Patent Grant
8140398
The field of the present invention relates to commerce by digital transfer. In particular, apparatus and methods are described herein for inventory, sale, and delivery of digitally transferable goods.
Commerce conducted electronically, over the world-wide computer network known as the Internet, is a relatively recent phenomenon that has nevertheless grown into an important segment of the economy. A shopper or buyer with network access may find information for a product, and submit an order request over the network. The vendor then ships the item, and the buyer pays for the merchandise by standard means (credit card, check, invoice, debit, etc.). The ability to shop for and buy products from any location having network access, including one's home or place of business, has and will continue to revolutionize commerce in the coming years.
However, at present, many systems for conducting such commerce are merely marketing and order-taking systems, with product information available for download by a shopper or buyer, means for a buyer to digitally transmit an order request, possibly including a credit card number or other payment authorization. Most goods must be delivered by more traditional means, and inventory is independent of the order-taking system. In addition, buyers and shoppers are usually restricted to view product information and purchase goods from one vendor (or provider) of goods at a time. For example, an Internet site at http://www1.viaweb.com/stores/provides access to a variety of providers of products. By entering the area of a provider, the shopper has access to product information from that provider only, and may only order products from that provider. The orders are transmitted from the network site to the provider, who actually fills the order and receives payment. A similar procedure is used at an Internet site at http://www.amazon.com. Books and recorded music are marketed and sold at this site, with the order being transmitted over the Internet, and goods are shipped and payment received. At an Internet site at http://www.ebay.com, items are offered for auction by the public, and information about the item is available for viewing or download. Buyers transmit bids over the Internet, and the system at the site administers the bidding and determines the winning bid. The winning bidder and seller are then put into direct contact to arrange for shipping and payment.
But even items potentially deliverable digitally (stocks, bonds, tickets, reservation) are still delivered physically, perhaps with a receipt or order confirmation delivered electronically. A network site at http://www.discoverbrokerage.com allows submission of “buy” and “sell” requests for stocks and mutual funds. The network site merely processes the requests, but does not execute the trades. Several airlines offer electronic tickets over the Internet (i.e., e-tickets). Once again, only the order and payment are handled by digital transfer over the network. A receipt may be provided electronically, but the goods (in this case, a boarding pass) must still be obtained in person at the airport.
In none of these network sites is there on-site storage of digitally transferable inventory of goods for immediate delivery of purchased goods over the network. In many of these systems the providers must perform their own marketing, collect their own funds, store their own inventory, and manage access to their network-based information.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide apparatus and methods for commerce by digital transfer providing shopper access to products from a plurality of providers simultaneously. It is desirable to provide apparatus and methods for commerce by digital transfer allowing purchase of goods from a plurality of providers in a single order. It is desirable to provide apparatus and methods for commerce by digital transfer which allow providers to immediately upload and store, and/or modify previously stored, digitally transferable goods and product information pertaining thereto, and to receive detailed marketing and sales information. It is desirable to provide apparatus and methods for commerce by digital transfer in which marketing, collections, inventory storage, and access management for a plurality of providers may be handled by a single system. It is desirable to provide apparatus and methods for commerce by digital transfer which allow a buyer to immediately download purchased goods.
Certain aspects of the present invention may overcome one or more aforementioned drawbacks of the previous art and/or advance the state-of-the-art of apparatus and methods for commerce by digital transfer, and in addition may meet one or more of the following objects:
One or more of the foregoing objects may be achieved in the present invention by an apparatus comprising: a) a storage and distribution means; b) an inventory upload means; c) a product information download means; d) an order upload means; and e) a delivery download means. One or more of the foregoing objects may be achieved in the present invention by a method comprising the steps of: (a) digitally transferring the goods and product information pertaining thereto from a provider of the goods to a storage and distribution means; (b) storing the goods, product information pertaining thereto, order information, and possibly sales information and marketing information on the storage and distribution means; (c) digitally transferring the product information to a shopper; (d) digitally transferring order information from a buyer of the goods to the storage and distribution means; and (e) digitally transferring the goods to the buyer. The storage and distribution means may be used to store digitally transferable goods, product information pertaining thereto, marketing information, and sales information. The storage and distribution means may be provided with one or more network connections, thereby allowing access by providers, shoppers, and buyers. A provider may establish a provider account, thereby allowing the provider access to the storage and distribution means to: a) upload and/or modify goods and/or product information; and/or b) access to marketing and/or sales information pertaining to goods of the provider. Goods and product information from a plurality of providers may be stored, preferably in a searchable form. The product information from a plurality of providers may be searched simultaneously by a shopper, and goods from a plurality of providers may be ordered by and delivered to a buyer in a single order.
Identification and validation are required for both providers and buyers. Upon establishing a provider account, a provider must supply identification and/or financial information, preferably including an electronic mail address. After verification of the information provided, provider account identification data and/or a provider password may be sent to the provider electronic mail address, and may be required for subsequent access to the provider account. In this way the electronic mail address of the provider is also verified. Similarly, upon placing an order a buyer must supply identification and/or financial information, preferably including an electronic mail address. Order identification data and/or an order password may be sent to the buyer electronic mail address for confirmation. Order confirmation and/or verification of the financial information is provided, and the purchased goods are placed in an order storage area. The order identification information and/or order password may be required for subsequent buyer access to the order storage area and download of the purchased goods by the buyer. In this way the electronic mail address of the buyer may be verified. The order identification data and/or order password may be required for later return of goods by the buyer.
Identification data may be logged for all providers, shoppers, and buyers that access the storage and distribution means. These identification data may include name, physical mail address, electronic mail address, and/or date/time/network address. Search information for shoppers may be logged as marketing information, and order information for buyers may be logged as sales information. Provider, shopper, and/or buyer identification data may be used by an administrator of the apparatus to track usage and to detect and/or prevent fraudulent access to the goods, product information, marketing information, and/or sales information. The marketing and/or sales information may be stored for later access by the provider of the goods and/or product information searched, requested, downloaded, and/or ordered, thereby allowing the provider to track interest in and demand for goods and product information. The marketing and sales information may be stored for later access by the buyer of the goods and/or product information searched, requested, downloaded, and/or ordered, thereby allowing the buyer to track searches and purchases. The sales and/or marketing information may be stored for later access by the system administrator.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention may become apparent upon referring to the preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention as illustrated in the drawings and described in the following written description and/or claims.
For purposes of the present written description and/or claims, “digitally transferable goods” shall denote any objects or data which may be digitally encoded and transferred electronically. These may include, but are not limited to, computer files, computer programs, executable code, object code, source code, data, databases, images, music, sounds, 3D models, software, text, books, sheet music, video, film, tickets (travel, transportation, lodging, sports, entertainment, etc.), reservations (travel, transportation, lodging, sports, entertainment, etc.), currency, stocks, financial and/or investment instruments, services, combinations thereof, and/or functional equivalents thereof. Sale of such digitally transferable goods may encompass sale and transfer of a sole extant copy of the digitally transferable material, but may also be construed as sale of a license to use the goods. Different license terms for the same item may be offered by a provider at differing prices. It is also intended that “provider”, “shopper”, and “buyer” may refer to a plurality of each, and the apparatus and methods disclosed herein may be accessed and/or utilized by multiple providers, shoppers, and/or buyers simultaneously. Alternatively stated, the apparatus and methods disclosed herein may support a plurality of simultaneous provider, shopper, and/or user “sessions”. A single provider, shopper, and/or buyer may establish a plurality of concurrent sessions of access and/or use of the system, and a single entity may establish concurrent sessions of different types (for example, concurrent provider and buyer sessions).
For purposes of the present written description and/or claims, any of the terms “storage and distribution means”, “inventory upload means”, “product information download means”, “order upload means”, “delivery download means”, and any other “means” described herein shall denote any apparatus, hardware, software, and/or combination thereof capable of performing the specified functions, including but not limited to one or more computers, servers, server software, browser software, user interface hardware and/or software, terminals, networked devices, the Internet, the World Wide Web, an intranet, an extranet, modems, memory units, storage devices, distributed computing resources, integrated circuits, ASICs, functional equivalents thereof, and/or combinations thereof. For purposes of the present written description and/or claims, any medium suitable for storage of digitally encoded information, or any combination of or functional equivalent of such media, may be utilized for any of the various storage functions described herein. For purposes of the present written description and/or claims, the term “network connection” shall encompass any apparatus, hardware, software, and/or combination thereof capable of providing any of the various connections described herein, including but not limited to an Internet connection, an Internet service provider (ISP), browser software, user interface hardware and/or software, a modem hook-up, a cable, a phone line, a satellite link, a wireless link, a microwave link, television, a BBS system, a local area network, a wide area network, an intranet, an extranet, direct linkage of a plurality of computers, connections between devices within a single computer, terminal connections, program instructions, multiple user accounts on a single computer, multiple storage areas on a single computer, combinations thereof, functional equivalents thereof, and future systems and protocols for performing analogous functions. Similarly, the term “electronic mail” shall denote the currently standard manner of transmitting and receiving text, data, and other digitally encoded material over a computer network, but shall also be construed to encompass future systems and protocols for performing these and/or analogous functions.
For purposes of the present written description and/or claims, “date/time/network address” shall denote the combination of date, time, and network address (IP address, for example) of any particular session of provider, shopper, or buyer interaction with the apparatus and/or methods described herein. The terms “product information”, “sales information”, and “marketing information” shall include, but are not limited to, one or more of items listed in the exemplary database structures shown in the block diagrams of
Inventory upload means 200 is depicted schematically in
Once a provider account is established and the provider account identification data and provider password have been received by the provider via electronic mail, the provider may establish a provider session and gain access to his/her area of storage and distribution means 100 by supplying the account identification information and password to provider access means 224 at 702 of
All of the procedures described above may be carried out automatically by the storage and distribution means 100 and the inventory upload means 200, by implementation of the appropriate hardware, software, and/or combination thereof. All of the procedures described above may be performed during a single provider session, or may be performed during a plurality of temporally discontinuous sessions.
Product information download means 300 is depicted schematically in
All of the procedures described above may be carried out automatically by the storage and distribution means 100 and the product information download means 300, by implementation of the appropriate hardware, software, and/or combination thereof. All of the procedures described above may be performed during a single shopper/buyer session, or may be performed during a plurality of temporally discontinuous sessions.
Order upload means 400 is depicted schematically in
All of the procedures described above may be carried out automatically by the storage and distribution means 100 and the order upload means 400, by implementation of the appropriate hardware, software, and/or combination thereof. All of the procedures described above may be performed during a single shopper/buyer session, or may be performed during a plurality of temporally discontinuous sessions.
Delivery download means 500 is depicted schematically in
Delivery download means 500 may further comprise means for allowing return of purchased goods by the buyer. Buyer validation means 520 may be utilized to verify buyer identification and/or financial information and the order identification information and password. Once these are verified, the buyer may return unwanted goods previously purchased.
All of the procedures described above may be carried out automatically by the storage and distribution means 100 and the delivery download means 500, by implementation of the appropriate hardware, software, and/or combination thereof. All of the procedures described above may be performed during a single delivery session, or may be performed during a plurality of temporally discontinuous sessions.
Without departing from inventive concepts disclosed and/or claimed herein, any form of electronic payment authorization may be utilized for receiving payment from buyers, providing refunds to buyers, and providing payment to providers. These may include but are not limited to: credit card payments/credits, bank drafts, electronic fund transfers, checks, various forms of computer network payment methods (CyberCash® and DigiCash®, for example). Electronic payment methods, which can be processed rapidly, can be automated, and are particularly well-suited for use in a computer- or computer-network-based environment, may be most preferred for the system as described herein.
Without departing from inventive concepts disclosed and/or claimed herein, the product information may be stored and/or presented to shoppers and/or buyers in any format suitable for searching. In particular, a preferred format may be that of a searchable database. Similarly, provider, order, marketing, and/or sales information may also be stored in a searchable format, preferably as a searchable database.
The present invention has been set forth in the forms of its preferred and alternative embodiments. It is nevertheless intended that modifications to the disclosed apparatus and methods for inventory, sales, and distribution of digitally transferable goods may be made without departing from inventive concepts disclosed and/or claimed herein. For example, steps recited in the various procedures disclosed herein may in some cases be performed in different order without departing from inventive concepts disclosed and/or claimed herein. While not limited to a particular embodiment, the present invention has been described primarily in terms of one or more servers connected to the Internet, with access by providers, shoppers, and/or buyers provided by Internet browser software on remote networked computers, electronic mail, and user interface hardware/software. Given the rapidly evolving nature of the Internet, computers and computer networks in general, electronic mail, and software pertaining thereto, it is to be expected that apparatus, methods, hardware, and software for implementing network connections and digital data transfer will shortly be drastically different from their current forms. Nevertheless, even in these potentially unrecognizable forms, such apparatus, methods, hardware, and/or software may be used to implement the present invention without departing from inventive concepts disclosed and/or claimed herein.
For purposes of the present disclosure and appended claims, the conjunction “or” is to be construed inclusively (e.g., “a dog or a cat” would be interpreted as “a dog, or a cat, or both”), unless: i) it is explicitly stated otherwise, or ii) two or more of the listed alternatives are mutually exclusive within the particular context, in which case “or” would encompass only those combinations involving non-mutually-exclusive alternatives.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/123,778 filed Jul. 28, 1998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,165), which application is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| Parent | 09123778 | Jul 1998 | US |
| Child | 10950366 | US |
