Article trading among members of a community
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of trading articles among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a user interface that allows a member to;
(i) enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade, and(ii) enter articles that the member wants to own,(b) communicating items (i) and (ii) to and from an administration computer associated with the common community via an electronic network; and
(c) the administration computer hosting the plurality of members and facilitating article trades among the members via the administration computer and the electronic network, the administration computer;
(i) identifying matches between owned and wanted articles,(ii) associating each member of the plurality of members with a risk assessment score that is a function of a number of trades executed by the respective member and a ratio of good trades to total trades,(iii) associating each member of the plurality of members with a trading credit balance that reflects a difference between a number of articles that the member previously owned and traded to other members and a number of articles that were sent to the member by other members, the trading credit balance being used to generate a trading credit balance number for the member by weighting the trading credit balance based on the risk assessment score associated with the member, and(iv) using a priority algorithm to select one of at least two of the plurality of members who each entered the same article that they want to own to yield a receiving member who will receive the article, the priority algorithm configured for computing priority scores for each of the at least two members based on a plurality of factors, the plurality of factors comprising at least the total number of articles that the member has traded and the trading credit balance number, and selecting the receiving member based on a highest of the priority scores.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Articles such as compact discs or electronic files are traded among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community. Each member has an account including a trading credit balance and a mailing address. A user interface is provided that allows a member to enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade and articles that the member wants to own. The user interface also receives article trading instruction messages. An administration computer hosts the plurality of members and facilitates article trades among the members. The administration computer identifies matches between owned and wanted articles. A priority algorithm is used to select the member who will receive the article if there is more than one member who wants an article that another member owns and is willing to trade. The priority algorithm is based in part on a member score that is a function of the relative value of the articles that a member owns and sends to another member compared to the relative value of the articles that the member wants and receives from another member, the relative value of the articles being determined by a demand for the article compared to a supply for the article among the members.
293 Citations
33 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method of trading articles among a plurality of members who are registered in a common community, the method comprising:
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(a) providing a user interface that allows a member to; (i) enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade, and (ii) enter articles that the member wants to own, (b) communicating items (i) and (ii) to and from an administration computer associated with the common community via an electronic network; and (c) the administration computer hosting the plurality of members and facilitating article trades among the members via the administration computer and the electronic network, the administration computer; (i) identifying matches between owned and wanted articles, (ii) associating each member of the plurality of members with a risk assessment score that is a function of a number of trades executed by the respective member and a ratio of good trades to total trades, (iii) associating each member of the plurality of members with a trading credit balance that reflects a difference between a number of articles that the member previously owned and traded to other members and a number of articles that were sent to the member by other members, the trading credit balance being used to generate a trading credit balance number for the member by weighting the trading credit balance based on the risk assessment score associated with the member, and (iv) using a priority algorithm to select one of at least two of the plurality of members who each entered the same article that they want to own to yield a receiving member who will receive the article, the priority algorithm configured for computing priority scores for each of the at least two members based on a plurality of factors, the plurality of factors comprising at least the total number of articles that the member has traded and the trading credit balance number, and selecting the receiving member based on a highest of the priority scores. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for facilitating the trading of articles among a plurality of members, the system comprising:
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a processor; a module configured to control the processor to provide a user interface that allows a member to; (i) enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade, and (ii) enter articles that the member wants to own, a module configured to control the processor to identify matches between owned and wanted articles, a module configured to associate each member of the plurality of members with a risk assessment score that is a function of a number of trades executed by the respective member and a ratio of good trades to total trades, a module configured to associate each member of the plurality of members with a trading credit balance that reflects a difference between a number of articles that the member previously owned and traded to other members and a number of articles that were sent to the member by other members, the trading credit balance being used to generate a trading credit balance number for the member by weighting the trading credit balance based on the risk assessment score associated with the member, and a module configured to control the processor to select a receiving member who will receive the article among at least two members who want the article that a trading member owns and is willing to trade, the selection based on a priority algorithm to prioritize the at least two members wanting the article, the priority algorithm configured for computing priority scores for each of the at least two members based on a plurality of factors, the plurality of factors comprising at least the total number of articles that the member has traded and the trading credit balance number, and selecting the receiving member based on a highest of the priority scores. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to facilitate the trading of articles among a plurality of members, the instructions comprising:
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providing a user interface that allows a member to; (i) enter articles that the member owns and is willing to trade, and (ii) enter articles that the member wants to own, identifying matches between owned and wanted articles, associating each member of the plurality of members with a risk assessment score that is a function of a number of trades executed by the respective member and a ratio of good trades to total trades, associating each member of the plurality of members with a trading credit balance that reflects a difference between a number of articles that the member previously owned and traded to other members and a number of articles that were sent to the member by other members, the trading credit balance being used to generate a trading credit balance number for the member by weighting the trading credit balance based on the risk assessment score associated with the member, and selecting one among at least two members who want an article a trading member owns and is willing to trade to yield a receiving member, the selection using a priority algorithm to prioritize the at least two members wanting the article, the priority algorithm configured for computing priority scores for each of the at least two members based on a plurality of factors, the plurality of factors comprising at least the total number of articles that the member has traded and the trading credit balance number, and selecting the receiving member based on a highest of the priority scores. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification