one or more physical goods. The e-commerce system further includes a webpage configured to display at least a portion of the first inventory that is available for sale, and to display one or more digital goods, where the webpage presents a locked digital good before the event occurs, and in response to one or more events occurring, the webpage presents an unlocked digital good.

The invention discloses a digital goods transaction method and a digital goods transaction system for an e-commerce platform. Butting between a third-party digital transaction system and the e-commerce platform is realized by an application program interface (API) provided by the e-commerce platform, so data exchange and synchronization can be performed; management and control of each link of a digital goods circulation channel are realized by the third-party digital goods transaction system; the relevant service operation of the digital goods can be finished by using the system in the process of from a manufacturer to the each e-commerce platform, to a seller distributor and to a final user; meanwhile, real-time settlement and service data sharing are supported, so a complete efficient one-stop solution is realized. Synchronization of the e-commerce platform and the third-party digital goods transaction system, and secure circulation, secure transaction and optimal management of the digital goods are realized; no similar technology and no similar system exist at present, and a reference object is absent. The invention is applied to the field of internet e-commerce.

The invention discloses a method of realizing digital commodities trading based on computer network, in which at least five entities are involved: consumers, sellers, a digital commodities trading center, a bank of opening an account for consumers, a bank of opening an account for sellers. Before trading, the invention mainly includes: the trading center receives digital commodities of consumers and description information of the digital commodities, and publishes the description information of commodities on the Internet through its portal after checking that the commodities are in line with the description. The consumers choose the goods through the portal. The process of trading includes: after a seller receives the purchase request of a consumer, the seller sends the digital commodities to the consumer with encryption, the consumer applies for a payment token to the bank of opening account for consumers, the bank of opening account for consumers completes the payment through the payment token, and the seller sends a decryption key for the digital commodities to the consumer after confirming the payment. The method adopts the RSA asymmetric encryption method and wherein the trading center receives arbitration application and carries out the arbitration when there is a controversy.

Selection bias in providing user reviews for digital goods markets is compensated for by identifying users likely to provide positive reviews and actively soliciting reviews from these users. User activity data with respect to a digital good is gathered and used to identify enthusiast reviewers. Enthusiast users within the set of users are identified based on a comparison of user activity data with at least one criterion. Review solicitations are generated and provided to enthusiast users. Review solicitations are then sent to the identified users to encourage them to submit reviews for digital goods.

A system and method for providing private demand-driven pricing for fixed cost digital goods are described. An encrypted price of identically-priced digital goods is additively perturbed. The digital goods are stored in a database by a seller system and an approximate revenue maximizing price for the digital goods has not been realized. A purchasing decision about one of the digital goods based upon the additively-perturbed price is sent to the seller system without revealing the particular digital good. A conditionally disclosed symmetric key is received in return under which the digital goods in the database have been encrypted. The purchaser system and seller system engage in symmetric private information retrieval on the database. The purchaser system decrypts the digital good purchased with the symmetric key. The seller system privately updates the encrypted price of the digital goods to close on the approximate revenue maximizing price whenever a purchase is made.