{
  "patent_number": "US 8423408",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Phones Store and Rotate Ads Locally by Breaking Rules",
  "original_title": "Dynamic advertising content distribution and placement systems and methods",
  "summary": "Sprint's 2006 patent on a system that downloads a pool of ads to a phone and uses an on-device manager to decide which ad to show, even breaking its own rules to make sure lagging ad campaigns get seen.",
  "what_it_does": "The patent describes a mobile device that stores a local pool of targeted ads sent from an external server. Instead of fetching a new ad over the network every time a user opens an app, the phone's local software decides which ad to show from its stored rotation. Crucially, the system manages ads from multiple campaigns and uses a priority engine. If a specific ad campaign is falling behind on its promised views (impressions), the system can apply a high-priority rule that intentionally breaks a lower-priority rule—such as a limit on how many times a user can see the same ad (frequency capping)—to force the lagging ad to display.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover systems where ads are streamed in real-time for every single view without being stored locally on the device first.",
    "Does not cover ad rotation systems that only manage a single advertising campaign at a time.",
    "Does not cover systems that strictly adhere to all rules without the ability to dynamically break a lower-priority rule to favor a lagging campaign.",
    "Does not cover ad targeting based solely on direct ad clicks, without tracking broader device behavior like web browsing or purchases."
  ],
  "filed": "2006-04-17",
  "granted": "2013-04-16",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Sprint Communications Co LP",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/sprint-communications-co-lp",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Robert E. Urbanek",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/robert-e-urbanek"
    },
    {
      "name": "Peter H. Distler",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/peter-h-distler"
    },
    {
      "name": "James D. Barnes",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/james-d-barnes"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sanjay K. Sharma",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/sanjay-k-sharma"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 119,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software",
    "telecommunications",
    "ecommerce"
  ],
  "abstract": "A method of dynamic content distribution and placement of advertising between a mobile device and an advertisement fulfillment system comprising providing a rotation of advertisements stored in the mobile device. Each advertisement comprises substantive content and a value in an impression field. The method further comprises selecting an advertisement from the rotation of advertisements based at least in part on which advertisement in the rotation was last displayed, and displaying the selected advertisement.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8423408/amazon-advertising",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8423408/amazon-advertising/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US8423408",
  "relatedPatents": []
}