Systems and methods for dealing with online activity based on delivery of a television advertisement

What is this patent about?

’069 is related to the field of cross-media advertising and user behavior tracking. Specifically, it addresses the technical challenge of linking a user’s television viewing habits with their online browsing activity to enable targeted advertising across different platforms. In modern network environments, devices often use dynamic addresses, making it difficult to maintain a consistent profile for a single household or user as they move between a television and a computer or mobile device.

The underlying idea behind ’069 is the creation of a non-private link between a television set-top box and an online device by identifying that both reside on the same common local area network. By recognizing that these two independent devices share a network gateway or public IP address, the system can attribute television ad exposure to a specific online user without requiring personally identifiable information. This allows the system to close the loop between what a user sees on TV and what they subsequently do or see on the web.

The claims of ’069 focus on a computer-implemented method and system that triggers an action—such as delivering a targeted online ad or tracking specific web activity—based on a notification that a television advertisement was presented. The core requirement of the independent claims is that the association between the set-top box and the online interface device is established without using personally identifiable information. Instead, the link is derived from the technical observation that both devices are connected to the same local network infrastructure.

In practice, the invention works by receiving a signal from the set-top box indicating that a specific ad was viewed or interacted with. The system then looks for an online device, such as a laptop or smartphone, that shares the same online access identifier or gateway IP. Because these devices are clustered behind the same modem or router, the system can serve a follow-up advertisement to the computer that relates directly to the commercial just shown on the television, effectively creating a multi-screen marketing funnel.

This approach differs from prior methods by overcoming the hurdles of dynamic IP reassignment and privacy concerns. Rather than relying on static logins or sensitive personal data, the invention utilizes the temporary, shared network footprint of the devices. By maintaining a database of these associations and updating them as network addresses change, the system ensures that the cross-media targeting remains accurate even when the Internet Service Provider rotates the household's public IP address.