Prior art

The most relevant prior art for US patent 11416898, "Methods, systems, and apparatus for financing projects," as cited within the patent document itself, includes the following two patent publications:

Cited Prior Art References

1. US20020049816A1

• Full Citation: US20020049816A1, titled "System and method for raising funds and establishing user affinity over a distributed network," by Costin William Gilmore.

• Publication/Filing Date:

  • Priority Date: 2000-03-24
  • Publication Date: 2002-04-25

• Brief Description: This patent describes a system and method for soliciting and receiving contributions for a charitable organization via a distributed computer network, such as the Internet. It involves presenting a website with information about charitable organizations and links to merchants. When a user makes a purchase through these merchant links, the merchant contributes to the charitable organization, and the system accounts for these contributions. The system also facilitates automatic user login and direct purchases to aid in generating contributions.

• Potential Anticipation of US11416898 Claim 1 (under 35 U.S.C. § 102):
  US20020049816A1 potentially anticipates certain broad aspects of Claim 1 of US11416898 related to online fundraising and managing revenue. Specifically, it discloses:

  • Receiving messages over an Internet-based communication link from a client (implicitly for user activity or purchase information).
  • Identifying a client.
  • Presenting information via a website (similar to providing a webpage).
  • Generating a repository for funds (contributions being accounted for).
  • Electronically collecting revenue (merchant contributions).

  However, US20020049816A1 does not appear to anticipate the specific details of Claim 1 regarding:

  • A given client (advertiser) providing advertising material to populate on one or more websites.
  • Generating a webpage providing advertising buy options for selection by an advertiser, where these options comprise a predetermined number of impressions.
  • Populating the advertising material based on the selected buy options.
  • Monitoring a number of valid impressions of the advertising material.
  • Ceasing the populating of advertising material once the predetermined number of valid impressions is met.
  • Electronically collecting a share of the advertising revenue based on met impressions and transmitting it to a web property content owner (in the context of project financing).
    The Gilmore patent focuses on merchant contributions driven by user purchases, rather than an advertiser-driven, impression-based advertising buy model for project financing.

2. WO2016118843A1

• Full Citation: WO2016118843A1, titled "Systems and methods for allocating mobile advertisement inventory," by Pcms Holdings, Inc.

• Publication/Filing Date:

  • Priority Date: 2015-01-23
  • Publication Date: 2016-07-28

• Brief Description: This patent describes systems and methods for allocating mobile advertisement inventory. It involves receiving ad requests and associated ad profiles from client devices. Based on these profiles, the system determines a set of candidate advertisements and available advertising inventory. Advertisements are then allocated to the inventory according to various ad allocation rules, which may include bid price, ad delivery rate, and ad budget.

• Potential Anticipation of US11416898 Claim 1 (under 35 U.S.C. § 102):
  WO2016118843A1 potentially anticipates several elements of Claim 1 of US11416898 related to advertising delivery and tracking, particularly:

  • Receiving a message comprising data, the data comprising advertising material to populate on one or more websites (implied by "receiving a plurality of ad requests").
  • Populating advertising material on websites (implied by "allocating at least one advertisement...to at least one advertising inventory").
  • Monitoring a number of impressions of the advertising material (implied by "ad delivery rate").
  • Determining whether an impression is valid (common in ad tracking systems).
  • Elements related to "predetermined number of impressions" or "ad budget" could be seen as encompassing the concept of determining when an impression target is met.
  • Electronically collecting advertising revenue (inherent in ad allocation systems).

  However, WO2016118843A1 does not appear to anticipate the specific details of Claim 1 regarding:

  • Generating a webpage that provides a plurality of advertising buy options for selection by a given client accessing said webpage. The WO'843A1 focuses on system-driven allocation based on rules rather than an advertiser interactively selecting buy options from a GUI.
  • Generating a repository for advertising revenue based on the selection specifically for financing a predetermined project. The WO'843A1 describes a general ad allocation system, not one with a primary purpose of funding external projects.
  • Explicitly ceasing the populating of advertising material when a predetermined number of impressions is met as a contractual fulfillment in a project financing context, and then transmitting a share of the advertising revenue to a web property content owner specifically for that project.

Conclusion on Most Relevant Prior Art:

While both cited prior art documents touch upon aspects of US11416898, US20020049816A1 by Costin William Gilmore is arguably more relevant in terms of the overarching goal of "raising funds" or "financing projects," which is the core inventive concept of US11416898. [cite: The provided patent text US11416898B2 describes its field as "media financing" and its object to provide a process for "raising funds for a predetermined project". The cited prior art includes "System and method for raising funds and establishing user affinity over a distributed network" which directly relates to fundraising.] WO2016118843A1, while describing advanced ad allocation and tracking, is further removed from the specific "project financing" framework through interactive advertiser selection of impression-based media buys that characterizes US11416898. Neither patent appears to fully anticipate all elements of Claim 1 of US11416898 under 35 U.S.C. § 102 due to the unique combination of features related to project financing through advertiser-selected, impression-based advertising buys.