Method and apparatus for a principal / agent based mobile commerce

• US 9,286,610 B2
• Filed: 07/04/2012
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intelligent Agency LLC (Wagoo L.L.C.)
• Original Assignee: Federico Fraccaroli
• Inventors: Fraccaroli, Federico
• Primary Examiner(s): MANOHARAN, MUTHUSWAMY GANAPATHY
• Application Number:
  US13/541,737
• Publication Number:
  US 20140011515A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,350 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a principal/agent method for mobile commerce is presented wherein mobile users receive indicia that agent equipment is in proximity wherein said indication is conditional to preferences and settings contained in a data structure determined, at least in part, by a principal.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method for facilitating a prospective business transaction involving a principal, an agent, and a user comprising:

at least partially causing the generation of indicia that a first mobile equipment, that is associated with a user digital identifier, and a second mobile equipment, that is associated with an agent digital identifier, meet a location based criterion, as determined by using at least one microprocessor, wherein said generation of indicia is regulated by at least;

an agent-user matching algorithm using predefined data selected from the group consisting of;

data indicating a proclivity of said user toward predetermined business transactions, data related to terms of said prospective business transaction, wherein said terms are controlled by said principal, data related to parameters associated to said prospective business transaction, wherein said parameters are controlled by said principal, data related to a brand that is associated with said agent, data related to preferences associated with said user, wherein said preferences are controlled by said user, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined product, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined service, data related to patterns associated with said user, data related to attributes associated with said user, data related to locations associated with said prospective business transaction, wherein said locations are controlled by said principal, and combinations thereof; and

a principal-controlled participation condition associated with said agent digital identifier wherein said principal-controlled participation condition selectably enables said second mobile equipment, associated with said agent digital identifier, to participate to said machine implemented method.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said location based criterion consists in assessing if said first mobile equipment, associated with said user digital identifier, and said second mobile equipment, associated with said agent digital identifier, are contemporaneously located within a predefined area.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said location based criterion consists in assessing if a data value related to the distance between said first mobile equipment and said second mobile equipment is below a predetermined threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least partially contributing to generating indicia related to a possible meeting location between said user and said agent, in mobile equipment selected from the group consisting of:

said first mobile equipment, said second mobile equipment, and combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least partially causing the generation of indicia is regulated by an availability data value associated with said principal, wherein said data value refers to items selected from the group consisting of:

goods, services, and combinations thereof.

6. Mobile equipment comprising:

an indicator configured to provide an indication that said mobile equipment, associated with a user digital identifier, and a second mobile equipment, associated with an agent digital identifier, meet a location based criterion, wherein said location based criterion facilitates a prospective business transaction involving a principal, an agent, and a user and said indication is regulated by at least;

an agent-user matching algorithm using predefined data selected from the group consisting of;

data indicating a proclivity of said user toward predetermined business transactions, data related to terms of said prospective business transaction, wherein said terms are controlled by said principal, data related to parameters associated to said prospective business transaction, wherein said parameters are controlled by said principal, data related to a brand that is associated with said agent, data related to preferences associated with said user, wherein said preferences are controlled by said user, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined product, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined service, data related to patterns associated with said user, data related to attributes associated with said user, data related to locations associated with said prospective business transaction, wherein said locations are controlled by said principal, and combinations thereof; and

a principal-controlled participation condition associated with said agent digital identifier, wherein said principal-controlled participation condition selectably enables said second mobile equipment associated with said agent digital identifier to participate to said machine implemented method.

7. The mobile equipment of claim 6, further comprising an input-output module configured to facilitate the advancement of said prospective business transaction via functionalities selected from the group consisting of:

a preliminary acceptance of said prospective business transaction functionality, a threshold number of acceptances of said prospective business transaction functionality, a multiple agents load distribution functionality, and combinations thereof.

8. Apparatus comprising at least one processor;

and at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the generation of indicia that a first mobile equipment, that is associated with a user digital identifier, and a second mobile equipment, that is associated with an agent digital identifier, meet a predefined location based criterion in a machine implemented method to facilitate a prospective business transaction involving a principal, an agent, and a user, wherein said generation of indicia is regulated by at least;

a) an agent-user matching algorithm using predefined data selected from the group consisting of;

data indicating a proclivity of said user toward predetermined business transactions, data related to terms of said prospective business transaction, wherein said terms are controlled by said principal, data related to parameters associated to said prospective business transaction, wherein said parameters are controlled by said principal, data related to a brand that is associated with said agent, data related to preferences associated with said user, wherein said preferences are controlled by said user, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined product, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined service, data related to patterns associated with said user, data related to attributes associated with said user, data related to locations associated with said prospective business transaction, wherein said locations are controlled by said principal, and combinations thereof; and

b) a principal-controlled participation condition, wherein said principal-controlled participation condition selectably enables said second mobile equipment, associated with said agent digital identifier, to participate to said machine implemented method.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said generation of indicia is regulated by means of an availability data value associated with said principal, wherein said data value refers to items selected from the group consisting of:

goods, services, and combinations thereof.

10. A computer software system having a set of instructions stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium for controlling at least one general-purpose digital computer in performing desired functions that are necessary to execute a machine implemented method for facilitating a prospective business transaction involving a principal, an agent, and a user, said set of instructions comprising instructions formed into a plurality of modules, said plurality of modules comprising:

a) a process for causing the generation of indicia that a first mobile equipment, that is associated with a user digital identifier, and a second mobile equipment, that is associated with an agent digital identifier, meet a location based criterion;

b) a process for regulating said causing the generation of indicia that said location based criterion is met via an agent-user matching algorithm, wherein said algorithm is using predefined data selected from the group consisting of;

data indicating a proclivity of said user toward predetermined business transactions, data related to terms of said prospective business transaction, wherein said terms are controlled by said principal, data related to parameters associated to said prospective business transaction, wherein said parameters are controlled by said principal, data related to a brand that is associated with said agent, data related to preferences associated with said user, wherein said preferences are controlled by said user, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined product, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined service, data related to patterns associated with said user, data related to attributes associated with said user, data related to locations associated with said prospective business transaction, wherein said locations are controlled by said principal, and combinations thereof; and

c) a process for regulating participation of said agent via a principal-controlled participation condition, wherein said principal-controlled participation condition selectably enables said second mobile equipment, associated with said agent digital identifier, to participate to said machine implemented method.

11. The computer software system of claim 10, wherein said location based criterion consists in determining if said first mobile equipment, that is associated with said user digital identifier, and said second mobile equipment, that is associated with said agent digital identifier, are positioned within a predefined area.

12. The computer software system of claim 10, wherein said location based criterion consists in determining if a data value representative of the distance between said first mobile equipment and said second mobile equipment is below a predetermined threshold.

13. The computer software system of claim 10, further comprising:

a process for causing the generation of indicia associated with a meeting location between said user and said agent in mobile equipment selected from the group consisting of;

said first mobile equipment, said second mobile equipment, and combinations thereof.

14. The computer software system of claim 10, further comprising:

a process for regulating said causing the generation of indicia by means of an inventory data value that is associated with said principal.

15. The computer software system of claim 10, further comprising:

a process for causing the generation of indicia that said prospective business transaction has reached at least a predefined milestone selected from the group consisting of;

said prospective business transaction has been transacted, said business transaction has been preliminarily accepted by said user, an indication of the nearby presence of said agent has been delivered to said user, an indication of the nearby presence of said user has been delivered to said agent, and combinations thereof.

16. The computer software system of claim 10, further comprising:

a process for regulating said causing the generation of indicia via a location based partition arrangement associated with said principal, wherein said agent digital identifier is one of a plurality of agent digital identifiers meeting said principal-controlled participation condition and said agent digital identifier is assigned one out of a plurality of areas resulting from said partition.

17. An apparatus comprising:

means for storing, in at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium, computer program code adapted to facilitate, at least in part, a machine implemented method for advancing a prospective business transaction involving a principal, an agent, and a user; and

means for causing the generation of indicia that a first mobile equipment, that is associated with a user digital identifier, and a second mobile equipment, that is associated with an agent digital identifier, meet a location based criterion, wherein said causing the generation of indicia is regulated by at least;

an agent-user matching algorithm using predefined data selected from the group consisting of;

data indicating a proclivity of said user toward predetermined business transactions, data related to terms of said prospective business transaction, wherein said terms are controlled by said principal, data related to parameters associated to said prospective business transaction, wherein said parameters are controlled by said principal, data related to a brand that is associated with said agent, data related to preferences associated with said user, wherein said preferences are controlled by said user, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined product, data related to user generated keywords indicating an explicit interest toward a predefined service, data related to patterns associated with said user, data related to attributes associated with said user, data related to locations associated with said prospective business transaction, wherein said locations are controlled by said principal, and combinations thereof; and

a principal-controlled participation condition, wherein said principal-controlled participation condition selectably enables said second mobile equipment associated with said agent digital identifier to participate in said machine implemented method for advancing said business transaction.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said causing the generation of indicia is further regulated by an inventory level data value associated with said principal wherein said data value refers to items selected from the group consisting of:

goods, services, and combinations thereof.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising, means for causing the generation of indicia to facilitate meeting said location based criterion, wherein said indicia are generated in mobile equipment selected from the group consisting of:

said first mobile equipment, said second mobile equipment, and combinations thereof.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said causing the generation of indicia is additionally regulated by program code, stored on said one non-transitory computer-readable medium, that is adapted to enable a prioritization scheme among agent digital identifiers, wherein said agent digital identifier is one of a plurality of agent digital identifiers that meet said principal-controlled participation condition.