US 11,704,722 B2
Product release system, method and device having a customizable prepurchase function
Mark Charles Coker, Los Gatos, CA (US); and William James Kendrick, Olympia, WA (US)
Assigned to Draft2Digital, LLC, Oklahoma City, OK (US)
Filed by SMASHWORDS INC., Los Gatos, CA (US)
Filed on Nov. 20, 2019, as Appl. No. 16/689,788.
Application 16/689,788 is a continuation of application No. 16/659,997, filed on Oct. 22, 2019, granted, now 11,430,050.
Prior Publication US 2021/0118033 A1, Apr. 22, 2021
Int. Cl. G06Q 30/00 (2023.01); G06Q 30/0601 (2023.01); G06Q 20/28 (2012.01); G06Q 30/0241 (2023.01); G06Q 20/40 (2012.01)
CPC G06Q 30/0641 (2013.01) [G06Q 20/28 (2013.01); G06Q 20/401 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0276 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0623 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0633 (2013.01)] 31 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A product release system for enabling prepurchase of one or more immediately-usable products, the product release system comprising:
one or more servers including a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled with the processor, storing a product release platform having a user interface and able to be communicatively coupled with one or more third party devices over a network, wherein the product release platform is operable to:
generate a product listing identifying a new immediately-usable product based on product data received from a third party device, wherein the product data includes a creator of the immediately-usable product, a general public product release date that is in the future, and metadata associated with the new immediately-usable product;
generate one or more prepurchase events based on the new immediately-usable product, the prepurchase events each having a product identifier identifying the new immediately-usable product, a starting time, an end condition and sales data for the new immediately-usable product, wherein the prepurchase events include a purchase function that enables one or more customers to complete a purchase transaction to purchase and obtain the new immediately-usable product before the general public product release date of the product listing, wherein the starting time and the end condition define a duration of the prepurchase event that begins and ends before the general public product release date, wherein the generation of the prepurchase events is initiated by a product controller account associated with the creator of the new immediately-usable product;
generate one or more prepurchase keys for the one or more prepurchase events, wherein completion of the purchase transaction provided by the prepurchase events requires input of one or more of the prepurchase keys;
provide a dashboard module that enables the product controller account to view active, draft and expired prepurchase events of the prepurchase events initiated by the product controller account, and modify one or more characteristics of the active prepurchase events and the draft prepurchase events, wherein the characteristics include the starting time, the end condition and the sales data of the active prepurchase events and the draft prepurchase events; and
for each of the prepurchase events:
receive one or more input keys from the one or more customers;
determine if the input keys correspond to the prepurchase keys associated with the prepurchase event;
in advance of the general public product release date, facilitate purchase of the new immediately-usable product by the one or more customers using the purchase function to complete the purchase transaction and provide early access to the new immediately-usable product to the one or more customers upon completion of the purchase transaction during the duration of the prepurchase event if the one or more input keys correspond to the prepurchase keys associated with the prepurchase event; and
prevent purchase of the new immediately-usable product by the one or more customers during the duration of the prepurchase event if the one or more input keys do not correspond to the prepurchase keys associated with the prepurchase event, wherein the product release platform prevents purchase of the new immediately-usable product by rejecting the purchase transactions for the new immediately-usable product initiated by the one or more customers with the purchase function of the prepurchase event.