Methods and systems for tracking electronic commerce transactions

US8271329B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Linkshare Corporation · US

Inventors

• Jonathan Levine · King of Prussia, US
• Matthew Syrett · Los Angeles, US
• Steven Silverstein · Brooklyn, US
• Nathan Bryant · Norwalk, US
• Shaochen Fan · Salisbury Mills, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 20, 2008
• Grant date: Sep 18, 2012
• Expiry date: Mar 6, 2031

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L2209/56
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for tracking user access to an advertisement and user transactions with an electronic commerce computer associated with the advertisement. In accordance with one aspect of the disclosed technology, a transaction tracking computer associates an identifier with each access (e.g., click) of an advertisement. Transactions that occur at the electronic commerce computer that are related to the advertisement will be reported to the transaction tracking server together with the identifier. In one embodiment, if the reported transaction is a duplicate of a previously reported transaction, then the reported transaction is determined to be invalid. In one embodiment, if the reported transaction occurs more than a predetermined amount of time after the time the identifier was initially generated, then the reported transaction will also be determined to be invalid.