SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO FACILITATE JOINT PURCHASES AND TRACK JOINT PURCHASE OWNERSHIP DISTRIBUTIONS
First Claim
1. A method for managing joint purchases, comprising:
- providing a joint purchasing service to facilitate a joint purchase among multiple parties that have agreed to enter into the joint purchase; and
tracking the joint purchase according to an ownership distribution that the multiple parties to the joint purchase have agreed upon, wherein the ownership distribution defines one or more rules that control access to the joint purchase according to one or more of locations or proximity associated with the multiple parties.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The disclosure relates to facilitating and tracking joint purchases among multiple parties. More particularly, multiple parties may use a joint purchasing service to jointly purchase one or more items according to a consecutive, concurrent, or other ownership distribution that the parties agreed upon, and the joint purchasing service may implement one or more controls to track and maintain the ownership distribution. For example, locations associated with jointly purchased items may be tracked such that joint purchasers may be notified when possession should be transferred (e.g., when the current owner'"'"'s turn expires, when one owner exceeds a usage proportion allocated thereto, etc.). Furthermore, ownership over certain jointly purchased items may be automatically managed (e.g., an electronic item may be transferred from one joint owner to another when the current owner'"'"'s turn expires, joint owners may be required to be in proximity to use the item, etc.).
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method for managing joint purchases, comprising:
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providing a joint purchasing service to facilitate a joint purchase among multiple parties that have agreed to enter into the joint purchase; and tracking the joint purchase according to an ownership distribution that the multiple parties to the joint purchase have agreed upon, wherein the ownership distribution defines one or more rules that control access to the joint purchase according to one or more of locations or proximity associated with the multiple parties. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A server for managing joint purchases, comprising:
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means for facilitating a joint purchase among multiple parties that have agreed to enter into a joint purchase; and means for tracking the joint purchase according to an ownership distribution that the multiple parties to the joint purchase have agreed upon, wherein the ownership distribution defines one or more rules that control access to the joint purchase according to one or more of locations or proximity associated with the multiple parties. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions recorded thereon, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on a server causes the server to:
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facilitate a joint purchase among multiple parties that have agreed to enter into a joint purchase; and track the joint purchase according to an ownership distribution that the multiple parties to the joint purchase have agreed upon, wherein the ownership distribution defines one or more rules that control access to the joint purchase according to one or more of locations or proximity associated with the multiple parties.
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26. A method for making and tracking joint purchases, comprising:
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communicating with a joint purchasing service using a device associated with a first user to initiate a joint purchase with one or more second users that have agreed to enter into the joint purchase with the first user; communicating with the joint purchasing service to specify an ownership distribution associated with the joint purchase, wherein the ownership distribution defines one or more rules that the first user and the one or more second users have agreed upon to control access to the joint purchase; receiving, at the device associated with the first user, state information tracking one or more items associated with the joint purchase according to the specified ownership distribution, wherein the received state information tracks the one or more items according to one or more of location or proximity information; and displaying, at the device associated with the first user, information corresponding to the one or more items associated with the joint purchase and the received state information tracking the one or more items associated with the joint purchase. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification