US 10,096,039 B2Granted

System for marketing campaign specification and secure digital coupon redemption

AssigneeGroupon, Inc.

InventorsJames F. Kramer, Paul C. Ning

Life of this patent

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Abstract

Product vendors are provided with a system for performing a marketing campaign to mobile communication device users, providing offers as instruments, such as digital coupons, to a selected group of users of the mobile communication devices and validating the integrity of the instruments. The invention has two phases: the selection of the components of the instrument from a menu provided by a social networking organization; and validating the instrument upon redemption from the product vendor. In the first phase, the product vendor selects elements from the menu relevant to the campaign, such as timing, nature of the offer, targeting of the recipients, etc. In the second phase, the instrument is encoded as to the marketing campaign and an arbitrary designation which initiates a pattern as the instrument is redeemed. The product vendor inspects the instrument to ensure that the encoding is correct during the redemption process.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A system for validating the proper use of an instrument presented on a mobile communication device associated with a user for redemption of said instrument, said system comprising:

a data processor configured to:
access data comprising information of said user and a marketing campaign associated with said instrument;
originate said instrument;
and
validate said instrument upon receiving data indicating redemption of said instrument by:
determining a sequence designator of said instrument, the sequence designator determined by:
upon determination that no other instrument in a family of instruments has been redeemed, choosing, at random, an initial sequence generator for the family of instruments from a range of sequence designators;
and
upon determination that a previous instrument in the family of instruments has been redeemed, incrementing a previous sequence designator in accordance with a predetermined pattern;
and
sending said sequence designator to said mobile communication device;
and
said mobile communication device having a user interface configured for display of an unredeemed instrument having no sequence designator and, upon redemption, a redeemed instrument having the sequence designator, the mobile communication device configured to:
cause display of the unredeemed instrument;
transmit to said data processor said data indicating redemption of said instrument;
and
update user interface to display said sequence designator on said display of said mobile communication device.

14 more elements

A computer program product for validating the proper use of an instrument presented on a mobile communication device associated with a user for redemption of said instrument comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code instructions stored therein, the computer-executable program code instructions comprising program code instructions for:

accessing data comprising information of said user and a marketing campaign associated with said instrument;
originating said instrument;
and
validating said instrument upon receiving data indicating redemption of said instrument by:
determining a sequence designator of said instrument, the sequence designator determined by:
upon determination that no other instrument in a family of instruments has been redeemed, choosing, at random, an initial sequence generator for the family of instruments from a range of sequence designators;
and
upon determination that a previous instrument in the family of instruments has been redeemed, incrementing a previous sequence designator in accordance with a predetermined pattern;
and
sending said sequence designator to said mobile communication device, said mobile communication device having a user interface configured for display of an unredeemed instrument having no sequence designator and, upon redemption, a redeemed instrument having the sequence designator, the mobile communication device configured to:
cause display of the unredeemed instrument;
transmit to said data processor said data indicating redemption of said instrument;
and
update user interface to display said sequence designator on said display of said mobile communication device.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/052,542Filed 11 Oct 2013 · continuation
Priority: 30 Jan 2006
Published: US 2014/0195322 A110 Jul 2014
Granted: 9 Oct 2018
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G06Q 30/0225
Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates: avoiding frauds
G06Q 10/40
Administration; Management: business processes related to social networking or social networking services
G06Q 30/02
Commerce: marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
G06Q 30/0224
Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates: based on user history

Family

Application11/307,262Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 30 Jan 2006
Application60/823,573Us provisional application · filed 25 Aug 2006
PCT/US2007/061328Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 30 Jan 2007
Application12/182,592Parent of this continuation · filed 30 Jul 2008
Application13/329,307Parent of this continuation · filed 18 Dec 2011
US 2014/0195322 A1Pre-grant publication · published 10 Jul 2014
US 8,583,447 B2Parent of this continuation
US 8,103,519 B2Parent of this continuation
Application12/161,554Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 7,856,360 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part
Application12/182,592Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 7,788,188 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 2007/0179792 A1Published application
US 2008/0306826 A1Published application
US 2009/0024477 A1Published application
US 2012/0089453 A1Published application
US 10,096,039 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.