US6173271B1
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Television advertising automated billing system
Assignee: California Institute of Technology
•
Filing: 1997-11-26
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Granted: 2001-01-09
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Expires: 2017-11-26
Abstract
Abstract Advertising is marked with a code in a way which makes it difficult to fool the system. The advertising is marked with a code at the time the advertising is produced. Then, when the advertising is broadcast, the code on the advertising is analyzed. Different security measures can be used, including producing the code in the closed captioning so that many different people can see the code, or comparing codes in one part of the signal with a code in another part of the signal. Measures are taken to prevent the code from being used to detect commercials. According to another part of this system, a paradigm for a clearinghouse is disclosed in which the user signs up with the clearinghouse, obtains a line of credit, and the advertiser, the agency, and the ad producer also subscribe to the service. When the ad is actually aired, the payment can be automatically transferred.
Inventors
- 👤 Rodney M. Goodman
- 👤 Karen Emerson
- 👤 Jeffrey Dickson
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-27 18:05
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04H; H04H60/00; H04H60/09; H04H60/14; H04H60/23; G; G06; G06Q; G06Q20/00; G06Q20/08; G06Q20/10; G06Q20/102; G06Q30/00; G06Q30/02; G06Q30/0241; G06Q30/0248; G06Q30/0251; G06Q30/0264; G06Q30/0273; H04H20/00; H04H20/12; H04H20/14; H04N; H04N21/00; H04N21/20; H04N21/23; H04N21/235; H04N21/25; H04N21/254; H04N21/2543; H04N21/60; H04N21/65; H04N21/654; H04N21/6543; H04N21/80; H04N21/81; H04N21/812; H04N21/83; H04N21/835; H04N21/8352; H04N7/00; H04N7/08; H04N7/087; H04N7/088; H04N7/0887; H04N7/16; H04N7/162; H04N7/165; H04H20/10; H04H60/19
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 29
Claim 1
Independent Claim
70 words
A method of automated billing of advertising, comprising: marking an advertisement with a code, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement associated with billing; transmitting said advertisement over a channel; sensing said code on the advertisement; verifying security of said code; obtaining billing information from the sensed code, wherein said sensing and said verifying are carried out prior to said transmitting; and removing said code prior to said transmitting.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
70 words
A method of automated billing of advertising, comprising: marking an advertisement with a code, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement associated with billing; transmitting said advertisement over a channel; sensing said code on the advertisement; verifying security of said code; obtaining billing information from the sensed code, wherein said sensing and said verifying are carried out prior to said transmitting; and removing said code prior to said transmitting.
Claim 3
Independent Claim
65 words
A method of automated billing of advertising, comprising: marking an advertisement with a code, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement associated with billing; transmitting said advertisement over a channel; sensing said code on the advertisement; verifying security of said code; and obtaining billing information from the sensed code, wherein said code is text, and said marking comprises adding said code to closed captioning.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
65 words
A method of automated billing of advertising, comprising: marking an advertisement with a code, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement associated with billing; transmitting said advertisement over a channel; sensing said code on the advertisement; verifying security of said code; and obtaining billing information from the sensed code, wherein said code is text, and said marking comprises adding said code to closed captioning.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
71 words
A method of automated billing of advertising, comprising: forming an advertisement, including marking the advertisement with a code at a time of forming, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement associated with billing; transmitting said advertisement over a channel; sensing said code on the advertisement; verifying security of said code; obtaining billing information from the sensed code; and wherein said marking comprises placing said code in a closed captioning portion.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
71 words
A method of automated billing of advertising, comprising: forming an advertisement, including marking the advertisement with a code at a time of forming, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement associated with billing; transmitting said advertisement over a channel; sensing said code on the advertisement; verifying security of said code; obtaining billing information from the sensed code; and wherein said marking comprises placing said code in a closed captioning portion.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
68 words
A method of automated billing of advertising, comprising: forming an advertisement, including marking the advertisement with a code, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement associated with billing; transmitting said advertisement over a channel; sensing said code on the advertisement; verifying security of said code; obtaining billing information from the sensed code; and taking an action which prevents the advertisement from being automatically detected as an advertisement.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
68 words
A method of automated billing of advertising, comprising: forming an advertisement, including marking the advertisement with a code, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement associated with billing; transmitting said advertisement over a channel; sensing said code on the advertisement; verifying security of said code; obtaining billing information from the sensed code; and taking an action which prevents the advertisement from being automatically detected as an advertisement.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
18 words
A method as in claim 4 , wherein said taking comprises removing said code prior to said transmitting.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
140 words
An automated advertisement billing system, comprising: an advertisement production area, including a coder, which provides a code on an advertisement, said code not being seen as part of a picture forming program content, said code including information about the advertisement; and a television station, physically separate from said advertisement production area, and including a code detection system, receiving said advertisement including said code, and determining a time when said advertisement is transmitted and providing an indication of the advertisement and the time; a comparing device, comparing said indication with prestored information indicating a desired indication and time, and producing an authorization signal if said indication and time match said indication and time in said prestored information; and first means for preventing use of said code to identify whether the part of the picture being played includes commercial or non-commercial content.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
140 words
An automated advertisement billing system, comprising: an advertisement production area, including a coder, which provides a code on an advertisement, said code not being seen as part of a picture forming program content, said code including information about the advertisement; and a television station, physically separate from said advertisement production area, and including a code detection system, receiving said advertisement including said code, and determining a time when said advertisement is transmitted and providing an indication of the advertisement and the time; a comparing device, comparing said indication with prestored information indicating a desired indication and time, and producing an authorization signal if said indication and time match said indication and time in said prestored information; and first means for preventing use of said code to identify whether the part of the picture being played includes commercial or non-commercial content.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
41 words
A system as in claim 6 , wherein said first means comprises a code stripper which removes said code and couples a removed code to said code detection system, said code stripper removing said code prior to transmission of the commercial.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
20 words
A system as in claim 6 , wherein said first means comprises means for adding a code to each frame.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
148 words
An automated advertisement billing system, comprising: an advertisement production area, including a coder, which provides a code on an advertisement, said code not being seen as part of a picture forming program content, said code including information about the advertisement; and a television station, physically separate from said advertisement production area, and including a code detection system, receiving said advertisement including said code, and determining a time when said advertisement is transmitted and providing an indication of the advertisement and the time; a comparing device, comparing said indication with prestored information indicating a desired indication and time, and producing an authorization signal if said indication and time match said indication and time in said prestored information; and second means for maintaining security of said code; wherein said second means comprises third means for adding a correction indication to the code which relates to some content of the advertisement.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
148 words
An automated advertisement billing system, comprising: an advertisement production area, including a coder, which provides a code on an advertisement, said code not being seen as part of a picture forming program content, said code including information about the advertisement; and a television station, physically separate from said advertisement production area, and including a code detection system, receiving said advertisement including said code, and determining a time when said advertisement is transmitted and providing an indication of the advertisement and the time; a comparing device, comparing said indication with prestored information indicating a desired indication and time, and producing an authorization signal if said indication and time match said indication and time in said prestored information; and second means for maintaining security of said code; wherein said second means comprises third means for adding a correction indication to the code which relates to some content of the advertisement.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
172 words
An automated advertisement billing system, comprising; an advertisement production area, including a coder, which provides a code on an advertisement, said code not being seen as part of a picture forming program content, said code including information about the advertisement; and a television station, physically separate from said advertisement production area, and including a code detection system, receiving said advertisement including said code, and determining a time when said advertisement is transmitted and providing an indication of the advertisement and the time; a comparing device, comparing said indication with prestored information indicating a desired indication and time, and producing an authorization signal if said indication and time match said indication and time in said prestored information; second means for maintaining security of said code; wherein said second means comprises third means for adding a correction indication to the code which relates to some content of the advertisement; and wherein said third means includes a closed captioning device and said correlation indication comprises a relationship between said code and content of closed captioning.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
172 words
An automated advertisement billing system, comprising; an advertisement production area, including a coder, which provides a code on an advertisement, said code not being seen as part of a picture forming program content, said code including information about the advertisement; and a television station, physically separate from said advertisement production area, and including a code detection system, receiving said advertisement including said code, and determining a time when said advertisement is transmitted and providing an indication of the advertisement and the time; a comparing device, comparing said indication with prestored information indicating a desired indication and time, and producing an authorization signal if said indication and time match said indication and time in said prestored information; second means for maintaining security of said code; wherein said second means comprises third means for adding a correction indication to the code which relates to some content of the advertisement; and wherein said third means includes a closed captioning device and said correlation indication comprises a relationship between said code and content of closed captioning.
Claim 18
Independent Claim
130 words
A method of automatically billing for a commodity which is produced during a time slot and is time slot sensitive, comprising: producing said commodity to be shown during said time slot; producing a first code which is associated with said commodity, said code indicating identity of said commodity; determining some aspect of content of said commodity, and producing a second code indicative of said aspect; associating said first code and said second code with said commodity; receiving said content in a way which indicates that said commodity was actually produced at a time of receiving, and obtaining said first and second codes therefrom; and, determining from said first and second codes received by said receiving whether the content matches the second code and validating the first code only if so.
Claim 19
Independent Claim
130 words
A method of automatically billing for a commodity which is produced during a time slot and is time slot sensitive, comprising: producing said commodity to be shown during said time slot; producing a first code which is associated with said commodity, said code indicating identity of said commodity; determining some aspect of content of said commodity, and producing a second code indicative of said aspect; associating said first code and said second code with said commodity; receiving said content in a way which indicates that said commodity was actually produced at a time of receiving, and obtaining said first and second codes therefrom; and, determining from said first and second codes received by said receiving whether the content matches the second code and validating the first code only if so.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
20 words
A method as in claim 11 , further comprising billing for said commodity only when said first code is validated.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
25 words
A method as in claim 12 , further comprising taking an action that prevents said codes being can be used to automatically detect said commodity.
Claim 22
Independent Claim
83 words
A method of automatically billing for advertising, comprising: marking an advertisement with a code during production of said advertisement, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement that is associated with billing; processing said advertisement in a way which prevents a user from detecting codes on only advertisements and not on other program content, in order to prevent the user from automatically detecting presence of an advertisement; and obtaining billing information from said code on said advertisement when said advertisement is actually transmitted.
Claim 23
Independent Claim
83 words
A method of automatically billing for advertising, comprising: marking an advertisement with a code during production of said advertisement, said code indicating some aspect of the advertisement that is associated with billing; processing said advertisement in a way which prevents a user from detecting codes on only advertisements and not on other program content, in order to prevent the user from automatically detecting presence of an advertisement; and obtaining billing information from said code on said advertisement when said advertisement is actually transmitted.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
17 words
A method as in claim 14 , wherein said processing comprises stripping said code prior to transmission.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
20 words
A method as in claim 14 , wherein said processing comprises marking all frames of all programs with a code.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
33 words
A method as in claim 14 , further comprising determining if a code represents advertising information or does not represent advertising information, and billing for the advertising if the code represents said information.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method as in claim 14 , wherein said preventing comprises placing readable information in a closed captioning portion.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
15 words
A method as in claim 14 , further comprising verifying a security of the code.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
23 words
A method as in claim 14 , wherein said prevention comprises encoding said code on frames of said program using a steganographic technique.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2004-01-09 | 2004-07-10 | 2005-01-09 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2008-01-09 | 2008-07-10 | 2009-01-09 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2012-01-09 | 2012-07-10 | 2013-01-09 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |