Abstract:
The direct marketing system and method is disclosed that receives information from two parties, referred to as the sending party and the receiving party, and delivers a message or advertisement between the two. The message is then immediately printed on the receiving party&#39;s printer, and a small fee is paid by the sending party. A portion of this fee is sent to the receiving party as reimbursement for paper costs, ink costs, and printer maintenance.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/731,477, filed on Nov. 29, 2013, and incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 
     Not Applicable. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates generally to document delivery, and more particularly, to a system and method for directly sending documents, email, or faxes to a recipients printer rather than their physical mailbox, post office box, or fax machine. 
     DISCUSSION OF RELATED ART 
     Mail, or post, can generally be described as a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects to an individual or physical address. Mailings are often enclosed in envelopes or other packaging to protect and maintain the privacy of their contents during delivery. Typically, a post office or other mail delivery service is used to transport the mailings between parties for a fee. The fee, or postage, is traditionally paid by the sending party, although the receiving party may reimburse the sending party for larger packages. 
     A facsimile, or fax, is an electronic transmission of scanned printed material (text and/or images) over a telephone line. Traditionally, the sending party will scan or otherwise prepare a digital document, initiate a telephonic connection, and transfer the document to a receiving fax machine for automatic printing. In many respects, a fax shares many characteristics of a traditional mailing, with the added benefit of quick delivery and lower overall costs. The costs, however, are shifted to the recipient, as a dedicated line must be established, a fax machine must be installed and maintained, and all printed material will inherently incur a cost. 
     Electronic mail, or email, can generally be described as an electronic transmission of a digital message between one or more recipients over the internet. Traditionally, the sending party will prepare an email using a computer or other electronic device and direct the message to one or more recipients, each having a unique email address. Recipients receive emails almost instantly, but unlike mail or fax, the messages remain digital unless printed by the recipient. As such, the costs of emails are largely negligible for both the sending and receiving party. 
     Direct marketing can generally be described as an advertisement which is communicated directly to a consumer. Direct mailing, a derivative of direct marketing, can generally be described as the delivery of an advertisement to a recipient through postal mail. Direct faxing and direct emailing share the same characteristics as direct mailing, albeit through a fax machine or computer. Advertisements include coupons, credit card applications, circulars, catalogs, and other types of commercial merchandising material. 
     Direct mailing, direct faxing, and direct emailing have proven to be extremely effective, stemming an entire direct marketing industry and representing a significant and growing amount of the total volume of postal mail and fax transmission. Advertisers are encouraged to utilize direct mail by qualifying for bulk rates, which are lower than traditional postage fees, but require large quantities of matching documents. There is even more incentive to utilize direct fax, where the costs are already shifted to the consumer. The incentive is greatest with direct emailing, where neither party incurs a substantial cost. Direct marketing is often described as spam or junk mail, as a significant portion is discarded without being opened or read. 
     Direct marketing through mail, fax, and email has become incredibly widespread, but it is not without serious drawbacks. Direct mailing is expensive, limited to delivery schedules, and generates an incredible amount of waste, raising great concern for its negative environmental impact. Direct faxing can frustrate consumers who pay for each unwanted advertisement they receive, stemming FCC fax advertisement rules and restrictions. Direct emailing is so widespread that many users spend most of their email time filtering through unwanted spam. Furthermore, end users become increasingly frustrated as the industry grows and their exposure to direct marketing increases. Therefore, a need exists for a direct marketing system which is effective, has a low cost, is approved by recipients, and has a low environmental impact. The present invention satisfies these needs. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention will provide a direct marketing system which is effective, has a low cost, is approved by recipients, and has a low environmental impact. This is accomplished by compelling recipients to receive advertisements through incentives. More specifically, the present invention will send advertisements to recipients for local printing and will reimburse them for the costs of printing so long as the advertisement is actually printed, providing a shared cost scheme that is still effective. 
     The present invention implements several methods to perform the above tasks, including: Physical Address Sending, Fax Sending, Social Media Printing, Direct Email printing, Shopping Cart Abandonment, P2P Printing, API Printing and Search Sending. Each method receives information from two parties, referred to as the sending party and the receiving party, and delivers a message or advertisement between the two. The message is then immediately printed on the receiving party&#39;s printer, and a small fee is paid by the sending party. A portion of this fee is sent to the receiving party as reimbursement for paper costs, ink costs, and printer maintenance. 
     Physical Address Sending offers an alternative to direct mailing campaigns, allowing messages to be delivered directly to the printer of the receiving party, instead of their postal mailbox. Fax Sending offers an alternative to using a facsimile machine and dedicated line, while giving more control to the receiving party over which faxes are printed. Social Media Printing offers a method of sending a message directly to the printers of selected social media connections. Direct Email Printing offers the services of a typical electronic mail system, with the added step of printing out the transmitted message at the receiving party&#39;s printer. Shopping Cart Abandonment will deliver a product advertisement when a user includes items in a shopping cart, but does not follow through with their purchase. P2P Printing offers the receiving party the ability to share their printer across a network, with the option of charging the sending party for each message delivered. API Printing permits third parties to interface with their present systems. Search Sending offers advertisers the ability to automatically distribute a message to the printers of a particular subset of users who search for certain key terms online. 
     Current pricing is estimated at approximately $0.10 per page sent, while the receiving party is reimbursed approximately $0.06 per page. These price points reflect considerable savings when compared to either direct mail or direct fax campaigns. With almost 100 billion pieces of mail delivered annually in the USA to houses with both internet access and a printer, even a small fraction (10%) of this market share would lead to over a billion dollars in revenue per year. 
     The value of the proposed invention will continue to rise with the increase in postage cost, environmental concerns from paper waste, and the carbon footprint of transportation. Furthermore, the present invention is not restricted by delivery times or delivery schedules, provides an attractive price point for both the sending and receiving parties, eliminates the requirement of a fax machine with dedicated phone line, decreases the environmental impact and increases the effectiveness of the advertisements as a whole. Lastly, the dramatic increase of homes with Internet access and a computer with an attached printer will increase end-user exposure and ensure the longevity of the present invention. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. It is to be understood that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram schematically illustrating a network wherein the server and client machines are connected; 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram schematically illustrating the methods of the direct marketing system and method; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram schematically illustrating methods of the direct marketing system and method; 
         FIG. 4  is a diagram schematically illustrating the direct marketing system and method; 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating the user interface of the direct marketing system and method. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. The following explanation provides specific details for a thorough understanding of and enabling description for these embodiments. One skilled in the art will understand that the invention may be practiced without such details. In other instances, well-known structures and functions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of the embodiments. 
     Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to.” Words using the singular or plural number also include the plural or singular number respectively. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. When the claims use the word “or” in reference to a list of two or more items, that word covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list and any combination of the items in the list. 
       FIG. 1  depicts a block diagram of a computer system  100  suitable for implementing aspects of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 1 , computer system  100  includes the present invention  102 , which interconnects major subsystems such as an API server  118 , web server  120 , application server  122 , and database server  126  having a non-transitory storage medium  522 . The application server  122  consists of several modules  124 , and a database  128  exists on the database server  126 . The present invention  102  connects to client machines  106  and  108 , as well as 3rd party servers  114 , through a network  104 . Web clients  110  and programmatic clients  112  exist on the client machines  106  and  108 , respectively, and 3rd party applications  116  that exist on the third party server  114 . 
     The present invention is a system comprised of a plurality of methods: Physical Address Sending  202 , Fax Sending  204 , Direct Email Printing  206 , Search Sending  208 , Social Media Printing  210 , Shopping Cart Abandonment  212 , P2P Printing  214 , and API printing  216 . Each method receives information from two parties, referred to as the sending party  230  and the receiving party  232 , and delivers a printable document  240 , message or advertisement between the two. The receiving party  232  will have a client machine  106  electronically attached to a printing mechanism  236 . 
     With respect to the Physical Address Sending method  202 , the present invention will first receive a physical address  234  from a receiving party  232 . The physical address  234  must be verified to ensure that the party receiving the printable documents  240  is indeed the intended party. In the preferred embodiment, a plurality of personal questions will be generated from the receiving party&#39;s  232  credit reports. Furthermore, a plurality of personal question answers to these personal questions will also be generated. The questions will be sent to the receiving party&#39;s  232  physical address  234 , to which they will submit answers. The received answers are compared to the generated personal question answers and the physical address is verified if the answers are the same. 
     In an alternative embodiment, the physical address  234  of the receiving party  232  is verified through a unique identification code corresponding to the physical address  232  claimed by the recipient, which is cross-referenced against the USPS address database. The receiving party  232  will first initiate the request, after which the unique code is generated. The unique code will be sent to the received physical address  234 . After receipt, the receiving party  232  will submit a return code. The codes will be compared and, if equal, the physical address  234  will be verified. 
     Once the physical address  234  is verified, the receiving party  232  will then configure and install an automatic printing mechanism  238  onto their client machine  106 , which ensures the sending party&#39;s  230  printable document  240  is received and printed at the receiving party&#39;s  232  printing mechanism  236 . In the preferred embodiment, the automated printing mechanism  238  comprises software which is installed on the client machine  106 . In an alternative embodiment, the automated printing mechanism  238  is a standalone unit which is electronically attached to the client machine  106  and printing mechanism  236 . The automated printing mechanism  238  further comprises a means of confirming that the printable document  240  has actually been printed. In the preferred embodiment, this is performed by accessing the printer driver and receiving a confirmation of a successful print. Alternatively, the receiving party  232  may simply sent a response confirming that the printable document  240  has been printed successfully. 
     After the initial set up is complete for the Physical Address Sending method  202 , the sending party  230  is given the opportunity to access the receiving party&#39;s  232  printing mechanism  236  to send out their desired printable document  240 . The sending party  230  will submit a printable document  240 , which is then sent to the automated printing mechanism  238 . If printing is confirmed, the sending party  230  is charged a distribution fee  242 . A print fee  244  is also distributed to the receiving party  232 , the print fee  244  being a portion of the distribution fee  242 . This print fee  244  is intended to cover the cost of printing and provide an incentive to use the present invention. The fees  242 , 244  are only charged when a printable document  240  is delivered, which is confirmed by the automated printing mechanism  238 . The physical address  234 , printable document  240 , distribution fee  242 , print fee  244 , and confirmation are all stored on the non-transitory storage medium  544 . Furthermore, receiving parties  232  can select which sending parties  230  may use this method via the Opt-Out mechanism described below. 
     With respect to the Fax Sending method  204 , the receiving party  232  allows a currently active fax line to have its messages redirected to their client machine  106 . Alternatively, a new fax line can be created which directly accesses the receiving party&#39;s  232  printing mechanism  236  instead of an actual facsimile. All of the current capabilities of sending and receiving faxes can be replicated through this system, while increasing privacy options as well as lowering cost for the receiving party  232 . 
     In an alternative embodiment, a peripheral device can be connected to a user&#39;s fax machine to enable them to send faxes through the Fax Sending method  204 . This ensures ease of use for the sending party  230 , while still maintaining the lowered cost for the receiving party  232 . If a sending party  230  delivers a fax message to another fax machine which is not tied to a user of the current system, an invitation to sign up is delivered after the initial message, at no charge. 
     With respect to the Social Media Printing method  210 , users are linked through social media accounts such a Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. The sending party  230  can select particular contacts, or groups of contacts, create a list, and transmit a printable document  240  directly to the contacts&#39; printing mechanisms  236 . Sending and receiving users  230 ,  232  must have a social media account connection in order to transmit these printable documents  240 . If such a connection is not found, the Physical Address Sending method  202  can be used to obtain the same results. The receiving party  232  can choose to have these printable documents  240  delivered at no cost to sending party  230 . Receiving parties  232  can select which sending parties  230  may use this method via the Opt-Out mechanism described below. 
     With respect to the Direct Email printing method  206 , users are assigned a unique email address. Documents sent to this unique email address would be printed by the receiving party&#39;s  232  printing mechanism  236 . Receiving parties  232  can select which sending parties  230  may use this method via the Opt-Out mechanism described below. 
     With respect to the Shopping Cart Abandonment method  212 , users of senders&#39;  230  websites occasionally abandon shopping carts prior to their purchases being completed. In this case, sending parties  230  may print a document  240  to the receiving party&#39;s  232  printing mechanism  236 . More specifically, the receiving party  232  will receive a list of the products left in the shopping cart and will send the corresponding receiving user&#39;s  232  a printable document  240  related to these items. Receivers  232  can select which senders  230  may use this method via the Opt-Out mechanism described below. 
     With respect to the P2P printing method  214 , receivers  232  may choose to specify senders  230  that may print to their printing mechanism  236 . For each sender  230 , receivers  232  may choose whether or not the sender  230  is charged a distribution fee  244 . Alternatively, receivers  232  may choose whether to forego the receipt of their print fee  244 . Receivers  232  can select which senders  230  may use this method via the Opt-Out mechanism described below. 
     With respect to the API printing method  216 , senders  230  may embed, in their existing computer programming infrastructure, commands to send documents to receivers&#39;  232  printing mechanisms  236  based on criteria determined by said infrastructure. Commands may also be used to prompt receivers to open accounts. 
     With respect to the Search Sending method  208 , the sending party  230  selects key search words that are relevant to their product or message, as well as potentially define a target demographic. When a receiving party  232  enters a search term which matches these key words, their personal data is referenced against the target demographic for the message. The target demographic is determined through the verified physical address  234 . If the receiving party  232  satisfies the necessary requirements, the sending party&#39;s  230  printable document  240  is delivered and printed to the receiving party&#39;s  232  printing mechanism  236 . After this process is confirmed by the automated printing mechanism  238 , the sending party  230  is charged a distribution fee  242 , and the receiving party  232  is credited a print fee  244  to recover the cost of printing the printable document  240 . 
     In an alternative embodiment, multiple sending parties  230  can bid for the same keywords, demographics or combination thereof. Since a limited number of printable documents  240  will be delivered to each receiving party  232 , sending parties  230  can bid up the price they are willing to pay for delivery of each printable document  240 . In the preferred embodiment, pricing is for each printable document  240  sent to cost the sending party no less than $0.10, and each message received to pay no more than $0.06 to the receiving party  232 . This ensures a positive profit margin and potentially greater profit margin for the system while giving the sending party  230  timely exposure to the receiving party  232  and giving the receiving party  232  a financial incentive to continue receiving such printable documents  240 . Alternatively, the distribution fee  242  is calculated from the previous distribution fee, recent documents printed, total documents printed, total documents redeemed, activity period, and total bid requests. 
     In a further alternative embodiment, the receiving party  232  is given diminishing returns for each message received in a day. In the preferred embodiment, the standard rate of $0.06 will be credited to the receiving party  232  for each of the first six printable documents  240  delivered to their printing mechanism  236  in a day. The following six printable documents  240  will only credit $0.03 each, and no reimbursement is credited to the receiving party  232  for any printable documents  240  after the 12th for any calendar day. Since the receiving party  232  has the option to limit the total number of printable documents  240  received by their printing mechanism  236  in any day, any user can ensure that this system of diminishing returns does not eliminate the positive effect of the present system as a whole. 
     In still a further alternative embodiment, the receiving party  232  may establish automatic bill payments using the present invention. Here, the user will log onto the website and schedule bill payments, which include account information, due date, scheduled amount, scheduled date, delivery date, amount due, minimum payment due, and other relevant factors. When a bill is received and autopay is enacted, a message will be appended to the bill confirming the autopay setting applied to that bill. In the event that the sender  230  has a multiple page document (Example: statement), the sender  230  will have the option to send only one summary page, while providing a full statement on their website. For example, the footer of the first page of any document would include: “The remainder of your document is securely available at https://www.EmbracePaper.com/12345678.” 
     In addition to the above specified embodiments, several additional features, limitations, and embodiments may be implemented. To ensure the present invention does not create an unwanted nuisance, the receiver  232  will have the ability to specify the dates and times which they are willing to accept printouts, or may define maximum page limits per day/period. Conversely, senders  230  will have the ability to specify when the receiver  232  will receive a printout for maximum effectiveness, so long as this time conforms to the receiver&#39;s  232  time periods as well. 
     For spam control, receivers  232  may employ an Opt-Out mechanism, where they elect to no longer receive printouts from specific senders. If a receiver  232  chooses less pages or opts out, the top bidders of the senders for each receiver would get the delivery. General mail delivery would wait till an available date if delivery is available. If any general mail delivery was delayed even one day, the user would be asked to receive those pages anyway at full $0.06 compensation. To combat abuse, payouts may be tiered by pages received, where receivers  232  who subscribe to printouts for profit receive lower payouts for increased volume of pages printed (Ex. 1-6 pages $0.06 per page, 7-12 pages $0.03 per page, 13+ pages $0.00 per page). Lastly, recipients could specify senders  230  that can send documents at no cost to sender, thereby not interfering with the gross profit model as most recipients would specify very few recipients in this category. 
     There will be instances where multiple recipients reside at the same physical address  234 . To account for this, users must provide their name, physical address, names of other residents at their physical address, and names of any businesses at their physical address during account creation. This enables senders  230  with just the receiver&#39;s  232  physical address  234  and residents (people and businesses) to be sent documents  240  as well as comply with the sender&#39;s merge rules. For example, does sender  230  want to send a printout to each resident at the same address or just one per address. There will also be instances where multiple printers are located at the same physical address. Users may specify which residents&#39; and/or businesses&#39; documents will be delivered to which printer  236 . 
     The above detailed description of the embodiments of the invention is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed above or to the particular field of usage mentioned in this disclosure. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize Also, the teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to other systems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments. 
     Changes can be made to the invention in light of the above “Detailed Description.” While the above description details certain embodiments of the invention and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways. Therefore, implementation details may vary considerably while still being encompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology is associated. 
     While certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventor contemplates the various aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Accordingly, the inventor reserves the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the invention.