Distributed commerce system

• US 7,330,830 B1
• Filed: 10/25/2000
• Issued: 02/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Refinitiv US Organization, LLC (Refinitiv US Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Financial Limited (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Constantine, John Boland Jr., Bremner, Todd, Moochhala, Zenobia, Lamoureux, Bob, Kuntz, Matthew, Shea, Edward, Jaminet, Paul, Kopikis, Alexis
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUCHANAN, CHRISTOPHER R
• Application Number:
  US09/696,754
• Time in Patent Office: 2,666 Days
• Field of Search: 705/34
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety

Abstract

A computer-implemented networked commercial interaction management method distributes information bundles that include values for a plurality of content attribute descriptors and information fields characterizing commercial interactions. The content attribute descriptors include business language definition descriptors that specify the descriptive metadata of each of the information bundles, having at least one keyword having at least one value. The method monitors the distribution, response and manages the commercial interactions between networked users. Based on the keyword and the business language definition descriptors, the method derives traffic statistics based on the distribution and the response from the networked users via a statistics engine.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented networked commercial interaction management method, comprising the steps of:

distributing information bundles from different ones of a first plurality of different networked users to different ones of a second plurality of different networked users according to a machine-readable format that includes values for a plurality of content attribute descriptors, wherein each of the information bundles includes values for a plurality of information fields characterizing commercial interactions associated with at least one of the first and second plurality of different networked users, and wherein a portion of said content attribute descriptors include business language definition descriptors that specify the descriptive metadata of each of the information bundles, wherein the business language definition descriptors comprise at least one keyword having at least one value;

monitoring the distribution from the first plurality of different networked users to the second plurality of different networked users by a statistics engine;

monitoring at least one response from the second plurality of different networked users by the statistics engine;

managing commercial interactions between at least one of the first plurality of different networked users and at least one of the second plurality of different networked users using the information bundles;

based on the at least one keyword and the at least one value of the business language definition descriptors, deriving first traffic statistics based on the distribution from the first plurality of different networked users to the second plurality of different networked users by the statistics engine; and

based on the at least one keyword and the at least one value of the business language definition descriptors, deriving second traffic statistics based on the at least one response from the second plurality of different networked users by the statistics engine.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the step of converting the first traffic statistics and the second traffic statistics into billing amounts.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of converting converts traffic to different destinations to different billing amounts.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of converting converts traffic to billing amounts for events requested by programmed bundle processing logic between the different users.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of converting converts traffic to billing amounts for operations that are executed by programmed bundle processing logic.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the steps of deriving first traffic statistics and deriving second traffic statistics derive statistics about the presentation of offer bundles and acceptance rates for these offer bundles.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the steps of deriving first traffic statistics and deriving second traffic statistics derive statistics about the types of bundles transferred and information profiles for users involved in the transfers.

8. The method of claim 1 further including the step of transferring the first traffic statistics and second traffic statistics to buy-side users.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the steps of deriving first traffic statistics and deriving second traffic statistics operate substantially continuously in near-real time.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the bundles distributed in the step of distributing include a data element reference and meta data describing the data element, and wherein each data element remains resident on a node of a data owner in a network.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the steps of deriving first traffic statistics and deriving second traffic statistics derive statistics about at least one ticker symbol field.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein a different portion from the portion of said content attribute descriptors includes bundle descriptors.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein a different portion from the portion of said content attribute descriptors includes target descriptors.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one keyword comprise at least one of Sector, Ticker, Region, Country, Author, Firm, and Bundle Type.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one value are standardized through community agreement.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing events in at least one event table, wherein:

the at least one event table provides a sequence of activities with priorities, dependencies, execution methods, and requirements for actions on objects managed by an aggregation server; and

the at least one event table is defined based on at least one of bundle type, destination address, author, user role, or user definable properties.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the information bundles comprise a bundle header, routing data, metadata, and bundle contents.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein steps of deriving first traffic statistics and deriving second traffic statistics further comprises deriving at least one of real-time statistics and historical statistics.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein traffic statistics are used to perform at least one of judging the value of commercial partners, evaluating potential partners, and evaluating the market as a whole.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing events in at least one event table, wherein;

the at least one event table provides a sequence of activities with priorities, dependencies, execution methods, and requirements for actions on objects managed by an aggregation server; and

the at least one event table is defined based on at least one of bundle type, destination address, author, user role, or user definable properties; and

the at least one event table defines an authentication sequence for validating the first plurality of different networked users by the second plurality of different networked users;

generating a first token;

sending the token to the aggregation server;

matching the first token with a second token to validate the first plurality of different networked users; and

converting the first traffic statistics and the second traffic statistics into billing amounts, wherein the converting converts traffic to different destinations to different billing amounts.

20. A computer implemented networked commercial interaction management method, comprising the steps of:

distributing information bundles according to a machine-readable format that includes values for content attribute descriptors and values for information fields characterizing commercial interactions associated with at least one of first networked users and one of second networked users, and wherein a portion of said content attribute descriptors include business language definition descriptors that specify descriptive metadata of each of the information bundles, said information bundles adapted to be received from at least one of the first networked users and adapted to be sent to at least one of the second networked users wherein the business language definition descriptors comprise at least one keyword having at least one value;

monitoring the distribution from the first plurality of different networked users to the second plurality of different networked users by a statistics engine;

monitoring at least one response from the second plurality of different networked users by the statistics engine;

managing commercial interactions between the at least one of the first networked users and the at least one of the second networked users using the information bundles; and

based on the at least one keyword and the at least one value of the business language definition descriptors, deriving first traffic statistics based on the distribution from the first plurality of different networked users to the second plurality of different networked users by the statistics engine; and

based on the at least one keyword and the at least one value of the business language definition descriptors and based on the at least one response from the second plurality of different networked users, deriving second traffic statistics based on the at least one response from the second plurality of different networked users by the statistics engine.