Patent ID: 6571216
Filing Date: 2003-05-27
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
An on-line system of giving differential rewards to users by an electronic system comprising:a central reward scheme database server, including a database for storing reward schemes, wherein a reward scheme consists of the details of the reward and criteria for offering the reward to a user, the reward specified being given only to a user or class of users satisfying the criteria for offering the reward to a user, thereby being differential in nature, wherein the details of the reward comprise information describing the nature and quantitative measure of the reward being offered, and the criteria for offering the reward to a user comprise user profiles which are based on multi-valued attributes, wherein the attributes include non-quantitative and fuzzy user attributes, nonuser specific attributes, and the user's voice and physical actions, and wherein the rewards include discount on a product or service, loyalty points, freebies, product warranties, tie-in promotions, cross selling, up selling, and premiums; multiple reward scheme owners, each of said reward scheme owners defining a plurality of reward schemes, including at least one differential reward scheme giving different rewards to different users, the reward schemes being communicated to the central reward scheme database server by the reward scheme owners; a plurality of reward scheme creation equipment used to define a plurality of reward schemes, including at least one differential offer which is to be made to the user satisfying an offer's targeting parameters; and multiple reward distribution agents each of which, when visited by a user, dynamically profiles the user, queries the central reward scheme database server to determine if the user meets a criterion for one or more rewards and offers the applicable rewards to the user.