|Publication number||US6263054 B1|
|Application number||US 09/629,772|
|Publication date||Jul 17, 2001|
|Filing date||Aug 1, 2000|
|Priority date||Aug 1, 2000|
|Also published as||CA2417586A1, CA2417586C, CN1446428A, CN101005545A, US6553104, US6907114, US20030133547, WO2002011419A1|
|Publication number||09629772, 629772, US 6263054 B1, US 6263054B1, US-B1-6263054, US6263054 B1, US6263054B1|
|Inventors||William W. Haefliger|
|Original Assignee||William W. Haefliger|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (6), Referenced by (34), Classifications (29), Legal Events (3)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
This invention relates generally to telecommunication, and more particularly to usage of telephone lines or links, as for example via wire or wireless.
There is need, for commercial reasons, for maintaining or increasing telephone communication, as via telephone company lines or line segments. Such need becomes acute, considering encroachment of communication as via internet users.
It is a major object of the invention to provide a business method, and system, to meet the above need. Basically, the method of the invention, for increasing or maintaining usage of a telephone company's lines, as via telephony, includes the steps:
a) establishing a lottery fund, and an associated lottery fund telephone number,
b) providing a protocol by which a telephone user becomes eligible to win funds in said lottery fund, provided the following conditions are met:
i) the user uses the telephone company's line or line segment, or connections, to make a call to said associated fund telephone number,
ii) the user's identifier is provided and communicated to the telephone company or to said lottery fund, and
c) selecting at least one such communicated user identifier from a group of such communicated identifiers, which identifies a winner of some or all of the funds in the pool or fund.
Another object is to provide for debit of the user's account with the telephone company, or selected company, by a selected amount or amounts, to provide funding for the lottery fund. That account may be a credit card account. Further, usage of the telephone company's line or line segment to make the call may require payment to the telephone company.
A further object includes monitoring incoming calls to the fund telephone number to determine whether or not they are incoming via said telephone company's line or line segment, or connections, to determine win eligibility. A related object concerns blocking usage for the lottery of calls incoming on lines other than said telephone company's line or line segment or connections, thereby excluding access to the lottery of calls on said other lines.
Yet another object is to provide for use of the caller's pin number as the identifier which identifies a user as a potential winner of funds in the pool.
An additional object is to operate the system or method nationally, or in states where lotteries are legal.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention, as well as the details of an illustrative embodiment, will be more fully understood from the following specification and drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a preferred system and protocol method diagram, other diagrams being possible;
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a modification of FIG. 1.
In the FIG. 1 diagram, a telephone company 10, or related company 11, has established a lottery type fund or pool 12, from which, or on behalf of which, a payment or payments, or other financial related benefits, are to be made to a winner or winners. The winner or winners may be selected by any criteria or method, as by random selection of an identifier associated with the winner. One such identifier is a user's pin number communicated to the fund or pool or to any other organization managing the lottery.
Lottery participant calls are made, as via a telephone line, or lines, or line segment, or segments or link, or links indicated at 13, from a call station or stations 30, and to a fund or pool telephone number or location, or related number or location, as indicated at 12 a. The line segment 13 may be a long distance line. That telephone number is or may be made generally known so that participants may make such calls on 13. A monitor 14 is or may be provided, in association with incoming calls to 12 a to pass or accept only those calls incoming on telephone line or link 13, it being an object of the invention to enhance usage of such lines or links. A call on another telephone company line 50 is blocked at 51.
The winner-telephone line user selection is made or selected as indicated at 16; and a consequent or related payment or payments are made to such winner or winners as indicated at 17. Payment may be made from the fund or pool 12 or from a related fund indicated at 18.
In addition, use of the telephone company's line or line segment typically requires payment to the company, or to the related company, 11 as is known and commonly provided for, as for example via user's monthly payment account with the telephone company, or via credit card or pay phone. Inasmuch as large pay-outs to winners may be made, heavy user participant use of telephone company's line or lines to the lottery is expectable, as is the experience of in-state or national lotteries, whereby the objective of increasing or monitoring telephone company line use is met or to be met. Multiple such lotteries may be operated simultaneously, or in time sequence.
FIG. 2 diagrammatically shows use by the user of a credit card in making the call to the lottery, and to pay for the call. The call is completed when an acceptable credit card 20 is used, as indicated by closing of a switch 21 in line 13. Completion of the call triggers debiting, at 22, of the card holder's account 23. Special “lottery use” credit cards may be issued by the telephone company. Also, funding of the pool, as by user-participants, may be provided, as by credit card payments or other methods. See debiting at 24 of the account 23, by the user 30, for such funding of the pool. Access, by credit card, to the lottery as via a telephone line 13 may be by the general method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,765, incorporated herein by reference.
Lottery call kiosks and associated circuitry or call techniques may be as provided for, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,765. Such a kiosk, and associated circuitry, may be represented by numeral 30′. Such circuitry may employ dedicated lottery access lines, circuitry and methods similar to accessing the internet. Numeral 30′ may also represent a hand-held wireless telephone or other movable station communicating with the lottery, over telephone company line segments.
As represented by numeral 30 a, a kiosk type public access terminal, to access telephone line 13, as via the internet, indicated at 13 b, connected or connectible at 30 c to line 13, may, for example, include one or more of the following features or elements disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,812,765 referred to above:
a) an access station, 30′ and
b) computer apparatus at the station and including a user keyboard and data display means,
c) a user credit card reader at the station, and said computer apparatus including circuit means operatively connected to the card reader to be responsive to reading of user credit card data to enable user access to the internet via said computer apparatus at the access station,
d) the access station being a public access station having an associated kiosk carrying such computer apparatus, and card reader,
e) the circuit means providing a means responsive to reading of a credit card for determining if that card identifies a current account customer user whereby
i) if the card does identify a current account customer user, the user is instructed via the display means to enter his password via the keyboard to enable subsequent performance of user requested operations associated with use of the internet,
ii) and if the card does not identify a current account user, the user is instructed via the display means to confirm via the keyboard that a new account is to be established, and to enter new account information via the keyboard for storage by server means, and the user is then enabled to perform user requested operations, via the keyboard, and associated with the internet,
f) such means responsive to reading of the credit card comprising software having the following:
i) net station first means accessed by a customer,
ii) second means responsive to output of the first means to read a magnetic strip on a customer credit card,
iii) third means responsive to output of the second means to determine if the customer is a current customer,
iv) fourth means responsive to determined current customer output of the third means to enter a customer password,
v) fifth means responsive to output of the fourth means to verify the password,
vi) sixth means responsive to output of the fifth means to request user configuration from a server,
vii) seventh means responsive to output of the sixth means to perform a user requested operation,
viii) eighth means responsive to output of the seventh means to determine if said operation is billable.
ix) and means responsive to output of the eighth means to perform electronic billing.
The invention also contemplates a system for increasing or maintaining usage of a telephone company's lines, comprising:
a) a lottery fund, and an associated lottery fund telephone number,
b) means for providing a protocol by which a telephone user becomes eligible to win funds in said lottery fund, wherein the following are provided:
i) the telephone company's line or line segment, or connections to make a call to said associated fund telephone number,
ii) means to communicate a user's identifier to the telephone company or to the lottery fund, via said line or line segment,
c) means to select at least one user identifier from a group of such communicated identifiers, which identifies a winner of funds in the lottery fund.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US4969183 *||Aug 28, 1989||Nov 6, 1990||Morris Reese||Telephone lotto number system and service|
|US5354069 *||Jan 21, 1992||Oct 11, 1994||Ahbrew Company||Lottery emulation system|
|US5365575 *||Sep 9, 1991||Nov 15, 1994||First Data Resources Inc.||Telephonic-interface lottery system|
|US5550909 *||Oct 14, 1994||Aug 27, 1996||At & T Corp.||International toll-free calling process|
|US5812765||Mar 22, 1996||Sep 22, 1998||Axxs Technologies Corporation||Multi-media remote data access terminals and system|
|US6117013 *||Jan 25, 1996||Sep 12, 2000||Eiba; Peter||Playing device system|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US6544121||Apr 4, 2001||Apr 8, 2003||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering systems and methods with multiple television feeds|
|US6553104 *||Jul 13, 2001||Apr 22, 2003||William W. Haefliger||Telephone line use enablement of lottery participation|
|US6674448||Aug 3, 2000||Jan 6, 2004||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering system with controllable graphic displays|
|US6695701||Nov 28, 2001||Feb 24, 2004||Ods Properties, Inc.||Systems and methods for providing fixed-odds and pari-mutuel wagering|
|US6712701||Aug 21, 2000||Mar 30, 2004||Ods Technologies, L.P.||Electronic book interactive wagering system|
|US6735487||Mar 9, 2000||May 11, 2004||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering system with promotions|
|US6907114 *||Mar 13, 2003||Jun 14, 2005||William W. Haefliger||Telephone line use enablement of lottery participation|
|US7103160 *||Jun 9, 2005||Sep 5, 2006||Haefliger William W||Telephone line use enablement of lottery participation|
|US7381136 *||Jan 30, 2003||Jun 3, 2008||Atlantic City Coin & Slot Service Company, Inc.||Telephone gaming device|
|US7463725||Sep 1, 2006||Dec 9, 2008||Haefliger William W||Telephone line use enablement of lottery or fund participation|
|US7648414||Apr 5, 2001||Jan 19, 2010||Ods Properties, Inc.||Systems and methods for recognizing preferred wagerers|
|US7950990||May 31, 2011||Ods Properties||Systems and methods for interactive wagering|
|US8062111||Dec 22, 2003||Nov 22, 2011||Ods Properties, Inc.||Systems and methods for providing fixed-odds and pari-mutuel wagering|
|US9002712||Aug 1, 2005||Apr 7, 2015||Dialsurf, Inc.||Voice-interactive marketplace providing promotion and promotion tracking, loyalty reward and redemption, and other features|
|US20010036858 *||Apr 5, 2001||Nov 1, 2001||Ods Properties, Inc.||Systems and methods for recognizing preferred wagerers|
|US20010037293 *||Apr 5, 2001||Nov 1, 2001||Hindman John R.||Interactive wagering systems for providing wagering information and methods of use|
|US20010047291 *||Apr 2, 2001||Nov 29, 2001||Masood Garahi||Systems and methods for placing parimutuel wagers on future events|
|US20010051540 *||Apr 5, 2001||Dec 13, 2001||John Hindman||Interactive wagering systems and methods with parimutuel pool features|
|US20020035474 *||Mar 26, 2001||Mar 21, 2002||Ahmet Alpdemir||Voice-interactive marketplace providing time and money saving benefits and real-time promotion publishing and feedback|
|US20020049975 *||Apr 3, 2001||Apr 25, 2002||Thomas William L.||Interactive wagering system with multiple display support|
|US20020065120 *||Nov 29, 2000||May 30, 2002||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering system with automatic runner selection|
|US20030013530 *||Jul 12, 2002||Jan 16, 2003||Telecents Communications Inc.||Lottery club system|
|US20030100368 *||Jan 30, 2003||May 29, 2003||Atlantic City Coin & Slot Service Company, Inc.||Telephone gaming device|
|US20030125958 *||Jun 19, 2002||Jul 3, 2003||Ahmet Alpdemir||Voice-interactive marketplace providing time and money saving benefits and real-time promotion publishing and feedback|
|US20030133547 *||Mar 13, 2003||Jul 17, 2003||Haefliger William W.||Telephone line use enablement of lottery participation|
|US20030144054 *||Jan 27, 2003||Jul 31, 2003||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering systems and methods with multiple television feeds|
|US20030190953 *||Apr 7, 2003||Oct 9, 2003||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering systems and methods with multiple television feeds|
|US20030195038 *||Apr 7, 2003||Oct 16, 2003||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering systems and methods with multiple television feeds|
|US20040157660 *||Feb 2, 2004||Aug 12, 2004||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering system|
|US20040192435 *||Apr 12, 2004||Sep 30, 2004||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering system with promotions|
|US20050226397 *||Jun 9, 2005||Oct 13, 2005||Haefliger William W||Telephone line use enablement of lottery participation|
|US20070275781 *||Aug 1, 2007||Nov 29, 2007||Ods Properties, Inc.||Interactive wagering system with promotions|
|US20110159951 *||Dec 31, 2009||Jun 30, 2011||James Badalik||System and Method for Wagering|
|EP1319429A2 *||Nov 22, 2002||Jun 18, 2003||Deutsche Telekom AG||Tele-lottery|
|U.S. Classification||379/93.13, 463/41, 902/23|
|International Classification||G06Q30/02, H04M11/08, H04M15/00, H04M15/06, G07F17/32|
|Cooperative Classification||H04M15/06, H04M15/68, H04M2215/0192, G06Q30/02, H04M11/08, H04M15/54, H04M2215/0184, G07F17/3223, G07F17/32, H04M15/00, H04M15/8083, H04M2215/0196|
|European Classification||G07F17/32, G06Q30/02, G07F17/32C6, H04M15/54, H04M15/68, H04M11/08, H04M15/00, H04M15/80L, H04M15/06|
|Nov 19, 2004||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|Jan 5, 2009||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8
|Jan 11, 2013||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 12