IP Library Granted Patent US 9,712,664
Granted Patent B1
US 9,712,664 · App. 14/988,723 · Granted Jul 18, 2017

Sustained service subscriptions

Inventors: Michael P. McMullen (Leawood, KS); Mark D. Peden (Olathe, KS); Raymond Reeves (Oviedo, FL)
Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
H04M1/72577H04L67/306H04M15/67H04M15/68H04M15/83H04W8/18
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,712,664
App. No.
14/988,723
Granted
Jul 18, 2017
Kind
B1
Abstract

Systems and methods discussed herein are employed in a cross-platform notification system configured to send a series of notifications to devices and/or subscription services associated with an account where a payment is due. These notifications may be sent to an increasing number of devices and/or subscription services as time passes from when payment was due, and the iterations of notifications may take up progressively more of a graphical user interface and/or be displayed for an increasing period of time until a final notification is sent, after which point access to telecommunications services and subscription services, except for emergency functions, accessed through the telecommunications service provider are no longer available to users associated with the overdue account.

Claims (42)

1. A method of maintaining telecommunications service comprising:

sending, by an application stored in a non-transitory memory, based on a determination that payment is due on a user account, an initial payment notification to at least one device associated with the user account, wherein the at least one user device comprises a mobile phone and is associated with a telecommunications service provider, wherein the initial payment notification is displayed on a first portion of a graphic user interface of the mobile phone, and wherein the user account is associated with the mobile phone and a plurality of subscription services;

based on a determination that a satisfactory payment has not been received within a predetermined period of time:

modifying, by the application, at least one of the plurality of subscription services, wherein modifying the at least one of the plurality of services comprises at least one of restricting access to a graphic user interface when a request for access to the at least one of the plurality of subscription services is received and restricting a functionality of the at least one of the plurality of subscription services; and

sending, by the application, at least one elevated payment notification to the mobile phone and an at least one subscription service of the plurality of subscription services, wherein the elevated payment notification is displayed on a second portion of the mobile phone, wherein the second portion is greater than the first portion, and wherein the elevated payment notification is displayed in response to a request for access to the at least one subscription service;

sending, by the application, a final payment notification in response to a determination that a satisfactory payment has not been made within a predetermined time period of the at least one elevated payment notification; and

disabling, by the application, in response to a determination that a satisfactory payment is not received within a predetermined time period after the final payment notification is sent, access to the mobile phone and the plurality of subscription services.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of subscription services are associated with a plurality of vendors other than the telecommunications service provider and comprise messaging clients, email clients, retail applications, and geolocation services.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein restricting the functionality comprises at least one of: restricting subscription service access during a time of day, restricting subscription service access during a day of the week, establishing a maximum amount of time the subscription service may be accessed for, establishing a maximum data usage, establishing a maximum download rate, and restricting the ability to make purchases using the subscription service.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the elevated payment notification is sent to the mobile phone and another device associated with the user account.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the elevated payment notification is sent to the mobile phone and the another device based upon an attribute associated with at least one of each device and an attribute associated with a user associated with each device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user account is a corporate account associated with a plurality of users, and wherein the initial payment notification is sent to a plurality of devices associated with the plurality of users associated with the user account.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the device attribute is one of a model number, an operating system, a device type, and a service plan associated with the device.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the user attribute is one of a job description, a job tier, a payment permissions level, and a subset of the plurality of subscription services available for access by the user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the elevated payment notification is sent to at least two subscription services of the plurality of subscription services.

10. A system for maintaining telecommunications service comprising:

a data store stored in a non-transitory memory of a server and comprising a plurality of user accounts, wherein each user account of the plurality of user accounts is associated with at least one user, at least one device, and a plurality of subscription services;

a plurality of remote servers associated with providers of the plurality of subscription services;

a payment notification application stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by a processor;

sends, to a first device associated with the user account, an initial payment notification, wherein the initial payment notification is displayed on a first portion of a graphic user interface of the first device;

based on a determination that a satisfactory payment has not been received within an initial time period,

modifies access to at least one of the plurality of subscription services by at least one of restricting access to a graphic user interface when a request for access to the at least one of the plurality of subscription services is received and restricting a functionality of the at least one of the plurality of subscription services, and

sends, to the first device and a second device associated with the user account, based on the determination that satisfactory payment has not been received within the initial time period, a subsequent payment notification, wherein the first device and the second device comprise different types of devices, wherein the subsequent payment notification is displayed on a second portion of the graphical user interface, and wherein the second portion is greater than the first portion;

sends, to at least one subscription service of the plurality of subscription services associated with the user account, based on a determination that satisfactory payment has not been received within a second time period, a second subsequent payment notification, wherein the second subsequent payment notification is displayed on a graphical user interface of a device configured to access the at least one subscription service in response to execution of the at least one subscription service;

sends, to the first device and the second device and to the at least one subscription service, a final payment notification in response to a determination that a satisfactory payment has not been made within a predetermined time period of the second subsequent payment notification; and

disables, by the application, in response to a determination that a satisfactory payment is not received within a predetermined time period after the final payment notification is sent, access to the plurality of subscription services and the first device and the second device.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the application restores, in response to a determination that a satisfactory payment has been made, at least a portion of access to the first device and the second device and access to the at least one subscription service.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein at least one user account of the plurality of user accounts is associated with a plurality of users, and wherein each user is associated with at least some subscription services of the plurality of subscription services associated with the at least one user account.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein modifying the at least one of the plurality of subscription services comprises at least one of restricting access to a graphic user interface when the request for access to the at least one of the plurality of subscription services is received and restricting a functionality of the at least one of the plurality of subscription services.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein restricting the functionality comprises at least one of: restricting subscription service access during a time of day, restricting subscription service access during a day of the week, establishing a maximum amount of time the subscription service may be accessed for, establishing a maximum data usage, establishing a maximum download rate, and restricting the ability to make purchases using the subscription service.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the payment notification application is in communication with at least some of the plurality of remote servers, receives information from the at least some of the plurality of remote servers, and sends at least one notification based upon the information received, and wherein the first device and the second device each comprise an applet configured to display notifications sent by the payment notification application.

16. A method of maintaining telecommunications service comprising:

sending, by an application stored in a non-transitory memory, based on a determination that payment is due on a user account, an initial payment notification to at least one device associated with the user account, wherein the initial payment notification is displayed on a first portion of a graphic user interface of the at least one device, wherein the at least one device comprises a mobile phone, and wherein the user account is associated with the mobile phone and a plurality of subscription services;

based on a determination that a satisfactory payment has not been received within a predetermined period of time:

modifying, by the application, at least one of the plurality of subscription services, wherein modifying the at least one of the plurality of services comprises at least one of restricting access to a graphic user interface when a request for access to the at least one of the plurality of subscription services is received or restricting a functionality of the at least one of the plurality of subscription services; and

sending, by the application, at least one elevated payment notification to the mobile phone and at least two other devices associated with the user account, based on at least one attribute associated with the mobile phone and each of the at least two other devices, wherein the at least one elevated payment notification is displayed on a second portion of a graphical user interface of the mobile phone and each of the at least two other devices, and wherein the second portion is greater than the first portion;

sending, by the application, a final payment notification in response to a determination that a satisfactory payment has not been made within a predetermined time period of the at least one elevated payment notification, wherein the final payment notification is sent to the mobile phone, the at least two other devices and a subset of the plurality of subscription services associated with the user account; and

disabling, by the application, in response to a determination that a satisfactory payment is not received within a predetermined time period after the final payment notification is sent, access to the mobile phone and the at least two other devices and the plurality of subscription services.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the final payment notification is displayed on a third portion of the graphical user interface of the mobile phone and the at least two other devices, wherein the third portion is greater than the second portion, and wherein the final payment notification is displayed on a graphical user interface of a device configured to access each of the subset of the plurality of subscription services in response to execution of each subscription service.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein displaying the final payment notification in response to execution of each subscription service disables access to the subscription service for a predetermined period of time.

19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising restoring, by the application, in response to a determination that a satisfactory payment has been received for the user account, access to the mobile phone, the two other devices, and the plurality of subscription services.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the at least one attribute is one of a model number, an operating system, a device type, and a service plan associated with each of the at least two devices.

Assignments (6)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Aug 23, 2022
From: DEUTSCHE BANK TRUST COMPANY AMERICAS
To: IBSV LLC; LAYER3 TV, LLC; PUSHSPRING, LLC; T-MOBILE CENTRAL LLC; T-MOBILE USA, INC.; ASSURANCE WIRELESS USA, L.P.; BOOST WORLDWIDE, LLC; CLEARWIRE COMMUNICATIONS LLC; CLEARWIRE IP HOLDINGS LLC; SPRINTCOM LLC; SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY L.P.; SPRINT INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED; SPRINT SPECTRUM LLC
Reel/Frame 062595/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 4, 2021
From: SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY L.P.
To: T-MOBILE INNOVATIONS LLC
Reel/Frame 055604/0001 →
TERMINATION AND RELEASE OF FIRST PRIORITY AND JUNIOR PRIORITY SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENT RIGHTS Recorded Apr 2, 2020
From: DEUTSCHE BANK TRUST COMPANY AMERICAS
To: SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY L.P.
Reel/Frame 052969/0475 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 2, 2020
From: T-MOBILE USA, INC.; ISBV LLC; T-MOBILE CENTRAL LLC; LAYER3 TV, INC.; PUSHSPRING, INC.; BOOST WORLDWIDE, LLC; CLEARWIRE COMMUNICATIONS LLC; CLEARWIRE IP HOLDINGS LLC; CLEARWIRE LEGACY LLC; SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY L.P.; SPRINT INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED; SPRINT SPECTRUM L.P.; ASSURANCE WIRELESS USA, L.P.
To: DEUTSCHE BANK TRUST COMPANY AMERICAS
Reel/Frame 053182/0001 →
GRANT OF FIRST PRIORITY AND JUNIOR PRIORITY SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENT RIGHTS Recorded Mar 6, 2017
From: SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY L.P.
To: DEUTSCHE BANK TRUST COMPANY AMERICAS
Reel/Frame 041895/0210 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 22, 2016
From: MCMULLEN, MICHAEL P.; PEDEN, MARK D.; REEVES, RAYMOND
To: SPRINT COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY L.P.
Reel/Frame 037555/0284 →