U.S. patent application number 11/331296 was filed with the patent office on 2006-05-18 for on-line subscription system and method.
This patent application is currently assigned to Nokia Corporation. Invention is credited to Ari Aarnio.
Application Number | 20060106643 11/331296 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32094250 |
Filed Date | 2006-05-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060106643 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Aarnio; Ari |
May 18, 2006 |
On-line subscription system and method
Abstract
A system and a method of providing on-line subscription services
from a subscription server to a user of a mobile terminal through
the Internet. The subscription server receives from the mobile
terminal user-specific information relating to the user's mobile
terminal capabilities, the user's preferences of products, and the
user's financial information. The subscription server sends to the
mobile terminal at least locally or remotely retrieved information
related to a product based on the user-specific information. The
subscription server receives from the mobile terminal a request
indicating whether the user wishes to either cancel or purchase the
product. The subscription server cancels the product when the user
indicates so, and downloads the product to the mobile terminal when
the user desires to purchase the product.
Inventors: |
Aarnio; Ari; (Espoo,
FI) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Michael C. Stuart, Esq.;Cohen, Pontani, Lieberman & Pavane
Suite 1210
551 Fifth Avenue
New York
NY
10176
US
|
Assignee: |
Nokia Corporation
|
Family ID: |
32094250 |
Appl. No.: |
11/331296 |
Filed: |
January 12, 2006 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
09476674 |
Dec 30, 1999 |
7010500 |
|
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11331296 |
Jan 12, 2006 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/2 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/10 20130101;
G06Q 30/06 20130101; G06Q 30/0633 20130101; G06Q 30/0239
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/002 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 10/00 20060101
G06Q010/00; G06Q 50/00 20060101 G06Q050/00 |
Claims
1-12. (canceled)
13. A server for providing an electronic service to a user of a
mobile terminal in a cellular network, the server comprising: a
user register; memory for storing user-specific information related
to at least one capability of the mobile terminal, preferences of
the user and other user related information; seeking means for
locally seeking out at least one of digitally formatted electronic
text, audio and data from other vendor servers that the user
prefers or is interested to retrieve the at least one of digitally
formatted electronic text, audio and data registered by the user as
determined by the at least one capability of the mobile terminal,
the preferences of the user and the other user related information;
an interface for transmitting to the cellular telephone via the
cellular network at predetermined time intervals and without user
action the at least one of digitally formatted electronic text,
audio and data, if the at least one digitally formatted electronic
text, audio and data corresponds to the user specific information
stored at the server.
2. The server of claim 1, wherein the user-specific information
related to the capability of the mobile terminal comprises at least
one of a user agent, a terminal type and a network type for
enabling the sever to download data in a format that is compatible
with at least one of a protocol of the mobile terminal and the
cellular network.
3. The server of claim 1, wherein said mobile terminal includes a
Blue-tooth capable transceiver.
4. The server of claim 3, wherein if the mobile terminal is unable
to display or play the transmitted at least one of digitally
formatted electronic text, audio and data, the Blue-tooth capable
transceiver stores then transmits downloaded product to an external
device for presentation.
5. The server of claim 4, wherein the external device comprises one
of an electronic book or a laptop computer for at least one of
viewing and listening to the downloaded product.
6. The server of claim 1, wherein the server sends a URL message to
a shopping market website which redirects the server to other
vendor web sites to retrieve products for presentation to the user
based on the preferences of the user.
7. The server of claim 6, wherein the other vendor web sites
comprise various book publisher servers.
8. The server of claim 1, wherein an option to download the
transmitted at least one of digitally formatted electronic text,
audio and data is offered to the user if said at least one
digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data corresponds to
the user specific information stored at the server.
9. The server of claim 8, wherein an offer includes at least a
portion of at least one of digitally formatted electronic text,
audio and data.
10. The server of claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal comprises
one of a palm-sized computer, a Personal Digital Assistant and a
cellular telephone.
11. The server of claim 1, wherein the transmitted at least one of
digitally formatted electronic text comprises at least one of text
and JPEG image data.
12. The server of claim 1, wherein the user-specific information
comprises information relating to how the user is to pay for the at
least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 09/476,674 filed Dec. 30, 1999.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to the provision of services
over a wide-area network and, more particularly, to a system and a
method of providing audio and/or video data to a subscriber using a
wide-area network such as the Internet.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] In order to receive the newest and latest entertainment or
informational products such as books, music compact disks (CD's),
or movie tapes on a regular basis, consumers are often required to
join various clubs such as a book club, a CD club, and/or a movie
club. These clubs send periodically, typically on a monthly basis,
a preselected number of books, CDs, or movies to their members.
Delivery of these products by mail or similar services is usually
relatively slow so the members do not necessarily receive the most
current products. Also, when customers choose not to buy these
products, the overall costs of providing the service increase,
which inevitably raise the price of these products.
[0006] With the advent of the Internet, there is now available on
the World Wide Web a multitude of entertainment/informational
resources readily accessible by the consumers. To retrieve such
products, the consumers employ browsers installed on their desktop
computers to search and identify the appropriate Web sites
containing the desired products.
[0007] Now, users of mobile equipment such as wireless phones and
palm-sized personal computers also demand, as do users of desktop
computers, these same products. However, searching and browsing
such information using mobile equipment may not be practical, as
such mobile equipment has limited processing capability, memory,
and battery power. In addition, such mobile equipment has small
displays for viewing and manipulating information.
[0008] U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,941 discloses a portable digital device
for storing audio information on a hard drive, in a flash EPROM, or
other solid state non-volatile memory. The device may be connected
to an ISDN telephone, a digital satellite broadcast device, a
two-way interactive cable device, or an Internet Service Provider.
However, there is no disclosure of a system for distributing
information to subscribers automatically and periodically or a
system for distributing text and audio-video data customized for a
particular user on a subscription basis over a wireless
communication network.
[0009] Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for
providing consumers entertainment and informational products,
tailored to their- preferences and interests, on a regular basis
through a wide-area network and a wireless communication
network.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] An object of the present invention is to provide a system
and a method for distributing audio-video data from a database to a
subscriber automatically and periodically using a wide-area network
and a wireless communication network.
[0011] According to an aspect of the invention, the system includes
a mobile terminal and a server that can access data representing
audio-video information and/or text desired by a subscriber. The
server can also access data relating to the capabilities of the
mobile terminal, and preferences and financial information of a
subscriber so that the desired data or product may be downloaded to
the mobile terminal automatically and periodically. The server
charges the subscriber an agreed sum for the downloaded
product.
[0012] According to another aspect of the invention, the
subscription server periodically sends to the mobile terminal
information concerning products available for downloading. The
subscriber may reply by sending a response through the mobile
terminal indicating whether the subscriber wishes to receive the
products. The response may be formatted as a Short Message Service
(SMS) message or an e-mail to the subscription server. If the
subscriber accepts and specifies a product, the server downloads
the specified product to the mobile terminal. If the subscriber
does not accept any of the products, the subscriber sends a
cancellation message to the subscription server; the subscriber may
optionally place a voice call to the operator of the subscription
server.
[0013] In one embodiment, a subscription server provides online
subscription services to a user of a mobile terminal through the
Internet. The mobile terminal transmits to the subscription server
user-specific information relating to at least one of the user's
mobile terminal capabilities, the user's preferences of products,
and information relating to the user. The subscription server
receives the user-specific information relating to the at least one
of the user's mobile terminal capabilities, the user's preferences
of products, and information relating to the user. The subscription
server sends to the mobile terminal at predetermined time
intervals, in response to user-specific information relating to at
least one of the user's mobile terminal capabilities and the user's
preferences of products and the information relating to the user,
information related to a product when the user is authorized to
receive the product based on the user-specific information received
from the mobile terminal. The subscription server receives from the
mobile terminal a request indicating whether the user wishes to
receive or not receive the product. The subscription server
transmits the product in digital form to the mobile terminal when
the user indicates a desire to receive the product.
[0014] In another embodiment, the entire product (e.g., book,
music, etc.) is downloaded to customers' mobile terminals,
including a special "gateway lock". The customer can, for example,
read the first page of the downloaded book, or listen to one-minute
of the downloaded music etc. and after that the "gateway lock"
prohibits the use of the product and the user must choose whether
to buy the product or not. If the answer is "yes", the "gateway
lock" opens and the rest of the downloaded product can be accessed
by the customer and fees are charges according to the terms of an
agreement or club rules already agreed to by the customer. This
embodiment has the advantage of lower overall costs. One
possibility is that the product is sent back to the server so that
the server knows that the subscription is cancelled.
[0015] Routing of data packets between a sender (e.g., the
subscription server) and a receiver (e.g., a mobile terminal) is
described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,458, which is incorporated herein
by reference.
[0016] Other objects and features of the present invention will
become apparent from the following detailed description considered
in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be
understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for
purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of
the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended
claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not
necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated,
they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures
and procedures described herein.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote
similar elements:
[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates an on-line subscription system using a
wide-area network in accordance with an embodiment of the present
invention;
[0019] FIG. 2 depicts another embodiment of the on-line
subscription system of the present invention; and
[0020] FIG. 3 is a flow chart describing an embodiment of the
inventive method.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0021] FIG. 1 illustrates an on-line subscription system 10 in
accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The system
10 includes a mobile or a wireless communication network 12 for
communicating with a mobile terminal 14 comprising, for example, a
palm-sized personal computer, a Personal Digital Assistant, and a
wireless phone. The wireless communication network 12 is connected
to a wide area network such as the Internet 16 through an Internet
access 18 such as a gateway server. Advantageously, the system 10
includes a subscription server 20, connected directly to an
Intranet 22, and indirectly to Internet 16 through an Intranet
access 24, for automatically and regularly communicating data to a
subscriber, i.e., a user who is registered with the subscription
server 20. A user is registered when the user submits to the
subscription server 20 the requisite user-specific information,
which will be stored in a subscription database accessible by the
subscription server 20. The user-specific information includes the
capabilities of the user's hardware, the user's financial
information, and the user's preferences. Information on the user's
hardware capabilities (e.g., user agent, terminal type, network
type etc.) enables the server to download data in a format
compatible with the mobile terminal's protocol and the user
network's protocol. The user's financial information such as, for
example, the user's name, address, bank, credit or debit card
account and other requisite billing information is included so that
fees can be charged against the user's account as appropriate. As
one example, the user's preferences are included so that the
subscription server 20 can automatically seek out and retrieve
digitally-formatted products preferred by or otherwise interesting
to the user (e.g., works of favorite writers, composers, singers,
artists, music bands, orchestras, etc.) locally or from other
vendor servers connected to the Internet for transmission to the
user's mobile terminal using, for example, a search engine.
[0022] FIG. 2 illustrates another embodiment of the inventive
on-line subscription system 10. The mobile terminal 14 includes a
Bluetooth-capable transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly
using Bluetooth technology (i.e., using low power RF link) with a
Bluetooth-compliant device 26 such as, for example, an electronic
book ("e-book"), an audio player, or a multimedia player for
displaying or playing audio-visual information. The
Bluetooth-capable transceiver may for example be a digital
broadcast transceiver 30 for communication with a broadcast network
27 or a third generation General Packet Radio Service (3G or GPRS)
terminal 28 for communication with a 3G GPRS network 25. The
Bluetooth-capable transceiver is a device that operates at a radio
frequency of about 2.4 GHz and is capable of establishing radio
links with other compliant devices within a predetermined distance
of each other (e.g., typically less than about 30 feet). Thus, user
of the transceiver 26 may move about a facility, but still maintain
access to the user's e-mail, contacts, or appointments through a
Local Area Network (LAN). If unable to display or play the
downloaded product from the subscription server 20, the
Bluetooth-capable transceiver may store the downloaded product and
then transfer (e.g., using wireless or wireline devices) the
downloaded product to, for example, the electronic book 26 (or a
laptop computer) for presentation, e.g., viewing and/or
listening.
[0023] The subscription server 20 may access data or product from a
local database or from a vendor server 32 (operated by, for
example, a book publisher) connected to the Internet. In the case
where direct access to the vendor server 32 is required, the
subscription server 20 sends a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
message (a conventional method of locating or retrieving resources
from the World Wide Web) addressed to the vendor server 32 and
retrieves the desired data from the vendor server 32. Optionally,
the subscription server 20 sends a URL message to a "shopping
market" 33 Web site which then redirects the subscription server 20
to other vendor Web sites (e.g., various book publisher's servers)
to retrieve the product which has been determined to be interesting
to the user by using the user's preferences. It is not necessary
that user preferences determine when and what information is sent
but the book club (or the subscription server 20) itself can decide
what and when should be sent depending on the collection of items
the book club is interested in. The user preferences may, for
example, be a predetermined time period (e.g., once a month) the
product is transmitted to the user. For example, for an electronic
book club, the text of one or more books is transmitted on the
first of each month by the subscription server 20 and downloaded
into the mobile terminal 14.
[0024] FIG. 3 is a flowchart describing an embodiment of the
on-line subscription method of the present invention. Initially, in
step 100, the subscription server 20 determines whether
user-specific information for a user exists. In step 102, if the
user-specific information exists (or if the user is authorized to
receive information from the subscription server 20), the
subscription server 20 retrieves (locally, or remotely from a
vendor server by, for example, sending a URL request) and transmits
to the mobile terminal 14 information relating to available
products at each predetermined period of time. The products are
selected based on the user's preferences obtained from the
previously submitted user-specific information. If user-specific
information does not exist for the user (or the user is not
authorized to receive information from the subscription server 20),
that user must register with the subscription server 20 and supply
the requisite information before he can receive product-related
information from the subscription server 20, as indicated in step
104. In step 106, the subscription server 20 assesses and sends to
the mobile terminal 14 the product-related information. In step
108, the user determines whether to purchase a product (e.g., MP3
(MPEG, layer 3) coded music data and/or JPEG coded image data etc.)
based on the product-related information. If not, the user sends a
cancellation request from the mobile terminal 14 to the
subscription server 20 in step 110. The subscription server 20 then
cancels the product in step 112. The cancellation message may be
sent to a special address specified in the message sent. When the
server 20 receives the message, it will add a cancellation mark to
the subscriber information. In step 109, it is determined whether
the product is included in the message. If the product is included
in the message, the method jumps to step 116. If the product is not
included in the message, the subscription server 20 retrieves and
transmits (i.e., downloads) the product to the mobile terminal 14
in step 114 based on the network capabilities specified by the
user. The mobile terminal 14 then determines whether the mobile
terminal 14 is capable of presenting the product based on the
user-specific information in step 116. If so, the mobile terminal
14 receives and presents the product by, for example, using an MP3
player to convert the product into sounds which are played on a
speaker in step 118. If not, the mobile terminal 14 transfers the
product to a Bluetooth-capable player 26 such as, for example, an
electronic book, an audio player, and/or a multimedia player etc.
in step 120. In the case where text and/or JPEG image data are
transferred to the electronic book 26, the user may view one or
more pages on the electronic book 26 as the user depresses
sequentially a signaling switch thereon to cause transfer of
additional data for display thereon. Thereafter, the subscription
server 20 charges the user's credit or debit card account the price
of the downloaded product.
[0025] In another embodiment, the entire product (e.g., book,
music, etc.) is downloaded to customers' mobile terminals,
including a special "gateway lock". The customer can, for example,
read the first page of the downloaded book, or listen to one [-]
minute of the downloaded music etc. and after that the "gateway
lock" prohibits the use of the product and the user is requested to
decide whether to buy the product or not. If the answer is "yes",
the "gateway lock" opens (by, for example, a decoding message or
instruction from the subscription server 20) and the rest of the
downloaded product can then be accessed by the customer and fees
are charge[s] d according to the terms of an agreement or club
rules already agreed to by the customer. This embodiment has the
advantage of lower overall costs. It is contemplated that instead
of canceling the product, the product may be sent back to the
server so that the server knows that the subscription is cancelled.
It is also contemplated that instead of sending a decoding message
back from the server, the downloaded product includes an access
code for unlocking the gateway lock so that the customer can access
the entire product.
[0026] The steps of this embodiment include the following. The
mobile terminal 14 receives a free sample (e.g., a portion of a
book or a musical piece) and displays or plays the free sample to
the customer. After displaying the free sample (of predetermined
length), the customer is asked whether he or she wants to continue.
If the customer indicates a desire to continue, the mobile terminal
clears the gateway lock so that the customer can continue his or
her enjoyment of the product and the requisite fees are displayed
to the customer and charged to the customer's account.
[0027] In another embodiment, the entire product (e.g., book,
music, etc.) is downloaded to customers' mobile terminals,
including a special "gateway lock". The customer can, for example,
read the first page of the downloaded book, or listen to one [-]
minute of the downloaded music etc. and after that the "gateway
lock" prohibits the use of the product and the user is requested to
decide whether to buy the product or not. If the answer is "yes",
the "gateway lock" opens (by, for example, a decoding message or
instruction from the subscription server 20) and the rest of the
downloaded product can then be accessed by the customer and fees
are charged according to the terms of an agreement or club rules
already agreed to by the customer. This embodiment has the
advantage of lower overall costs. It is contemplated that instead
of canceling the product, the product may be sent back to the
server so that the server knows that the subscription is cancelled.
It is also contemplated that instead of sending a decoding message
back from the server, the downloaded product includes an access
code for unlocking the gateway lock so that the customer can access
the entire product.
[0028] Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out
fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a
preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various
omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of
the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by
those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the
invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all
combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform
substantially the same function in substantially the same way to
achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention.
Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements
and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any
disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated
in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment
as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention,
therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the
claims appended hereto.
* * * * *