Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-26
2001-04-24
Peeso, Thomas R. (Department: 2767)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Electronic shopping
C705S027200, C380S051000, C380S055000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06223166
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to data processing systems. More particularly, the invention relates to cryptographic encoded ticket issuing and collection systems for remote purchasers.
2. Description of Prior Art
Current distribution systems rely very heavily on the paper upon which tickets are printed. The assumption of the ticketing agents is that the ticket paper is very difficult to reproduce and, therefore, duplicate. The ticket collectors visually verify, upon receipt, the tickets for authenticity and then physically alter the tickets to prevent the re-use of the ticket. Such ticketing systems are extremely simple and work for situations with the following characteristics:
Reserved Seats (Prevents duplicates).
Relatively Low Cost (Situations where ticket fraud is not a critical problem—in contrast to Airline tickets where fraud is a severe threat).
Multiple ticket collectors.
Offline ticket collection (No readily available, network computer system).
While the opportunity for smart cards and other ticket storage systems exist for ticketing systems, such systems add to the requirements of an information system to collect and process the card and like devices. In some environments this would be acceptable, but the ticket fraud situation in the United States does not lend itself to such systems. However, the increasing number of personal computers and PC kiosks suggest a new form of electronic ticket which is a hybrid between a completely electronic, smart card (or similar) ticket and current paper-based tickets produced by ticket agents. A hybrid system should have the following prerequisites:
1. A readily available distribution mechanism for the tickets.
2. A system to produce a hard copy of the ticket.
3. A system to authenticate the validity of the ticket.
4. Optimally, a system to ensure that no duplicate tickets exist.
Prior art related to ticket issuing systems includes the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,518 issued Sep. 17, 1996, discloses a system for open electronic commerce in which trusted agents establish cryptographically secure sessions to transfer money and goods.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,664 issued May 5, 1987, discloses an electronic ticket method in which a removable plug-in unit serves as a ticket after de-scrambling an electronic ticket transmitted in a video program.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,114 issued Mar. 11, 1980, discloses a ticket issuing system in which the names of desired destinations or a list of names of destinations are displayed on a video screen after keyboard entry of a desired destination. The destinations on the display are accompanied by a code number which permits an operator to definitively key the destination into the machine for the issuance of a ticket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,946 issued Jun. 28, 1997, discloses an apparatus for selling betting tickets wherein the betting information recorded on original betting ticket may be altered by a processor in accordance with operator instructions and a new betting ticket containing altered betting information issued.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,614 issued Mar. 30, 1982, discloses a light weight, portable apparatus for rapidly reading continuously and sequentially a plurality of ticket records having specific data encoded thereon as tickets are removed individually from a supply magazine and conveyed along the prescribed path by a ticket feed assembly.
None of the prior art discloses a hybrid electronic ticket issuing system for mass purchases by remote users where the tickets are distributed electronically and include cypher code for authenticating the use of the tickets by a holder via portable terminals decrypting, validating and recording the cipher coded tickets, the recorded ticket collection information subsequently checked for duplication by uploading to a host system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is a ticket issuing and collection system and method of operation for real-time mass purchases of cypher-coded tickets by remote users.
Another object is a ticket issuing and collection system and method of operation in which cypher-coded, electronic-issued tickets for an event are acquired from a seller and printed in hard copy form by a remote purchaser
Another object is a ticket issuing and collection system and method of operation for real-time purchases of cypher-coded, electronic tickets by a remote user through a distributed information system.
Another object is a ticket issuing and collection system and method of operation in a distributed information system in which cypher-coded, electronic tickets for an event are issued in hard copy form by a purchaser for authentication at the event by a scanning device.
Another object is a ticket issuing and collection system and method of operation in which a scanning device electronically authenticates and records a cypher-coded hard copy ticket acquired and printed by a purchaser from an information system.
Another object is a ticket issuing and collection system in a distributed information system for real-time purchase of cypher-coded tickets by a remote purchaser for an event, the ticket enabling authentication and recording thereof by a scanning device for subsequent checking for duplicate tickets.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention are achieved in a distributed information network, for example, the Internet, and portable collection terminals for generating, distributing and collecting cypher-coded tickets personalized to the purchaser through cryptographic techniques. A remote purchaser inter acts with a designated server on the Internet to purchase and print out, using a standard PC assembly, a cypher-coded ticket for an event or service or product or the like, offered by a seller at a web site on the Internet. The purchaser supplies the purchase details for the event and the seller, after confirmation of space available for the event, transmits a cypher-coded electronic ticket tied to the event for display by the purchaser on the standard PC assembly. After approval, the purchaser prints out a hard copy of the cypher-coded electronic ticket tied to the event for presentation to the ticket collectors at the event. The ticket collectors use a portable terminal pre-loaded with an asymmetric or symmetric key for decrypting the code in the ticket. The decrypted code is evaluated to ensure that the ticket is valid, after which the ticket information is stored in the terminal. From time to time, the terminal is uploaded to an information processor system to check the stored collected ticket information for duplicate tickets. The asymmetric keys stored in the encoded ticket and at the terminal are changed for each event to prevent ticket fraud.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4032946 (1977-06-01), Wakatsuki et al.
patent: 4193114 (1980-03-01), Benini
patent: 4322614 (1982-03-01), Sloan et al.
patent: 4663664 (1987-05-01), Ragan et al.
patent: 5557518 (1996-09-01), Rosen
patent: 5754654 (1998-05-01), Hiroya et al.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Morgan & Finnegan , LLP
Peeso Thomas R.
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