A system and method for reducing excess capacity for restaurants and other industries during off-peak hours is provided. Customers or potential customers may bid on gift certificates redeemable at restaurants during a predetermined time. Users may register with the system and provide identification and demographic information which may be used by restaurants for targeted marketing strategies, promotions, and special offers. The system may include a registration module, an auction module, a restaurant guide module, a restaurant manager module, rewards and referral center module, restaurant reservation module, and advertisement displays.

Claims

19 · 2 independent · depth 4

19 granted claims

›1.independentA computer-implemented system for reducing excess capacity for one or more restaurants that experience periods of peak demands and periods of non-peak…+12

A computer-implemented system for reducing excess capacity for one or more restaurants that experience periods of peak demands and periods of non-peak demands and for collecting information about at least one user, the system comprising:na server configured to execute computer program modules corresponding to a website, the computer program modules comprising:na request module configured to transmit information to a client computing platform that causes the client computing platform to present an interface associated with the website to receive one or more user selected restaurant characteristics through the interface;an incentive determination module configured to identify incentives for dining at restaurants corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics received at the server from the client computing platform such that the incentive determination module is configured to identify a first incentive and a second incentive responsive to:nthe first incentive being for dining at a first restaurant corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics, andthe second incentive being for dining at a second restaurant corresponding to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics;an incentive module configured to transmit information to the client computing platform that causes the client computing platform to concomitantly present a plurality of incentives for dining at individual ones of a set of two or more restaurants that correspond to the one or more user selected restaurant characteristics included in the received user request for incentives such that the plurality of presented incentives includes the first incentive and the second incentive responsive to the first incentive and the second incentive being identified by the incentive determination module,the incentives being subject to restrictions that specify valid times of day, andthe incentive module being configured such that the information transmitted to the client causes the plurality of incentives to be presented as being subject to the restrictions of the incentives such that, responsive to the first incentive being subject to restrictions that specify a first set of valid times of day and the second incentive being subject to restrictions that specify a second set of valid times of day that is different from the first set of valid times of day, the first incentive is presented with the first set of valid times of day and the second incentive is presented with the second set of valid times of day that are different from the first set of valid times of day.

›2.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the first incentive is one of:na predetermined percentage off a purchase, ora predetermined amount off a purchase.d2

›3.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the computer program modules further comprise:na registration module configured to obtain information about users via t…d2+3

›7.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the computer program modules further comprise a restaurant guide module configured to provide users with information ab…d2+3

›11.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein the request module is configured such that the user requests include one or more user- specified dining parameters.d2+1

›13.↳ 1The system of claim 1, wherein a user receives an incentive responsive to the user dining in accordance to the restrictions associated with the incent…d2

›14.independentA computer-implemented method of reducing excess capacity for one or more restaurants that experience periods of peak demands and periods of non-peak …+5

Classifications

4 codes

IPC · International Patent Classification

Section G — Physics

G05B19/418
G06Q30/00

USPC · US Patent Classification

705/14.35705/5

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2.3 y

855 days filing → grant

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non-final + final

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Victoria Vanderhorst

art unit 3688 · TC 3600

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›Priority documents — 1

Type	Document	Date
related publication	US 20110173062 A1	14 Jul 2011

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