Patent ID: 6631404
Filing Date: 2003-10-07
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04H,H04L,H04N,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for conducting a contest using a network, comprising the steps of:identifying a selected article of commerce to a plurality of users remotely disposed at user locations on the network, the selected article bearing an indicia encoding an identification code corresponding to the selected article in accordance with an extrinsic standard; receiving at a reference location an unvalidated entry message packet transmitted across the network from a user location in response to scanning at the user location an indicia on an article of commerce, the scanned indicia encoding an identification code corresponding to the article in accordance with an extrinsic standard and the unvalidated entry message packet comprising an article code derived from the scanned indicia; accessing a reference database, the reference database having a plurality of article codes and a plurality of routing information for target locations on the network and associating each of routing information with at least one of the article codes, and retrieving therefrom the routing information associated with the article code in the unvalidated entry message packet; creating a reply message packet including the routing information and transmitting the reply message packet across the network to the user location; receiving at a target address a validated entry message packet transmitted across the network from the user location in response to receipt of the reply message packet, the validated entry message packet comprising user information and being routed to the target address using routing information received in the reply message packet; determining whether the validated entry message packet constitutes an accepted entry; and determining if a user submitting an accepted entry is a winner of the contest.