WO2014120089A1

WO2014120089A1 - Electronic publications with electronic coupons incorporated

Info

Publication number: WO2014120089A1
Application number: PCT/SG2014/000030
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ser Tuen WEI; Yongjian WEI
Original assignee: Wei Ser Tuen
Priority date: 2013-01-29
Filing date: 2014-01-24
Publication date: 2014-08-07

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods and systems for electronic publications like magazines, newspapers, comics, periodicals, books, brochures, fliers etc. with electronic coupons incorporated are disclosed. This invention includes how electronic coupons are incorporated into electronic publications and other processes to redeem these coupons comprises of one click redemption, registration, verification and authentication. This invention has elaborated and catered towards very large customer base and wide usage for advertisers to acquire more business and customer data. Advantageously, this invention allows physical publications like magazines, newspapers, brochures and fliers in the market to be replaced with electronic which will save a lot of resources for the publishers. It is environmental friendly and reduce carbon footprint. Moreover, customers only keep those coupons that they want and will not cause any storage or loss of coupons problems.

Description

ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS WITH ELECTRONIC COUPONS

INCORPORATED

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to electronic coupons, more particularly in the incorporating of electronic coupons in electronic publications like magazines, newspapers, comics, periodicals, books, brochures, fliers etc.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Today, there exists a few ways of which coupons can be distributed and used. A seller of a service or a product can distribute either physical or electronic coupons.

Normally, the distribution process of physical coupons requires sizeable manpower and incurs a certain amount of printing cost to ensure success. Moreover, the

distribution of physical coupons is environmentally

unfriendly. The distribution process through electronic means is normally through mass email messages with e- coupons attached or within the message. The merchant then hopes that through this distribution of e-coupons, some of the potential customers that receive the messages will redeem the e-coupons included. Additionally, a seller can post their coupons on a website or web services like

Groupon^m hoping that with the popularity of tihe website, potential customers will redeem them. However, these methods tend to be expensive and

ineffective for merchants. It is discovered to be highly inefficient in attracting potential customers. The mass emails and e-coupon distribution carry a fixed cost and is based upon a hope that potential customer exists. A seller must pay the website provider in order to put its

e-coupons on the website without any assurance at all that the e-coupons will be requested and redeemed by customers. Even existing location-aware wireless targeted advertising methods have a cost to transmit an advertisement when a mobile customer is around a particular store. Therefore, there is a need for distribution of e-coupons to more specific group of customers based on their interests either from the Internet or to their mobile devices, at very low cost.

Therefore, it is the intention of this invention to address these needs especially through the electronic publications. Today, coupons advertised on the electronic copy of a physical publication cannot be cut out though it may be printed out. But it is tedious and difficult to control and verify for very large customers base and also the targeted customers. This invention addresses these problems where even very large customers base or targeted customers can redeem the e-coupons with ease through the invention's authentication process as well as to be able to sign up for a merchant's service. In US2007/0288313 patent, it disclosed a method wherein a consumer registers for an electronic coupon program and receives an e-coupon card programmed with consumer and corresponding e-coupon account identification information. However, it does not teach a method using e-coupon card to redeem coupons through the electronic publications .

US20040210484 patent disclosed that the consumers are required to present printed coupons to a retailer in which consumers have to sign up for membership to deter fraud, whereas US6766301 is another patent with a membership user coupon program to deter fraud. It requires the entering of a resident zip code by a consumer to an online database system. However, in this present invention it teaches how electronic coupons are incorporated into an electronic publication application downloaded to the consumers' personal electronic devices like tablets, iPad, iPhone, smartphones, etc. All coupons in the personal devices are in electronic form and can be verified and redeemed easily without possible fraud. Hence, this invention is distinct and dissimilar.

US7418451 relates to an E-coupon service for location- aware mobile commerce, a conditional e-coupon distribution method distributes e-coupon predefined by sellers to mobile users only if the number of mobile users requesting such e-coupons equals or exceeds a threshold. However, in this present invention it teaches the distribution of electronic coupons is done by consumers downloading electronic publications to their personal electronic devices.

The prior art does not provide a platform for electronic coupons distribution through electronic publications like magazines, newspapers, comics, periodicals, books, brochures, fliers etc. Whereby they can easily be

displayed, registered, redeemed and verified. In addition, this invention includes collection of data of the

electronic coupons which will be useful for the merchants. This invention can do away the physical copies of the print coupons yet achieve greater functionalities and usefulness to readers, merchants and the publishers . The invention is to provide the solution of electronic coupons whereby the electronic publications of magazines, newspapers, comics, periodicals, books, brochures, fliers, etc. can be used for e-coupons distribution, registration and redemption. It also allows very large number of distribution, registration and redemption with easy authentication process to run on the system through personal devices of the consumers. Moreover, this

invention allows not only e-coupons on the existing advertisements in the publication but also ad-hoc coupons that advertisers want to target to a particular group of customers at certain time or date through their personal devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed herein are systems and methods of coupons incorporated into electronic publications like magazines, newspapers, comics, periodicals, books, brochures, fliers etc. An electronic coupon system is disclosed from which electronic coupons incorporated in electronic publication are made redeemable. In an exemplary embodiment,_ an electronic device with at least a screen and a processor contains an electronic publication application. Electronic publications can be downloaded into the device through the application. The application will then process these electronic

publications with electronic coupons incorporated which are downloaded. In one of the embodiments, a method for the electronic coupons to be redeemed with verification and authentication process with an interface on the display is disclosed. These coupons can either have forms or no form for consumers to fill in before the coupons are redeemed. Hence, with redeemable coupons in the

electronic publication, consumers can now redeem coupons in their electronic publications. In addition, since electronic publications target different interest groups, electronic coupons incorporated in electronic publications can be coupons that are related to their respective

publication.

The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations and omissions of detail. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.l is a flow diagram of an electronic coupon delivery process according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.2 is a diagram of a representative electronic

publication program displaying downloadable electronic publications available from a server according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.3 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays downloaded electronic publications according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.4 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays a library where all electronic coupons are collated from electronic publications according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.5 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays electronic coupons categorize in "list all" sorting according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.6 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays electronic coupons categorize according to date and according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.7 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays an interface of searching an electronic coupon in a coupon library according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.8A and 8B are diagrams of an electronic publication program that display a page of an electronic publication with an electronic coupon incorporated according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.9 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays an enlargement of an electronic coupon that is selected according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.10 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays an electronic coupon in which the form in the coupon is filled and verified according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.11 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays an electronic coupon that requires a merchant verification after selecting "To redeem" button according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.12 is a diagram of an electronic publication program that displays an electronic coupon being successfully redeemed according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG.13A to 13D are diagrams of redemption processes in an electronic publication from a list of coupons instead from a page of the electronic publication according to one embodiment of the invention.

A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

FIG.1 is a flow diagram of an electronic coupon delivery process 100 according to one embodiment of the invention. There is a server 01 where electronic

publications are stored. In which consumers can download 03 these electronic publications into their devices with the internet connection, 3G, LTE and other wireless connections, connected to the server, through an

electronic publication application installed. In addition, the downloading of electronic magazines can be from other sources and open up by an electronic publication

application installed. These sources comprise of websites, sideloading, storage mediums and other media servers. The electronic publication application will then process these electronic publications . The processing 05 or functions comprises of displaying all available electronic

publications that are downloaded, grabbing electronic coupons from downloaded publications and displaying the electronic publication for reading. Users can either access these electronic coupons in their respective publications 07 or from a list of collated electronic coupons 09. Those coupons in a publication are displayed in their respective pages 11, they can be selected 13 while reading the publication. While coupons collated are displayed in a list 15 for consumers to select 17. Both types of selection of coupons can have forms details 19 to fill in. If there is no form the coupon can be redeemed directly with a merchant, with a click on its redeem logo. If there is a form to fill in, details submitted will be verified 25. These data will be sent to the server to be verified. Once approved, the server will issue a unique serial no. 29 or any other forms of authentication for that particular coupon. Now the serial number will appear on that electronic coupon and a redeem logo will appear. This coupon can be redeemed 31 by selecting the redeem logo at the merchant's payment counter. Moreover, an additional step to redeem a coupon comprises of entering a merchant's code or a unique code to redeem the coupon upon selection of the redeem logo.

FIG.2 is a diagram of a representative electronic

publication program 200 displaying downloadable electronic publications available from a server according to one embodiment of the invention. Under electronic publication store 201, there are many different electronic

publications 203 which comprise of magazines, newspapers, comics, periodicals, books, brochures, fliers etc. They can be categorized easily. These electronic publications can be downloaded by selecting download 204. At the menu 205 of the electronic publication application in which user can select where they want to go, for examples, library 206, coupons 208 can be selected. Library 206 is where all electronic publications downloaded are displayed. From there a user can select an electronic publication to read it. Coupon library 208 is where all the electronic- coupons are collated from electronic publications

downloaded.

FIG.3 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 300 that displays downloaded electronic publications according to one embodiment of the invention. Interface 303 displays different electronic publication titles. They can be categorized easily.

FIG.4 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 400 that displays a library where all electronic coupons are collated from electronic publications according to one embodiment of the invention. This section can include other standalone or ad-hoc electronic coupons. Standalone or ad-hoc coupons comprises of coupons from websites and merchants, which are not incorporated into electronic publications. This function can be useful when merchants want to give better service or discount to those who purchase certain electronic publications.

The top menu of this interface comprises of categories of electronic coupons. Under "To Redeem" 401 are electronic coupons where they are ready for redemption. Under "To Register" 403 are electronic coupons that require a

consumer to fill in form details. Under "Redeemed" 405 are electronic coupons that are redeemed. Under "List All" 407 are all the electronic coupons which show their details. Under "Display All" 409 shows the electronic coupons in thumbnails . In FIG.4, electronic coupons are sorted as "Display All" 409. In this configuration, row 416,418 and 420 show a category or a title of a publication in which under each of them are their electronic coupons. For example

electronic coupons under row 416 can be found in a electronic publication titled Bloomperg Weekly_2011-10-01, electronic coupons under row 418 can be found in

electronic publication a titled Singapore Weekly_2011-12- 01 and Standalone coupons category, row 420 are electronic coupons that are not from electronic publications

downloaded.

Comparing electronic coupon 422 and 424 show a different in the outline of the coupon. In reality, these outlines comprise of markings and color coding to differentiate electronic coupons in their various stages of redemption. For examples, red outlines can represent redeemed coupons, green outlines are coupons ready for redemption and no outline are coupons that need a consumer's inputs.

FIG.5 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 500 that displays electronic coupons categorized in "list all" 502 sorting according to one embodiment of the invention. "List All" sorting of the coupons displays small electronic coupons thumbnail and each of their brief description 506 can also include expiry date 508.

FIG.6 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 600 that displays a library of electronic coupons

categorized according to date and according to one embodiment of the invention. Electronic coupons are sorted according to time left and date 604 before an electronic coupon expires. Electronic coupons can be configured to either sort in ascending or descending order.

FIG.7 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 700 that displays an interface of searching an electronic coupon in a coupon library according to one embodiment of the invention. Under the menu, search option 702 can be selected upon which a box will appear for a consumer to key in search details. The consumer can either key in details for both blanks for coupon details 704 and title name 706 or just one of them.

FIG.8A and 8B are diagrams of an electronic publication program 800 that display a page of an electronic

publication with an electronic coupon incorporated according to one embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 8A, display a page in an electronic publication shows an article 801 and an electronic coupon 802 with pictures and details. FIG.8B shows a page of an electronic publication in which an electronic coupon is incorporated into the publication with a coupon button 806 only. A consumer can select the coupon button 804 and 806. Upon selection, an enlargement of the electronic coupon will appear which can contain more information or details. If the electronic coupon needs a consumer's participation or data, an interface like in FIG.9 can appear for the consumer to fill in the blanks. If it is a readily redeemable coupon an interface like in FIG.10 can appear but without the need for a consumer's inputs.

FIG.9 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 900 that displays an enlargement of an electronic coupon that is selected according to one embodiment of the invention. This electronic coupon requires a consumer to fill in form details or register 906. In this coupon, form details would be one's name, email and mobile number.

These form details can comprise of survey, quizzes, feedbacks, name, email, mobile number, code,

identifications, uploading of files, photos, taking of pictures, scanning codes or images, and any other form of data that a electronic coupon requires. There can be a function 904 in which form details are remembered so that a consumer does not have to repeatedly key in form details in other electronic coupons that need the same details. When the form is filled up, the consumer click on submit 908. Form details are sent to a server to verify if necessary and once verified, the coupon will be ready for redemption. Help 910 function can be included to assist the consumer in filling up the form details or other information in order for the electronic coupon to be redeemable. FIG.10 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 1000 that displays an electronic coupon in which the form in the coupon is filled and verified according to one embodiment of the invention. In this stage the electronic coupon is ready to be redeemed by clicking "To Redeem" 1002. The electronic coupon can show what details 1006_, are being submitted in the form. Submitted forms can also be configured to be changeable as long as the coupon is not being redeemed. Forms details can be used as verification purposes when presenting the electronic coupon to its merchant. The electronic coupon can also have serial number 1004 tagged to it or other form of authentication. Other functions also can be implemented which comprises of number of times 1008 an electronic coupon can be redeem, sharing of electronic coupons through social media and bookmarking of a merchant.

FIG.11 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 1100 that displays an electronic coupon that requires a merchant verification after selecting "To Redeem" button 1101 according to one embodiment of the invention. This is to further authenticate the electronic coupon or to prevent users from accidental redemption. Once the merchant has entered a code and submit 1103 is selected, the coupon is redeemed. Data can be sent to a server to record or verify the redemption. If any help is require, help button 1105 is pressed and a pop-up trill appear showing help contents.

FIG.12 is a diagram of an electronic publication program 1200 that displays an electronic coupon being successfully redeemed according to one embodiment of the invention. Once an electronic coupon is redeemed the electronic coupon will be marked. In this case a cross 1201 across the electronic coupon shows that the electronic coupon is redeemed fully. It can include details of redemption like time, date and merchants' outlets. FIG.13A to 13D are diagrams of redemption processes in an electronic publication from a list of coupons of an electronic publication according to one embodiment of the invention. The processes are similar to that of selecting an electronic coupon from a particular page as mentioned in FIG.9-12 bu instead an electronic coupon is being selected from the list of coupons in the coupon library which the coupon library is mentioned in FIG. 4-6.

Claims

THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS

1. An electronic system comprising:

a) at least a screen

b) at least a processor

c) at least an electronic coupon incorporated into said electronic publications which has means to be redeemed whereby coupons in physical publications originally could not be redeemed in electronic form of these physical publications are now made possible by incorporating electronic coupons in the electronic publications.

2. According to claim 1 wherein electronic publications comprises of books, magazines and newspapers.

3. According to claim 1 wherein said electronic coupons are different from those found in physical publications.

4. According to claim 1 wherein said electronic coupons have videos embedded into them.

5. According to claim 1 wherein said electronic coupons have forms for customers to fill up to redeem them.

6. According to claim 5, wherein details filled up by customers in electronic coupons are submitted to a server.

7. According to claim 6, details submitted to the server are verified and electronic coupons will be authenticated.

8. According to claim 1, wherein electronic coupons incorporated in downloaded electronic publications are categorized.

9. According to claim 1, wherein electronic coupons incorporated in downloaded electronic publications have the ability to be searched.

10. According to claim 1 wherein said program has the function to search electronic coupons incorporated in electronic publications.

11. According to claim 1, wherein said program has the function to differentiate the electronic coupons in various stages of redemption.

12. According to claim 11, wherein the function to differentiate electronic coupons comprises of sorting by categories and color coding.

13. According to claim 11, wherein the said stages of redemption comprise of available for user to fill in data to make redeemable, verifying, redeemable, redeemed and expired.

14. According to claim 1, wherein electronic coupons will have serial no. embedded once forms are filled and verified.

15. An electronic device comprising:

a display;

means for displaying an electronic publication on the screen; and

means for displaying an electronic coupon incorporated into an electronic publication; and means for redeeming an electronic coupon on the electronic device .

16. According to claim 15 wherein electronic publications . comprises of books, magazines and newspapers.

17. According to claim 15 wherein said electronic coupons are different from those found in physical publications.

18. According to claim 15 wherein said electronic coupons have videos embedded into them.

19. According to claim 18, wherein details filled up by customers in electronic coupons are submitted to a server.

20. According to claim 19, details submitted to the server are verified and electronic coupons will be authenticated.

21. According to claim 15, wherein the electronic coupons display details which comprise of expiry date, countdown timer and date of redeemed.

22. According to claim 15, wherein electronic coupons will have serial no. embedded once forms are filled and verified.

23. According to claim 15, wherein redeeming an electronic coupon on a device requires a unique code to be entered.

24. A method of incorporating a coupon into an electronic publication and redeeming it on a device including a display, the method comprising: placing a coupon into a page of an electronic publication in which upon selection an interface will appear;

displaying an interface on the display with a function for the coupon to be redeemed;

inputting at least an instruction into the device for the coupon to be redeemed;

changing the interface of the display showing that the coupon is redeemed.

25. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a multi-touch-sensitive display; one or more processors; memory; and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for:

displaying an interface on a electronic publication with a function for a electronic coupon to be redeemed; inputting at least an instruction into the device for the coupon to be redeemed; changing the interface of the display showing that the coupon is redeemed.