Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Electronic shopping
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-26
2003-07-29
Cosimano, Edward (Department: 3629)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Electronic shopping
C705S027200, C705S028000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06601043
ABSTRACT:
DESCRIPTION
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates generally to apparatus and method for matching buyers and sellers of products and services. More particularly, it pertains to automated, and usually computerized methods and systems for creating a depository for sellers to indicate inventory availability and a source for buyers to access to review those seller's inventories for purchase purposes. Optionally, the system may be used by a single entity to manage assets where multiple users require the ability to independently access the management system, often times from remote and varying locations.
BACKGROUND ART
The cornerstone of a free trade stem is the ability of merchants to make the availability of their products and services known to potential purchasers. The concept of trading between sellers and buyers is well known and transactions between the two originally occurred in face-to-face meetings. Subsequently, as markets became more sophisticated, buyers and sellers turned to written documentation for both placing orders and filling orders. Of late, however, the advent of electronic transactional capabilities has made it exceedingly advantageous for businesses to automate many of their methods of doing business. Among those methods and processes is the activity of merchandising goods and services. A common goal in these automations is to increase accuracy, while at the same time reduce costs and time-frames between the initiation of a purchase and its completion.
A fundamental need of sellers of merchandise and providers of services is an effective means for communicating inventory availabilities to potential buyers. As evidenced by the thriving advertising industry, effective and persuasive means for communicating information to buyers is a paramount concern for providers. The advent of broadcast media provided a revolutionary step and improvement in the ability to disseminate information to purchasers. Broadcast communications, however, are unidirectional in that sellers are able to disseminate information to potential buyers, but those buyers who receive the information are not able to react in a direct manner and “broadcast” a response. Though radio and television has made it easier for a seller to distribute product and service information to a broader audience than traditional print media, it has not provided a highly effective means for selecting the receivers of the information, nor does it provide a closed environment within which the parties may review the needs and abilities of the other.
Because of the broadcast media's ability to disseminate information in a rather scattered manner to parties who may or may not have a need for the advertised product or service, consumers are regularly bombarded with information, from sellers that is of no interest, and in many cases serves only to irritate. As a result, a majority of the resources expended on broadcast advertising are wasted on the distribution of information that is never likely to achieve a sale.
As opposed to advertising to consumers, marketing between businesses is often more successful at affecting a sale. The reason for this is that more focused communication is possible when a supplier knows with some degree of certainty who its potential customers are. In that case, information may be provided to those who are at least likely to purchase goods and services of the seller.
Some sellers choose systems in which information about their merchandise is made available to potential purchasers, but it is the purchaser that originates a transaction by accessing the information and initiating a purchase. In this type of system, there is almost a 100% percent certainty that the potential purchaser at least has a need for the product, and because they are actively seeking to review available products and services that will meet their needs, they are also likely to affect and complete a purchase. The problem of such a system is providing an environment within which the providers information is conveniently deposited and held until selectively accessed by interested buyers. In a more traditional format, catalogs of merchandise available from a provider have been printed and which may in turn be requested by buyers interested in those types of products. Without some advertising of the availability of these catalogs, however, it is unlikely that many purchasers will either know about the catalog's availability, or how to order and receive one.
The catalog concept has been automated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,956 that discloses an interactive system for retail transactions. In use, a purchaser may access a computer system and select information about a particular product that is then displayed on a video screen, together with certain data and specification about the product. In this invention, a transaction may be affected and a purchase made through the displaying computer system.
A related system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,336 that discloses a system and method for allocating resources of a retailer among multiple wholesalers. This system provides a means by which information may be provided about a plurality of wholesalers and their inventories and purchases made by retailers based on those retailers' collective needs.
In each of the described patented systems, the purchaser has the ability to access information in an automated environment and review merchandise information. Orders may even be placed on these systems once the purchaser has made an appropriate selection. In each situation, however, the merchandise provider has no interactive capabilities for accessing the systems. Instead, the sellers are dependant upon information about their products and services being entered and made available by the system administrator.
An alternative system for exchanging information has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,156 that discloses an interactive market management system. Therein, a system is described for interactive on-line electronic communications and processing of business transactions between a plurality of different types of independent users including at least a plurality of sellers and a plurality of buyers, as well as financial institutions and freight service providers. The concept is to provide each member participating in a transaction simultaneous on-line communication with the other members. The environment for the communication is a computer system, but the interaction is akin to a conference call or “chat line” wherein each member communicates with the others and is ultimately able to make commitments for their contributions to the transaction on the system. While certain benefits may be achieved by such an interactive system, there are many times when all parties are not available at the same time to interact with one another. As a result, utilization of a system of this nature will be limited to those times at which all parties are simultaneously available to correspond with each other. The ability to fully utilize a system of this nature is obviously hindered by this requirement that all parties be available at the same time. Furthermore, it has the limitation of being able to be utilized for only a single transaction at any one time. That is, multiple purchasers cannot converse with the seller about separate and different transactions at the same time.
In reviewing the above needs of purchasers and sellers, as well as the known systems that are presently available for their transactions, the need for an improved means for exchanging product and service information between parties has been recognized and resolved through the use of the present invention.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention in its several disclosed embodiments alleviates the drawbacks described above with respect to conventionally designed methods and incorporates several additionally beneficial features.
This invention includes features and/or components that have been invented and selected for their individual and combined benefits and superior performance as an automated and independentl
Baker & Botts L.L.P.
Cosimano Edward
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