System and method for grouping and selling products or services
First Claim
1. A method of offering at least one package over a decentralized computer network to a consumer using a web browsing appliance, wherein each package includes at least one travel component, and wherein the method comprises:
- (a) storing descriptions of available travel components in a database;
(b) storing a plurality of travel package templates in a database;
(c) receiving a request for a package from a consumer;
thereafter(d) dynamically generating, with a computer system, at least one travel package based on the consumer request, at least one of the plurality of travel package templates that is associated with an affinity space description, and at least one available travel component description that includes an affinity space coordinate, wherein the generating includes comparing the affinity space coordinate with the affinity space description;
(e) offering the at least one generated travel package to the consumer by transmitting a description of the generated travel package over the decentralized computer network to the consumer'"'"'s web browsing appliance; and
(f) performing, with the computer system, a purchasing transaction to purchase at least one of the generated travel packages.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for grouping and selling products or services using a computer system, potentially connected to a network. The computer system includes a computer with multiple terminals, potentially instantiated as a server computer or computers and distributed client computers. The computer system presents a sales interface on some terminals. The sales interface shows products or services and groups of products and/or services that are for sale. The computer system presents a back end interface on some terminals, which can be used to enter new products, services and groupings of products and/or services to be offered for sale on the sales interface. Descriptions of the products or service offerings are entered into the computer system either by data entry operators using the back end interface or by a program reading product or service descriptions from external computer systems. The method groups these products or services according to an affinity algorithm. The groupings may then potentially be reviewed and approved or selected by human operators using the back end interface before being offered for sale on the sales interface. One advantageous application is the dynamic packaging of perishable items such as travel goods and services (e.g., airline tickets, rental cars, hotel rooms, entertainment opportunities, etc.).
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of offering at least one package over a decentralized computer network to a consumer using a web browsing appliance, wherein each package includes at least one travel component, and wherein the method comprises:
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(a) storing descriptions of available travel components in a database; (b) storing a plurality of travel package templates in a database; (c) receiving a request for a package from a consumer;
thereafter(d) dynamically generating, with a computer system, at least one travel package based on the consumer request, at least one of the plurality of travel package templates that is associated with an affinity space description, and at least one available travel component description that includes an affinity space coordinate, wherein the generating includes comparing the affinity space coordinate with the affinity space description; (e) offering the at least one generated travel package to the consumer by transmitting a description of the generated travel package over the decentralized computer network to the consumer'"'"'s web browsing appliance; and (f) performing, with the computer system, a purchasing transaction to purchase at least one of the generated travel packages. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A computer system for offering at least one package over a decentralized computer network to a consumer using a web browsing appliance, wherein each package includes at least one travel component, and wherein the computer system comprises:
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a database arrangement that stores; descriptions of available travel components, at least one of the travel components includes an affinity space coordinate; and a plurality of travel package templates, at least one of the travel package templates is associated with an affinity space description; a front end that receives a request for a package from a consumer; and a back end that thereafter dynamically generates at least one travel package based on the consumer request, at least one of the plurality of travel package templates, and at least one available travel component description, and offers the generated travel package to the consumer by transmitting a description of the generated travel package over the decentralized computer network to the consumer'"'"'s web browsing appliance, wherein the back end is configured to; compare the affinity space coordinate with the affinity space description associated with the at least one of the plurality of travel package templates; and perform a purchasing transaction to purchase at least one of the generated travel packages. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. A method for building packages of components and offering said packages for sale over a data communications network, the method comprising:
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storing descriptions of available components within a database, at least one of the descriptions includes an affinity space coordinate; providing a plurality of package templates stored in a database, at least one of the package templates is associated with an affinity space description; receiving a request for a package from a consumer, and thereafter dynamically generating, with a computer system, at least one package based at least in part on the consumer request, at least one of the plurality of package templates, and at least one available component description, wherein the generating includes comparing the affinity space coordinate with the affinity space description; and offering the at least one generated package for sale to a consumer over the data communications network; and performing, with the computer system, a purchasing transaction to purchase at least one of the generated packages. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification