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:
Jun. 27, 2006
Filed:
Mar. 23, 2005
Eiji Kawai, Kanagawa, JP;
Eiji Kawai, Kanagawa, JP;
Sony Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
To automatically manage payment of charge produced between an apparatus manufacturer and an information provider, and to promote sales of an information processing apparatus and information contents. There are provided: a terminal deviceto managed so as to manufacture and manage an information processing apparatusand so as to sell to a useran information processing apparatus at a price lower than a desired sales price of an apparatus manufacturer; a terminal devicemanaged so as to provide to the useravailable information contentsat the information processing apparatus, and then, collect charge; and a sales activity management apparatusfor managing the terminal devicesandbased on a license agreement made in advance between an apparatus manufacturerand an information provider, wherein this sales activity management apparatusissues an instruction for the terminal deviceto return to the terminal devicean amount of money corresponding to a difference produced because the apparatus manufacturerhas provided the information processing apparatusto the userat a low price according to an amount of money for a charge collected from the user