Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Definitions

• hypertext link One such technique, known as “hypertext link”, consists of providing in a present display an icon
• product sales information For example, if the user was viewing a display provided by a retailer,
• the user may leave the retailer's display (web site) to go to the supplier's web site.
• the user may
• the display pertaining to product information is also under the hypertext link scheme.
• the retailer next imports or transcribes the then-current information.
• Fig. 1 depicts the system of the present invention.
• FIG. 2 shows further detail of the contents of databases depicted in Fig. 1.
• Figs. 3 A through 3C illustrate flow through the system of the present invention initiated
• FIGs. 4A through 4D summarize at a high level the interaction facilitated by the present
• Figs. 5A through 5E depict a "command console" display presented to a retail jeweler to
• Figs. 6A through 6E depict a "command console" display presented to a manufacturer to
• Fig. 1 illustrates the system of the present invention. A plurality of shoppers can access
• Each shopper, jeweler, or manufacturer has a personal
• PC computer
• communication link 21 is the Internet, but many other things.
• Communication media may be contemplated for use in the present invention.
• link 21 enables communication with servers 18, 19, and 20.
• the servers 18, 19, and 20 In keeping with trends prevalent and well known in the communication arts to generate distributed systems, the servers 18, 19, and 20
• the path 14 may be associated with the same host computer or with different host computers.
• the path 14 may be associated with the same host computer or with different host computers.
• the information that is accessible to a shopper is determined jointly by templates 13 and
• jewelry manufacturers and typically includes information in electronic form, including
• the templates specify formats for respective portions of the information
• server 20 associated with a host machine with which the templates 13 and
• Database 11 comprises datasets 111, 112, and so
• database 10 associated with manufacturers, and it includes datasets 101, 102, and so forth, one
• templates 12 specify layouts (formats) which are filled in by content information
• system control unit 25 may be entered by a system operator through system control unit 25, or it may be entered or
• the information be provided only through a central system control so that a jeweler or
• templates 13 specifies the general format of a display screen for a jeweler
• the content information may also specify that "virtual boutiques" may appear in the
• the jeweler's dataset contains information about whether a particular manufacturer's
• the manufacturer's dataset also includes control information which
• database 11 may or may not be implemented as an object-
• display processor 17 will have to initiate requests for such information over path 14,
• display processor 17 will be responsible for assembling information for a complete display
• Display processor 17 forwards the display information through server 20 and over
• Fig. 2 is seen to include the path
• Databases 10 and 11 are seen to be connected to path 14. As was shown
• system control 25 and display processors 15, 16, and 17 also have connection to path
• Database 11 has a dataset for each retail jeweler 111, 112, 113, etc. who may have a web
• the jeweler's content 1111 includes items that may be filled on his templates 12 (not
• Fig. 2 to appear on his web page, such as his address and phone number, and may also
• Jeweler 111 may carry or offer a number of boutiques on his web page, and in the present
• example is carrying three, with a reference to each in his dataset (1112, 1114, and 1116).
• Database 10 has a dataset for each manufacturer 101, 102, 103, 104, etc. who may
• FIG. 2 shows detail of datasets for but two of them, 101
• exclusion rules for example, associated with boutique 1011 are inclusion rules 1012 and exclusion rules 1013. It is through these sets of rules that a manufacturer has control over which
• the specific identifications may be by name, or by some other means such
• the jeweler's membership in certain trade associations his geographical location, his
• inclusion rules 1012 grant permission for jeweler 111 to carry the
• over path 14 may contain specifications that some of the information in the display object is
• the object is
• server 20 forwarded through server 20 and communication link 21 to shopper 24 where it appears
• a jeweler may carry his display objects and what contents of them a jeweler may change, and a jeweler, may choose to carry or not to carry any of the boutiques a manufacturer makes available to him,
• FIG. 3 A A flow through the system of the present invention is illustrated in Figs. 3 A, 3B, and 3C.
• Fig. 4A shows schematically and at a high level the interaction provided by the present invention
• Figs. 4B) 4C, and 4D depict a series of displays that might appear on the shopper's monitor as a
• HTML hypertext markup language
• RingCo RingCo's name
• Display processor 17 accesses database 11 and templates 13 by means of path 14. It will be recalled that since the computer equipments supporting the present invention may be in the form of a distributed system, this usage of path 14 may be over a hard path within a single machine, or over a communication link between machines. The determination of which kind of path access to perform may be performed by instructions within the programs comprising display processor 17, or by instructions embedded within data references if display processor 17 is "object oriented". Display processor 17 finds among templates 13 the basic template for a local jeweler's
• Program boutiquepage locates in templates 13 the template required for the page
• a feature of templates is that they may contain the names of
• the subprograms called in this case query the dataset for jeweler 111, and find his
• the shopper requests to view a particular one of the available
• the template is filled in according to information 1011, thus
• a web page is assembled including the requested display object (boutique) and returned
• element 26A has the same general layout as element 26 in Fig. 4A, some items in it are seen to be different. This is a result of the aforementioned customization.
• RingCo's HTML description in element 26 are wholesale prices; after applying Ima
• element 26 shows SKU numbers
• element 26A shows SKU numbers
• the shopper is able to see the manufacturer's information without leaving the retail
• control information they can do so from their PC's (not shown) through their communication
• server 20 for the use of shoppers is always an open server.
• the jeweler or manufacturer may thus be required to demonstrate access privilege in order to be
• FIGs. 5 A through 5E show the screens provided to a retail jeweler to facilitate his
• Some may have a symbol (such as a circle with a line through it, not shown) indicating that the
• Figs 6A through 6E show a series of screens that would be shown to a manufacturer to
• he is shown a screen like that of Fig. 6D. Here he may enter such things as predetermined

Landscapes

• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Development Economics (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Economics (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
• Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=21900387

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Families Citing this family (9)

Citations (3)

Family Cites Families (8)

• 1999
  • 1999-03-10 WO PCT/US1999/005219 patent/WO1999046709A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1999-03-10 EP EP99911288A patent/EP1072009A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1999-03-10 AU AU29968/99A patent/AU2996899A/en not_active Abandoned

Patent Citations (3)

Non-Patent Citations (3)

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