Method for conducting a shareholders meeting with remote participation using a network
First Claim
1. In a first server, a method for conducting a shareholders meeting with remote participation comprising:
- notifying a plurality of shareholders of a shareholders meeting;
receiving notification from at least some of said shareholders indicating that they will attend said shareholders meeting as remotely attending shareholders, each remotely attending shareholder having an associated second server, said second servers providing shareholders meeting services to said remotely attending shareholders;
transmitting meeting proceedings to said second servers for subsequent transmission to said remotely attending shareholders; and
producing a final tabulation of votes indicating the voting preferences of all of said shareholders on issues brought up during said shareholders meeting, said producing including for each of said second servers;
receiving a voting form from each of its associated remotely attending shareholders;
tabulating said voting form to produce a tabulated votes result; and
transmitting said tabulated votes result to said first server, said final tabulation of votes including tabulated votes results from all of said second servers.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a method for conducting a shareholders meeting when shareholders can participate in the shareholders meeting through a network without having to actually go to the meeting hall of the shareholders meeting. Remote shareholders are assigned to satellite sites in order to spread the processing load among the satellite sites. Among the meeting site, satellite sites, and remote shareholder sites of the sponsoring company, votes from remote shareholders sites are tabulated on the satellite sites and sent to the meeting site. Voting can be performed promptly because of hierarchical vote tabulation on a plurality of satellite sites and at the meeting site.
35 Citations
32 Claims
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1. In a first server, a method for conducting a shareholders meeting with remote participation comprising:
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notifying a plurality of shareholders of a shareholders meeting;
receiving notification from at least some of said shareholders indicating that they will attend said shareholders meeting as remotely attending shareholders, each remotely attending shareholder having an associated second server, said second servers providing shareholders meeting services to said remotely attending shareholders;
transmitting meeting proceedings to said second servers for subsequent transmission to said remotely attending shareholders; and
producing a final tabulation of votes indicating the voting preferences of all of said shareholders on issues brought up during said shareholders meeting, said producing including for each of said second servers;
receiving a voting form from each of its associated remotely attending shareholders;
tabulating said voting form to produce a tabulated votes result; and
transmitting said tabulated votes result to said first server, said final tabulation of votes including tabulated votes results from all of said second servers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for conducting a shareholders meeting comprising:
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notifying shareholders of a shareholders meeting, said shareholders meeting taking place at a first location;
identifying a plurality of remote shareholders who will attend said shareholders meeting remotely, each remote shareholder having an associated satellite server site which provides shareholders meeting services, said satellite server sites in communication via a data communication network with a shareholders meeting server system located at said first location;
producing first audio-visual information at said first location; and
transmitting said first audio-visual information to each of said satellite server sites so that said remote shareholders can view proceedings of said shareholders meeting, each of said satellite server sites;
receiving voting forms from its associated remote shareholders, including deleting an earlier received voting form of a remote shareholder who submits a subsequent voting form;
tabulating said voting forms to produce a tabulated result; and
sending said tabulated result to said shareholders meeting server system, said shareholders meeting server system, tabulating votes of said shareholders including tabulating tabulated results received from said satellite server sites. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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16. A method for conducting a shareholders meeting comprising:
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notifying shareholders of a shareholders meeting, said shareholders meeting taking place at a first location;
identifying a plurality of remote shareholders who will attend said shareholders meeting remotely, each remote shareholder having an associated satellite server site which provides shareholders meeting services, said satellite server sites in communication via a data communication network with a shareholders meeting server system located at said first location;
producing first audio-visual information at said first location;
transmitting said first audio-visual information to each of said satellite server sites so that said remote shareholders can view proceedings of said shareholders meeting;
receiving for a period of time a plurality of requests to ask a question, including requests from said satellite server sites which have been submitted by said remote shareholders;
selecting one of said requests to ask a question during said period of time; and
providing an answer to said question, wherein those of said requests to ask a question which have not been selected are ignored.
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21. A server system for conducting a shareholders meeting with remote shareholders comprising:
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a computer component having a memory store, said memory store having first program code configured to operate said computing unit to notify a plurality of shareholders of a shareholders meeting, said memory store further having second program code configured to operate said computing unit to receive notification from at least some of said shareholders indicating that they will attend said shareholders meeting as remote shareholders, each remotely attending shareholder having an associated second server which provides shareholders meeting services, said memory store further having third program code configured to transmit meeting proceedings to said second servers for subsequent transmission to said remotely attending shareholders, said memory store further having fourth program code configured to produce a final tabulation of votes indicating the voting preferences of all of said shareholders on issues brought up during said shareholders meeting, including code configured to operate said computing unit to receive a tabulated votes result from each of said second servers, said second servers including fifth program code configured to;
receive a voting form from each of its associated remotely attending shareholders;
tabulate said voting form to produce said tabulated votes result; and
transmit said tabulated votes result to said first server, wherein said final tabulation of votes includes tabulated votes results from all of said second servers. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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26. A first server system for conducting a shareholders meeting with remote shareholders comprising:
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means for notifying a plurality of shareholders of a shareholders meeting;
means for receiving notification from at least some of said shareholders indicating that they will attend said shareholders meeting as remotely attending shareholders, each remotely attending shareholder having an associated second server system, said second server systems providing shareholders meeting services to said remotely attending shareholders;
means for transmitting meeting proceedings to said second server systems for subsequent transmission to said remotely attending shareholders; and
means producing a final tabulation of votes indicating the voting preferences of all of said shareholders on issues brought up during said shareholders meeting, said means for producing including for each of said second server systems;
means for receiving a voting form from each of its associated remotely attending shareholders;
means for tabulating said voting form to produce a tabulated votes result; and
means for transmitting said tabulated votes result to said first server system, said final tabulation of votes including tabulated votes results from all of said second server systems.
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Specification