Ticket resale marketplace StubHub has been granted U.S. patents relating to methods of “mapping price and location” for tickets at an event venue, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Documents indicate that the company has been granted other ticketing-related patents dating back to 2009, but the most recent of the StubHub patents was granted earlier this month.
The seat mapping patent “enables sellers to view pricing information and transaction information for both sold and current event listings for any section or zone in an event venue,” StubHub’s patent application stated.
“The interactive event venue seat map allows sellers to browse and click on sections to see sold and listed data for any section and zone in the event venue and to compare a proposed sale price to available pricing information of sold and current event listings in comparable sections.”
Other patents granted to StubHub include methods and “computer-readable storage devices” for managing multiple broker affiliate transactions; an “apparatus for certified secondary market inventory management”; and methods for “transferring items with restricted transferability.”
A StubHub spokesperson did not reply to a message seeking comment about the patents. The applications contain details of how the patented items operate, but how the company will utilize them from a business standpoint is not disclosed.
The patent for transferring restricted items essentially describes the company’s ticket resale marketplace business model. Officials initially filed the application in 2000.
StubHub describes this patent as a system that waits for a consumer to request to transfer an item from a seller.
“This request may indicate inducements to the provider to authorize the transfer,” the patent application stated. “If the transfer is authorized, the systems and methods then present information regarding the item to other consumers.”
The item can then become a part of a bid process, and once a bid is accepted the item can be transferred “with or without the assistance of an intermediary.”
