Purchasing a gift using a service provider network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9536233-B2
Application number	US-94119907-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 16, 2007
Priority date	Nov 16, 2007
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A system facilitates a first user providing a second user with a gift through a service provider network. A first user may provide an asset such as a ring tone for use on the second user's mobile device. Alternatively, the first user may provide a monetary credit to the second user. Embodied systems are enabled for charging or billing an account associated with the first user and notifying the first user of a successful transaction including receipt or use of the gift. In some embodiments, a service delivery platform communicates with a unified storefront and a payment module for receiving and processing gift requests and payments. Gifts may be requested through an interface associated with the first user's IPTV set-top box. In addition, gifts may be presented to the second user by an interface associated with the second user's set-top box. The unified storefront allows access to gifting through mobile devices and other networked data processing systems in addition to set-top boxes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A gift purchasing method comprising:
providing a network server of a multimedia provider network with a processor-executable storefront program hosting a plurality of storefront interfaces, the plurality of storefront interfaces including a mobile storefront interface accessible to a mobile device of a first user of the multimedia provider network and a set-top box storefront interface accessible to a set-top box of the first user, wherein the network server includes a processor that, when executing the storefront program, performs operations comprising;
responsive to receiving, from the mobile device, a gift request, wirelessly transmitted via a mobile telephone network, indicating a network-deliverable gift and a second user of the multimedia provider network, determining, by the network server, a type of the network-deliverable gift, wherein the type of the network-deliverable gift is selected from a multimedia gift including multimedia content and a mobile device gift;
determining, by the network server based on the type of the network-deliverable gift, a delivery network appropriate for the network-deliverable gift, wherein the delivery network is selected from the multimedia provider network and the mobile telephone network;
automatically selecting, by the network server, a network-deliverable asset corresponding to the network-deliverable gift and compatible with a device of the second user;
authorizing, by the network server, delivery of the network-deliverable asset to the device of the second user via the delivery network;
notifying the second user of the network-deliverable gift; and
delivering the network-deliverable asset to the device of the second user to configure the device of the second user for playback of the network-deliverable asset.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving payment credentials from the first user; and
accessing a payment module with the payment credentials in response to receiving a payment associated with the network-deliverable gift.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
verifying the payment credentials of the first user; and
requesting compensation from a billing system using the payment credentials.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
notifying the first user of receiving the payment.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein a unified storefront provided by the multimedia provider network receives the first request and notifies a service delivery platform of the network-deliverable gift request, wherein the method includes:
updating a billing account associated with the payment credentials.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the billing account is associated with the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the multimedia provider network includes an Internet protocol television network and wherein the multimedia content includes Internet protocol television content.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
retrieving the payment credentials from a set-top box wherein the set-top box is configured to access the unified storefront using a universal resource locator.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multimedia provider network includes a co-axial cable television network.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network-deliverable gift is a telephone asset and the asset is a ring tone compatible with a mobile telephone of the second user.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network-deliverable gift is a multimedia provider network asset and the asset is a video on demand content.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium, including processor executable program instructions for a storefront program hosting a plurality of storefront interfaces, the plurality of storefront interfaces including a mobile storefront interface accessible to a mobile device of a first user of a multimedia provider network, that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
providing a network server of a multimedia provider network with a processor-executable storefront program hosting a plurality of storefront interfaces, the plurality of storefront interfaces including a mobile storefront interface accessible to a mobile device of a first user of the multimedia provider network, wherein the network server includes a processor that, when executing the storefront program, performs operations comprising;
responsive to receiving, from the mobile device, a gift request, wirelessly transmitted via a mobile telephone network, indicating a network-deliverable gift and a second user of the multimedia provider network, determining, by the network server, a type of the network-deliverable gift, wherein the type of the network-deliverable gift is selected from a multimedia gift including multimedia content and a mobile device gift;
determining, by the network server based on the type of the network-deliverable gift, a delivery network appropriate for the network-deliverable gift, wherein the delivery network is selected from the multimedia provider network and the mobile telephone network;
automatically selecting, by the network server, a network-deliverable asset corresponding to the network-deliverable gift and compatible with a device of the second user;
authorizing, by the network server, delivery of the network-deliverable asset to the device of the second user via the delivery network;
notifying the second user of the network-deliverable gift; and
delivering the network-deliverable asset to the device of the second user to configure the device of the second user for playback of the network-deliverable asset.

13. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12 , wherein the network-deliverable gift request indicates a particular title of a particular multimedia gift.

14. The computer readable memory medium of claim 13 , wherein the network-deliverable gift request indicates a condition on content with which the asset must comply.

15. The computer readable memory medium of claim 13 , wherein the operations include:
processing a request from the first user specifying characteristics of music for purchase using the network-deliverable gift.

16. An application server associated with a multimedia provider network, the application server including:
a processor;
a computer readable memory medium including processor executable instructions for a storefront program hosting a plurality of storefront interfaces, the plurality of storefront interfaces including a mobile storefront interface accessible to a mobile device of a first user of the multimedia provider network, that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
responsive to receiving, from the mobile device, a gift request, wirelessly transmitted via a mobile telephone network, indicating a network-deliverable gift and a second user of the multimedia provider network, determining, by the network server, a type of the network-deliverable gift, wherein the type of the network-deliverable gift is selected from a multimedia gift including multimedia content and a mobile device gift;
determining, by the network server based on the type of the network-deliverable gift, a delivery network appropriate for the network-deliverable gift, wherein the delivery network is selected from the multimedia provider network and the mobile telephone network;
automatically selecting, by the network server, a network-deliverable asset corresponding to the network-deliverable gift and compatible with a device of the second user;
authorizing, by the network server, delive

Assignees

• Piepenbrink David
• Chow Lee M
• Gopal Sudha
• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Piepenbrink David
• Chow Lee M
• Gopal Sudha
• Ly Helen

Classifications

• G06Q30/06

  Buying, selling or leasing transactions · CPC title

• G06Q30/0601

  Electronic shopping [e-shopping] · CPC title

• G06Q20/102

  Bill distribution or payments · CPC title

• G06Q20/123 Primary

  Shopping for digital content · CPC title

• G06Q20/306

  using TV related infrastructures (external card used for payment with client device H04N21/4185) · CPC title