AU2009100605A4 - Method of transacting a referral between a seller and a buyer - Google Patents

Description

Our Ref: 46071nno P/00/009 Regulation 3.2 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 INNOVATION SPECIFICATION FOR AN INVENTION ENTITLED Invention title: Method of transacting a referral between a seller and a buyer Name of Applicant: Christine Marie Lehmann and Tracey Joy Lehmann Address for Service A.P.T. Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys PO Box 222 Mitcham, S.A. 5062 The invention is described in the following statement 2 Method of transacting a referral between a seller and a buyer FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to the field of linking a seller of a commodity with a prospective buyer and in one aspect relates to conducting a referral 5 between a seller of grain and a potential purchaser. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The sale of commodities such as wheat, canola, barley and other grains have, in the past, been subject to various forms of regulation. This resulted in the formation of marketing boards such as AWB and ABB that had a monopoly to market and 10 export grain from Australia. The grain commodities market within Australia is now moving from a regulated to an open or deregulated market. Deregulated means that multiple registered exporters will be able to export bulk grain from Australia. These changes in export arrangements have changed the commercial relationships between the grower of the crop, those that trade grain and 15 those that market the commodity. Some consider that the current deregulated arrangements are confusing and have fragment the industry, making economies of scale difficult for anyone to achieve. Typically in the past a grower would sell to a grain marketer who was registered to export the grain. In many instances the grower would use the services of 20 a broker to secure the best possible price. An overseas buyer could then access the records of the grain marketer. Marketing of grain within Australia since at least the 1940's has utilised the services of a commodity broker, being a firm or individual who executes orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of clients and charges them a commission. 25 The grower's grain may be stored onsite in farm silos or in offsite storage facilities where a number of grower's grain is stored in storage cells. In the offsite 3 storage facilities cell averaging is used to record the quality of the grain held within in a particular storage cell. There are systems suggested in paper publications that utilise a web-based platform to enable interested parties to record sell and buy grain. It allows sharing of 5 that information between growers, traders, and brokers, whilst protecting the confidentiality of the parties. Growers wanting to participate in this scheme need to register with a registered broker. The broker will then lodge orders of behalf of the growers. Confidentiality within the system is maintained as buyers and sellers are not identified to each other during the transaction. 10 The currently available systems mean that the growers are forced to accept the price "on offer" and have little control over setting their preferred target price. Furthermore the buyers do not have access to information regards the quantity and quality of grain actually in storage at any specific location. It should be appreciated that any discussion of the prior art throughout the 15 specification is included solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention and should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art was widely known or formed part of the common general knowledge in the field as it existed before the priority date of the application. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 20 In accordance with an aspect of the invention, but not necessarily the broadest or only aspect, there is proposed a method of transacting a referral between a seller and a buyer, including the steps of: the seller listing an amount of grain for sale on a sales register of a referrer, the seller being able to access the sales register to remove or alter said listing; 25 the buyer registering with the referrer to thereby access the sales register, wherein the identity of the seller is concealed from the buyer; the buyer making an offer to purchase at least a portion of the grain, whereby the offer is submitted to the referrer but not the seller; the referrer notifying the seller of said offer, wherein the identity of the buyer is 4 revealed to the seller; and the offer being either accepted by the seller, whereby said referral is transacted, or said offer being rejected by the seller. The listing may include at least the price, quantity, quality and location of the 5 grain. In one form the sales register is accessible through a website administered by a referral agent. In this way the referral agent may limit access by the seller and buyer by way of username and passwords. The referrer may be an automatic system or the method may involve input from the referral agent. The seller is preferably the actual 10 grower of the grain. In this way the grower are referred to potential buyers without the need to employ the services of a grain broker to which a commission would be paid by the grower. The information contained within the grain listing may be updated by the seller on only a predetermined increment of time, that might be hourly, daily or 15 weekly basis. The buyer may be identified to the seller by way of buyer reference information. The buyer reference information may be the name of the company, or link to the company's website that may include information relating to prior history of purchases, terms of purchase or other information such as a rating of the buyer 20 reliability, potential risks, negative/positive feedback. In one form information relating to the reliability or feedback may also be supplied to the buyer without identifying the seller. In one form the buyer will pay the referral agent on a price per quantity purchased basis if the referral is conducted and the sale proceeds. 25 In another aspect there is proposed a method of transacting a referral between a seller and buyer that are registered with a referral agent, including the steps of: the seller listing a commodity for sale on a sales register of the referral agent, the 5 listing including a target price, quantity, quality and location, wherein the seller is able to remove or alter the listing; the buyer accessing the sales register that contains listings from a plurality of sellers, wherein the identity of each of the plurality of sellers is concealed; 5 the buyer making an offer to the referral agent to purchase at least a portion of the commodity from one of said listings; the seller of the corresponding listing being notified of said offer by the referral agent, wherein the identity of the buyer is revealed to the seller by way of buyer reference information; and 10 the offer being either accepted by the seller whereby said referral is transacted by the referral agent or said offer being rejected by the seller. In one form the commodity is an agricultural product such as grain or hay. In another form the method can be used with regards to the sale of a mining commodity or other commodity that is sold by quantity, quality or both. 15 In a preferred form the seller is not be able to access the listings of other sellers. Each seller is able to view their listings and the highest daily registered buyer price. The seller may furthermore be able to list the actual quantities and quality of grain or other commodity that is actually in storage on-farm or in offsite facilities. 20 This provides the potential buyer with information regarding the location, quantity and quality of the commodity currently available. A number of key performance indicators (KPI) are currently used to monitor the quality of on-farm storage. In another form the method is use to transact a referral for a forward contract. The seller lists a nominated tonnage, commodity and target price. Contracts could be 25 multi grade or fixed. In still yet another aspect of the invention there is proposed a software program for the application of the preceding method.

6 The software program may be implemented as one or more modules for undertaking the steps of the present invention. The software program is executed using a processor. The processor can include a system with a general-purpose central processing unit, multiple processing units, dedicated circuitry for achieving 5 functionality, or other systems. The processing may not be limited to a geographic location, or have temporal limitations. For instance, a processor can perform its functions in real time, offline, or in a batch mode. Portions of processing can be performed at different times and at different locations, by different (or the same) processing systems. 10 Application software may be stored in a computer readable medium on the storage device. The storage device may be a floppy disk, hard drive, magneto-optical disk drive, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, integrated circuit, computer readable card such as a PCMCIA card, flash drive or any other of the number of non-volatile storage devices. The foregoing is merely exemplary of relevant computer readable mediums. 15 Other computer readable mediums may be practiced without departing from the scope of the invention. The method may include any human, hardware and/or software system, mechanism or component that processes data, signals or other information. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 20 The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate implementations of the invention and, together with the description and claims, serve to explain the advantages and principles of the invention. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a schematic view illustrating multiple sellers and buyers accessing 25 the records of a Referral Agent of the present invention; Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating the method of transacting a referral between a seller and a buyer; 7 Figure 3 is a flow chart of the method of figure 2 illustrating the actions taken by the buyer and seller; and Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating the use of the method of figure 2 by the buyer and seller. 5 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED AND EXEMPLIFIED EMBODIMENTS There are numerous specific details set forth in the following description. However, from the disclosure, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and/or substitutions may be made without departing from the scope and 10 spirit of the invention. In some circumstance specific details may have been omitted so as not to obscure the invention. Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the drawings. Referring to the drawings for a more detailed description, a method transacting a referral between a seller and a buyer is illustrated, demonstrating by way of 15 examples arrangements in which the principles of the present invention may be employed. As illustrated in figure 1, there is provided a method of transacting a referral 10 between a seller 12 and a buyer 14. A Referral Agent 16 administers the referral 18 over a computer network such as the Internet. The Referral Agent 16 maintains a database in the form of a sales register of 20 commodities for sale. The commodity of the described embodiment is a cereal grain however it should be appreciated that other type of commodities fall within the scope of the invention. The sales register is located on the Referral Agent's own computer server or a server accessible through the Internet. Multiple sellers 12, 20, 22 and buyers 14, 24, 26 are able to register with the Referral Agent 16 to thereby access 25 restricted information contained within the sales register. The Referral Agent 16 controls contact between the sellers 12, 20, 22 and buyers 14, 24, 26 to facilitate the sale 28 of the commodity through the referral of interested parties. It should be appreciated that each of the buyers 14, 24, 26 can view all the listing of the sellers 12, 20, 22 and can make an offer to any or all of the sellers 12, 20, 22. The sellers 12, 20, 8 22 on the other hand are only able to view their own listings, highest daily price or statistics such as the average price for the day. In one embodiment, as illustrated in figure 2, the method of transacting a referral 10 between a seller 12 and buyer 14 includes the steps of: 5 - the seller listing an amount of grain for sale 30 on a sales register including price, quantity, quality and location; e the buyer accessing the listing 32 on the sales register without the seller's 12 identity being revealed; e the buyer making an offer 34 to purchase at least a portion of the 10 commodity; e the seller being notified of said offer 36, wherein the identity of the buyer is revealed; and - the seller deciding whether to sell to specified buyer 38, the offer being either accepted by the seller whereby said referral 18 is transacted or said 15 offer being rejected by the seller. Once the referral has been completed by the Referral Agent 16 it is up to the seller 12 and buyer 14 to conduct the sale 28, organise transport, insurance or any other matters relating to the sale of the commodity. As illustrated in figure 3 a plurality of sellers list 40, 42, 44 their commodities 20 for sale on a sales register managed by the Referral Agent 16. Each seller lists the commodity for sale, such as barley, including a target price, quantity, quality and location. Each seller may be able to remove or alter their listing at any time or designated times during the day. The buyer views 32 the sales register that contains the plurality of listings, 25 wherein the identity of each of the sellers is concealed. If the buyer is not interested 46 in any of the listings no further action is taken 48. On the other hand if the buyer is interested in a specific listing or listings they register their interest with the Referral Agent 34. The buyer may make an offer purchase the whole or a portion of the commodity from one of the plurality of listings.

9 The Referral Agent will then notify the relevant seller of the offer 36, wherein the identity of the buyer 14 is revealed to the seller. The seller then makes the decision 38 whether to sell to the specified buyer. If the offer is not accepted 50 or the seller does not want to deal with the specified buyer, no further action is taken 48. 5 Alternatively the buyer may be notified of the rejection of the offer. If the offer is accepted 52 then the Referral Agent proceeds with the referral 18 by sending contact information to both the seller and the buyer. The seller and buyer then organise the sale of the commodity 54 independent of the Referral Agent. It is envisage that the commodity is an agricultural product such as grain or 10 hay. The grain may be stored on-farm or warehoused at multiple site. However it should be appreciated that the method could be used with regards to the sale of a mining commodity or other commodities. The Referral Agent 16 grants access to a website by registered sellers and buyers. The sellers are preferably the actual growers of the grain. In this way the 15 growers are referred to potential buyers without the need to employ the services of a broker to which a commission would be paid. The seller and buyers must comply with registration criteria to ensure the integrity of the system is maintained and to prevent abuse of the information managed by the Referral Agent. 20 It is envisage that the seller will not be able to see the listings of other sellers. Each seller will be able to view their listings and the highest daily buyer price. The seller may also be able to access information relating to the average commodity price for that day, the average quality, or any other information that is not specific to another seller. 25 The seller is able to list the actual quantities and quality of grain or other commodity that is actually in storage on-farm or in offsite facilities. This provides the potential buyer with information regarding the location, quantity and quality of the commodity currently available and may indicate the potential for future price increases due to low supplies.

10 As illustrated in figure 4 the method can be used to transact a referral for the cash market, pools and forward contracts. The seller lists a nominated tonnage, commodity and target price. Contracts could be multi grade or fixed on a cash basis. A bank operates in much the same way as an individual seller. The only 5 difference is that each bank consists of a co-operative or group of growers from which the grain is sourced. The term cell averaging related to a record of grain quality in a particular storage cell. Most wheat cells for example hold 1,200 tons of wheat. There may be 50 different farmers deliver into that cell. The storage manager computes the overall 10 quality of the grain in that cell from the deliveries into it. The range of quality allowed into an APW1 cell can vary in protein from 10-15%, screenings from .01 5%, moisture from 9-12%. "Golden rewards" is the terminology used to calculate what a delivery is worth in bonus based on these qualities. The present method will allow growers to set a target price based on what 15 quality they delivered. Grain with high protein, low screenings, and low moisture is worth more. For instance if Grower One delivers grain having 12% protein, 2% screenings, 9% moisture it will likely to be worth 15-18$ more per ton than the base price. Grower Two delivers grain having 10% protein, 5% screenings and 12% moisture, will not receive any golden rewards because he is on the base limits. 20 Grower One may have $300 target price and Grower Two $285 which they have determined from their deliveries. In the present example the cell average is 12% protein 3% screenings and 10.5% moisture, which gives the buyer the info he needs to fulfil his market requirements. So, the buyer can pay Grower One and Grower Two their target price because of the cell average. 25 It is envisage that a software program will be used to undertake many of the steps of the present invention. The referrer may be an automated program with no input from an administrator. Alternatively the method may include the manual input of data from a referral agent that may be in contact with either the seller or buyer through other means than the Internet such as a telecommunications network.

11 The communication between the seller, buyer and Referral Agent can be via a communication interface using an appropriate communication channel such as a modem communication path, a computer network such as a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN)/Internet, fixed cables or telecommunications 5 network. Security protocols and authentication may also be used to ensure secure communication between the seller, buyer and service provider. The application software may be stored in a computer readable medium and either accessible through the Internet or downloadable to individual computers. The computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, 10 propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, system or device. The computer readable medium can be, by way of example only but not by limitation, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, system, device, propagation medium, or computer memory. 15 In particular the computer readable medium may be a floppy disk, hard drive, magneto-optical disk drive, magnetic tape, integrated circuit, computer readable card such as a PCMCIA card, flash drive, semiconductor, magnetic disk, optical discs (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM) or any other of the number of non-volatile storage devices. The foregoing is merely exemplary of relevant computer readable mediums. Other 20 computer readable mediums may be practiced without departing from the scope of the invention. Further, the program instructions may be stored in the memory of another computer prior to use in the system of the present invention and transmitted over a LAN or a WAN, such as the Internet, when required by the user of the present 25 invention. The software can be transmitted over communication networks including the Internet and intranets. The method may be embodied as a combination of hardware and software. In one possible embodiment the system described herein may be, at least in part, embodied in hardware, for instance within, or coupled, to a Central Processing 12 Unit ("CPU"), microprocessor, microcontroller, System on Chip ("SOC"), or any other programmable device. It is preferable that the method will be embodied in software, for instance, computer readable code, program code, instructions and/or data disposed in any form, such as source, object or machine language, that is disposed, for 5 example, in a computer readable medium configured to store the software. This can be accomplished through the use of general programming languages, GDSII databases, hardware description languages (HDL), or other available programs, databases, nanoprocessing, and/or circuit capture tools. Any suitable programming language can be used to implement the method of 10 the present invention. Different programming techniques can be employed such as procedural or object oriented. The routines can execute on a single processing device or multiple processors. Although the steps of the method may be presented in a specific order, this order may be changed in different embodiments. In some embodiments, multiple 15 steps shown as sequential in this specification can be performed at the same time. The sequence of operations described herein can be interrupted, suspended, or otherwise controlled by another process, such as an operating system, kernel, etc. The routines can operate in an operating system environment or as stand-alone routines occupying all, or a substantial part, of the system processing. 20 The skilled addressee will now appreciate the many advantages of the illustrated invention. In one embodiment the invention provides a method for transacting a referral between a seller and a buyer. The Referral Agent controls contact between the potential buyer and seller in that the seller is able to anonymously offer their goods for sale and then decide whether they want to seller to an interested 25 buyer. This means that the seller is able to set their target price rather than being offered a price. It also means that the buyers are able to view the quantity and quality of goods that are currently available. The method maintains the privacy of the seller until they have accepted the offer made by the buyer.

13 Various features of the invention have been particularly shown and described in connection with the exemplified embodiments of the invention, however, it must be understood that these particular arrangements merely illustrate and that the invention is not limited thereto. Accordingly the invention can include various modifications, 5 which fall within the spirit and scope of the invention. It should be further understood that for the purpose of the specification the word "comprise" or "comprising" means "including but not limited to".

Claims (11)

1. A method of transacting a referral between a seller and a buyer, including the steps of: the seller listing an amount of grain for sale on a sales register of a referrer, 5 the seller being able to access the sales register to remove or alter said listing; the buyer registering with the referrer to thereby access the sales register, wherein the identity of the seller is concealed from the buyer; the buyer making an offer to purchase at least a portion of the grain, whereby the offer is submitted to the referrer but not the seller; 10 the referrer notifying the seller of said offer, wherein the identity of the buyer is revealed to the seller; and the offer being either accepted by the seller, whereby said referral is transacted, or said offer being rejected by the seller.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the listing may include at least the 15 price, quantity, quality and location of the grain

3. The method according to claims 1 or 2 wherein the sales register is accessible through a website administered by a referral agent.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3 wherein the buyer may be identified to the seller by way of buyer reference information, including the 20 name of the company or a link to the buyer's website.

5. The method according to claim 3 wherein the buyer will pay the referral agent on a price per quantity purchased basis if the referral is conducted and the sale proceeds.

6. The method accordingly to any one of the above claims wherein the seller is 25 a group that collectively places their grain on the sales register at a selected price. 15

7. A method of transacting a referral between a seller and buyer that are registered with a referral agent, including the steps of: the seller listing a commodity for sale on a sales register of the referral agent, the listing including a target price, quantity, quality and location, wherein the 5 seller is able to remove or alter the listing; the buyer accessing the sales register that contains listings from a plurality of sellers, wherein the identity of each of the plurality of sellers is concealed; the buyer making an offer to the referral agent to purchase at least a portion of the commodity from one of said listings; 10 the seller of the corresponding listing being notified of said offer by the referral agent, wherein the identity of the buyer is revealed to the seller by way of buyer reference information; and the offer being either accepted by the seller whereby said referral is transacted by the referral agent or said offer being rejected by the seller. 15

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the seller is not able to access the listings of other sellers.

9. The method according to any one of the above claims wherein the method is used to transact a referral for a forward contract.

10. A software program for the application of the method accordingly to any on 20 of the preceding claims.

11. A method substantially herein before describe with reference to the figures.