WO2000079447A1

WO2000079447A1 - The advertising method using application software

Info

Publication number: WO2000079447A1
Application number: PCT/KR2000/000655
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jin-Yong Joo
Original assignee: Joo Jin Yong
Priority date: 1999-06-23
Filing date: 2000-06-21
Publication date: 2000-12-28
Also published as: KR20000030060A; AU5574600A

Abstract

There is provided an advertising method using software, which displays an advertisement logo or advertisement line of a specific company on a part of an installation screen displayed when an application program is installed in a personal computer. Accordingly, an advertisement of a specific company is included in an application program to be seen to users whenever they use the program, to improve advertising effect. Further, the program can be provided to the users at a reduced price or free on condition that they view the advertisement to result in decrease of illegal program copy.

Description

THE ADVERTISING METHOD USING APPLICATION SOFTWARE

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an advertising method using software which includes an advertisement such as advertisement logo, advertisement line, etc. of a specific company in an application program (software) to make users view the advertisement when the application program is installed or operated, or subsidiary screens are displayed, to thereby improve advertising effect, and provides the program to the users at a lowered price or free on condition that they see the advertisement, resulting in a decrease of illegal program copy.

2. Description of the Related Art

With the spread of personal computer, most people are using computers in a manner that students write their reports using computers and works are carried out using the computers in a variety of business fields. These personal computers require various application programs for specific purposes as well as operation systems. The application programs include word processors, spreadsheets, databases and CD players which are frequently being used. The price of these applications is so high that personal users are difficult to purchase them. This results in the use of illegally copied software in small-sized businesses or personal users other than large-sized businesses, public institutions, etc., which necessarily need software for their works. Due to the illegal copy of software, software producing businesses suffer from financial difficulties, causing the software to have a high price. This also brings a tremendous loss in the national economy to result in a collapse of technical foundation. Furthermore, people who use illegally copied software unwillingly become offenders.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an advertising method using software which allows a software producing company which develops software with excellent performance to profit from the software, allows advertisers who display their advertisements on the software to obtain advertising effect appealing to consumers, and provides general users with application programs free or at a reduced price, producing sound software use environments.

To accomplish the object of the present invention, there is provided an advertising method using software, which displays an advertisement logo or advertisement line of a specific company on a part of an installation screen displayed when an application program is installed in a personal computer.

To accomplish the object of the present invention, there is also provided an advertising method using software, in which, upon execution of an application program after its installation in a personal computer is completed, an advertisement logo or line of a specific company is displayed on a part of a subsidiary screen initially displayed while upon conversion to the operation screen of the application program the advertising logo or line is displayed on the top, bottom and/or sides of the operation screen. This advertising method also displays the advertisement logo and/or line on one of the sides of the submenu-displaying portion of the operation screen, and provides users with the application program free.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an advertising method using software comprises the steps of: starting installation of an application program in a computer; displaying an advertisement of a specific company on a part of a screen which is displayed when the application program is installed; and stopping the display of the advertisement when the installation of the application program is completed.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, an advertising method using software comprises the steps of: starting execution of an application program on a computer; upon execution of the application program, displaying an advertisement on at least one of the initial screen, the subsidiary screen of the initial screen, the operation screen and the submenu displaying bar of the application program; and stopping the display of the advertisement when the operation of the application program is completed.

The advertisement displayed on the operation screen is displayed on at least one of the top, bottom and sides thereof. The application program is stored at a CD- ROM or floppy disk, or downloaded through the Internet. The advertisement corresponds to at least one of an advertisement line, advertisement logo and moving picture. The advertisement is updated at the time of version-up of the application program or at the time of distribution of a corresponding patch file through the Internet. The application program is provided to users at a reduced price or free.

According to the present invention, an advertisement of a specific company is included in an application program to be seen to users whenever they use the program, to improve advertising effect. Further, the program can be provided to the users at a reduced price or free on condition that they view the advertisement to result in decrease of illegal program copy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front view of a conventional personal computer; FIG. 2 is a front view of an application program installation screen on which an advertisement is displayed according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an example of a conventional application program execution screen; FIG. 4 is a front view showing an example of an application program initial screen on which an advertisement is displayed according to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a front view showing an example of an application program execution screen on which an advertisement is displayed according to the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

The present invention allows general users to easily purchase and use high- priced application software. The advertising method of the present invention inserts an advertisement of a specific company into an application program and pays the software developing company which has produced that application program for the advertisement, to financially help the software developing company. In addition, according to the advertising method of the present invention, general users can be provided with high-priced application programs at a reduced price or free so that illegal copy of software can be remarkably decreased. Furthermore, the advertiser whose advertisement is inserted into the application program also gains a benefit because the users view the advertisement whenever they use the application program.

As shown in FIG. 1, a general personal computer includes a monitor 10 for displaying data in the form of characters and figures to allow its user to be able to recognize the contents of the data, a keyboard 20 for inputting commands or data from the user, and a main body 30 having a CPU, a main board, hard disk, etc. thereinside. Main body 30 also has a CD-ROM drive 40 for reading data stored in CD-ROMs and a floppy disk drive (FDD) (not shown) for reading/writing data from/to floppy disks storing files with small capacities. Most of application programs are installed in the hard disk of the computer in a manner that an install command is input to the computer while the programs are being stored in the CD-ROMs or floppy disks. However, the price of these application programs is so high that personal users are difficult to purchase them. Accordingly, illegal copy of software is still performed among the personal users and thus they unwillingly become offenders. According to the advertising method of the present invention, an advertisement logo or advertisement line of a specific company is displayed on a part of the installation screen of an application program when this application program is installed. The software producing company that has made the application program is paid for the advertisement. An example of the application program installation screen on which advertisement lines 80 and 90 are displayed is shown in FIG. 2. Upon starting the installation of the application program while a CD-ROM containing the program is being inserted into CD-ROM drive 40, monitor 10 displays an installation instruction window 60 for instructing normal installation of application programs and a forward/back indication 70 for moving the program forward and backward. Monitor 10 also displays advertisement lines 80 and 90 of the specific company, that is, "Idea Plaza!" at the right side thereof, as shown in FIG. 2.

The above advertisement is continuously displayed until the application program is completely installed so far as it does not hinder the program installation. A personal user who installs the application program in his/her computer should compulsorily view advertisement lines 80 and 90 until the installation is finished so that the advertising effect is improved to result in strong appealing to the user.

Although advertisement lines 80 and 90 are exemplified in FIG. 2, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that an advertisement logo, moving picture, etc. can be used to raise the advertising impact much more so far as they do not obstruct display of program installation instructions for users on the screen and a sufficient space for the display of instructions is secured thereon. The advertisement logo and/or line can be displayed even when the application program is downloaded through the Internet.

The advertising method of the present invention can be similarly applied to the initial screen and execution screen of the application program as well as the installation screen.

FIG. 3 shows the execution screen of the word processor "Hanguel" a large number of users are using. As shown in FIG. 3, the execution screen has a text indicating bar 100 indicating a text currently operating at the top thereof, and a main menu bar 110 for displaying various functions located under the text indication bar. In addition, an execution screen window 120 that is a space for inputting characters or figures is located below the main menu bar, and a status indicating bar 130 for indicating the position of the cursor, located at the bottom of the execution screen window. Referring to FIG. 4, an advertisement logo or advertisement line 140 having a size which does not hinder the operation of the word processor is inserted into one side of text indicating bar 100 or main menu bar 110. The advertisement logo and/or advertisement line can be the one of a specific company, which has paid advertising rate. Further, while only the advertisement line is displayed in FIG. 4, flickering characters, moving characters or moving picture can be used for advertisements.

In addition, an advertisement logo and/or line 180 can be displayed on a subsidiary window 170 which is displayed first when the application program is activated (a window which displays a list of texts previously operated in case of Hanguel). In this case, the advertisement logo and/or line can be displayed only when its size and position do not obstacle the operation of the user.

The advertisement logo and/or advertisement line can be displayed in the submenu displaying portion of a specific menu of main menu bar 100. Specifically, an advertisement logo and/or advertisement line can be displayed on one side of the submenu displaying portion which is displayed when the user clicks on the menu "Edit" among the main menu so far as the size and position of the advertisement logo and/or advertisement line do not hinder the user's operation. An example of this advertisement is shown as "Inventor's Plaza" 190. Moreover, an advertisement logo and/or advertisement line 150 and/or 160 can be also displayed at the sides or bottom of execution screen window 120. The size and position of the advertisement logo and/or advertisement line are determined by the corresponding software producing company.

While the advertisement is inserted into the application program in the above embodiment, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that the advertisement can be displayed on the surface of CD-ROM or floppy disk. Furthermore, the advertising method of the present invention can be applied to other application programs as well as the word processor. Moreover, the advertisement included in the application program can be updated at the time of version-up of the application program or at the time of distribution of a corresponding patch file including contents about improvement in functions and variation in the advertisement.

While there have been shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the disclosed invention may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. An advertising method using software, comprising the steps of: starting installation of an application program in a computer; displaying an advertisement of a specific company on a part of a screen which is displayed when the application program is installed; and stopping the display of the advertisement when the installation of the application program is completed.

2. An advertising method using software, comprising the steps of: starting execution of an application program on a computer; upon execution of the application program, displaying an advertisement on at least one of the initial screen, the subsidiary window of the initial screen, the execution screen and the submenu displaying portion of the application program; and stopping the display of the advertisement when the execution of the application program is completed.

3. The advertising method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the advertisement displayed on the execution screen is displayed on at least one of the top, bottom and sides thereof.

4. The advertising method as claimed in one of claims 1, 2 and 3, wherein the application program is stored in a CD-ROM or floppy disk, or downloaded through the Internet.

5. The advertising method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the advertisement corresponds to at least one of an advertisement line, advertisement logo and moving picture.

6. The advertising method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the advertisement is updated at the time of version-up of the application program or at the time of distribution of a corresponding patch file through the Internet.

7. The advertising method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the advertisement is updated at the time of version-up of the application program or at the time of distribution of a corresponding patch file through the Internet.

8. The advertising method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the application program is provided to users at a reduced price or free.

9. The advertising method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the application program is provided to users at a reduced price or free.