Method, system and article of manufacturing for dynamic database redirection using semantic taxonomy information

• US 7,225,146 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2001
• Issued: 05/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: i2 Technologies US Incorporated (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tenorio, Manoel
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Airapetian; Mila
• Application Number:
  US10/032,945
• Publication Number:
  US 20030061060A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,070 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/26, 705/27, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/26.62
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy

Abstract

An electronic commerce system includes one or more seller databases that store product data for one or more products. The system further includes a seller selection interface operable to receive seller requirements from a user and generate one or more custom global content directories based on the seller requirements. The custom global content directories include a plurality of product classes organized in a hierarchy with the product classes categorizing a number of products from sellers satisfying the seller requirements and associated with attributes of the products categorized in the product class. At least one of the product classes has associated pointers that identify the one or more of the seller databases. The system further includes a search interface that communicates a search query to the seller databases for product data.

Claims

1. An electronic commerce system applying dynamic database redirection, the system comprising:

one or more seller databases including product data for one or more products;

a global content directory server coupled to the one or more seller databases, the global content directory server comprising;

a seller selection module configured to receive one or more seller requirements from one or more buyers coupled to the global content directory server;

one or more custom global content directories generated by the global content directory server based on the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers, each of the one or more custom global content directories includes a plurality of product classes organized in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products from one or more sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers and each product class associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, at least one of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify one or more seller databases associated with sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers; and

a search module configured to communicate a search query to the one or more seller databases to search the product data stored in the one or more seller databases identified by one of the pointers.

2. The system of claim 1, further operable to:

receive one or more product requirements from one or more buyers coupled to the global content directory server; and

generate one or more custom global content directories based on the one or more product requirements received from the one or more buyers.

3. The system of claim 2, further operable to:

determine a geographic location for the one or more buyers and one or more languages that correspond to the geographic location of the one or more buyers; and

generate custom global content directories where the pointers identify seller databases in the languages corresponding to the geographic location of the one or more buyers.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the pointers identify particular product data in one or more of the seller databases where the product data is associated with sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the search query comprises desired values, specified by the one or more buyers, for one or more of the product attributes associated with the selected product class.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the search module is further configured to:

receive search results from one or more of the seller databases in response to the search query, the search results including product data associated with one or more products satisfying the search query and from sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers; and

communicate the search results to the one or more buyers.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more custom global content directories are further operable to:

receive a selection from the one or more buyers of a product for which product data is included in the search results; and

communicate address information associated with a seller database that includes product data for the selected product, the address information enabling the one or more buyers to communicate with a seller associated with the seller database who satisfy the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers to conduct a commerce transaction relating to the selected product.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more custom global content directories comprise one or more private global content directories containing product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify product data only available to one or more buyers associated with the private global content directory.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the seller selection module is further configured to receive an access code from the one or more buyers, the access code operable to allow the one or more buyers to search the product data associated with the private global content directories.

10. A method for dynamic database redirection in an electronic commerce transaction, the method comprising:

receiving one or more seller requirements from one or more buyers;

creating one or more custom global content directories by a global content directory server, based on the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers, the custom global content directory comprising a directory structure including a plurality of product classes organized in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products from one or more sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers and each product class associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, one or more of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify one or more seller databases associated with sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers;

receiving a selection of a product class from the one or more buyers, the product class having a pointer identifying one or more of the seller databases;

in response to the selection of the product class by the one or more buyers, communicating a search query to the one or more seller databases to search the product data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein one or more of the pointers identify particular product data in one or more of the seller databases where the product data is for sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving one or more product requirements from one or more buyers coupled to the global content directory server; and

generating one or more custom global content directories based on the one or more product requirements received from the one or more buyers.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein creating the custom global content directory comprises associating the product classes with product data for one or more sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing multi-language support based upon the geographic location of the one or more buyers.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein providing multi-language support comprises:

determining a geographic location for the one or more buyers;

determining one or more languages that correspond to the geographic location of the one or more buyers; and

creating the custom global content directory using the seller requirements received from the one or more buyers and the one or more languages corresponding to the geographic location of the one or more buyers.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein communicating a search query to the one or more seller databases comprises communicating the search query to the one or more seller databases associated with the sellers that satisfy the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving search results from one or more of the seller databases in response to the search query, the search results including product data associated with one or more products satisfying the search query from the sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers; and

communicating the search results to the one or more buyers.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a selection from the one or more buyers of a product for which product data is included in the search results; and

communicating address information associated with a seller database that includes product data for the selected product, the address information enabling the one or more buyers to communicate with a seller associated with the seller database to conduct a commerce transaction relating to the selected product.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein creating one or more custom global content directories based on the seller requirements received from the one or more buyers comprises creating one or more private global content directories containing product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify product data only available to one or more buyers associated with the private global content directory.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising receiving an access code from the one or more buyers, the access code operable to allow the one or more buyers to access a private global content directory.

21. Software for dynamic database redirection in an electronic commerce transaction, the software embodied in a computer-readable medium and operable to:

receive one or more seller requirements from one or more buyers;

create one or more custom global content directories by a global content directory server, based on the seller requirements received from the one or more buyers, the custom global content directory comprising a directory structure including a plurality of product classes organized in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products from one or more sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers and each product class associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, one or more of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify a one or more seller databases associated with sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers;

receive a selection of a product class from the one or more buyers, the product class having a pointer identifying one or more of the seller databases;

in response to the selection of the product class by the one or more buyers, communicate a search query to the one or more seller databases to search the product data.

22. The software of claim 21, wherein one or more of the pointers identify particular product data in one or more of the seller databases where the product data is for sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers.

23. The software of claim 21, further operable to:

receive one or more product requirements from one or more buyers coupled to the global content directory server; and

generate one or more custom global content directories based on the one or more product requirements received from the one or more buyers.

24. The software of claim 21, wherein creating the custom global content directory comprises associating the product classes with product data for one or more, sellers satisfying the seller requirements received from the one or more buyers.

25. The software of claim 21, further operable to provide multi-language support based upon the geographic location of the one or more buyers.

26. The software of claim 25, wherein providing multi-language support comprises:

determining a geographic location for the one or more buyers;

determining one or more languages that correspond to the geographic location of the one or more buyers; and

creating the custom global content directory using the seller requirements received from the one or more buyers and the one or more languages corresponding to the geographic location of the one or more buyers.

27. The software of claim 21, wherein communicating a search query to the one or more seller databases comprises communicating the search query to one or more the seller databases associated with the sellers that satisfy the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers.

28. The software of claim 21, further operable to:

receive search results from one or more of the seller databases in response to the search query, the search results including product data associated with one or more products satisfying the search query from the sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers; and

communicate the search results to the one or more buyers.

29. The software of claim 28, further operable to:

receive a selection from the one or more buyers of a product for which product data is included in the search results; and

communicate address information associated with a seller database that includes product data for the selected product, the address information enabling the one or more buyers to communicate with a seller associated with the seller database to conduct a commerce transaction relating to the selected product.

30. The software of claim 21, wherein creating one or more custom global content directories based on the seller requirements received from the one or more buyers comprises creating one or more private global content directories containing product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify product data only available to one or more buyers associated with the private global content directory.

31. The software of claim 30, further operable to receive an access code from the one or more buyers, the access code operable to allow the one or more buyers to access a private global content directory.

32. A system for dynamic database redirection in an electronic commerce transaction, the method comprising:

means for receiving one or more seller requirements from one or more buyers;

means for creating one or more custom global content directories based on the seller requirements received from the one or more buyers, the custom global content directory comprising a directory structure including a plurality of product classes organized in a hierarchy, each product class categorizing a plurality of products from one or more sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers and each product class associated with one or more attributes of the products categorized in the product class, one or more of the product classes having one or more associated pointers that identify a one or more seller databases associated with sellers satisfying the one or more seller requirements received from the one or more buyers;

means for receiving a selection of a product class from the one or more buyers, the product class having a pointer identifying one or more of the seller databases;

means for communicating a search query to the seller databases to search the product data, in response to the selection of the product class by the one or more buyers.