WO2010005964A2

WO2010005964A2 - Fan-based blind purchase trading cards

Info

Publication number: WO2010005964A2
Application number: PCT/US2009/049806
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lax Chandra; Tina Trenkler
Original assignee: The Topps Company, Inc.
Priority date: 2008-07-10
Filing date: 2009-07-07
Publication date: 2010-01-14
Also published as: WO2010005964A3

Abstract

A device, system and method for generating fan -based trading cards that may be sold in blind-purchase packs of trading cards.

Description

FAN-BASED BLIND PURCHASE TRADING CARDS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Patent Application No. 61/079,470, filed July 10. 2008, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to the creation of individual trading cards that contain fan-based personalized information that may be sold in blind purchase packages at retail. More specifically, personal information entered by users in, for example, a website may be selected for inclusion on trading cards that are sold in sealed packs containing a collection of trading cards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Sports and entertainment trading cards have been around for many years. Trading cards typically contain a picture of a popular sports figure, entertainment figure or famous place or event, along with a collection of personal information, statistics and interesting facts. Trading cards can be produced and collected for almost any type of interest, including, for example, television and movie actors or characters, games, science fiction and fantasy genres. Some trading cards become very valuable based on various factors including the authenticity and scarcity of the particular trading card. Over the years, various modifications to trading cards have been made to increase the collectible value of the cards. For instance, trading cards have been created which include the signature of the person depicted or which contain pieces of memorabilia that are associated with the person or event that is depicted on the trading card.

[0004] Many of the trading cards are designed to be part of a collectible group. For instance, a set of trading cards can consist of all of the characters of Star Wars or all of the players on a baseball team during a particular year. Thus, there is an incentive to collect all of the cards within a set. However, trading cards are typically grouped in packs and sold as a single package. The cards within the package are, for the most part, selected near randomly by the publisher of the trading cards so that valuable cards are interspersed among less valuable trading cards. Moreover, the contents of the package are not ascertainable before purchase. To collect all of the characters in a set of trading cards, multiple packages must be purchased and/or the cards sought must be traded for or purchased in the secondary market. Often, trading card packs are sold where there is a specific chance of finding a valuable trading card within a single package. Such valuable trading cards are referred to as "chase cards" because collectors specifically seek such cards and may purchase the packs of cards specifically to obtain such cards. The excitement of potentially finding a valuable card within a package adds io the excitement of the purchase and opening of the packages of trading cards, and adds to the overall experience of collecting trading cards.

[0005] Trading cards are typically primed by third party vendors, many of whom specialize in digital printing. Digital printing is a relatively new technology and permits printing on demand. There are several companies that permit a user to upload pictures or other information to a website, which pictures or other information are then placed on, for example, a deck of playing cards. The playing cards are printed by the company and sent to the user.

[0006] Aside from trading cards, another way that people show appreciation for sports and entertainment figures is through fan-based forums, such as concerts, events and fan-based websites. In these forums, fans can share information about themselves and show their interest in their favorite sports figure or celebrity through various methods. For example, on a fan-based website for an entertainment figure, a person can upload their picture, provide their views on the entertainment figure, discuss their favorite scenes from a show or movie, discuss their favorite song... etc. The person can also engage in on-line activities, such as forums or on-line chat sessions, with other similarly minded individuals relating to the entertainment figure.

[0007] It would provide a new aspect to the trading card experience to combine the traditional trading card with fan-based forums to develop a new type of trading card for collectors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

[0009] Fig. 1 is a system diagram of a network within which the invention may be implemented. [0010] Fig. 2 shows the structure of a network device that may be used in the system for implementing the invention.

[0011 ] Fig. 3 is an example of a fan-based website for use in implementing one embodiment of the present invention;

[0012] Fig. 4 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of the present invention; and

[0013] FiGs. 5A and 5B show the two sides of a fan-based trading card of one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0014] Certain embodiments of the invention are described more specifically with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments described herein. Rather, the embodiments may take different forms, such as entirely implemented through hardware, through hardware combined with software or entirely through software. Throughout this description, the various embodiments are not intended to be limiting unless so specified. References to one embodiment or another embodiment are intended to be interchangeable such that aspects of different embodiments may be combined in various ways to implement the disclosed invention.

[0015] In one aspect of the invention, users or fans submit personalized information relating to a famous character or memorable figure. "Personalized information" means and includes such information as the fan's name, age, location and/or a picture of themselves. The personalized information may also include information relating to both the fan and the famous character or memorable figure. For example, where the memorable figure is a television personality, personalized information may include the fan's favorite songs, favorite episodes, reasons why they are fans, ... etc.. As another example, where the memorable figure is a sports figure, the personalized information may include the fan's favorite game that the sports figure was involved in, the reason why they are a fan and similar information. The information may also include, for example, the reasons that the user may want to have their information included on a trading card, the information or subject matter that they might want to see on a trading card and/or various trading cards they may want created on their behalf. A "famous character" or "memorable figure" may be any well-known person or character that has or is capable of developing a fan base.

[0016] After personalized information is collected, selection criteria may be applied to select the subject matter for printing on a trading card. "Selection criteria" means the standards that are applied in selecting one set of personalized information over another. As one example, the personalized information for inclusion may be based on random selection of entries. In such a case, the selection criteria is random selection. As another example, fans may vote on their favorite responses. In that case, die selection criteria may be die highest number of votes attained by an entry. As yet another example, the selection criteria may be based on the selection of his or her favorite response by the memorable figure that is the subject matter of the trading card.

[0017] A trading card containing at least some of the personalized information chosen based on the selection criteria may then be created. The trading card may be packaged in a pack of trading cards. The pack may contain a number of other trading cards, and may be a "blind purchase" pack. This is a pack of cards in which the purchaser does not definitely know the contents of the package. The packaging may state that the pack contains a ceitain number of trading cards, and may also include the chances of obtaining a fan-based trading card. These packs may then be sold at retail

One Environment for Implementing the Invention

[0018] !n one embodiment of the invention, personalized information is obtained from the fans of a popular sport, entertainment or other similar genre. This information can be collected in electronic form through a network.

[0019] Network 100 is shown in Fig. I . Not all of the components are required for any given implementation of die invention, and variations in the arrangement and types of components may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. As shown in Fig. 1, client devices 102, 104 can consist of personal computers, laptop computers and any other device capable of establishing a communication link with Internet/Local Area Network/ Wide Area Network 108 through a wired communications medium. Client devices 102, 104 may be linked to other Wide Area Networks and/or Local Area Networks. Client devices may also consist of wireless client devices 106 such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, hand held computers and similar devices. Wireless client devices 106 are connected to Internet/Local Area Network/Wide Area Network 108 through wireless network 1 10. The client devices are capable of identifying their location to other devices within the various networks. For example, cellular phones can identify themselves through Mobile Identification Numbers. Electronic Serial Numbers or mobile phone numbers. Computer devices can identify themselves through network addresses or other device identifiers. The identifier information may be included in messages or information sent to other devices within the various networks so that communications can take place through the network between the devices. Such communication can take place through known communication methods such as Short Messaging Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), Instant Messaging (IM). Interact Relay Chat (IRC ), Jabber or the like. Any suitable protocol or method of communication can be used to implement the current invention.

[0020] The client devices may include application programs that send and receive web- pages, web-based messages, data, packets having content for updating graphics on a client device and the like. The application programs may be browsers and associated programs that send, receive and display graphics, text, sound and multimedia. The client devices may have operating systems that enable the application programs, and use various protocols/languages to enable the web-based application programs such as Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), JavaScript, extensible Markup Language (XML), and the like.

[0021] The various networks may also include network devices that provide content to users such as content management server 1 12. These devices are capable of sending and receiving text, photographs, web pages, multimedia information, and the like. These network devices provide substance of interest to users of Internet/Local Area Network/Wide Area Network 108.

[0022] Internet/local area server/wide area server 108 can couple SuperFan Server 1 14 to other computing devices including client devices 102, 104. wireless client devices 106 and Content Management Server 112. Super Fan Server 1 14 can be configured io provide web pages having fan-based content to users of client devices 102, 104 and 106. SαperFan Server 114 can draw content from Content Management Server 112 in implementing this invention. Internet/local area server/wide area server 108 can use any form of computer readable media for conπmraicatrag with the various electronic devices. The connections between the electronic devices can be through twisted pair, coax, fiber optics, satellite, carrier waves or any other commonly known medium. The communications can take place through routers and other networking equipment in a conventional manner. Further, the communications can have dynamic architectures and use any of a number of known protocols for communication.

[0023] SuperFan Server 1 14 may include any type of computing device capable of networking with Internet/Local Area Network/Wide Area Network 108 and enabled to manage a web site fa collection of web pages), and communication with and potentially between users of the web site. In one embodiment, SuperFan Server is connected with SuperFan Database 1 16 which stores data used by or received from users of the SuperFan Server. In another embodiment, the data storage takes place within SuperFan Server 1 14.

[0024] Fig. 2 shows one embodiment of a network device that can be used as SuperFan Server 114. The network device includes central processing unit 202, input/output interface 208, ROM 204, RAM 212 and mass storage device 206. The various components are interconnected by bus 210. ROM 204 may include a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) for controlling the low level operation of the network device. Ram 212 can contain various operating programs such as applications 214, Instant Message server 216, network server application 218 and operating system 220. Applications 214 can include the programs for implementing the current invention. For example, the applications in conjunction with network server 218 can receive information provided by the user, manage the polling process that may be used in selection of fan-based information to be included on trading cards, determine the results of the polling process, and forward the fan-based information to a publisher of trading cards.

[0025] The network, device of Fig. 2 may also contain mass storage 206 which can be hard drives, optical drives, memory chips or similar devices for storing large quantities of data in nonvolatile memory. Mass storage 206 may also store other program code and data. One or more applications 214 may be stored in mass storage 206 and then run within the environment of operating system 220.

[0026] The network device communicates through Input-Output device 208. Input/Output device 208 can constitute a number of separate devices. For instance, ii may contain a network interface card, graphics card, peripheral controllers and the like. The server may also have a monitor and keyboard, lite network device can communicate with a network, such as Internet/Local Area Network/Wide Area Network Ϊ08, through a network interface card using various communication protocols including TCP/IP protocol.

[0027] This aspect of the invention can be implemented in several different ways. For example, the invention can be implemented through a traditional client server arrangement or a peer to peer network architecture. The application program can be implemented in client devices, network devices or any combination of various devices.

[0028] The network device, such as that shown in Fig. 2, can be configured to provide web pages to users as shown, by example, in Fig. 3. SuperFari server 1 14 can provide a web home page for a specific topic. In this instance, homepage 302 is for the "Hannah Montana Fan Club." The homepage can have various links to other web pages within the website and external links to other content and sites.

[0029] The process flow tor creation of fan-based trading cards is shown in Fig. 4. The first step is the collection of personalized information as shown in block 402. The website may have individualized pages 304 to 308, as shown in Fig. 3, where fans can enter personalized information such as their name, age, location, favorite songs, favorite episodes, reasons why they are fans, ... etc. The fans may also upload a picture of themselves. This information would be stored in the network device or other suitable medium. The information may also include, for example, the reasons that, the user may want to have their information included on a trading card, the information or subject matter that they might want to see on a trading card, various trading cards they may want created and other similar information. The users may also be prompted to view and vote on the responses entered by other users.

[0030] After a suitable time period in which users can enter and/or update personalized information and provide feedback on the information provided by other users, the next step in block 404 is the selection process for information that would be included on the personalized trading cards. The selection process is based on selection criteria and may take many forms. The selection may be made by individuals who are producing the trading cards, by voting or polling through the website by other users, by a random selection process, by lottery, or by the sports figure or entertainer themselves. As an example, qualitative criteria can be used in the selection process, such as the funniest line, the best memory, the most devoted fan, ... etc. [0031] The selected information is then used for printing of the fan-based trading card as shown in block 406. An example of a fan-based trading card is shown in Figs. 5Λ and 5B. Ln a typical trading card, one side of the card contains a picture of a sports figure, entertainer, character, scene or other memorable event while the other side of the card contains information. As an example, one side of a baseball trading card may contain the picture of Mickey Mantle, while the other side of the trading card contains facts and figures about Mickey Mantle such as his height and weight, biographical information, games played, number of runs, hits, doubles, triples home runs, runs baited in and similar information. In this invention, the fan-based information is incorporated into a trading card to form a combined personalized trading card. More specifically, first side 502 of the fan-based trading card is shown in Fig. 5A, and may contain, as in a typical trading card, a picture of a sports figure, entertainer, character, scene, or other memorable figure or event. Second side 504 of the fan-based trading card is shown in Fig. 5B and may contain the personalized information provided by a fan and selected through the foregoing selection process. Personalized information 506 may also contain a picture of the fan. The personalized information on second side 504 may be included with information about the character depicted on first side 502.

[0032] Tn an alternative embodiment, the trading card may include graphics and information provided by, suggested by or voted on by users. Suggestions for the content of a trading card may be entered through the fan website, and then selected through the above described selection process. The website may provide the ability to "cut and paste" a card together so that the user can see what the actually trading card may look like, or it may simply be a written suggestion of what the user would like to see. These suggestions for the content of a trading card may then be incorporated into an actual trading card. As an example, fans may make suggestions about a combination of players that they would want on a trading card, memorabilia to include on the trading card, or even a series of trading cards that can form a collection. These fan-based content trading cards may include indications of their origins, such as that they were developed directly from the fans of the genre, or may include persona! information from specific fans. As yet another example, a number of users could vote on the collection of players that may constitute a fantasy baseball team, which collection would be printed to form a set of collectible cards.

[0033] The methods of printing trading cards are well-known. The trading cards can be printed by third party vendors that specialize in the printing of trading cards. The vendors would obtain the information for the trading card either through the internet from Superfan server I 14 or any other suitable means.

[0034] After printing, as shown in block 408, the fan-based trading cards may then be packaged in sets of near random sets and wrapped to form a blind purchase pack, that is, a set of trading cards whose identity cannot be determined until after purchased by a collector and opened. These sets of trading cards may be sold at retail, and may contain directions on the outside of the packaging indicating a probability- of finding specific trading cards within the package, including fan-based trading cards.

[0035] In another embodiment, the fan-based information can be acquired at an event, such as a concert, tradeshow or the like through interviews, booths or any other method. As one example, a booth containing a client device, such as client devices 102, may be placed at a concert for a famous entertainer. Fans may enter information about themselves and their views about the entertainer into the client device. The information may then be processed in a similar manner as detailed above by Superfan Server 1 14. As a second example, the information may be collected by individuals and entered into Superfan database N 6 at a later time.

Claims

CLAIMS An apparatus for generating fan-based trading cards over a network, comprising:

a transceiver to send and receive data over the network;

a processor that is operative to enable actions for:

receiving personalized infbrmalion from a plurality of users over ihe network, wherein at least some of the personalized information for each of the plurality of users relates to a sports figure, entertainer, character or memorable figure;

processing the personalized information according to selection criteria to produce a set of personalized information from one of the plurality of users; and

formatting the set of personalized information from one of the plurality of users to be reproduced in the form of a trading card that includes information relating to the sports figure, entertainer, character or memorable figure.

The apparatus of claim I, wherein the selection criteria is based on voting or polling by at least some of the plurality of users relating to the personalized information.

The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the selection criteria is based on random selection or lottery.

The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the selection criteria is related to the sports figure, entertainer, character or memorable figure.

Λ method for generating fan-based trading cards, comprising:

receiving personalized information from a plurality of users over the network, wherein at least some of the personalized information for each of the plurality of users relates to a memorable figure;

generating a fan-based trading card that includes at least some of the set of personalized information from one of the plurality of users and information relating to the memorable figure.

The method of claim 5, further comprising:

packaging the fan-based trading card in a set of trading cards such that it cannot be determined whether the set of trading cards contains the fan-based trading card without opening the packaging.

The method of claim 5, wherein the selection criteria is based on voting or polling by at least some of the plurality of users relating to the personalized information.

The method of claim 5, wherein the selection criteria is based on random selection or lottery.

The method of claim 5, wherein the selection criteria is related to the sports figure, entertainer, character or memorable figure.

A system for generating fan-based trading cards over a network, comprising:

a plurality of clients, wherein each client is configured to communicate over the network;

a printing device for manufacturing at least part of a trading card;

a server that is in communication with the plurality of clients and the printing device, and is configured and arranged to perform actions, including:

processing the personalized information according to selection criteria to produce a set of personalized information from one of the plurality of users;

formatting the set of personalized information from one of the plurality of users and information relating to the memorable figure to be reproduced in the form of a fan-based trading card: and

wherein the printing device generates at least part of a fan-based trading card based on the set of personalized information from one of the plurality of users.

The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a package of trading cards containing the fan-based trading card wherein it cannot be determined whether die set of varying trading cards contains the fan-based trading card without opening the packaging.

The system of claim 10, wherein the selection criteria is based on voting or polling by at least some of the plurality of users relating to the personalized information.

The system of claim 10, wherein the selection criteria is based on random selection or lottery.

The system of claim 10, wherein the selection criteria is related to the sports figure, entertainer, character or memorable figure.