Patents Assigned to Walgreen Co.
  • Patent number: 10567915
    Abstract: Embodiments are provided for enhancing an in-store retail experience for a customer by providing information relevant to objects and services using hyper-local location techniques to facilitate identification of objects and services available for sale in a premise. According to certain aspects, an electronic device may determine a location of the electronic device and generate object capture information based on detecting the object or service at the physical premise by a viewfinder of the electronic device. The electronic device may display, on an interface, notification information particular to the object or service corresponding to the location and object capture information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2020
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Kartik Subramanian, Benjamin Weiss, Shivakumar Chandramouli, Viral Brahmbhatt
  • Patent number: 10547978
    Abstract: Embodiments are disclosed to enable customers and store personnel to communication while the customers are in an access area of a brick-and-mortar store. The access area may have one or more transmitters installed at predetermined locations. By utilizing an application installed on each customer's mobile computing device, each mobile computing device may transmit ranging data and information indicative of the customer when within range of one or more of the transmitters. The ranging data may include an indication of a range between each of the customer's mobile computing device and one or more proximate transmitters. By correlating the information indicative of the customer to a customer's account information, information relevant to the customer may be determined. A customer may be sent a notification including a portion of the relevant information. The notification may enable the customer to contact the personnel of the brick-and-mortar store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventor: Benjamin Weiss
  • Patent number: 10543152
    Abstract: A system, apparatus, and method for providing an auditing feature capable of verifying a prescription has been correctly dispensed by a pharmacy are disclosed. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a system, apparatus, and/or method for automatically checking a customer's prescription information against known information related to the customer and/or the prescription contents in order to verify that the dispensed prescription is correct. It follows that an attentive and accurate dispensing process may be made available for a pharmacy to dispense prescriptions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Nichole R. Cotter, Donnamarie A. Christie, Averill D. Gordon
  • Patent number: 10537191
    Abstract: A shelf system includes first and second support rails, a wall panel disposed between the first and second support rails, first and second electrical supply rails disposed within a front surface of the wall panel and electrically insulated from the first and second support rails, a power supply electrically connected to the first and second supply rails, and at least one LED light fixture mounted on the first and second support rails, such that the light fixture is electrically connected with the first and second electrical supply rails to provide electrical current from the power source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Gerald Ford, Paul McGivern
  • Patent number: 10531245
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described for transmitting a plurality of push-based communications associated with products moving geographically. In various aspects, an application programming interface (API) endpoint server having a push-based API, the push-based API associated with a webhook provided to a delivery service server, may receive via the webhook a webhook-push following an update to a delivery status state of a delivery event. A short message service (SMS) webpage server may generate a description of the update to the delivery status state. The SMS webpage server may be further configured to generate an SMS-based webpage and the description of the update to the delivery status state may include the URL of the SMS-based webpage. An SMS delivery component may transmit a communication including the description of the update to a client device associated with the delivery event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Andrew Schweinfurth, Lindsey Kanefsky
  • Patent number: 10522017
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and techniques for mitigating retail theft include securing items at a receptacle of a retailer via an electronic lock, and providing a transceiver that is proximate to the secured items and that transmits a beacon which may be detected by a personal electronic device (PED) of a customer. Based on a wireless transmission between the PED and the transceiver, a customer's identity may be determined and the customer's risk profile may be accessed. A risk score corresponding to the customer accessing the secured item may be determined based on the customer's risk profile and optionally based upon a profile of the secured item. If the risk score is indicative of an acceptable risk, a trigger to remotely unlock the electronic lock may be sent, thereby remotely and automatically allowing qualified customers to access secured items. An item's removal may be detected and tracked.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Kartik Subramanian, Andrew Schweinfurth, Raymond Kim
  • Patent number: 10503874
    Abstract: A system to verify the identity of a recipient requesting fulfillment of a prescription for a pharmaceutical product includes a point-of-sale retail personal identification number entry device (pinpad) and a workstation that stop a transaction for the pharmaceutical product from proceeding in response to a request associated with a claim for dispensing the pharmaceutical product. A first input for data identifying a member of a rewards program is entered with the pinpad, and a second input for data identifying a recipient of the prescription is entered with the workstation. The workstation compares the data identifying the member of the rewards program against the data identifying the recipient of the prescription. If there is a match between the data identifying the member of the rewards program and the data identifying the recipient of the prescription, the pinpad and workstation allow the transaction for the pharmaceutical product to proceed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Nicolet L. Leonardo, Averill D. Gordon, Ugochi C. Baker
  • Patent number: 10474400
    Abstract: Systems and methods for uploading image files to a print server are provided. Parallel processing techniques may be utilized to improve the upload speed. As one example, the systems and methods may resize image files having a resolution exceeding a maximum useful resolution prior to transmission. The maximum useful resolution is determined based on a printer resolution and a print size. As another example, the image files may be transmitted to the print server as a multithreaded stream of image files.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Benjamin Weiss, Abraham Jeyaraj
  • Patent number: 10468130
    Abstract: The method and system may provide a service that allows a customer to order refills of one or more prescription medications in a quick and hassle-free manner from a remote location using a computer or mobile device. The customer replies to an electronic refill reminder that includes refill-eligible prescription numbers and a refill reminder identifier. The system receives the refill reply from the customer and validates the refill reminder identifier. The system then generates a refill order number associated with the refill reminder identifier, retrieves one or more prescription numbers associated with the refill reminder identifier, and transmits the generated refill order number and retrieved one or more prescription numbers for fulfillment. The customer receives a refill order confirmation electronic message from the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventor: Anshuman Taneja
  • Patent number: 10467573
    Abstract: Embodiments are disclosed to detect whether an interaction has occurred between a customer and one or more store employees. By analyzing a how long a communication device used by the customer was within a threshold range of one or more devices worn by store employees, an interaction between the customer and one or more store employees may be identified. Employees whom the customer interacted with may be identified by processing transmission parameters broadcasted by the devices worn by the store employees. Thus, all employees in which a customer interacted with while visiting a store may be identified. The customer may be asked for feedback via the communication device upon detection that a customer has completed a transaction and/or left the store. Using the solicited feedback provided by the customer, various types of reports may be generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Benjamin Weiss, Timothy P. McCauley, Nicholas L. Eby
  • Patent number: 10467518
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for capturing and/or selecting media content using a client source device, uploading the media content to a proprietary server, generating an identification tag corresponding to the uploaded media content, printing a physical depiction of the identification tag, scanning the physical depiction of the identification tag using a client destination device in furtherance of accessing the uploaded content, determining the content corresponding to the scanned identification tag, retrieving the content from the proprietary server, formatting the content for presentation to a specific user and/or for a specific client destination device, and presenting the content on the client destination device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventor: Andrew Schweinfurth
  • Patent number: 10438469
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and techniques for mitigating retail theft include securing items at a receptacle of a retailer via an electronic lock, and providing a transceiver that is proximate to the secured items and that transmits a beacon which may be detected by a personal electronic device (PED) of a customer. Based on a wireless transmission between the PED and the transceiver, a customer's identity may be determined and the customer's risk profile may be accessed. A risk score corresponding to the customer accessing the secured item may be determined based on the customer's risk profile and optionally based upon a profile of the secured item. If the risk score is indicative of an acceptable risk, a trigger to remotely unlock the electronic lock may be sent, thereby remotely and automatically allowing qualified customers to access secured items. An item's removal may be detected and tracked.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Kartik Subramanian, Andrew Schweinfurth, Raymond Kim
  • Patent number: 10440509
    Abstract: Systems and methods for managing and facilitating geofencing features associated with electronic devices are disclosed. According to certain aspects, an entity may own or manage a set of retail stores. A server associated with the entity may receive an estimated location of an electronic device, and may determine that the estimated location is in proximity to one of the set of retail stores. The server may further calculate a geofencing boundary for the retail store based on certain location-based data, and may determine whether the estimated location of the electronic device is within the geofencing boundary. The server may additionally facilitate certain geofencing features based on the determination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventor: Benjamin Weiss
  • Patent number: 10440009
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed to leverage third party “cookie stitchers” for cross-device user identification, which may be used by a network server to selectively provide content to a user. The techniques include a cookie stitcher associating a user with multiple computing devices, which in turn notifies the network server when the same user requests access to provided content on separate occasions from different computing devices. The cookie stitcher may also have access to a user record regarding the identified user, and may provide this record data to the network server to identify other characteristics about the user. Based upon the particular type of information that is identified, the network server may provide varying degrees of access to content and/or allow the user to interact with one or more applications supported by the network server in different ways.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Peter Manwiller, Adam Crouch
  • Patent number: 10438214
    Abstract: The system and methods allow a user to request and receive an electronic coupon using a client application on an internet-enabled device such as a mobile phone and use the electronic coupon when making a purchase at a store. Specifically, the mobile device requests and receives the mobile coupon from a server or a network of servers. The server or network of servers determines which if any electronic coupon(s) to send to the client application and sends an electronic coupon to the client application. The client application displays the electronic coupon with a coupon identifier on the display of the mobile device. The user then uses the mobile device to enter the coupon identifier into a point-of-sale terminal to trigger the discount or other special deal offered on the electronic coupon when making a purchase at the point-of-sale terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Anthony Kim, Mathew Alexander
  • Patent number: 10430556
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus are disclosed to notify and route a customer to a prescription pickup location. A communication device detects the proximity of a prescription customer to an associated pharmacy location. The customer is then notified when the prescription is available at the pharmacy location based on identifying customer information and the location information. Once the pharmacy location is detected, the communication device sends the identifying customer information and the location information to a pharmacy computing device. The communication device then displays a notification that a prescription is available for the prescription customer at the pharmacy based on a determination made by the pharmacy computing device using the location information and the identification information. In addition, the communication device can display a map of the pickup location, various prompts to the customer to establish payment and/or to determine whether the customer has questions for pharmacy staff.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Tim McCauley, Jon Turkington, Abhinav Dhar, Dejan Kozic, Nicholas Eby
  • Patent number: 10403099
    Abstract: Security flaps for use with cash trays and cash trays including such security flaps are disclosed. An apparatus including a security flap, including: a first panel; a second panel; and a hinge, the first panel coupled to the second panel via the hinge, the second panel to be coupled to a cash tray, a spring to move the first panel between a first position where the first panel extends over and covers compartments of the cash tray and a second position where the first panel is spaced from the compartments of the cash tray, in either of the first position or the second position, the security flap is structured to deter a criminal act from occurring associated with an unauthorized individual accessing the compartments of the cash tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventor: Timothy Patrick Mueller
  • Patent number: 10339476
    Abstract: A method for automatically allocating floor space includes obtaining: (i) fixture data, (ii) business rule data, and (iii) benefit data. The method further includes searching a plurality of arrangements of the plurality of categories of products on the plurality of merchandizing fixtures according to the obtained data and determining an allocation solution. The allocation solution specifies a combination of the plurality of categories of products, an identification of ones of the plurality of merchandizing fixtures allocated to each of the combination of the plurality of categories of products, and an amount of the ones of the plurality of merchandizing fixtures allocated to each of the combination of the plurality of categories of products.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: John M. Bergstrom, David Pisinger
  • Patent number: 10331855
    Abstract: A system for the automated categorization, research, correction, enhancement, and resubmission of payment rejections for prescriptions, is disclosed. The system is adapted for use across multiple pharmacies connected to a central server with access to various databases containing information about providers, customers, payers and past prescription history. The system reviews the rejections and categorizes them based on various material within the rejection information and on file in the databases. Once characterized, one or more of several routines and subroutines are worked on the rejection to determine any issues that may be resolved prior to resubmission. Where unsuccessful in automatic resubmission, the system executes a prioritization and agent-matching engine to field the rejection to the most efficient resource to overcome it.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Edward J. Bratton, Michael G. Shope
  • Patent number: 10325073
    Abstract: The method and system determine and report measures of adherence of patients to prescription medication regimens based upon fill gaps in the prescription history of the patients. The measure of adherence may be the proportion of days covered by the medication. The method and system may receive or access information relating to a patient's medical history, including past prescription medication fills. Fills of both the prescription medication and other medications that may substitute for the prescription medication may be considered in determining patient adherence levels. Upon determining the patient's level of adherence, the system and method may generate a report including the adherence information and associated information, such as a home pharmacy location. The report may include an indication of whether new-to-therapy information should be presented to a patient based on patient adherence levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: WALGREEN CO.
    Inventors: Susan C. Ewing, Kristi Rudkin, Marianna L. Vranicar, Michael Taitel, Jenny Jiang, Randy Wolf, John Mazzaferri, Koteswar Kothapalli, Robert Van Oost, Richard Frank