Method and apparatus for internet connectivity for agriculture buyers,sellers and transporters
First Claim
1. A method for effecting transactions in an agriculture related marketplace, the method comprising:
- establishing a communication network, the network defining a community of buyers and sellers of agriculture related items;
subdividing the agriculture related market place into a plurality of top-level markets, each top-level market defining a particular categorical hierarchy of items comprising the totality of the agriculture related market place;
receiving a first multiplicity of offers to sell, over the communication network, from a plurality of selling entities, each offer to sell including item transaction data organized in accordance with a corresponding one of the plurality of top-level markets;
receiving a second multiplicity of offers to buy, over the communication network, from a plurality of buying entities, each offer to buy including item transaction data organized in accordance with a corresponding one of the plurality of top-level markets;
displaying said first multiplicity of offers to sell and second multiplicity of offers to buy to the community of buyers and sellers over the communication network; and
executing at least one transaction between a buyer and a seller with respect to a particular item, by a buyer'"'"'s making an electronic indication on a respective posted offer to sell for that particular item.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A first participating entities prepares a transaction offer notice on a data processing system. The transaction offer notice is stored in a database of such notices on a server system which is available to entities participating in the system. Transaction notices contained within the server system'"'"'s database are available to a user community over the Internet and form the basis of a trading platform. Users are able to search the database for transaction offer notices that satisfy a set for search criteria, and are able to electronically negotiate with the offeror with respect to transaction parameters and other terms and conditions until the transaction is acceptable to both parties. The original transaction offer notice is retained in the database and is further available to the user community while negotiations are proceeding. Transaction offer notices are able to be posted by any participating entity, and once a transaction is consummate, transactions details are forwarded to a third-party financial institution for fund transfer.
153 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for effecting transactions in an agriculture related marketplace, the method comprising:
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establishing a communication network, the network defining a community of buyers and sellers of agriculture related items;
subdividing the agriculture related market place into a plurality of top-level markets, each top-level market defining a particular categorical hierarchy of items comprising the totality of the agriculture related market place;
receiving a first multiplicity of offers to sell, over the communication network, from a plurality of selling entities, each offer to sell including item transaction data organized in accordance with a corresponding one of the plurality of top-level markets;
receiving a second multiplicity of offers to buy, over the communication network, from a plurality of buying entities, each offer to buy including item transaction data organized in accordance with a corresponding one of the plurality of top-level markets;
displaying said first multiplicity of offers to sell and second multiplicity of offers to buy to the community of buyers and sellers over the communication network; and
executing at least one transaction between a buyer and a seller with respect to a particular item, by a buyer'"'"'s making an electronic indication on a respective posted offer to sell for that particular item. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for effecting efficient electronic transactions in an agricultural marketplace, comprising:
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establishing an agricultural trading platform, including a communication network linking a community of buyers and sellers of agricultural items;
establishing a database, the database structured in accordance with a categorical hierarchical structure, the top-level categories of the database corresponding to top-level market subdivisions comprising the agriculture related marketplace;
receiving a multiplicity of transaction notices from a corresponding multiplicity of participating entities over the communication network, each transaction notice including item transaction indices data organized in accordance with a corresponding one of the plurality of top-level markets;
searching the database for transaction notices in accordance with a selected category of the categorical hierarchical structure;
displaying transaction notices that satisfy the selected search category;
accessing selected ones of the displayed transaction notices, so as to display a detail of the corresponding item transaction indices data; and
responding to an accessed transaction notice so as to complete a transaction. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for effecting efficient electronic transactions in an agricultural marketplace, comprising:
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establishing an agricultural trading platform, including a communication network linking a community of participating buyers and sellers of agricultural items;
establishing a database, the database structured in accordance with a categorical hierarchical structure, the top-level categories of the database corresponding to top-level market subdivisions comprising the agriculture related marketplace, the database containing a plurality of transaction offer notices for agricultural items organized in accordance with a corresponding one of the plurality of top-level markets;
establishing a set of blank transaction offer notices in the form of a data record defining a transaction'"'"'s parameters, each participating entity providing appropriate transaction parameters in the data record;
receiving completed transaction offer notices and storing said notices in the database;
searching the database for transaction notices in accordance with a query corresponding to at least one transaction parameter;
displaying transaction notices that satisfy the selected search query;
accessing selected ones of the displayed transaction notices, so as to display a detail of the corresponding item transaction indices data; and
responding to an accessed transaction notice so as to complete a transaction. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A system for effecting efficient electronic transactions in an agricultural marketplace, comprising:
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an agricultural trading platform, including a communication network linking a community of participating buyers and sellers of agricultural items, the trading platform including a server system coupled to user access devices over the communication network;
a database, the database structured in accordance with a categorical hierarchical structure, the top-level categories of the database corresponding to top-level market subdivisions comprising the agriculture related marketplace, the database containing a plurality of transaction offer notices for agricultural items organized in accordance with a corresponding one of the plurality of top-level markets;
a set of blank transaction offer notices in the form of a data record defining a transaction'"'"'s parameters, each participating entity providing appropriate transaction parameters in the data record;
a plurality of completed transaction offer notices stored in the database;
a search engine, hosted by the server system, the search engine searching the database for transaction notices in accordance with a query corresponding to at least one transaction parameter; and
a negotiation engine, hosted by the server system, the negotiation engine facilitating an electronic transfer of a modified transaction offer notice between an originating party and a negotiating party. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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Specification