The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 02, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 26, 1998
Richard C. Cybul, Boca Raton, FL (US);
Robert M. Szabo, Boca Raton, FL (US);
James J. Toohey, Boca Raton, FL (US);
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method for managing a frequent shopper program at a site providing both electronic commerce (e-commerce) shopping and in-store shopping, comprising the steps of: establishing a point of sale (POS) system, having a POS loyalty database and a POS purchase history database; establishing a list builder tool having an on-line shopping history database; establishing a query interface enabling communications between the POS system, the list builder tool and a network browser; updating the on-line shopping history database with information from the POS purchase history database through the query interface; updating the POS purchase history database with information from the on-line shopping history database through the query interface; and, determining a shopper's entitlement to a frequent shopper discount by accessing information from the updated POS purchase history database and the updated on-line shopping history database.