SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEMAND DRIVEN COLLABORATIVE PROCUREMENT, LOGISTICS, AND AUTHENTICITY ESTABLISHMENT OF LUXURY COMMODITIES USING VIRTUAL INVENTORIES

• US 20080222003A1
• Filed: 08/10/2007
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Left Bank Ventures LLC
• Original Assignee: Lottabase LLC
• Inventors: Adstedt, Kjell Roland, Sternberg, Joakim Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,403 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

Systems and methods providing for a virtual inventory system of goods aggregating disparate inventories into a single virtual inventory for the purpose of tracking the goods, trading the goods, and establishing authenticity of the goods. The aggregation of disparate inventories readily provides for quick procurement or sales of the goods, especially as they relate to high end, rare, or expensive items. Accordingly, electronic product codes are assigned to each good to monitor inventory and movement of the good.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a virtual inventory to maintain inventory information of a plurality disparate collections of items;

an inventory trading tool for determining items for sale and purchasing the items for sale;

a classifier for classifying items into at least one category; and

a collaboration tool to allow a plurality of users to publish at least items offered for sale and items desired for purchase;

wherein each disparate collection is connected to the virtual inventory by a computer network or a telephone network.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a pricing tool;

wherein the pricing tool determines an average or median price for items that are for sale belonging to at least one category.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein an average or median price is computed for each of a plurality of locations;

wherein the average or median price for each location is computed by taking the average or median of;

an offered sales price for each item belonging to the at least one category plus the cost to ship each item to locations for which the average or median price is being computed plus the applicable taxes for the location for which the average price is being computed.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the inventory trading tool further comprises at least one of:

an order database for receiving and managing orders for items;

a logistics database for determining sourcing options for orders;

wherein the inventory trading tool accesses the virtual inventory to determine items available for sale.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the inventory trading tool further comprises at least one of:

a collection simulator for suggesting items to order based on a set of criteria provided by the entity;

a set of concierge functions for making suggestions about item acquisitions and use of existing items in the entity'"'"'s inventory;

a browsing tool for browsing the virtual inventory; and

a searcher for searching the virtual inventory.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the classifier comprises at least:

a tool whereby the name of the item is compared against a list of known names for a match;

wherein if the name of the item does not match a name in the list then an exception tool resolves the name of the item; and

wherein the exception tool comprises a person who manually determines whether the name of the item is a variant of a name in the list of name or whether the name of the item should be added to the list of names.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a global provenance catalogue comprising at least data regarding the origin and stewardship of items in the catalogue.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the global provenance catalogue data is determined via a electronic product codes that are coupled with each item.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the electronic product codes are contained in an radio frequency identification device (RFID).

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the global provenance catalogue further comprises useful data about each item correlated to each electronic product code.

11. A method comprising:

offering to at least one entity a virtual inventory to maintain inventory information of a plurality disparate collections of items comprising;

an inventory trading tool for determining items for sale and purchasing the items for sale;

a classifier for classifying items into at least one category;

a collaboration tool to allow a plurality of users to publish at least items offered for sale and items desired for purchase; and

a logistics tool for determining sourcing options for placed orders; and

allowing each entity to submit the contents of the entity'"'"'s inventory to the virtual inventory, wherein the contents of each entity'"'"'s inventory comprises a subset of the virtual inventory;

wherein each disparate collection is connected to the virtual inventory by a computer network or a telephone network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the tool for classifying items into at least on category comprises at least:

a tool whereby the name of the item is compared against a list of known names for a match;

wherein if the name of the item does not match a name in the list then an exception tool is invoked to resolve the name of the item.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the exception tool comprises a person who manually determines whether the name of the item is a variant of a name in the list of name or whether the name of the item should be added to the list of names.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the virtual inventory further comprises a pricing tool;

wherein the pricing tool determines an average or median price for items that are for sale belonging to at least one category.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the average or median price is computed for each of a plurality of locations;

wherein the average or median price for each location is computed by taking the average or median of;

an offered sales price for each item belonging to the at least one category plus the cost to ship each item to locations for which the average or median price is being computed plus the applicable taxes for the location for which the average or median price is being computed.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the inventory trading tool further comprises at least one of:

an order database for receiving and managing orders for items; and

a logistics database for determining sourcing options for orders;

wherein the inventory trading tool accesses the virtual inventory to determine items available for sale.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the inventory trading tool further comprises at least one of:

a collection simulator for suggesting items to order based on a set of criteria provided by the entity;

a set of concierge functions for making suggestions about item acquisitions and use of existing items in the entity'"'"'s inventory;

a browsing tool for browsing the virtual inventory; and

a searcher for searching the virtual inventory.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the entity comprises at least one of producers, suppliers, and consumers.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising a global provenance catalogue to maintain authenticity of the items contained in the virtual inventory.

20. A product by the process of claim 11.

21. A product by the process of claim 16.

22. A product by the process of claim 17.

23. A machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon for performing the steps comprising:

offering to at least one entity a virtual inventory tool to maintain inventory information of a plurality disparate collections of items comprising;

an inventory trading tool for determining items for sale and purchasing the items for sale;

a tool for classifying items into at least one category;

a collaboration tool to allow a plurality of users to publish at least items offered for sale and items desired for purchase; and

a logistics tool for determining sourcing options for placed orders;

allowing each entity to submit the contents of the entity'"'"'s inventory to the virtual inventory, wherein the contents of each entity'"'"'s inventory comprises a subset of the virtual inventory;

wherein each disparate collection is connected to the virtual inventory by a computer network or a telephone network.

24. The machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein the tool for classifying items into at least on category comprises at least:

a tool whereby the name of the item is compared against a list of known names for a match;

wherein if the name of the item does not match a name in the list then an exception tool is invoked to resolve the name of the item;

wherein the exception tool comprises a person who manually determines whether the name of the item is a variant of a name in the list of name or whether the name of the item should be added to the list of names.

25. The machine readable medium of claim 23 wherein the virtual inventory further comprises a pricing tool;

wherein the pricing tool determines an average or median price for items that are for sale belonging to at least one category.

26. The machine readable medium of claim 25, wherein the average or median price is computed for each of a plurality of locations;

wherein the average or median price for each location is computed by taking the average or median of;

an offered sales price for each item belonging to the at least one category plus the cost to ship each item to locations for which the average or median price is being computed plus the applicable taxes for the location for which the average price is being computed.