U.S. Patent No. 6,804,660 covers a method, system and computer program for affording "Virtual Affiliates" access to an existing affiliate system developed by XPays that enables webmasters to organize online marketing methods and monitor site statistics and revenue through a web-based reporting interface.
The patent was awarded by the PTO to company principals Michael Landau and Evan Horowitz on Oct. 12. and has been assigned to San Francisco-based Essociate Inc., another company owned by the two principals that serves the mainstream affiliate market.
"Considering our tremendous respect for intellectual property rights, it is very gratifying to receive this type of acknowledgement from the Patent and Trademark Office," Landau said in a statement.
According to the terms of the invention, the patent covers a system for affording Virtual Affiliates access to an existing affiliate system by configuring an existing target affiliate to receive referrals from many webmasters in an affiliate pool.
"The present invention addresses these needs by providing a method for affording virtual affiliates access to an existing affiliate system," the patent's description reads. "First, having been assigned a source unique identifier [source webmaster ID], each of a group of webmasters operates a website. Then a request for a target 'Merchant Website' is initiated by a user [web surfer] or by the webmaster, which utilizes the source webmaster ID and triggers a correlation function."
"This patent is indicative of the foresight and innovation necessary to develop a unique affiliate advertising network within a complex and dynamic industry," Horowitz said in a statement.
