Patent ID: 7788136

Claim:
A system for online ordering of items of real-time availability from a TV system comprising: (a) an online ordering website for processing online orders for transactable items from vendor inventories, said online ordering website being operable with an associated database maintaining real-time vendor inventories of transactable items in order to confirm acceptance of an order for a selected item by checking the respective inventory for the selected item and confirming acceptance of the order; (b) a TV system having a TV display operable with a TV control unit wherein a viewer can view advertisements of transactable items on the TV display and send a request for ordering a selected item using the TV control unit; (c) an online agent ordering server operatively connected to the TV system and to at least one online ordering website and associated vendor inventories of transactable items, wherein said online agent ordering server stores a plurality of TV ordering display templates for presenting displays on the TV system of TV ordering forms for respective transactable items, and a corresponding plurality of online ordering templates for online ordering of respective items in formats recognized by the online ordering website for ordering transactable items from the vendor inventories, wherein, upon a viewer inputting a request for a selected item via the TV control unit to the TV system, said online agent ordering server receives the request and provides a TV ordering display template corresponding to the requested item for displaying the corresponding TV ordering form on the TV display, and upon the viewer inputting order selection data for ordering the item in response to the displayed TV ordering form, said online agent ordering server receives the order selection data input by the viewer and automatically converts the data into an online order for the selected item formatted in the corresponding online ordering template to the online ordering website for ordering the item from the corresponding vendor inventory, and wherein said TV system is a hotel TV system connected to in-room TVs for guests operated with set-top boxes and standard TV remote control units, the online agent ordering server is an online hotel ordering server, and the online ordering website is an online activities booking website, which are operable together to process in-room TV orders from hotel guests for booking of activities offered by multiple vendors subscribing to the online activities booking website.