ARTICLE TRADING PROCESS

• US 20070244768A1
• Filed: 03/06/2007
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: la la Media, Inc. (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Nguyen, Vu, Alvarado, William, Baird-Smith, Anselm, Cogan, John, Alvarado, Carole
• Granted Patent: US 8,521,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

Articles such as compact discs are traded among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community. Each member has an account including a trading credit balance and a mailing address. A user interface is provided that allows a member to enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade and articles that the member wants to own. The user interface also receives article trading instruction messages. An administration computer hosts the plurality of members and facilitates article trades among the members. The administration computer identifies matches between owned and wanted articles. For each identified match, an article trading instruction message is sent to the article owner requesting that the article owner mail the owned article to the mailing address of the member who wants to own the article. If the member sends the article, a trading credit is posted to the member'"'"'s account and a trading debit and a monetary charge is posted to the member'"'"'s account who will be receiving the article. Each traded article has the same trading credit. A priority algorithm is used to select the member who will receive the article if there is more than one member who wants an article that another member owns and is willing to trade. The priority algorithm is based in part on a member score that is a function of the relative value of the articles that a member owns and sends to another member compared to the relative value of the articles that the member wants and receives from another member, the relative value of the articles being determined by a demand for the article compared to a supply for the article among the members. A portion of the monetary charge is placed in a pool for distribution to the content creator of the article.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of trading articles among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community, each member having (i) an account including a trading credit balance, and (ii) a mailing address, the method comprising:

(a) providing a user interface that allows a member to;

(i) enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade,

(ii) enter articles that the member wants to own, and

(iii) receive article trading instruction messages;

(b) communicating items (i)-(iii) to and from an administration computer associated with the community via an electronic network; and

(c) the administration computer hosting the plurality of members and facilitating article trades among the members via the administration computer and the electronic network, the administration computer;

(i) identifying matches between owned and wanted articles,

(ii) for each identified match, sending an article trading instruction message to the article owner requesting that the article owner mail the owned article to the mailing address of the member who wants to own the article,

(iii) posting a trading credit to the member'"'"'s account if the member sent the article, wherein each traded article has the same trading credit, and

(iv) posting a trading debit and a monetary charge to the member'"'"'s account who will be receiving the article.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interface further allows a member to:

(iv) receive and send article trading confirmation messages, and for each identified match, the administration computer further receives and sends article trading confirmation messages from and to the trading members, and step (b) further communicates item (iv) to and from an administration computer associated with the community via an electronic network.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the monetary charge is posted upon receipt by the administration computer of an article trading confirmation message from the member who was sent the article.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein one of the article trading confirmation messages is a message from the member who was sent the article indicating whether the member received the article in unacceptable condition, and if so, the administration computer further:

(v) posts a trading credit and cancels the monetary charge to the member who was sent the article.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the administration computer further performs the step of:

(v) using a priority algorithm to select the member who will receive the article if there is more than one member who wants an article that another member owns and is willing to trade.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the administration computer further performs the step of:

(v) inhibiting trading to selected members whose trading credit balance is less than a predetermined amount, thereby preventing members who have a trading credit balance that is less than the predetermined amount from receiving any articles wanted by the members.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the administration computer further performs the step of:

(v) inhibiting trading to selected members who have more than a predetermined amount of trades that have been initiated but not yet completed.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the article trading instruction messages received in step (a)(iii) is a message requesting that the article owner send the article.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the article trades are one-way article trades.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the user interface further allows a member to:

(iv) transfer a portion of their trading credit balance to another member.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the article confirmation trading messages is a message that the article owner agreed to mail the owned article to the mailing address of the member who wants to own the article.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the articles are compact discs.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

102. The method of claim 5 wherein the priority algorithm is based in part on a member score that is a function of the relative value of the articles that a member owns and sends to another member compared to the relative value of the articles that the member wants and receives from another member, the relative value of the articles being determined by a demand for the article compared to a supply for the article among the members.

15. A computer-implemented method of facilitating the trading of articles among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community, the method comprising:

(a) providing an administration computer that hosts a plurality of members who are registered in the common community and facilitates article trades among the members via the administration computer and an electronic network;

(b) the administration computer assigning a risk assessment score to at some of the members based on at least the percentage of trades that were successful; and

(c) the administration computer assigning trading limits to at least some of the members based at least on the risk assessment score, wherein the trading limits inhibit the amount of trading activity.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein one of the trading limits is the number of trades that have been initiated but not yet completed.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein each member maintains a list of articles that the member owns and is willing to trade, and articles that the member wants to own, and the member'"'"'s risk assessment score is further based on the number of articles in the list.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the articles are compact discs.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

21. A computer-implemented method of trading articles among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community, the method comprising:

(a) providing a user interface that allows a member to;

(i) enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade, and

(ii) enter articles that the member wants to own,

(b) communicating items (i) and (ii) to and from an administration computer associated with the community via an electronic network; and

(c) the administration computer hosting the plurality of members and facilitating article trades among the members via the administration computer and the electronic network, the administration computer;

(i) identifying matches between owned and wanted articles, and

(ii) using a priority algorithm to select the member who will receive the article if there is more than one member who wants an article that another member owns and is willing to trade.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein each member has (i) an account including a trading credit balance that reflects the difference between the number of articles that the member previously owned and traded to other members and the number of articles that were sent to the member by other members, and (ii) quality balance score, the quality balance score being the sum of the articles previously sent by the member that had a quality score greater than the quality score of the article that the member currently wants to receive minus the sum of the articles previously received by the member that had a quality score greater than the quality score of the article that the member wants to receive, the quality score being a function of the current demand for the article to the current supply of the article among the members,

wherein the priority algorithm uses at least the trading credit balance and the quality balance score as factors in the algorithm to select the member who will receive the article.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein each member has a mailing address, and the priority algorithm uses a distance between mailing addresses of identified matching members as a factor in the priority algorithm to select the member who will receive the article.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein the administration computer in step (c) further:

(iii) maintains records of the amount of time since a member last received an article, and the priority algorithm uses the amount of time as a factor in the priority algorithm to select the member who will receive the article.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein each article has a supply/demand score which is a function of the supply of an article to the demand for an article, the administration computer further:

(iii) comparing a supply/demand score for each article that a member ships at the time that the member ships the article to an average supply/demand score for all articles at the time that the member ships the article to obtain a supply/demand score ratio, and

(iv) calculating a running average of the supply/demand score ratio for each member,

wherein the supply/demand score is used as a factor in determining a member'"'"'s priority for receiving an article that a plurality of members currently want to receive.

26. The method of claim 21 wherein the article trades are one-way article trades.

27. The method of claim 21 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

28. The method of claim 21 wherein the articles are compact discs.

29. The method of claim 21 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

30. A computer-implemented method of calculating a quality balance score for use in facilitating the trading of articles among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community, the method comprising:

(a) an administration computer maintaining records of;

(i) articles that each member previously owned and sent to another member in a trade,

(ii) articles that each member wanted and received by another member in a trade, and

(iii) articles that each member currently wants to receive;

(b) the administration computer assigning a quality score to each article, the quality score being a function of the current demand for the article to the current supply of the article among the members; and

(c) the administration computer assigning a quality balance score to an article that the member currently wants to receive, the quality balance score being the sum of the articles previously sent by the member that had a quality score greater than the quality score of the article that the member currently wants to receive minus the sum of the articles previously received by the member that had a quality score greater than the quality score of the article that the member wants to receive, wherein the quality balance score is used as a factor in determining a member'"'"'s priority for receiving an article that a plurality of members currently want to receive.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the quality scores used in calculating the quality balance score are the quality scores that existed at the time that the article was sent or received.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

33. The method of claim 30 wherein the articles are compact discs.

34. The method of claim 30 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

35. A computer-implemented method of creating at least one pool of funds for distribution to a plurality of content creators who produce content that is sold to individuals in the form of an article, the method comprising:

(a) providing an administration computer that hosts a plurality of members who are registered in a common community and facilitates article trades among the members via the administration computer and an electronic network for a trading fee; and

(b) the administration computer automatically allocating a portion of each trading fee to be placed in the at least one pool of funds for distribution to the plurality of content creators.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising:

(c) the administration computer recording data for each trade, the data including the content creator associated with each traded article; and

(d) the administration computer allocating the pool of funds to individual content creators in proportion to the trades related to articles produced by the respective content creators.

37. The method of claim 36 further comprising:

(e) providing a user interface that allows content creators to register with the administration computer via the electronic network and set up content creator accounts to allow funds to be transferred from the pool of funds to respective content creator accounts.

38. The method of claim 35 wherein the portion is a predetermined fixed percentage of each trading fee.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein the percentage is about 20% of the trading fee.

40. The method of claim 35 wherein the article trades are one-way article trades.

41. The method of claim 35 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

42. The method of claim 35 wherein the articles are compact discs.

43. The method of claim 35 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

44. A computer-implemented method of creating at least one pool of funds for distribution to a plurality of entities that market, manufacture or distribute content that is sold to individuals in the form of an article, the method comprising:

(a) providing an administration computer that hosts a plurality of members who are registered in a common community and facilitates article trades among the members via the administration computer and an electronic network for a trading fee; and

(b) the administration computer automatically allocating a portion of each trading fee to be placed in the at least one pool of funds for distribution to the plurality of entities.

45. The method of claim 44 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

46. The method of claim 44 wherein the articles are compact discs.

47. The method of claim 44 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

48. A computer-implemented method of creating at least one pool of funds for distribution to a plurality of content creators who produce content that is sold to individuals in the form of an article, the method comprising:

(a) providing an administration computer that hosts a plurality of members who are registered in a common community and facilitates article trades among the members via the administration computer and an electronic network; and

(b) the administration computer automatically allocating an amount of funds to be placed in the at least one pool of funds for distribution to the plurality of content creators for each trade that is made among the members.

49. The method of claim 48 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

50. The method of claim 48 wherein the articles are compact discs.

51. The method of claim 48 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

52. A computer-implemented method of creating at least one pool of funds for distribution to a plurality of entities that market, manufacture or distribute content that is sold to individuals in the form of an article, the method comprising:

(a) providing an administration computer that hosts a plurality of members who are registered in a common community and facilitates article trades among the members via the administration computer and an electronic network; and

(b) the administration computer automatically allocating an amount of funds to be placed in the at least one pool of funds for distribution to the plurality of entities that market, manufacture or distribute content for each trade that is made among the members.

53. The method of claim 52 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

54. The method of claim 52 wherein the articles are compact discs.

55. The method of claim 52 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

56. A computer-implemented method of creating at least one pool of funds for distribution to a plurality of content creators who produce content that is sold to individuals in the form of an article, the method comprising:

(a) providing an administration computer that receives purchase data regarding previously sold articles; and

(b) the administration computer automatically allocating an amount to be placed in the at least one pool of funds for distribution to the plurality of content creators for each purchase made of a previously sold article.

57. The method of claim 56 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

58. The method of claim 56 wherein the articles are compact discs.

59. The method of claim 56 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

60. A computer-implemented method of creating at least one pool of funds for distribution to a plurality of entities that market, manufacture or distribute content that is sold to individuals in the form of an article, the method comprising:

(a) providing an administration computer that receives purchase data regarding previously sold articles; and

(b) the administration computer automatically allocating an amount to be placed in the at least one pool of funds for distribution to the plurality of entities that market, manufacture or distribute content for each purchase made of a previously sold article.

61. The method of claim 60 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

62. The method of claim 60 wherein the articles are compact discs.

63. The method of claim 60 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

64. A computer-implemented method of displaying identities of members who have similar sets of articles as other members in a common community of members that allows trading of articles among members registered in the common community and that allows members to list articles that members own and articles that members want to own, the method comprising:

(a) an administration computer maintaining data of articles that each member owns and articles that each member wants to own;

(b) the administration computer using at least some of the article data to determine for a member how similar the other members'"'"' sets of articles are to the set of articles owned by the member;

(b) providing a user interface that allows the member to trade articles with other members by communicating with the administration computer via an electronic network; and

(c) displaying to the member on the user interface the identities of a predetermined number of other members who are determined to have similar sets of articles as the member.

65. The method of claim 64 further comprising:

(d) the member navigating to a display of another member'"'"'s list of articles by selecting the member'"'"'s identity displayed in step (c).

66. The method of claim 64 wherein step (c) further comprises automatically displaying the identities of the other members when the member logs into the community.

67. The method of claim 64 wherein the determination for each member of how similar the other members'"'"' sets of articles are to the set of articles owned by the member is made by comparing only the list of articles that the members owns.

68. The method of claim 64 wherein the determination for each member of how similar the other members'"'"' sets of articles are to the set of articles owned by the member is made by comparing only the list of articles that the members want.

69. The method of claim 64 wherein the determination for each member of how similar the other members'"'"' sets of articles are to the set of articles owned by the member is made by comparing the list of articles that the members owns and the list of articles that the members want.

70. The method of claim 64 wherein the administration computer determines for each member how similar the other members'"'"' sets of articles are to the set of articles owned by the member by using a distance function.

71. The method of claim 64 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

72. The method of claim 64 wherein the articles are compact discs.

73. The method of claim 64 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

74. A computer-implemented method of searching for articles or properties of articles in a common community of members that allows trading of articles among members registered in the common community and that allows members to list articles that members owns and articles that members want to own, the method comprising:

(a) an administration computer maintaining records of articles that each member owns;

(b) providing a user interface that allows members to;

(i) enter searches for articles or properties of articles, and

(ii) trade articles with other members by communicating with the administration computer via an electronic network; and

(c) in response to an entered search, displaying on the user interface the identity of a predetermined number of other members who are determined to have the searched for article or articles having the searched for property of an article; and

(d) a member navigating to a display of another member'"'"'s list of articles by selecting the member'"'"'s identity displayed in step (c).

75. The method of claim 74 wherein one of the properties of an article is the content creator of the article, the method further comprising:

(e) in response to an entered search for a content creator of an article, the administration computer identifying the other members who have the most similar set of articles associated with the searched for content creator, and step (d) further includes displaying a predetermined number of the other members.

76. The method of claim 74 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

77. The method of claim 74 wherein the articles are compact discs.

78. The method of claim 74 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

79. A computer-implemented method of displaying identities of members who listen to similar music recordings as other members in a common community of registered members who listen to music recordings, the method comprising:

(a) an administration computer maintaining data of music recordings that each member listens to and, for each member, determining from the data how similar the music recordings listened to by other members are to the music recordings listened to by the member;

(b) providing a user interface that communicates with the administration computer via an electronic network and displays the identities of a predetermined number of other members who are determined to have similar music recordings; and

(c) a member navigating to a display of another member'"'"'s listened to music by selecting the member'"'"'s identity displayed in step (b).

80. The method of claim 79 wherein the administration computer is further used to allow members to trade articles containing music recordings with each other, and the administration computer further maintains data regarding articles containing music recordings that each member owns and articles containing music recordings that each member wants to own, and wherein the display navigated to in step (c) further includes a display of the other member'"'"'s articles of music recordings that the other member owns and articles of music recordings that the other member wants to own.

81. The method of claim 80 wherein the articles containing music recordings are compact discs.

82. The method of claim 79 wherein the determination for each member of how similar the music recordings listened to by other members are to the music recordings listened to by the member is a numerical representation of the similarity based on a distance function, and wherein the display shown in step (b) further includes a display of the numerical representation for each of the other members whose identities is displayed.

83. A computer-implemented method of displaying identities of members in a common community of registered members who have similar interests in music recordings and who can trade articles containing music recordings with each other, the method comprising:

(a) an administration computer maintaining music interest data of members including;

(i) music recordings that each member listens to,

(ii) articles containing music recordings that each member owns, and

(iii) articles containing music recordings that each member wants to own;

(b) the administration computer applying a distance function to at least some of the music interest data to determine how similar the music interests of a member is to the music interests of other members;

(c) providing a user interface that communicates with the administration computer via an electronic network and displays to a member the identities of a predetermined number of other members who are determined to have similar music interests as the member; and

(d) the member navigating to a display of at least some of another member'"'"'s music interests by selecting the member'"'"'s identity displayed in step (c).

84. The method of claim 83 wherein all of the music interest data in step (a) is used as factors in the distance function.

85. The method of claim 83 wherein the administration computer is further used to allow members to trade music recordings with each other, and wherein the display navigated to in step (d) further includes a display of all of the music interest data in step (a).

86. A computer-implemented method of displaying identities of members in a common community of registered members who have similar interests in music recordings and who can trade articles containing music recordings with each other, the method comprising:

(a) providing a user interface that allows members to enter music interest search data, the music interest search data being articles containing music recordings or properties of articles containing music recordings;

(b) communicating the entered music interest search data to an administration computer associated with the community via an electronic network;

(c) the administration computer maintaining music interest data of members including;

(i) music recordings that each member listens to,

(ii) articles containing music recordings that each member owns, and

(iii) articles containing music recordings that each member wants to own;

(d) the administration computer applying a distance function to at least some of the music interest data to determine how similar the entered music interest search data is to the music interests of other members;

(c) displaying to a member via the user interface the identities of a predetermined number of other members who are determined to have similar music interests as the member'"'"'s entered music interest search data; and

(d) the member navigating to a display of at least some of another member'"'"'s music interests by selecting the member'"'"'s identity displayed in step (c).

87. The method of claim 86 wherein all of the music interest data in step (c) is used as factors in the distance function.

88. The method of claim 86 wherein the administration computer is further used to allow members to trade music recordings with each other, and wherein the display navigated to in step (d) further includes a display of all of the music interest data in step (c).

89. A computer-implemented method of displaying identities of members in a common community of registered members who have similar interests in articles and who can trade articles with each other, the method comprising:

(a) providing a user interface that allows members to enter article interest search data, the article interest search data being articles or properties of articles;

(b) communicating the entered article interest search data to an administration computer associated with the community via an electronic network;

(c) the administration computer maintaining article interest data of members including;

(i) articles that each member owns, and

(ii) articles that each member wants to own;

(d) the administration computer applying a distance function to at least some of the article interest data to determine how similar the entered article interest search data is to the article interest data of other members;

(c) displaying to a member via the user interface the identities of a predetermined number of other members who are determined to have similar article interests as the member'"'"'s entered article interest search data; and

(d) the member navigating to a display of at least some of another member'"'"'s article interests by selecting the member'"'"'s identity displayed in step (c).

90. The method of claim 89 wherein all of the article interest data in step (c) is used as factors in the distance function.

91. The method of claim 89 wherein the administration computer is further used to allow members to trade articles with each other, and wherein the display navigated to in step (d) further includes a display of all of the article interest data in step (c).

92. The method of claim 89 wherein the articles are all of the same type.

93. A computer-implemented method of creating envelope shipment orders to facilitate the trading of articles among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community, each member having a mailing address, the method comprising:

(a) providing postage-paid mailing envelopes to members at the members'"'"' mailing addresses so as to allow the members to mail articles that the members own to other members of the common community as part of an article trading process, wherein the envelopes have no addressee printed thereon; and

(b) an administration computer automatically outputting shipment orders to mail the envelopes to the members, the administration computer including business logic rules for determining when to output the shipment order.

94. The method of claim 93 wherein the administration computer further includes business logic rules for determining a quantity of envelopes to ship in the outputted shipment orders, the method further comprising:

(c) the administration computer using the business logic rules to determine the quantity of envelopes to ship in the outputted shipment orders.

95. The method of claim 93 further comprising:

(c) the administration computer sending an electronic message to a member upon the output of a shipment order related to the member, the electronic message requesting that the member respond to the electronic message by indicating whether the member wants an additional quantity of envelopes.

96. The method of claim 93 further comprising:

(c) automatically mailing the envelopes to the member based on the outputted shipment order.

97. The method of claim 93 wherein the administration computer further includes business logic rules that include predictive rules that are based upon at least a member'"'"'s trading behavior, the method further comprising:

(c) the administration computer further using the predictive rules to determine when to output the shipment orders.

98. The method of claim 93 wherein the shipment orders further include article case shipment instructions, and the administration computer further includes business logic rules that determine whether to ship article cases with the envelopes, the method further comprising:

(c) the administration computer further using the article case business logic rules to determine whether to ship article cases with the envelopes.

99. The method of claim 93 wherein the articles include music recordings stored on a computer-readable medium.

100. The method of claim 93 wherein the articles are compact discs.

101. The method of claim 93 wherein the articles are all of the same type.