System and method for directing and instructing customers to deal with specific merchants using incentives
First Claim
1. A method for providing, via an item locator system, an incentive for an item purchase, comprising:
- providing, from an item locator system to a buyer, a listing of an item offered for sale by a seller and incentive information describing an incentive available to the buyer upon purchase of the item from the seller;
receiving, at the item locator system, proof of a commission paid by the seller for purchase of the item from the seller; and
electronically providing, from the item locator system, the incentive to the buyer, in response to receipt of the proof of a commission paid by the seller, only if the buyer did not utilize a co-broker for the purchase of the item, other than the item locator system, wherein the seller is other than the item locator system.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A buyer-seller matching system that uses incentives to verify commissions from matching a buyer with a seller. The system can include a repository of information about items for purchase. Items may be located by a user over a network. Each item may be paired with incentive that is awarded if that item is purchased from a designated third party. If the user purchases the item, the seller pays the system an agreed upon fee and also issues the buyer a certification of purchase. The user may then receive the incentive from the system. The system can check to verify that it has received a fee or commission from the seller for bringing the seller a buyer of the item.
33 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method for providing, via an item locator system, an incentive for an item purchase, comprising:
-
providing, from an item locator system to a buyer, a listing of an item offered for sale by a seller and incentive information describing an incentive available to the buyer upon purchase of the item from the seller; receiving, at the item locator system, proof of a commission paid by the seller for purchase of the item from the seller; and electronically providing, from the item locator system, the incentive to the buyer, in response to receipt of the proof of a commission paid by the seller, only if the buyer did not utilize a co-broker for the purchase of the item, other than the item locator system, wherein the seller is other than the item locator system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A method for providing, via an item locator system, an incentive for an item purchase, comprising:
-
providing, from an item locator system to a buyer, a listing of an item offered for sale by a seller and incentive information describing an incentive available to the buyer upon purchase of the item from the seller; receiving, at the item locator system, proof of a commission paid by the seller for purchase of the item from the seller; and electronically providing, through the item locator system, the incentive to the buyer, in response to receipt of the proof of a commission paid by the seller, only if the buyer utilized a buyer'"'"'s agent with a fee arrangement with the item locator system, wherein the seller is other than the item locator system. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method for receiving an incentive for an item purchase, comprising:
-
locating, using an item locator system, an item for sale by a seller and incentive information describing an incentive available to a buyer upon purchase of the item from the seller; completing a purchase of the item from the seller located through the item locator system; and electronically receiving the incentive, from the item locator system in return for purchasing the item from the seller, wherein the incentive is received only if either a co-broker, other than the item locator system, was not used or a buyer'"'"'s agent with a fee arrangement with the item locator system was used, wherein the seller is other than the item locator system. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification