Brite Smart Corp. v. Google Inc.

Filing 1

COMPLAINT for Patent Infringement against Google Inc. ( Filing fee $ 400 receipt number 0540-4739057.), filed by Brite Smart Corp.. (Attachments: #1 Exhibit A, #2 Exhibit B, #3 Exhibit C, #4 Exhibit D, #5 Civil Cover Sheet)(Davis, Stafford)

EXHIBIT C
United States Patent No. 8,326,763

111111

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
US008326763B2

(54)

United States Patent

(10)

Zuili

c12)

(45)

METHOD AND SYSTEM TO DETECT
INVALID AND FRAUDULENT IMPRESSIONS
AND CLICKS IN WEB-BASED
ADVERTISEMENT SYSTEMS

(75)

Inventor:

Patrick Zuili, Boca Raton, FL (US)

(73)

Assignee: Britesmart Corp., Boca Raton, FL (US)

( *)

Notice:

Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this
patent is extended or adjusted under 35
U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

(21)

Filed:

(65)

May27, 2011

Sep. 22, 2011

Related U.S. Application Data
(63)

Continuation of application No. 11/781,716, filed on
Jul. 23, 2007, now Pat. No. 7,953,667, which is a
continuation-in-part of application No. 10/360,688,
filed on Feb. 7, 2003, now Pat. No. 7,249,104.

(51)

Int. Cl.
G06F 21100
(2006.01)
U.S. Cl. ......................................................... 705/52
Field of Classification Search . ... ... ... ... . 705/26-27,
705/52-54, 64-67, 75-78; 713/168-169;
707 /705-788; 726/1-5, 26-30
See application file for complete search history.

(52)
(58)

*Dec. 4, 2012

References Cited
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5,991,740
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6,285,987
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7,020,622
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200110007097
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A *
A *
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B1*
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B2 *
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A1 *
A1 *
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1111999
9/2000
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3/2006
5/2006
1112006
7/2001
1112001
1112003
2/2006

Gerace ......................... 705/7.33
Messer ...................... 705/14.29
Franklin eta!. .............. 705/26.8
Roth eta!. ................. 705/14.71
Carrasco et a!. .............. 718/100
Messer ...................... 705/26.44
Cheung eta!.
111
Doliov
111
Kim ................................ 705/14
Ishikawa ......................... 705/67
Dunham et a!. .................. 705/1
Enyart ............................ 705/40

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

* cited by examiner

Prior Publication Data
US 2011/0231249 Al

(56)

US 8,326, 763 B2

Mulhall, "How Real a Threat Does Computer Crime Represent?",
Aug. 1, 1996, Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin.*

Appl. No.: 13/117,929

(22)

Patent No.:
Date of Patent:

Primary Examiner- Mary Cheung
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm- John R. Kasha; Kasha Law
LLC

(57)

ABSTRACT

This invention improves upon existing pay-per-click arrangements periodically generating a code associated with the
search-engine users. This code, preferably in the form of a
serial number, is compared to the user of the website, such
that by observing a metric like the number of clicks for a given
period of time, be it a short time or a longer period, such as a
day or a week, the system can automatically determine if
certain clicks are illegitimate. This allows the pay-per-click
company to more fairly invoice the merchants, thereby preventing fraudulent over use.
20 Claims, 1 Drawing Sheet

U.S. Patent

US 8,326,763 B2

Dec. 4, 2012

INVOtCE TO WEBSITE LINK TO HEAL CUCK USAGE

PAY PER CliCK

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LOCATED ON END
USER COMPUTER

ANI) AOO IT TO
THE UNKXM!.. .
TECHNOlOGY PERMIT
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GENERATED ftn!ODICALLY
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HREWALL

US 8,326,763 B2
1

2

METHOD AND SYSTEM TO DETECT
INVALID AND FRAUDULENT IMPRESSIONS
AND CLICKS IN WEB-BASED
ADVERTISEMENT SYSTEMS

certain clicks are illegitimate. This allows the pay-per-click
company to more fairly invoice the merchants, thereby preventing fraudulent over use.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED
APPLICATION
This application is a continuation application of U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 11/781,716, filed Jul. 23, 2007,
now U.S. Pat. No. 7,953,667, which is a continuation-in-part
application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/360,688,
filed Feb. 7, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,249,104. All of the
above mentioned applications are incorporated by reference
herein in their entireties.

FIG. 1 is a diagram which illustrates a per-per-click system
incorporating a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
10

15

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to network computing of
the type which occurs over the Internet, for example, and,
more particularly, to a method of protecting the providers of
pay-per click services from multiple illegitimate usages.

20

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
25

Over the last few years in particular, the capabilities of the
Internet have grown dramatically, with the introduction of
new protocols (i.e., XML), advanced browsers, electronic
commerce capabilities, and other features.
Numerous commercial enterprises are now attempting to
somehow profit through this new infrastructure, in many
cases by providing services that attach a smaller incremental
monetary value to a particular transaction.
One such type of capability is the pay-per-click search
engine popularized by Google and other companies. In accordance with such a capability, a user goes to a website, and
inputs the name of goods or services that they would like the
pay-per-click company to find. Various providers of goods
and services register their websites with the company, and
these are provided to the user in a list which is prioritized by
the level of compensation which the merchant will give the
pay-per-click company if the user is routed to their site. For
example, using such a system, if a user types in "binoculars,"
th~ pay-per-click system might return five potential links,
w1th the most prominent one being associated with that supplier ofbinoculars which will compensate for a penny or a few
cents more than the links presented below.
One problem with existing systems, is that a user may
cause an undesirable level of expenditure on the part of the
merchant by overclicking on a particular link. In some cases,
it has been known that some users have done this simply for
the purpose of undermining a particular provider or competitor. Since the existing systems have no way of knowing
whether a link through is legitimate or bogus, the provider of
the goods/services winds up having to pay the pay-per-click
provider excess sums, with the fraudulent perpetrator remaining unreprimanded.

30

35

40

45

50

55

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
60

This invention improves upon existing pay-per-click
arrangements periodically generating a code associated with
the search-engine users. This code, preferably in the form of
a serial number, is compared to the user of the website, such
that by observing a metric like the number of clicks for a given
period of time, be it a short time or a longer period, such as a
day or a week, the system can automatically determine if

65

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Reference is made to FIG. 1 which illustrates a typical
configuration associated with a pay-per-click implementation. It is noted that although the diagram includes certain
interconnected graphical blocks, these are not taken to mean
"hardware" or "software," but may include any combination
of hardware/software necessary to implement a particular
function. In addition, although lines are drawn between the
various components, this is not meant to imply that they are
necessarily implemented in close proximity to one another,
since in many cases these capabilities will be remote.
The search engine 102 provides a result along path 104
which is indicative of a link associated with different users.
Engine 102 may be any existing or yet-to-be-developed system, including findwhat.com, Google Adwords, overture,
looksmart.com, kanoodle.com, and so forth.
In addition to the result generated along path 104, according to this invention, the search engine generates a code,
preferably in the form of a serial number utilizing a cookie via
active X, Java, Javascript, or any other type of technology
based upon the end-user's Global Unique Identifier (GUID).
In addition, or as an alternative, network cartography may be
generated periodically for each user based upon their use of
the search engine 102.
Although the encoded serial number is shown being written to a floppy disk 106, again, it will be appreciated by those
of skill in the art that any type of storage capability, such as a
flash memory, and so forth may alternatively be utilized. The
code (e.g., a serial number) generated by the search engine
along path 105 is concatenated with the result along path 104
through XML link 110. Given the serial number provided
through the cookie, this allows the concatenation to occur
through firewalls and other devices which may otherwise
block the transmission as unauthorized.
As the pay-per-click company 120, information is received
regarding a click to website 122, but at the same time, the
serial number is transmitted to the company 120 along path
130. This allows the pay-per-click company 120 to invoice
the website 122 only when the serial numbers received.
According to the invention, a legitimate serial number may be
generated in different ways, including the first use of a different user having a unique IP address, or, if multiple requests
are made by the same user, they may be considered legitimate
if they are sufficiently spaced apart in time to be indicative of
a legitimate as opposed to fraudulent access to the website
122.
What is claimed is:
1. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system, comprising: (a) providing a pay-per-click
engine on a server side; b) receiving, at said server side, a
request from a client; c) generating a unique code on the
server side, for identifying said client; d) transmitting said
code to said client from the server side; e) transmitting to said
client from the server side, in response to said request, one or
more links associated with one or more websites associated
with one or more merchants; f) generating website informa-

US 8,326,763 B2
4

3
tion regarding a website selected by the client when said
client clicks one of said links; g) transmitting said code and
said website information together from said client to said
server side; h) receiving said code and said website information at the server side, and detecting fraudulent activity by
measuring the duration between clicks by said client to said
selected website by examining said code and website information.
2. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 1 further comprising the step of:
storing said code at said client.
3. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 1 further comprising the step of:
storing said code in a cookie.
4. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 3 wherein said storing step is performed using at least one of the following: active, Java, and
Javascript.
5. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 1 further comprising the step of:
concatenating said code with at least one of said links to said
websites.
6. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 1 wherein said code is based on a
global unique identifier of said client.
7. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 1 wherein said code is based on a
network cartography of said client.
8. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 1 wherein said code is encoded.
9. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 1 further comprising the step of:
preventing a click-through to at least one of said websites
associated with said merchants if fraudulent activity is
detected.
10. In an advertising system including a pay-per-click
engine on a server side, the pay-per-click engine providing
one or more links associated with one or more web pages to a
user at a device on a client side, the method for identifying
fraud comprising the steps of: generating a code on the server
side, the code identifying said device on the client side; sending said code to said device; receiving data from said device,
said data including said code and information about one or
more selections by the user of at least one of said one or more
web pages; determining from said data whether said at least
one of said selections of said at least one web page is fraudulent; and examining a duration between a time of one of said
selections of said at least one web site and a time of another of
said selections of said at least one web site.

11. In an advertising system including a pay-per-click

engine on a server side, the pay-per-click engine providing
one or more links associated with one or more web pages to a
user at a device on a client side, the method for identifying
fraud as in claim 10 wherein said code is based on a global
unique identifier of said device.
12. In an advertising system including a pay-per-click
engine on a server side, the pay-per-click engine providing
one or more links associated with one or more web pages to a
10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0

0

~:a:da!sai~~~~~~ 1~ ~~!~~Jns!~~d ~~~::~t~~~e~ ~~~e:~~~~~r
cartography of said client.
13. In an advertising system including a pay-per-click
engine on a server side, the pay-per-click engine providing
one or more links associated with one or more web pages to a
user at a device on a client side, the method for identifying
fraud as in claim 10 wherein said code is encoded.
14. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system, comprising: (a) providing a pay-per-click
engine on a server side; b) receiving, at said server side, a
request from a client; c) generating a unique code on the
server side, for identifying said client; d) transmitting said
code to said client from the server side; e) transmitting to said
client from the server side, in response to said request, one or
more links associated with one or more websites associated
with one or more merchants; f) receiving, on said server side,
website information regarding a website selected by the client
together with said code, when said client clicks one of said
links; g) detecting fraudulent activity by measuring the duration between clicks by said client to said selected website by
examining said code and website information.
15. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 14 further comprising the step of:
storing said code at said client.
16. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 15 wherein said storing step is performed using at least one of the following: active, Java, and
Javascript.
17. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 14 further comprising the step of:
storing said code in a cookie.
18. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 14 further comprising the step of:
concatenating said code with at least one of said links to said
websites.
19. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 14 wherein said code is based on a
global unique identifier of said client.
20. A method for detecting fraudulent activity in a pay-perclick system as in claim 14 wherein said code is encoded.

* * * * *

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION
PATENT NO.
APPLICATION NO.
DATED
INVENTOR(S)

: 8,326,763 B2
: 13/117929
: December 4, 2012
: Patrick Zui1i

Page 1 of 1

It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 2, line 31, "active X" should be changed to --ActiveX--.
Column 3, line 18, "active" should be changed to --ActiveX--.
Column 4, line 36, "active" should be changed to --ActiveX--.

Signed and Sealed this
Nineteenth Day of February, 2013

Teresa Stanek Rea
Acting Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office