Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
2007-06-26
2007-06-26
Laneau, Ronald (Department: 3627)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
active
09848572
ABSTRACT:
Embodiments of the present invention provide for a method, system and article of manufacture for operating vending machines. In general, a plurality of vending machines are nodes of a network. Each node is configured to send, receive and process signals carrying inventory, pricing, reservation and/or refund information. In such embodiments, a vending machine is configured to receive a reservation request for a specified item. The request may be issued from one of a plurality of client devices (e.g., wireless telephones, desktop computers and the like) or from a reservation control system. In still another embodiment, vending machines may be configured to provide refunds under controlled conditions. A consumer may request a refund in cases where the consumer was improperly charged for goods are services that were not provided.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5091713 (1992-02-01), Horne et al.
patent: 5207784 (1993-05-01), Schwartzendrube
patent: 5769269 (1998-06-01), Peters
patent: 5930771 (1999-07-01), Stapp
patent: 5959869 (1999-09-01), Miller et al.
patent: 6021390 (2000-02-01), Satoh et al.
patent: 6038491 (2000-03-01), McGarry et al.
patent: 6056194 (2000-05-01), Kolls
patent: 6085888 (2000-07-01), Tedesco et al.
patent: 6286710 (2001-09-01), Paek
patent: 6330490 (2001-12-01), Kim et al.
patent: 6446045 (2002-09-01), Stone et al.
patent: 6490443 (2002-12-01), Freeny, Jr.
patent: 6594646 (2003-07-01), Okayama et al.
patent: 6629080 (2003-09-01), Kolls
patent: 2002/0077724 (2002-06-01), Paulucci et al.
patent: 411039547 (1999-02-01), None
http://www.instymeds.com/sun.html, “Sun Newspapers”, Jun. 16, 2004.
Bates Cary Lee
Majd Mahdad
Santosuosso John Matthew
International Business Machines - Corporation
Laneau Ronald
Patterson & Sheridan LLP
LandOfFree
Operation of control system for ensuring availability of... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Operation of control system for ensuring availability of..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Operation of control system for ensuring availability of... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3822489