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

Definitions

• the present invention relates to computer apparatus, methods and products of using such apparatus, hi another aspect, the present invention relates to computer network apparatus, methods and products of use thereof. In even another aspect, the present invention relates to apparatus, methods and products in the field of information networks, communication, and information dissemination and retrieval. In still another aspect, the present invention relates to apparatus, methods and products for operating a network of two or more computers. In yet another aspect, the present invention relates to apparatus, methods and products for disseminating and/or collection data from a network of two or more computers.
• HTML Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• HTML Hypertext Markup Language
• URL Uniform Resource Locator
• a shopper can select one or more item from an e- catalog, placing them into the virtual shopping cart. Shoppers can use search facilities provided by the e-commerce site to locate items. Once all desired items are located and selected, the shopper may proceed to a checkout process, specifying personal data (if the shopper has not previously registered) such as name, address, credit card numbers, and the like. Upon transaction completion the shopper is provided with delivery instructions or related details.
• the Internet is also being used to provide access to, and monitoring of accounts, such as brokerage and banking accounts.
• Some types of goods that may be digitized are available directly over the Internet, including, music, pictures, videos, and software.
• Attracting visitors to a website may be accomplished by old fashioned advertising, non- limiting examples of which include periodicals, newspapers, direct or mass mailers, TV or radio, bumper stickers, bill boards, or exposure through sporting or other public events.
• attracting visitors to a website may be accomplished by email solicitation, or by "banners" which appear on-screen during a visit to another website.
• U.S. Patent No. 4,799,156 issued January 17, 1989 to Shavit et al., discloses a system 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.
• Each user can communicate with the system from remote terminals adapted to access communication links and the system may include remote terminals adapted for storage of a remote data base.
• the system includes a data base which contains user information.
• the data base is accessed via a validation procedure to permit business transactions in an interactive on-line mode between users during interactive business transaction sessions wherein one party to the transaction is specifically selected by the other party.
• the system permits concurrent interactive business transaction sessions between different users.
• U.S. Patent No. 5,715,314, issued February 3, 1998, to Payne et al. discloses a network- based sales system includes at least one buyer computer for operation by a user desiring to buy a product, at least one merchant computer, and at least one payment computer.
• the buyer computer, the merchant computer, and the payment computer are interconnected by a computer network.
• the buyer computer is programmed to receive a user request for purchasing a product, and to cause a payment message to be sent to the payment computer that comprises a product identifier identifying the product.
• the payment computer is programmed to receive the payment message, to cause an access message to be created that comprises the product identifier and an access message authenticator based on a cryptographic key, and to cause the access message to be sent to the merchant computer.
• the merchant computer is programmed to receive the access message, to verify the access message authenticator to ensure that the access message authenticator was created using the cryptographic key, and to cause the product to be sent to the user desiring to buy the product.
• U.S. Patent No. 5,74,424, issued March 3, 1998 to Gifford discloses a complete system for the purchasing of goods or information over a computer network.
• Merchant computers on the network maintain databases of digital advertisements that are accessed by buyer computers.
• buyer computers retrieve and display digital advertisements from merchant computers.
• a digital advertisement can further include a program that is interpreted by a buyer's computer.
• the buyer computers include a means for a user to purchase the product described by a digital advertisement.
• a network payment system performs payment order authorization in a network with untrusted switching, transmission, and host components. Payment orders are backed by accounts in an external financial system network, and the payment system obtains account authorizations from this external network in real-time. Payment orders are signed with authenticators that can be based on any combination of a secret function of the payment order parameters, a single-use transaction identifier, or a specified network address.
• U.S. Patent No. 5,987,140 issued November 16, 1999, to Rowney et al, discloses the secure transmission of data between a plurality of computer systems over a public communication system, such as the Internet. Secure transmission of data is provided from a customer computer system to a merchant computer system, and for the further secure transmission of data from the merchant computer system to a payment gateway computer system. The payment gateway system evaluates the information and returns authorization or denial of credit via a secure transmission to the merchant which is communicated to the customer by the merchant.
• U.S. Patent No. 5,987,620 issued April 27, 1999, to Walker et al., discloses method and apparatus for the sale of airline-specified flight tickets.
• Various methods and apparatus are disclosed for allowing airlines to later match an unspecified-time airline ticket with a flight for a traveler-specified itinerary (e.g., NY to LA on March 3 rd ).
• An exemplary method includes: (1) making available an unspecified-time ticket; (2) examining a plurality of flights which would fulfill the terms of the unspecified-time ticket to determine which flight to select; and (3) providing notification of the selected flight prior to departure.
• the disclosed embodiments provide travelers with reduced airfare in return for flight-time flexibility and, in turn, permits airlines to fill seats that would have otherwise gone unbooked.
• U.S. Patent No. 6,081,790 issued June 27, 2000, to Rosen discloses a system for secure presentment and payment having a first electronic processing device and a second electronic processing device.
• the first processing device creates a presentment ticket from stored invoice data, and securely transmits the presentment ticket and the invoice data to the second processing device.
• the second processing device determines which invoices are to be paid and creates a corresponding remittance advice which it securely transmits to said first processing device.
• the first processing device creates a commercial payment ticket corresponding to the remittance advice and securely transmits it to the second processing device.
• the second processing device then securely transmits electronic money to the first processing device in an amount corresponding to that specified in the remittance advice.
• U.S. Patent No. 6,092,053, issued July 18, 2000, to Boesch et al. discloses a system and method for merchant invoked electronic commerce allowing consumers to purchase items over a network and merchants to receive payment information relating to the purchases.
• the system includes a server having software which gathers the purchasing information from a consumer to complete a purchasing transaction over a network.
• the system has a consumer data structure that stores purchasing information for registered consumers.
• the software is able to access the consumer data structure and enter the consumer's purchasing information during subsequent purchases. Having the software obtain and enter the consumer's purchasing information, the consumer does not have to enter the same information every time they purchase an item over the network.
• the same technology can be applied to other arenas where a user may have to enter the same repetitive information.
• U.S. Patent No. 6,101,482 issued August 8, 2000 to DiAngelo et al., discloses a method of purchasing products and services on-line using a client connectable to a plurality of servers via a computer network.
• the method begins by initiating from the client two or more independent transaction sessions, each of the independent transaction sessions established as a connection between the client and one of the plurality of servers is active.
• transaction information is collected at the client to facilitate a purchase of products and services after the connection between the client and the server is closed and the transaction session is completed.
• the transaction information is maintained persistent across multiple independent transaction sessions. At a given time, for example, after all Web sites have been visited and the information gathered, the transaction information (as originally collected and/or as filtered, updated or enhanced) is then used to effect a purchase of given products and services.
• U.S. Patent No. 6,101,484, issued August 8, 2000, to Halbert et al. discloses a dynamic market equilibrium management system is especially adapted for the sale of goods and services through an online buying group (referred to herein as a "co-op ) formed for the specific purpose of purchasing a particular product by defining a start time, end time, critical mass, any minimum number of units offered, any maximum number of units offered, starting price and product cost curve.
• the coop is modified using the market equilibrium manager, so as to take into account market forces such as supply and demand for the item to be sold and their interrelationship with the purchase price for such item.
• a graphical user interface receives user inputs for directly manipulating graphical display of data from a database on a display device and displays feedback dependent variable data on the display device, such as in the form of a changed numerical value in response to the user moving at least one data point in the graphical display.
• U.S. Patent No. 6,101,485 issued August 8, 2000, to Fortenberry et al. discloses a method for engaging in electronic commerce over the Internet, comprising the steps of: programming a first electronic mail (e-mail) message to include: a description of at least one product available for sale by an electronic commerce (e-commerce) site; a shopper selectable indicia for indicating that the shopper has chosen to purchase the at least one product; and, a shopper activatable link back to the e-commerce site for transmitting a second e-mail message including the shopper's choice to purchase the at least one product; transmitting the e-mail message over the Internet to at least one potential shopper; and, in response to receiving the second e-mail message transmitted back to the e-commerce site by activation of the link by the at least one potential shopper, consummating the purchase of the at least one product by the at least one potential shopper.
• e-mail electronic mail
• U.S. Patent No. 6,101,486, issued August 8,2000 A method and system for gathering and storing customer profile data when the customer accesses a website location. Dynamic content messages from company marketing material are selected in accordance with the profile data and used to provide a customized webpage to the customer. In addition, a customer service representative can provide real-time updates to the customized webpage when the customer contacts a customer service representative to place a product or service order.
• U.S. Patent No. 6,102,287 discloses an electronic payment system in which a buyer purchases a product by sending an electronic payment order to a seller is enhanced to provide product survey information.
• An additional entity an evaluator, collects product survey information from buyers that have previously purchased products from the seller and provides product survey information to prospective buyers upon request.
• Various schemes are disclosed for allowing the evaluator to verify that a buyer providing product survey information has actually purchased the product from the seller, hi one verification scheme, the buyer generates an authentication code as a one-way function of a randomly generated secret value and includes the authentication code in the payment order. When the buyer later provides survey information to the evaluator, it includes the secret value along with the survey information.
• the evaluator verifies the purchase transaction by presenting the secret value along with information identifying the transaction to the buyer's billing system.
• the buyer's billing system retrieves the authentication code from the transaction information it received from the seller and compares it with the code regenerated from the secret value using the one-way function.
• the buyer's billing system communicates the comparison results to the evaluator, which uses the survey information if it is verified as relating to an actual transaction between the buyer and the seller.
• the evaluator presents only transaction-identifying information to the buyer's billing system.
• the seller signs the payment order and returns the signed payment order as a proof of purchase to the buyer, which presents the proof of purchase to the evaluator.
• a method of exchanging data over a computer network comprising at least two computers in communication with each other, said data relating to offering Oi from provider Pi, wherein offering O; is a good, service, or information relating to a good or service, and wherein i is from 1 to N, and N is a positive integer of at least 1.
• the method generally includes, in any suitable order, one or more of the following steps (a) through (e).
• a method for exchanging data over a computer network comprising at least two computers in communication with each other, said data relating to offering O; from provider Pi, wherein offering O, is a good, service, or information relating to a good or service, and wherein i is from 1 to N, and N is a positive integer of at least 1.
• the method generally includes, in any suitable order, one or more of the following steps (a) through (e). Step (a) of implementing a recruiting phase to recruit at least one author A; for each offering Oi to generate at least one review R; relating to the offering O;. Step (b) of providing offering Oi to author A; for generation of review R; relating to offering Oj.
• a method for exchanging data over a computer network comprising at least two computers in communication with each other, said data relating to offering Oi from provider P;, wherein offering O; is a good, service, or information relating to a good or service, and wherein i is from 1 to N, and N is a positive integer of at least 1.
• the method generally includes, in any suitable order, one or more of the following steps (a) through (e).
• N the number of offerings, may be any desired number, 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, or even higher.
• optional steps include any order of one or more of the following: step (f) of providing the comments to the provider; optional step (f) of providing visitors with the offering; optional step (f) of providing visitors with a reward for their comments; optional step (f) of providing visitors access to comments.
• step (g) providing the modified offering to the at least one author for generation of an additional review
• step (h) receiving onto the network, an additional review generated by the at least one author relating to the modified offering
• step (i) receiving onto the network, comments relating to the modified offering.
• a system for data exchange wherein said data relates to an offering from a provider, wherein the offering is a good, service, or information relating to the good or service.
• the system includes a computer network comprising two or more computers in communication with each other, wherein the computer network includes one more of the following instructions which when executed: (a) implement a recruiting phase by generating communication within the network to recruit at least one author to generate a review relating to the offering; (b) provide the offering in digital form to the at least one author for generation of a review relating to the offering; (c) receive onto the network, the review generated by the at least one author relating to the offering; (d) provide visitors access to the review; and (e) receive onto the network, comments from visitors relating to the review.
• a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions for data exchange, wherein said data relates to an offering from a provider, wherein the offering is a good, service, or information relating to the good or service.
• the instructions include one or more of the following: (a) instructions to implement a recruiting phase by generating communication within the network to recruit at least one author to generate a review relating to the offering; (b) instructions to provide the offering in digital form to the at least one author for generation of a review relating to the offering; (c) instructions to receive onto the network, the review generated by the at least one author relating to the offering; (d) instructions to provide visitors access to the review; and (e) instructions to receive onto the network, comments from visitors relating to the review.
• a propagated signal comprising a plurality of instructions for data exchange, wherein said data relates to an offering from a provider, wherein the offering is a good, service, or information relating to the good or service.
• the instructions include one or more of the following: (a) instructions to implement a recruiting phase by generating communication within the network to recruit at least one author to generate a review relating to the offering; (b) instructions to provide the offering in digital form to the at least one author for generation of a review relating to the offering; (c) instructions to receive onto the network, the review generated by the at least one author relating to the offering; (d) instructions to provide visitors access to the review; and (e) instructions to receive onto the network, comments from visitors relating to the review.
• optional instructions include any order of one or more of the following instructions: (f) to provide the comments to the provider; optional instruction (f) to provide visitors with the offering; optional step (f) to provide visitors with a reward for their comments; optional step (f) to provide visitors access to comments.
• optional further instructions include any of the following instructions: (g) to provide the modified offering to the at least one author for generation of an additional review; (h) to receive onto the network, an additional eview generated by the at least one author relating to the modified offering; and (i) to receive onto the network, comments relating to the modified offering.
• a system for data exchange which comprises stored computer executable instructions for carrying out any or all of the step of any of the above method embodiments.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of one embodiment of a website 100, showing interest group area 110, review area 120, shopping area 130, and login area 140.
• FIG. 2 is a flowchart of one embodiment 300 of the method of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
• the apparatus, method and product of the present invention are useful for conducting ecommerce, including the gathering and/or dissemination of information, and the marketing and/or sale of goods and/or services.
• FIG. 1 there is shown a schematic representation of one embodiment of a website 100, showing areas 111, 120, 130 and 140.
• the present invention utilizes one or more websites 100, which may each or collectively include one or more areas within the one or more websites.
• the number of websites and areas is generally selected to facilitate organization, function and/or ease of use.
• Non-limiting examples of possible areas as shown in FIG. 1 include an interest group area 110, review area 120, shopping area 130, and login area 140.
• each of the areas is linked to at least one of the other areas. More preferably, each of the areas is linked to all of the other areas.
• Within these areas are "zones" (comprising one or more pages) relating to certain topics of interest, for example, beauty 111, fashion 112, sports 113, and music
• One or more of marketing, shopping, and/or data gathering may be integrated into the website, areas and zones.
• Website 100 resides on one or more host or server computers
• the present invention is useful for gathering and/or disseminating information, and/or marketing and/or selling of goods and/or services through a virtual community existing on a network.
• the virtual community includes a number of residents who have community interactions through their respective computers.
• the virtual community includes one or more "Hosts" 10 who host website 100.
• the one or more Host computers 10 may provide software, tools, and content for use in building the zones within the website.
• the one or more Host computers 10 may also gather and/or analyze data from the website, and conduct sales transactions.
• the virtual community also includes one or more "Providers" 20, which, generally subject to Hosts 10, will provide information relating to goods/services, provide samples of goods/services, provide software tools, gather information, and/or market and/or sell goods and/or services.
• the virtual community includes one or more "Authors” 30 who, generally subject to Host 10, will create the "zones" within one or more of the areas of the website, which zones may utilize tools, content, assistance, guidance as provided by Host 10 and/or Providers 20. These zones are generally centered about topics about which Authors 30 are passionate, non-limiting examples of which might include beauty, fashion, computers, food, sports, entertainment/music, and electronics/games. In the practice of the invention, Authors 30 are provided samples of goods/services for review, and then facilitate the exchange of ideas and reviews about the goods/services on the zone with and between Non-Members 50 and/or Members 40.
• the virtual community also includes "Members" 40 who have joined one or more of the zones.
• the criteria for membership may be the same or different between zones, and may be established by Host 10, Providers 20, Authors 30, and/or the zone Members 40.
• the Members are invited to participate in the exchange of ideas regarding existing or new goods/services.
• Website 100 any its zones, may have certain member-only areas to which only Members 40 will be allowed access.
• the virtual community also includes one or more "Non-Members" 50 who visit one or more zones but have not joined as Members 40.
• Non-Members 50 may also be invited to participate in the exchange of ideas regarding existing or new goods/services. While Non- Members 50 may access the public areas of the zone and website, they will not be allowed access to member-only areas.
• one of the Providers 20 might also be the Host 10
• an Author 30 of one zone might be a Non-Member 50 or Member 40 of another zone
• the Host 10 might be one of many Providers 20 or might be the sole Provider 20, or the Host 10 might also be a Non-Member 50 and/or Member 40.
• the method embodiment generally includes step 301 the implementation of a recruiting phase to recruit one or more Authors 30 who will review goods/services, and optionally create in step 305, zones centered around a certain topic or theme.
• the recruitment of Authors 30 may be by any suitable method/apparatus, and may be on-line through the network, off-line, or a combination thererof.
• the number of Authors 30 to be recruited will depend upon the marketing strategy, type of offering, budgets, and other factors.
• the present invention envisions recruiting at least one Author 30, preferably at least two Authors 30, more preferable at least 10 Authors 30, and it is not inconceivable that some implementations of this invention will include at least 100 if not at least 1000 Authors 30.
• Non-limiting examples of on-line recruiting include, for example, through chat rooms, electronic bulletin boards, website signups, recruiting banners on websites, and/or targeted emails.
• Monitoring of Non-Member 50 and Member 40 data relating to visits to various zones may be used to identify Non-Members and/or Members to target for recruitment, who are then provided an invitation to be an Author of their own zone.
• Non-limiting examples of off-line recruitment includes advertising in periodicals, newspapers, direct or mass mailers, TV or radio, bumper stickers, bill boards, or exposure through sporting or other public events. Recruitment can also occur at trade shows, malls, airports, schools, concerts, and the like.
• an Author 30 should preferably be socially connected, articulate, passionate about a topic for which they are willing to be an on-line community leader.
• the embodiment of this method of the present invention includes step 307 of providing offerings to the Authors 30 for review. While there offerings may be goods or services, such offerings may also include information about the good or services, for example, advertising materials, packaging concepts, marketing concepts, pricing, coupons therefore, sample audio/video advertising, sample audio/video portions of music/video, design concepts, color concepts, and the like.
• the Authors 30 are then (step 309) to facilitate the exchange of ideas and reviews about the goods/services on the zone with a targeted group of visitors.
• this targeted group might be a limited group of a certain criteria, in a later early marketing stage it might be a wider group, and finally, during the marketing phase, it might be all visitors (i.e., Non-Members 40 and/or Members 50) to the particular zone or site.
• Non-Members 40 and Members 50 may also be offerings for review, generally in return for posting ideas and reviews about the goods/services on the zone.
• this exchange ideas about the good/services may be by email, posting on a bulletin board, or by chatting.
• the reviews may be phoned or mailed back.
• a database of information may be maintained on Authors 30, Members 40, Non-Members 50, Providers 20, and/or Host 10, to facilitate the efficiency of the website. This gathering of information could be accomplished quite easily as part of the registration process for obtaining membership in the site. Because Non-Members 50 are sometimes reluctant to provide much information to a website when merely visiting,rather than require too much information from Non-Members 50, it is always possible to monitor browsing and search habits of Non-Members 50 within the website between various zones.
• samples of a golf instruction video series could obviously be provided to Authors and Members and a "golf" theme zone.
• the database might also suggest sampling to others, who while not affiliated with the golf theme zone, none-the-less, expressed an interest in golf during registration, or by their browsing habits.
• the providing of goods/services to the Authors 30, Non-Members 50 and/or Members 40 will be accomplished digitally through the zone to facilitate quick distribution of the goods/services.
• samples of music, videos, art, magazines, books, software, educational materials, recipes, commercials, service contracts or agreements (i.e., for plumbing work, home repair, etc.), warranty contracts or agreement (for appliances, automobiles, etc.) political ideas, public policy proposals, proposed legislation, and/or proposed marketing themes, can be made available for downloading through the zone, or emailed to certain Authors, Non-Members and/or Members.
• a digital coupon may be made available for downloading or through targeted emails.
• pictures or artwork relating to the proposed furniture, automobile or clothing may be provided for facilitating discussion and receiving feedback.
• test driven For other good/services which are generally "tried out", "test driven” or “looked at” by a shopper, for example, an automobile, or real estate, information regarding appointment times, or even the making of an appointment to test drive an automobile or tour real estate can be made.
• the present invention includes step 310, the gathering of feedback from Authors 30, Non-Members 50 and/or Members 40 regarding the provided samples of goods/services.
• Providers 20 of the sampled goods/services may in step 315 use this feedback data in making decisions regarding the manufacture, design, marketing, and selling of the sampled offering, hi the practice of the present invention, goods/services may be sampled iteratively (step 317), as changes, modifications and/or improvements are made to the goods/services (or marketing strategy) in response to the gathered feedback.
• This feedback my take any suitable form desired by Provider 20.
• feedback may be gathered in the form of a multiple choice questionaire, a short answer questionaire, or by an essay format.
• the feedback may also take the form of bulletin board postings, chatting (directed by the Provider 20 or Author 30).
• This feedback may be open for review by any Non-Member 50 or Member 40, or such feedback may be privately gathered without providing access to any Non-Member 50 and Member 40.
• Providers may in step 318 optionally reward Authors 30
• This reward may be in the form of credits, coupons, discounts, and the like, which may be redeemable through the website, or through retail outlets of one or more of the Providers 20.
• This reward may also be in the form of credit, for example, electronic cash or money, credits posted to credit cards or bank accounts.
• member or visitor data voluntarily provided data, browsing pattern data, or other data, is monitored to direct the Member 40 or Non-Member 50 to products, content or zones, and may also be used to target Member 40 and/or Non-Member 50.
• Website 100 may further comprise a Feedback Evaluation area, for providing (step 310)
• Feedback Evaluation area may be designed so that Provider 20 must retrieve desired data/analysis, and/or so that such are provided to Provider 20 upon generation of such data/analysis.
• such analysis may include, analysis of current and proposed marketing positions and strategy, statistical and mathematical analysis of the feedback data, reports relating to marketing and selling, reports regarding marketing and sales, reports regarding modification (i.e., redesign) of the products/services, and reports regarding modification of the marketing/sales strategies (i.e., target market, advertising, selling price, etc.).
• Communication may take place between any of the residents of the virtual community, either through website 100 (i.e., emails through the site, chatting on the site, postings on bulletin boards), or directly between residents outside of website 100 (i.e., email, regular mail, meetings, etc.).
• website 100 i.e., emails through the site, chatting on the site, postings on bulletin boards
• residents outside of website 100 i.e., email, regular mail, meetings, etc.
• FIG. 1 shown in FIG. 1 are various communication paths 12, 13, 14,23, 24, 34, 87, 88, 89, 90, and 91, as shown between Host 10, Providers 20, Authors 30, Members 40, Non-Members 50, and Website 100.
• These communication paths may be over the Net, phone lines, regular mail, or in person communication, as permitted. While note shown, various communications lines may exist between Non-Members 50 and the other residents and website.
• Non-Members 50 may be generally anonymous, unless more is required of them to visit
• the other residents will generally not be communicating with them.
• Non-Members 50 may be able to initiate communication with other residents provide addresses, emails and/or phone numbers are provided on website 100.
• Website 100 may further include shopping area 130 from which purchases of goods/services may be made. It is preferred to utilize an electronic payment services that offers security, privacy, anonymity, and access to transaction histories.
• suitable commercially available electronic payment services include such services as SET
• the apparatus of the present invention is preferably a computer system, along with necessary attendant hardware and software, configured to carry out the method of the present invention.
• the computer system preferably includes a number of computers, including necessary software, hardware and peripheral equipment, that are unified in one or more networks.
• a network may include, one or more of the Internet, local area networks, metropolitan area networks, wide area networks, wireless networks, satellite networks, optical networks, and other collections of connected and/or connectable computers provide processing power, memory, disk space, and other resources, including facilities for inter-process communication.
• the apparatus of the present invention includes the Internet.
• Host or Providers may be by any suitable network access device, including the traditional personal computer ("PC"), and may also include non PC devices, such as WAP telephones or other hand held devices.
• PC personal computer
• non PC devices such as WAP telephones or other hand held devices.
• the product of the present invention includes computer readable media comprising instructions, or a data signal embodied in a carrier wave comprising instructions, said instructions which when carried out on a computer will implement one or more of the method steps of the present invention.
• part or all of the present invention may be implemented using standard programming and/or engineering techniques using computer programming software, firmware, hardware or any combination or subcombination thereof.
• Any such resulting program(s), having computer readable program code means may be embodied or provided within one or more computer readable or usable media such as fixed (hard) drives, disk, diskettes, optical disks, magnetic tape, semiconductor memories such as read-only memory (ROM), etc., or any transmitting/receiving medium such as the Internet or other communication network or link, thereby making a computer program product, i.e., an article of manufacture, according to the invention.
• the article of manufacture containing the computer programming code may be made and/or used by executing the code directly from one medium, by copying the code from one medium to another medium, or by transmitting the code over a network.
• the apparatus of the present invention may be one or more processing systems including, but not limited to, a central processing unit (CPU), memory, storage devices, communication links, communication devices, servers, I/O devices, or any subcomponents or individual parts of one or more processing systems, including software, firmware, hardware or any combination or subcombination thereof, which embody the invention as set forth in the claims.
• User input may be received from the keyboard, mouse, pen, voice, touch screen, or any other means by which a human can input data to a computer, including through other programs such as application programs.

Priority Applications (2)

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Publications (1)

Family

ID=24647760

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

• 2001
  • 2001-09-07 WO PCT/US2001/028060 patent/WO2002023433A2/fr active Application Filing
  • 2001-09-07 AU AU2001294544A patent/AU2001294544A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-09-07 CA CA002422273A patent/CA2422273A1/fr not_active Abandoned

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