Method of direct-to-consumer reverse logistics

• US 8,108,265 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2011
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sunrise R&D Holdings, LLC
• Original Assignee: Sunrise R&D Holdings, LLC
• Inventors: Bonner, Brett Bracewell, Jones, Titus Arthur, Wellikoff, Nathaniel, Eilertsen, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zukanovich, Brandy A
• Application Number:
  US13/032,086
• Publication Number:
  US 20110145088A1
• Time in Patent Office: 343 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/26.3, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/23 for mobile advertising

Abstract

A method of reverse logistics using an auction to sell products directly to consumers from a store instead of using a third party reclamation company. One or more methods of auctioning one or more typically unsalable items directly to purchasers from a retail store including the steps of providing a communications multi-network having at least one logic engine, at least one star communication network through which non-location data is transferred to said logic engine, and at least one mesh communication network through which location data is transferred to said logic engine. The method further includes the steps of locating products for purchase that are eligible to be auctioned, the scanning of product codes of each auctionable product, tracking the scanning device in the store, transmitting auctionable product data through the star communication network, sorting auctionable products into at least one bundled lot for sale, producing a unique identifier for each bundled lot, initiating a direct-to-consumer auction for the sale of each bundled lot, and auctioning each bundled lot to a best bidder in the auction.

Claims

1. A method of auctioning one or more items directly to purchasers from a retail store, comprising:

locating products eligible to be auctioned,

scanning a product code of each said product with a scanning device, said scanning producing auctionable product data and auctionable product location data;

transmitting said auctionable product data through a wireless communication network to a logic engine;

sorting said products into at least one bundled lot for sale in a direct-to-consumer auction;

producing a unique identifier for each said bundled lot, said unique identifier having machine readable indicium; and

communicating the unique identifier of the at least one bundled lot and the auctionable product date of the products associated with each of the at least one bundled lot to an auctioneer for initiation of the direct-to-consumer auction for the auctioning of each said bundled lot directly to a group of bidders, wherein a purchaser of each of the at least one bundled lot is selected from the group of bidders consisting of a highest bidder in said auction and a best bidder in said auction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking said scanning device in said retail store based on said auctionable product location data that is produced by the scanning of each product.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing said auctionable product data of each said product in a database, and associating said auctionable product data of each said product with the unique identifier of the associated bundled lot in the database.