ARTICLE TRADING PROCESS
First Claim
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 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
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Citations
102 Claims
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 102)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer-implemented method of trading articles among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community, the method comprising:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (57, 58, 59)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73)
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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:
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(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). - View Dependent Claims (75, 76, 77, 78)
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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:
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(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). - View Dependent Claims (80, 81, 82)
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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:
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(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). - View Dependent Claims (84, 85)
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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:
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(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). - View Dependent Claims (87, 88)
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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:
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(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). - View Dependent Claims (90, 91, 92)
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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:
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(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. - View Dependent Claims (94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101)
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Specification