System and method for conducting commerce over a distributed network
First Claim
1. A client architecture for conducting electronic commerce over the Internet, comprising, on a computer-readable medium:
- a Web browser configured to run on a computer;
a commerce client application configured to run on the computer in conjunction with the Web browser application to provide a user interface, the commerce client application including a callable function, said callable function comprising executable computer instructions stored on a computer storage medium accessible by the computer;
an electronic shopping basket object configured to access and manipulate product information and merchant information stored on the computer storage medium, the access and manipulation initiated by executing the callable function of the commerce client application;
at least two Web documents, each of which includes embedded function-calling information that corresponds to the callable function of the commerce client application, the function-calling information embedded within the Web document such that a user can selectively initiate the execution of the callable function via the user interface while viewing one of the Web documents with the Web browser; and
wherein the user interface is displayed for each of the Web documents and functions independently of the Web documents.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for conducting commerce over a distributed network manage merchant and product information in an electronic shopping basket, payment source information in an electronic wallet, and shipping address information in an electronic address book, all of such information being stored on a consumer computer. A commerce client running on the consumer computer is configured as a MIME handler and extends the functionality of a standard Web browser to support computer-based shopping. A merchant site Web server provides HTML-coded Web documents which describe merchant products and which host computer-based shopping options. The HTML-coded Web documents contain function-calling information by which consumer-selected options invoke shopping-related functions on either the merchant (server) computer or the consumer (client) computer. A consumer selects the options from within the Web browser to initiate shopping-related operations such as: retrieve product information from merchants on the World Wide Web, selectively store product information locally on the consumer computer, locally compare product information from different merchants, locally store payment source and shipping address information and selectively forward such information to merchant sites, order products from Web-based merchants, track the status of purchase orders, and receive instructional information on application usage.
634 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A client architecture for conducting electronic commerce over the Internet, comprising, on a computer-readable medium:
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a Web browser configured to run on a computer; a commerce client application configured to run on the computer in conjunction with the Web browser application to provide a user interface, the commerce client application including a callable function, said callable function comprising executable computer instructions stored on a computer storage medium accessible by the computer; an electronic shopping basket object configured to access and manipulate product information and merchant information stored on the computer storage medium, the access and manipulation initiated by executing the callable function of the commerce client application; at least two Web documents, each of which includes embedded function-calling information that corresponds to the callable function of the commerce client application, the function-calling information embedded within the Web document such that a user can selectively initiate the execution of the callable function via the user interface while viewing one of the Web documents with the Web browser; and wherein the user interface is displayed for each of the Web documents and functions independently of the Web documents. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A client architecture for conducting electronic commerce over the Internet, comprising, on a computer-readable medium:
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a Web browser configured to run on a computer; a commerce client application configured to run on the computer in conjunction with the Web browser application, the commerce client application including a callable function and a user interface; an electronic shopping basket function configured to store product information and merchant information to a computer storage medium accessible by the computer, said electronic shopping basket function comprising executable computer instructions stored on a computer storage medium accessible by the computer, the product information and merchant information retrieved from merchant Web sites over the Internet via the Web browser, the storing initiated by executing the callable function of the commerce client application; at least two Web documents, each of which includes embedded function-calling information that corresponds to the callable function of the commerce client application, the function-calling information embedded within the Web document such that a user can selectively initiate the execution of the callable function via the user interface while viewing one of the Web documents with the Web browser; and wherein the user interface is displayed for each of the Web documents and functions independently of the Web documents.
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5. A client architecture for conducting electronic commerce over the Internet, comprising, on a computer-readable medium:
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a Web browser configured to run on a computer; a commerce client application configured to run on the computer in conjunction with the Web browser application, the commerce client application including a callable function and a user interface; an electronic shopping basket function configured to store product information and merchant information to a computer storage medium accessible by the computer, said electronic shopping basket function comprising executable computer instructions stored on a computer storage medium accessible by the computer, the product information and merchant information obtained from merchant Web sites over the Internet via the Web browser, the retrieval initiated by executing the callable function of the commerce client application; at least two Web documents, each of which includes embedded function-calling information that corresponds to the callable function of the commerce client application, the function-calling information embedded within the Web document such that a user can selectively initiate the execution of the callable function via the user interface while viewing one of the Web documents with the Web browser; and wherein the user interface is displayed for each of the Web documents and functions independently of the Web documents.
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6. A client architecture for purchasing products over the Internet, comprising, on a computer-readable medium:
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a commerce client application configured to run on a computer and having a user interface, the commerce client application configured to transmit information to a World Wide Web site in accordance with World Wide Web protocols, the commerce client application configured to run in conjunction with a Web browser, the commerce client application including a product purchase function which combines product information, merchant information, and payment source information and transmits the combined information to a World Wide Web site, the product purchase function comprising executable computer instructions stored on the computer-readable medium; a Web browser configured to run on the computer; and at least two Web documents, each of which includes embedded function-calling information that corresponds to the product purchase function of the commerce client application, the function-calling information embedded within the Web document such that a user can selectively initiate the execution of the product purchase function via the user interface while viewing one of the Web documents with the Web browser; and wherein the user interface is displayed for each of the Web documents and functions independently of the Web documents. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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9. A method for gathering product information over a distributed network, comprising:
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(a) receiving a first hypertext document over the distributed network at a user computer, the first hypertext document comprising (I) a description of a first product, (ii) a user-selectable product gathering option, and (iii) function-calling information associated with the product gathering option; (b) displaying the first hypertext document to a user via a user interface on the user computer and monitoring user input for selection of the product gathering option; (c) responding to user selection of the product gathering option by passing at least a portion of the function-calling information from a Web browser to a local process running on the user computer, the local process calling an executable function specified by the function-calling information, the function storing the description of the first product to a local data storage area of the user computer; (d) receiving a second hypertext document from a second site over the distributed network at the user computer, the second hypertext document comprising (i) a description of a second product, (ii) a second selectable product gathering option, and (iii) function-calling information associated with the second product gathering option; (e) displaying the second hypertext document to the user via the user interface of the user computer and monitoring user input for selection of the second product gathering option; and (f) responding to user selection of the second product gathering option by calling a second executable function, the second function storing the description of the second product to the local data storage area. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. A method for using a Web browser to manage local data, the Web browser running on a user computer, the local data stored on a computer storage medium accessible by the user computer, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving with the Web browser a first HTML document and a second HTML document, each HTML document comprising a user-selectable view option and function-calling information associated with the view option; (b) displaying the first HTML document and the user-selectable view option to a user via a user interface on the user computer; (c) monitoring user input for selection of the view option; (d) responding to selection of the view option by calling a view function specified in the function-calling information, the view function comprising executable computer instructions accessible by the computer, the view function accessing and formatting the local data and displaying the local data to the user; (e) displaying the second HTML document and the user-selectable view option to the user via the user interface; (f) monitoring user input for selection of the view option; and (g) responding to selection of the view option by calling a view function specified in the function-calling information, the view function comprising executable computer instructions accessible by the computer, the view function accessing and formatting the local data and displaying the local data to the user. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method, comprising the following steps:
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accessing a first merchant site from a user computer via a user interface on the user computer; gathering first product information from the first merchant site; storing the first product information locally on the user computer; accessing a second merchant site from the user computer via the user interface; gathering second product information from the second merchant site; storing the second product information locally on the user computer; and concurrently analyzing the first product information and the second product information at the user computer. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification