System and methods for electronic commerce using personal and business networks
First Claim
1. A method of facilitating electronic commerce, the method comprising:
- registering a plurality of users on a website of a communications network, each of the plurality of users being electronically interconnected so that the plurality of users define a community of users;
establishing a business network of business relationships for the community through electronic commerce with other users in the community;
making business ratings of electronic commerce with other users within the community;
establishing a personal network of personal relationships for the community through personal, non-commercial electronic interaction with other users;
making personal ratings of personal, non-commercial electronic interactions with other users within the community; and
sharing the business network, the business ratings, the personal network, and the personal ratings among the plurality of users within the community.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Electronic commerce over a publicly accessible computer network such as the Internet is facilitated and leveraged by a computer system that forms a community of computer user parties based on personal and business connections of the parties involved. Personal connections are created between users by invitation and mutual acceptance. Business connections are created between users when a transaction takes place between those users. Users search to perform any one or more of a variety of actions such as to purchase products, browse departments and categories for purchasing products, or explore the connections between the parties involved to find items to buy. Different groupings of the parties involved may be the users themselves and other buyers/sellers in the business network, the users themselves and their friends in the personal networks, or some combination of buyers/sellers and friends from each of the types of networks. A computer or server at a site in the network implements an architecture whereby various pages viewed by a user have links to enable them to find products.
-
Citations
50 Claims
-
1. A method of facilitating electronic commerce, the method comprising:
-
registering a plurality of users on a website of a communications network, each of the plurality of users being electronically interconnected so that the plurality of users define a community of users;
establishing a business network of business relationships for the community through electronic commerce with other users in the community;
making business ratings of electronic commerce with other users within the community;
establishing a personal network of personal relationships for the community through personal, non-commercial electronic interaction with other users;
making personal ratings of personal, non-commercial electronic interactions with other users within the community; and
sharing the business network, the business ratings, the personal network, and the personal ratings among the plurality of users within the community. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A computer-implemented method of facilitating electronic commerce over a publicly accessible computer network, comprising the steps of:
-
registering users in the storage medium to provide a community of electronically interconnected users;
establishing in the storage medium a business network of business relationships for the community of electronically interconnected users based on electronic commerce transactions through the computer with other users of the community;
receiving at the input output business ratings of the users in the community of electronically interconnected users;
forming a record in the storage medium of the business ratings received from the users of the community of electronically interconnected users;
making the business ratings in the storage medium available to the users of the community of electronically interconnected users on request from one of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users;
establishing in the storage medium a personal network of personal relationships for the users of the community of electronically interconnected users based on personal electronic interaction through the computer with other users of the community;
receiving at the computer personal ratings received from the users in the community of electronically interconnected users;
making the personal ratings in the storage medium available to the users of the community of electronically interconnected users on request from one of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users; and
sharing from the storage medium of computer over the publicly accessible computer network information concerning the established personal networks, personal ratings, business networks, and business ratings of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A method of facilitating electronic commerce, the method comprising:
-
registering a plurality of users on a computer of a communications network, each of the plurality of users being electronically interconnected so that the plurality of users define a community of users;
establishing a business network of business relationships for the community through electronic commerce with the plurality of users;
making business ratings of electronic commerce with other users within the community;
sharing the business network and the business ratings among the plurality of users within the community;
receiving from a first user within the community a request inviting a second user within the community to join the first user'"'"'s business network so that the first user can leverage the business relationships of the second user;
sending a confirmation to the invited second user of association with the first user that invited the second user; and
receiving a request from a third party user browsing another user'"'"'s business network and, if the third party user is registered in the community, and the third party user and said another user share at least one other user that is in both the third party user'"'"'s and said another user'"'"'s business networks, then allowing the third party user to see at least one of the users within the community that link the third party user and said another user, thereby indicating to the third party user how the third party user is connected to said another user. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
-
-
36. A system to facilitate e-commerce over a publicly accessible computer network, comprising:
-
a first computer at a site accessible to the computer network to define a server, the first computer having a processor, memory coupled to the processor to store operating instructions therein, a graphical display coupled to the processor for displaying graphical images;
a database accessible to the processor of the server and containing database records about e-commerce and the community of electronically interconnected users;
a set of machine-readable instructions stored in the memory of the server to cause the server to form a community of electronically interconnected users of the computer network to facilitate e-commerce;
a user interface coupled to the processor to provide user access to manipulate the software and access database records;
a second computer at a user site accessible to the computer network, the second computer defining a first user and having a processor, memory coupled to the processor to store software therein, and to receive database records therein, a graphical display coupled to the processor for displaying graphical images, and a user interface coupled to the processor to provide a user access to manipulate the stored software and received database records;
a third computer positioned at another user site accessible to the computer network, the third computer defining a second user and having a processor, memory coupled to the processor to store software therein and to receive database records therein, a graphical display coupled to the processor for displaying graphical images, and a user interface coupled to the processor to provide a user access to manipulate the software and received database records;
the first user computer and the second user computer being interconnected through the server to the publicly accessible computer network to establish business networks of business relationships for the community of electronically interconnected users based on electronic commerce transactions through the server, and to establish personal networks of personal, non-commercial relationships for the community of electronically interconnected users based on personal electronic interaction through the server;
the first user and the second user generating business ratings of the users in the community based on commercial e-commerce transactions between the users, and generating personal ratings of the users in the community based on personal non-commercial interactions between the users; and
the database receiving and storing the business ratings and the personal rating generated by the users and making the stored ratings available to the users of the community such that information concerning the business networks, business ratings, personal networks, and personal ratings of the users of the community are shared between the users of the community. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
-
-
47. A computer readable medium that is readable by a computer facilitating electronic commerce in a publicly accessible computer network, the computer readable medium comprising:
a set of instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform the following operations;
register users with the computer to provide a community of electronically interconnected users;
establish at the computer a business network of business relationships for the community of electronically interconnected users based on electronic commerce transactions through the computer with other users of the community;
receive at the computer business ratings of the users in the community of electronically interconnected users;
form a record of the business ratings received from the users of the community of electronically interconnected users;
make the received record of the business ratings available to the users of the community of electronically interconnected users on request from one of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users;
establish in the computer a personal network of personal relationships for the users of the community of electronically interconnected users based on personal electronic interaction through the computer with other users of the community;
receive at the computer personal ratings received from the users in the community of electronically interconnected users;
make the received record of personal ratings available to the users of the community of electronically interconnected users on request from one of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users; and
share from the computer over the publicly accessible computer network information concerning the established personal networks, personal ratings, business networks, and business ratings of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users.
-
48. A computer memory element containing stored in signal bearing media a database, the database containing the following data in computer readable format:
-
data indicating a community of electronically interconnected users of a publicly accessible computer network;
data indicating a business network of business relationships for the community of electronically interconnected users based on electronic commerce transactions through the computer with other users of the community;
data indicating a record of business ratings of the users in the community of electronically interconnected users;
data indicating a personal network of personal relationships for the users of the community of electronically interconnected users based on personal electronic interaction through the computer with other users of the community; and
data indicating a record of personal ratings received from the users in the community of electronically interconnected users.
-
-
49. A computer system facilitating electronic commerce over a publicly accessible computer network, comprising:
-
a processor;
a storage medium having data accessible to the processor;
an input/output for transferring data to the processor;
the processor comprising;
means for registering users in the storage medium to provide a community of electronically interconnected users;
means for establishing in the storage medium a business network of business relationships for the community of electronically interconnected users based on electronic commerce transactions through the computer with other users of the community;
means for receiving at the input/output business ratings of the users in the community of electronically interconnected users;
means for forming a record in the storage medium of the business ratings received from the users of the community of electronically interconnected users;
means for making the business ratings in the storage medium available to the users of the community of electronically interconnected users on request from one of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users;
means for establishing in the storage medium a personal network of personal relationships for the users of the community of electronically interconnected users based on personal electronic interaction through the computer with other users of the community;
means for receiving at the input/output personal ratings received from the users in the community of electronically interconnected users;
means for making the personal ratings in the storage medium available to the users of the community of electronically interconnected users on request from one of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users; and
means for sharing from the storage medium of computer over the publicly accessible computer network information concerning the established personal networks, personal ratings, business networks, and business ratings of the users of the community of electronically interconnected users.
-
-
50. A method of facilitating electronic commerce, the method comprising:
-
registering a plurality of users on a website of a communications network, each of the plurality of users being electronically interconnected so that the plurality of users define a community of users;
establishing a business network of business relationships for the community through electronic commerce with other users in the community;
establishing a personal network of personal relationships for the community through personal, non-commercial electronic interaction with other users; and
sharing the business network and the personal network among the plurality of users within the community.
-
Specification