CA2942064A1 - Persistent and always-on advertising on mobile device - Google Patents

Description

1. What is the idea/innovation about?
A device based software that's implemented on new or existing operating system software natively that works with a centralized server to present persistent and always on advertisements to a user in a defined area of mentioned device user interface in return for receiving free voice and internet services; monetary credits towards their monthly mobile plan; additional data allowance; credit to use to purchase new device; and any combination there of.

2. What problem does the innovation solve?
Mobile devices, smartphones, desktop, netbook, laptop, Smart TV-set, game console, etc support both browser and application/game based advertising. These advertising methods are generally intrusive and at most times do not create real value for the end user.
Mobile advertising methods can include text based, ad banner based, multi-media/video ads on browsers, free applications etc, ads that are essentially forced upon users, who are browsing text based, video based, game based, and other content.
Also, with the rise of advertisement blockers on browsers and other software that prevent the same on browsers and apps, there are more risks for current mediums to deliver advertisements effectively from current advertisement mediums to users.
This problem can be extended to the telecommunications service provider aspect as well. Today, these organizations are having difficulties competing and generating additional revenue from data usage and over the top (OTT) providers such as Google, Facebook, and other online advertising focused entities. For example, when users pass their allowed monthly usage.
Some users incur expensive bills and some service providers enforce throttling or reduced bandwidth to reduce costs.
The service provider can now also partner with OTT providers to get revenue share for the advertising displayed on their customers' handset.

3. What is your solution to the problem described?
Incentive through monetary credits in return for user to have a persistent and always on advertising natively at an operating system software level that allows advertising to be displayed on the device user interface. The advertising medium since natively enabled at Operating system level allows for user enabled and most effective medium to deliver advertising and value. The monetary credits can be any of free mobile services; increased data allowance, credit to buy new devices etc.
The advertising cannot be blocked by today's browser and app based ad blockers and is user enabled, as a result it creates a more effective environment for advertisers to connect with users.

Further, users today are more engaged when there's value an advertiser can provide in return for their attention. For example if the user understands the brands they are engaging with directly results in benefits to them, they're more willing to engage. This is not what's happening in the market today and this is what the current innovation attempts to address via the innovative medium proposed.
From a telecommunication's service provider perspective, one angle can be to leverage this technology to enable advertising when users pass their monthly allowed usage and not charge the subscriber or apply throttling or reduced speeds. Another angle would be provide with OTT players to revenue share with this ad model.
The current innovation works as complement of operating system function.
Apple's innovation stops the user from using certain functions on the OS until user views advertising.
Others provide information on how to deliver advertising, however not to the effect of always on advertising placed directly natively on the device as part of operating system software that cannot be blocked by the Operating System or any other program running.
Hence it becomes an always on medium for delivering advertising, unless the user or network server decides to turn off such function.

4. Indicate what exactly is unique and different about this solution from others?
- A software-implemented method for enabling persistent and always on advertisements as a component of new or existing operating system software on a device.
- The method includes presenting advertisements to the device at all times on a defined area on the device user interface.
-The method includes a centralized server communicating with the advertisement function on the operating system in presenting and tracking advertisements displayed, including user interaction with the advertisement to derive credits that can be awarded to the user -The method includes ability to update the advertisement software component aspect (i.e. new version of the advertisement software component) without having to update the entire operating system software - The method include leveraging the internal logics or hooks at the operating system level to determine user behaviour at operating system, web browser; app level; other methods; and combination thereof to understand subscriber content and interests for user behaviour tracking and advertising purposes - The method includes leveraging a centralized server for providing current and past user history around content and advertising preference to serve relevant advertising - The method includes ability for user to expand the size of the ad pane on the screen to view additional items or content the advertisement may display - The method includes other actionable items on the advertising pane such as icons to refresh, share, next ad, previous ad, like, dislike, set preference; and any combination thereof - Leveraging the new medium of advertising to share said advertising to others via text, mutli-media message, email, screen capture such as a picture or video, email, social networks - In a second aspect, the advertising software on the device is controlled by a centralized server that pushes advertisements to mentioned device software. The centralized server can enable or disable advertising function on the device dynamically.

5. What are other advantages of new capability that is not taken advantage of by other prior-arts?
Some of the below items have been referenced below for other innovations.
However, for the innovation around always-on advertising concept, these items have not been contemplated.
-Always on advertising directly on the device as a function developed at operating system level software that complements existing functionality of the operating system software -Centralized server that has ability to enable or disable always on advertising on the device based on information such as enabling always on advertisement when user's outstanding balance not paid;
when user above their monthly data allowance; credit based system for delivering always-on advertising to the device where the advertising is displayed all the time on the user interface without interference from other applications/use on the device; and combination thereof -The advertising software can communicate with the centralized server to retrieve a single or plurality of advertisements based on time, content the user is accessing; upon user interaction with the device, information about the user of the device; and combinations thereof.
-The advertising software on the device can understand the monetary value of each ad, hence prioritizing higher value ads to be presented when appropriate -Leverage the internal logics or hooks at the operating system level to determine user behaviour at operating system, web browser and app level for advertising purposes -The advertising software can determine the type of advertisement to be displayed based on time;
content the user is accessing; upon user interaction with the device, information about the user of the device; and combinations thereof.
-Based on device configuration, user has ability to enable or disable always on advertising or the central server, the device configuration determines precedence -Based on device configuration, centralized server can dictate placement of ad on the device user interface or user can dictate placement of ad on the device user interface, the device configuration determines precedence -The method includes ability for user to expand the size of the ad on the screen to view additional items or content the advertisement may display -The method includes other actionable on the advertising pane such as icons to refresh, share, next ad, previous ad, like, dislike, preference -Leveraging the new medium of advertising to share said advertising to others via text, mutli-media message, email, screen capture such as a picture or video, email, social networks -Always on advertising can be any combination of text based, banner/image based or multi-media/video based -Always on advertising can be resized based on device type and orientation -Track usage in byte, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes of advertising served to the device to an operator level and user level for awareness and possible settlement purposes -The method can further analyse the user behaviour with the advertisements such as views and click through of the advertisement displayed to derive credits to be awarded to the user by sending such information to the centralized server; to also understand user behaviour for decisions in serving future advertisements; and a combination thereof.
-Centralized server can support logical separation, includes function to authenticate user in service provider network server; provide user evaluation in service provider network server; user credit allotment in service provider network server; advertisement using a centralized server based in the service provider network; user credit allotment in a centralized server; serve advertisements from a centralized server; authenticate, evaluate user in a centralized server; user credit allotment in a centralized server; serve advertisements from a centralized server; use of third party advertising server; and combination thereof.

6. Describe how the best version of the innovation that achieves the novelty listed in the novelty described in this document Please refer to separate document that was attached referred to as "drawings"
when 'Figures" or specific numbers referenced in the "Figures" are mentioned.
Figure 1 depicts how Operating system software such as Google's Android OS, Apple i0S, Microsoft OS etc will be modified to support always-on advertising function natively at the operating system level. As used here-in, an advertisement is a presentation text based ads, banner ads, multi-media/video ads etc. [102][104][110][116] Are an advertisement placement option based on user preference or centralized network preference. Ultimately, based on configurations on the device either user preference or server preference can take precedence in placement of advertisement pane on the device user interface.
[100][106][108][112][114][118] Are references to areas on the user interface of computers, cell phones, other hand held devices, and mounted mobile devices that existing conventional functions provided by an operating system and installed programs shall be displayed. In the event the always-on advertisements are disabled by the central server, assume [102][104][110][116] are also considered as part of user interface of computers, cell phones, other hand held devices, and mounted mobile devices that existing conventional functions provided by an operating system and installed programs shall be displayed.
There are two models in which the present concept can operate. One model is where the Original Equipment Manufacturer owns the central server delivered to the device with an optional partnership with 3rd party advertisement server and the other is a service provider or resller that owns the central server working with either in-house or 3rd part advertisement server.
[Figure 2] [300] Where the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) owns the device, they will own the complete process of customer relationship management including order management, management of [302] the user database including credits they are entitled to.
The user database consists of elements such as advertisements served to the user, advertisements the user interacted with, accumulated credits, credits used and will receive these inputs, engagements with OEM, etc from [300] customer relationship management and [304] advertising server. The [304] advertising server plays a key role in communicating with the [312] device to provide user context based relevant advertising and also to receive user contextual information such as number of ad views, interactions, if new ads a are required, if ads should be enabled or disabled etc. The [304] advertising server can store and retrieve contextual information from the [302] user database. The contextual information stored in [302] user database can be utilized to retrieve relevant advertising from [306] interface advertising database with option of serving advertising from [308] 3rd party advertising server, which can also have additional user contextual information in [310] its database. This concept assumes that the user [314] purchase their own subscription from a service provide outside the control of the OEM.
[Figure 3]The second model assumes that the [512] OEM is a partner of a Mobile Network Operator who provides the device and plans and the Mobile Network Operator may have resellers of the OEM
device and mobile network operator plans. In this case, the Mobile Network Operator they will own the complete process of customer relationship management including order management, management of [504] the user database including credits they are entitled to.
The user database consists of elements such as advertisements served to the user, advertisements the user interacted with, accumulated credits, credits used and will receive these inputs, engagements with Mobile Network Operator, etc from [500] customer relationship management and [502]
advertising server.
The [502] advertising server plays a key role in communicating with the [512]
device to provide user context based relevant advertising and also to receive user contextual information such as number of ad views, interactions, if new ads a are required, if ads should be enabled or disabled etc.
The [502] advertising server can store and retrieve contextual information from the [504] user database. The contextual information stored in [504] user database can be utilized to retrieve relevant advertising from [506] interface advertising database with option of serving advertising from [508] 3rd party advertising server, which can also have additional user contextual information in [510] its database.
Having provided the two models and how they work, the underlying behaviour of how the operating system [200] logic and communications with the central server shall be described here-in [Figure 4].

The operating system [200] that contains the advertising function will continuously check either time based or on user interaction with the device if [202] relevant advertising is being served. If the [208]
content is relevant, then accumulate [210] views and interaction with the content and device to be sent back to the central server. If the [214] ad display time expires as directed by the central server or default on the device, then [202] check if other relevant ads are available to be displayed. If the [214] Ad display time has not expired, [216] check [212] ad minimum display time expired as sent by the central server, if not maintain ad, but if yes, then check [208] if content is still relevant based on current user interaction with the device and take action [212] if ad display time expired if content is relevant if not check [202] to see if another relevant ad can be served.
There can be conditions where no ads or relevant ads is available to be displayed. Upon checking [202] if relevant ads can be displayed, if there are none, the device advertisement software communicates over a network to reach the [206] central server to retrieve additional ads and provide the latest tracked information on the user. The [206] central server attempts to [218]
retrieve ads from internal or 3rd part advertising server based on interaction with user database on current and historical user records.
Alternatively, it can rely also on the 3rd party serer to provide user contextual based advertising that can be stored in the 3rd part user database. If advertisements are [220]
retrieved successfully, then a single or plurality of advertisements can be sent to the device over a network and the device can start again to check and serve advertisements based on [202] if relevant ads are available to display.
Figure 5 describes how the central server side behaves based on device inputs.
The device shall provide [400] user contextual information and if [406] new advertisements are required. The logic is to first extract the current [400] user contextual information provided by the device's advertisement function and evaluated [402] advertisement viewed, user behavior etc and store this in the [404]
user database. Then based on device input, if [406] advertising is required, and if [408] advertising server is available retrieve ads based on current and historical user contextual information.
Alternatively, [408] can contact external 3rd party advertising server to retrieve ads on current and history usr contextual information. Single or plurality of ads are sent back if the [412] ad retrieval process is successful.