Patent ID: 6351745
Filing Date: 2002-02-26
Classification: G06F,G06Q,G09G,H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
A system connected to plural terminals through a communication network for having advertising messages transmitted to the terminals, the advertising messages comprising information in digital form in the form of at least one of images, text, sounds and combinations thereof, at least some of the advertising messages further comprising respective links to additional information in digital form available to the terminals through the communications network and related to the respective advertising message, the system comprising:a first database which stores message IDs for the advertising messages in association with: a charge limit of how many times to display the advertising, message to any given user, an absolute limit of how many times to display the advertising message to all users, a time period in which the advertising message may be displayed, a charge for when the terminals activate the link to additional information; a message searcher for selecting message IDs for transmitting from the first database using the charge limit, the absolute limit and the time period; a transmitter for transmitting message IDs selected by the message searcher to the terminals; a request receiver for receiving requests from the terminals through the communications network, the requests reflective of the terminals having activated the links to additional information; a statistics processor for: counting a link count of how many times each of the links was activated, based upon receipt of the requests, determining a fee due based upon the link count and the charge for when the terminals activate the links to additional information.