{
  "patent_number": "US 7801772",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Online Stores Automatically Block Illegal Alcohol and Tobacco Deliveries",
  "original_title": "Method and apparatus for facilitating online purchase of regulated products over a data network",
  "summary": "A system that checks if your online order of alcohol or tobacco is legal to deliver at your chosen time based on local laws.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent describes a server-side method that acts as a digital gatekeeper for online retail. When a customer selects items like alcohol or tobacco and picks a delivery time, the system cross-references the order against a database of local regulations. If the law in that specific jurisdiction prohibits the delivery of those items at the requested time—such as a 'blue law' preventing Sunday alcohol sales—the system automatically denies the request or notifies the user. It essentially automates the compliance process that would otherwise require manual oversight.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover physical ID verification at the point of delivery.",
    "Does not cover general age-gating that happens before an order is placed.",
    "Does not cover non-regulated products like electronics or clothing.",
    "Does not cover in-store point-of-sale systems that do not involve a data network delivery request."
  ],
  "filed": "2006-11-08",
  "granted": "2010-09-21",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "IpVenture Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/ipventure-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "James Connell Mills",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/james-connell-mills"
    },
    {
      "name": "Joyo Wijaya",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/joyo-wijaya"
    },
    {
      "name": "Randolph Ashton Hodge",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/randolph-ashton-hodge"
    },
    {
      "name": "Andrew Karl Miller",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/andrew-karl-miller"
    },
    {
      "name": "Franklin Goodhue Woodward",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/franklin-goodhue-woodward"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 11,
  "tags": [
    "ecommerce",
    "software",
    "consumer_electronics"
  ],
  "abstract": "A technique is disclosed for implementing electronic commerce transactions via a data network. A regulated item selected by a customer is identified. The regulated item may correspond to an item which satisfies predetermined criteria, indicating that the regulated item is prohibited from being purchased by the customer. Action is then taken to prohibit the purchase of the selected item, via the data network, by the customer. According to one embodiment, the action taken to prohibit the purchase of the regulated item is automatically implemented at a server system configured to implement electronic commerce transactions between an on-line merchant and the customer. According to a specific implementation, the predetermined criteria correspond to regulations which restrict sales of the regulated items to persons in a particular jurisdiction based upon certain criteria such as, for example, time of day, day of week, age of the customer, type of product being sold, etc.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7801772/amazon-recommendations",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7801772/amazon-recommendations/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US7801772",
  "relatedPatents": []
}