Method and apparatus for collecting, aggregating and providing post-sale market data for an item

39 Pages·2013·4 MB·English

US007406436B1
(12) United States Patent (10) Patent N0.: US 7,406,436 B1
Reisman (45) Date of Patent: Jul. 29, 2008
(54) METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR 5,872,850 A 2/1999 Klein et al.
COLLECTING, AGGREGATING AND
PROVIDING POST-SALE MARKET DATA
FOR AN ITEM (Continued)
(76) Inventor: Richard Reisman, 20 E. 9th St., Apt. FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
14k, NeWYork,NY(US) 10003 EP 0770 967 5/l997
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this
patent is extended or adjusted under 35
U.S.C. l54(b) by 958 days. (Continued)
(21) Appl. No.: 10/103,343 OTHER PUBLICATIONS
. _ The Emerging Role of Electronic Marketplaces on the Internet; Yan
(22) Flled' Mar‘ 21’ 2002 nis Bakos; Communication ofthe ACM vol. 41, No. 8 (Aug. 1998),
Related US. Application Data pp . 35-42.
(60) Provisional application No. 60/278,033, ?led on Mar. (Commued)
22, 2001- Primary ExamineriRomain Jeanty
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm4Chadbourne & Parke LLP;
(51) Int- Cl- Walter G. Hanchuk
G06F 17/30 (2006.01)
(52) US. Cl. ...................................................... .. 705/10 (57) ABSTRACT
(58) Field of Classi?cation Search ................... .. 705/7,
705/ 10
See application ?le for Complete Search history Various systems for collecting individual post-sale market
data for products or services, and determining aggregate post
(56) References Cited sale market data therefrom, are provided. In such systems, a
sale of a product or service may trigger a third party, such as
US. PATENT DOCUMENTS
a payment provider, to arrange for the collection of individual
4,3 5 5,372 A 10/1932 Johnson et a1, post-sale market data from the consumer. Dependent upon the
4,603,232 A 7/1986 Kurland et 31‘ type of product or service involved, a schedule for continu
4 816 904 A 3/1989 McKenna et a1‘ ously submitting post-sale market data for the product or
4,872,113 A 10/1989 Dinerstein et 31 service may be provided and the consumer may be encour
’ ’ . ' aged to submit post-sale market data in accordance therewith
4,972,504 A ll/l990 Danlel et al. through a vari. ety of i. ncenti. ves. The recei. ved, m. d1v. 1.d ual,
5’173’85 l A 12/1992 Offet 31' post-sale market data may be aggregated by one or more
5,315,093 A 5/1994 Stewart sources to determine aggregate post-sale market data for the
5,331,544 A 7/ 1994 Lu et a1~ product or service. The submitted individual data and/ or the
5,490,060 A 2/1996 Malec et a1. determined aggregate post-sale market data may then be pro
5,687 ,322 A 11/ 1997 Deaton et al. vided to consumers in order to assist them in making purchas
5,721,693 A 2/1998 Song ing decisions
5,832,457 A ll/l998 O’Brien et al.
5,842,199 A 11/ 1998 Miller et al. 62 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets
/ 10
CONSUMER CONSUMER CONSUMER
TERMINAL TERMINAL TERMINAL
2 Q 12
A A T
THIRD PARTY SMART
AGGREGATOR NETWORK CONNECTION <_> DEVICE
l5 l3
3
v
PAYMENT
MERCHANT
PROCESSING
SERVER 16 SERVER 1g
US 7,406,436 B1
Page 2
US. PATENT DOCUMENTS P3P, XNS, and Internet Privacy, XNS Public Trust Organization,
(Jan. 2001), Xns.org, (printed Mar. 11, 2001).
5,924,077 A 7/1999 Beach et al. Progressive Testing New Product, Press Release (Oct. 26, 1999),
5,974,396 A 10/1999 Anderson et al. www.progressive.com.
5,983,220 A 11/1999 Schmitt National Committe for Quality Assurance: An Overview, ncqa.org,
6,014,634 A 1/2000 Scroggie et al. (printed Mar. 7, 2001).
6,016,475 A 1/2000 Miller et al. The State of Managed Care Quality, NCQA, 1999, ncqa.org, (down
6,026,370 A 2/2000 Jermyn loaded Mar. 7, 2001).
6,064,970 A 5/2000 McMillan et al. Public Use Files Catalog, Medicare/Medicaid Data Files, (Jan.
6,078,891 A 6/2000 Riordan et al. 2001), US Dept. of Health and Human Services.
6,108,493 A 8/2000 Miller et al. XML Transformation: Matching & Reconciliation, http://www.re
6,112,186 A 8/2000 Bergh etal. search.ibm.com/hyperspace/mr/, (printed Feb. 19, 2001).
6,112,246 A 8/2000 Horbalet al. HealthGrades, Hospital Report CardsTM Methodology 2001 Analy
6,308,175 B1 10/2001 Lang etal. sis, healthgrades.com, (printed Nov. 20, 2000).
6,321,221 B1 11/2001 Bieganski HealthGrades, Hospital Report CardsTM, Analysis Report,
6,330,593 B1 12/2001 Roberts etal. healthgrades.com, (printed Nov. 20, 2000).
6,334,127 B1 12/2001 Bieganski et al. Planes, Trains, Autos Monitored from Afar, Chuck MooZakis,
6,487,541 B1* 11/2002 Aggarwalet al. ........... .. 705/26 InternetWeekcom, (Mar. 12, 2001).
6,631,356 B1 10/2003 Van Horn et al. Firm Remotely Monitors Utility Meters, Jade Boyd, InternetWeek.
6,963,849 B1* 11/2005 Chaturvedi et al. ......... .. 705/10 com, (Mar. 12, 2001).
7,006,990 B2* 2/2006 StolZe et al. .... .. 705/27 Aggregators, Madnick and Siegel, MIT Sloan School, slides pre
7,016,854 B2* 3/2006 Himes ...... .. .. 705/14 sented Nov. 10, 1999 at MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC.
7,099,835 B2* 8/2006 Williams, III .. 705/26 Agents that Buy and Sell; Pattie Maes, Robert H. Guttman and
7,133,834 B1* 11/2006 Abelow ..................... .. 705/10 Alexandros G. Moukas; Communications of the ACM vol. 42, No. 3
(Mar. 1999), p. 81.
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS Collaborative Reputation Mechanisms in Electronic Marketplaces,
Zacharia, G., Moukas, A., and Maes, P, Proceedings ofthe HICSS-99
W0 WO 00/42544 7/2000
Conference, Electronic Commerce Minitrack (Maui, Hawaii, Jan.
5-9). IEEE Computer Science, 1999.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS Building Intelligent Relationships: The Fire?y Tools, ?re?ynet.
The Rating Game, Evantheia Schibsted, Business2.0 (Aug. 22, Collaborative Filtering Technology: An Overview, No. 2 in a series,
?re?ynet.
2000).
E-Commerce the buying Game, Red Herring (Feb. 2000). Net Perceptions, Inc. White Paper, Mar. 1997, netperceptionscom.
Researcher Challenges a Host of Psychological Studies, Erica
Web-based Customer Decision Support Systems ; Robert M.
O’Keefe and Tim McEachern; Commun of the ACM vol. 41, No. 3 Goode, New York Times: Jan. 2, 2001.
Pay-As-You-Go Plan for Car Insurance, Matthew Wald, NY Times,
(Mar. 1998), pp. 71-78.
(Dec. 22, 2000).
Everyone Is a Critic in Cyberspace:, LA Times, (Dec. 3, 1999) p. A1.
Revenge of the Know-It-Alls, Wired 8.07 (Jul. 2000) www.wired. Building Consumer Trust with Accurate Product Recommendations,
Greening, LikeMinds, copyright 1997, likeminds.com, (printed Jan.
com/ wired/ archive/ 8 .07/ egobboiprhtml.
Are Shopping Bots Here to Stay?, Press Release (May 22, 2000) 4, 2001).
bots.internet.com/news/OO522shopbots.htm. Semantic Ratings and Heuristic Similarity for Collaborative Filter
Capitalist Econstruction, Wired 8.03 (Mar. 2000). ing, Burke, at KBEM ’00, Jul. 31, 2000, citeseernj.nec.com/article/
How BiZRate.com Infomediates between shoppers and merchants, burkeOO semantic .htrnl.
Jul. 19, 2000, http://www.ybn.com/ybn.com/ybnieXternal/articles/ consumerreview.com, (printed Oct. 25, 1999).
displayiformats/printithisiarticle/1,2209,424,00.html (printed productopia.com, (printed Oct. 25, 1999).
deja.com, printed Oct. 25, 1999.
Oct. 22, 2000).
epinions.com, (printed Oct. 25, 1999).
Product Reviews From Anyone with an Opinion, Bob Tedeschi, NY
epinions.com/help, (printed Jan. 13, 2001).
Times (Oct. 25, 1999).
mysimon.com, PC Notebooks Search Results, (printed Oct. 30,
Behind the Numbers: Which E-Commerce Site Rankings ShouldYou
1999).
Believe?, Stacy Lawrence, The Standard (Feb. 28, 2000).
mysimon.com, Comsumer Resource Center, (printed Oct. 30, 1999).
Buy a Car, Get aWeb Page, Mickey Alam Khan, iMarketing News, p.
activeresearch.com, printed Oct. 26, 1999.
1, (Dec. 11,2000).
Active Buyer’s Guide, Press Release Aug. 17, 1999, activeresearch.
New World of Web Reviews, Claudia Kuehl, Internet World (Dec. 1,
1999). com.
Smartmouth.com, printed Feb. 26, 2001.
BiZRate.com to Acquire EBoodle, Press Release (Apr. 3, 2000)
epubliceye.com/faq, printed Oct. 22, 2000.
biZrate.com. reputation.com, printed Apr. 8, 2001.
eBay Carries Out Threat and Blocks Auctionwatch.com, Press AmaZon.com ZBubbles, amaZon.com, printed Dec. 3, 1999.
Release (Nov. 4, 1999) auctionwatch.com.
aleXa.com, printed Nov. 1, 1999.
UMBC AgentWeb, Agents for Electronic Commerce, agents.umbc. gomeZ..com, printed Jan. 13, 2000.
edu (printed Oct. 22, 2000). eXp.com, (eXp.advoco.com), printed Nov. 7, 1999.
www.smartbots.com (printed Oct. 22, 2000). The Feed back Forum, ebay.com, printed Nov. 1, 1999.
Botspot Categories: Shopping Bots, www.botspot.com/s-shop.htm, Consumersearch.com, printed Oct. 20, 2000.
(printed Oct. 22, 2000). Birate.com, printed Nov. 1, 1999.
In Bots We Trust, NY Times (Nov. 18, 1999) G1, G25. OpenRatingscom, printed Oct. 23, 2000.
The Reputation Manager, Nielsen AlertboX, (Feb. 8, 1998) www. MIT Media Lab E-Commerce Guru Pattie Maes Debuts New Ven
useit.com, printed Oct. 30, 1999. ture, Press Release, Feb. 1, 2000, OpenRatingscom, printed Oct. 27,
Reputation Managers are Happening, Nielsen AlertboX, (Sep. 5, 2000.
1999) www.useit.com, (printed Oct. 30, 1999). Open Ratings Alliances, OpenRatingscom, printed Oct. 25, 2000.
The New Road Rage: GM’ s wireless data service is about to turn your Open Ratings Product Overview, PDF ?le received Oct. 27, 2000.
car into a four-wheeled vertical portal, Wired, (Jul. 1999), http:// Open Ratings Technical Overview, PDF ?le received Oct. 27, 2000.
www.wirednews.com/wired/archive/7.07/gmipr. html, (printed Directions for Element Managers and Network Managers, Garg, et.
Dec. 7, 2000). al., IEEE Communications Magazine, Oct. 1998.
US 7,406,436 B1
Page 3
TMN Standards, Sidor, IEEE Communications Magazine, Mar. Data Cleansing Products to Save Industry Time and Money,
1998. McEachern, Wall Street & Technology, Mar. 2001, p. 40.
SNMPv3, Stallings, IEEE Communications Surveys, Fourth Quarter External Redistribution, www.?sd.net, printed Feb. 24, 2001.
1998. SEC Dec. 14 Meeting Examines Alternative Models for Consolida
IT Asset ManagementiStart With a Needs Analysis, Husselbaugh, tion of Market Data, Dec. 28, 2000, http://www.?sd.net/mdregula
Giga Information Group, Sep. 21, 2000. tion/secappt1200b.asp.
Six Degrees of Integration: From Network Management and Systems Summary of SEC Concept Release on Regulation of Market Infor
Management to IASM, Cappelli, Giga Information Group, Oct. 8, mation Fees and Revenues Jan. 13, 2000, http://www.?sd.net/
1998. mdregulation/SECCRSum2000March23.asp, printed Feb. 24, 2001.
Network Management: A Tutorial Overview, Caruso, IEEE Commu SEC Concept Release: Regulation of Market Information Fees and
nications Magazine, Mar. 1990. Revenues, 17 CFR Part 240 [Release No. 34-42208; File No. S7-28
Common Information Model (CIM) Speci?cation Version 2.2, Jun. 99], Regulation of Market Information Fees and Revenues, p. 1-9,
14, 1999. Modi?ed: Dec. 10, 1999, http://www.sec.gov/rules/concept/34
Desktop Management Interface Speci?cation v2 .0s, Introduction and 42208.htm, printed Feb. 24, 2001.
Overview, Jun. 24, 1998. Distributions, http://www.qualityamerica.com/knowledgecente/
Market Overview IT Asset Management, Part 1 Apr. 11, 2000, Part 2 knowctrDistributions.htm, printed Jan. 14, 2001.
May 14, 2000, Part 3 May 18, 2000, Kriebel, Giga Information Control Chart Properties, http://www.qualityamerica.com/
Group. knowledgecente/knowctrControliChartiProperties.htrn, printed
Criteria for Evaluating Vendlor Server/Deswktop Management Jan. 14, 2001.
Tools, Friedlander, Giga Information Group, Oct. 27, 1998. Control charts interpretation, http://www.qualityamerica.com/
From Frameworks to SuitesiThe Next Wave in Distributed Systems knowledgecente/articles/CQEIVH3d.html, printed Jan. 14, 2001.
Managment, Gliedman, Giga Information Group, Apr. 30, 1997. Limit for X-bar chart, http://www.iso.gmu.edu/~falemi/cqi/xchart2.
Desktop Management Interface Dogged by Drawbacks, Kriebel, htrn, printed Jan. 14, 2001.
Giga Information Group, Nov. 22, 2000. The Design of a Fuzzy-Shewhart Control Chart, J. Hoppner and H.
CIM Standards, DEN, WBEM, www.dtmf.org, printed Dec. 3, 2000. Wolff, Research Report 52 of the Wurzburg Research Group on
General MotorsiSafety: OnStar Looks to Future Technologies, Quality Control, Mar. 1995, http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/
senseabledriving.com, printed Dec. 7, 2000. stochastildfundl/ paper/wolff/ fuzzy 1 / fuzzyl .html.
Telematics Suppliers Consortium, Telematics End-to-End Architec Receiver operating characteristic curves and optimal Bayesian oper
ture, Slide 13, Mar. 17, 1999. ating points, Kanungo et.al., Proc. of IEEE Int. Conf. on Image
AMI Software Requirements, Ito and Prasad, AMI-C 1999 Supplier Processing, Washington, DC, Oct. 1995, vol. 3, pp. 256-259.
Conference, Apr. 26, 1999, http://www.ami-c.com/pdfi?les/ Feature Selection in Web Applications Using ROC In?ections,
AMIsoftware1.pdf. Coetzee et. al., Symposium on Applications and the Internet, Jan.
The coming revolution in Telematics ’99, http://www.japanincnet/ 8-12, 2001, IEEE, p. 5-14.
computingjapan/features/featuresl1.html, printed Dec. 7, 2000. Bayesian Classi?cation and Feature Selection from Finite Data Sets,
Carrier Announces Web and WAP-enabled HVAC equipment, press Coetzee, et.al., Sixteenth Conference on Uncertainty in Arti?cial
release, myappliance.com, printed Apr. 16, 2001. Intelligence (UAI-2000), Jun. 30-Jul. 3, 2000, pp. 89-97, citeseer.nj.
Energy Firms Use Web to Drive Down Cost, wsj .com, Apr. 30, 2001 . nec.com/coetzee00bayesian.html.
Voices Events With . . . Ed Cannon, wsj.com, Apr. 30, 2001. Multi-Product Delivery System Optimization Procedure, IBM Tech
esubstation.com, printed May 1, 2001. nical Disclosure Bulletin, Apr. 1995, p. 501-504.
Oreda Offshore REliability DAta, www.sintef.no/sipaa/prosjekt/ MobShopBusiness.com, printed Nov. 21, 2000.
oreda/, printed Dec. 3, 2000. J. D. Power Awards, Press Release, May 4, 2000, jdpower.com.
Evolution of Operation Experience Collection Methods, H. Sandtorv, Agile Buyer, Electronic Commerce is Now and Imperative, White
J. Vatn (SINTEF), ESReDA 19th international seminar Oct. 5-6, Paper, downloaded Nov. 26, 2000.
2000. Agile Anywhere, A Standards-Based Solution for the e-Supply
Problems and solutions with the collection of reliability data from Chain, White Paper, downloaded Nov. 26, 2000.
different data sources, H.A. Sandtorv, et. al., EsRel’99, Sep. 99. Agilesoft.com/corporate, printed Nov. 26, 2000.
OREDA Newsletter, Issue 8 Sep. 2000, Issue 7 May 1999, Issue 6 About @pos.com, www.atpos.com/about.html, printed Nov. 26,
Aug. 1998, Issue 5, Dec. 1997, Issue 3, Sep. 1995. 2000.
Reliability Information in a Competitive Market (Abstract), Dialog Classic Web search results, printed Nov. 10, 2000, p. 1-49
Billington, et.al., Power Engineering Society Summer meeting, Jul. (contains following items): p. 1-27, item: 1999 Honomichl global top
16-20, 2000, IEEE. 25 (market research ?rms), Aug. 16, 1999; p. 27-8, item: @pos.com
Experiences with the FASIT Reliability Data Collection System and Hand Held Products, Mar. 7, 2000; p. 28-41, item: Buyers Guide
(Abstract), Heggset, et.al., Power Engineering Society Winter Meet to Software for Purchasing, Jul. 13, 2000; p. 41-45, item: IRM Seeks
ing, Jan. 23-27, 2000, IEEE. Ways to Expand Use of Sales Data in Vending, Nov. 1999; and p.
Entek White Papers, entek.com, printed Dec. 5, 2000. 45-49, item: The View from the Top: The Information Gurus for the
Market Data, McEachern, Wall Street & Technology, May 2001, p. Three Big Foodservice Operators, Nov. 3, 1997.
1 1. Net Worth, Hagel and Singer, HBS Press, 1999, p. 30-31, 111, 126,
MDDLiMapping the Market Data Genome with the Market Data 184-185, 220-223, 248-250.
De?nition Language, mddl.org/links/octupgrade.asp, printed Mar. US6047266, Patent abstract, Pub. Date Apr. 4, 2000, printed from
19, 2002. esp@cenet, Oct. 21, 2000.
All Eyes on the Market Data Horizon, McEachern, Wall Street &
Technology, Mar. 2001, p. 36. * cited by examiner
US. Patent Jul. 29, 2008 Sheet 1 of9 US 7,406,436 B1
CONSUMER CONSUMER CONSUMER
TERMINA‘lL2 TERMINQIE TERMINA1L2
A A
THIRD PARTY SMART
AGGREGATOR NETWORK CONNECTION ‘_> DEVICE
g 13
MERCHANT PAYMENT
SERVER PROCESSING
E SERVER 18
FIG. 1
US. Patent Jul. 29, 2008 Sheet 2 of9 US 7,406,436 B1
RAM/ROM CLOCK
Q 34
PROCESSOR
2_0
lNPUT/OUPUT
DEVICES
6284/ @
&
PROGRAMS
-
INDIVIDUAL POST-SALE
DATABASE 300
-
AGGREGATE POSTSALE
DATABASE 400
FIG. 2
US. Patent
Jul. 29, 2008 Sheet 3 of9 US 7,406,436 B1
/- 300
v
cONSUMER ITEM TYPE ITEM UNIT POST-SALE TIME/DATE TRUST DATA NEXT
IDENTIFIER lDENTIFIER IDENTIFIER DATA SCHEDULED
SUBMISSION
302 304 305 306 308 310 312
91 FORD , _ 02000 1121101
CWSUMER A TAURUS “W2” ’ 10:00PM *1 13.00PM
2001 " , 1/20/01 1/20/02
CONSUMER a MERCURY B5124 8l$18000 10:30PM -1 10:30PM
10/20/97 10/20/00
CONSUMER B 1998 SATURN 00125 71012000 7:25AM -1 l 7:25AM
FIG. 3

US. Patent Jul. 29, 2008 Sheet 5 of9 US 7,406,436 B1
500\
REPORT SALE TO THIRD PARTY
SEARCH FOR ITEM To PURcIIAsE AGGREGATOR
52 Q
‘I V
RECEIVE INDIVIDUAL OR AGGREGATE DATA REGEIvE REQUEST TO SUBMIT PDGTGALE
FOR ITEM 504 Yes DATA 510
I
IS ITEM PURCHASED?
DOES CONSUMER AGREE TO
@g SUBMIT POST-SALE DATA
E
Yes
I
TRANSMIT POST-SALE DATA AT
PREDETERMINED TIMES QM No
N” ‘I END
FIG. 5
US. Patent Jul. 29,2008 Sheet 6 0f 9 US 7,406,436 B1
600
\
\
RECEIVE AN INDICATION OF A SALE OF AN
HAS
ITEM
CONSUMER TIMELY SUBMITTED
602
POSTSALE DATA?
612
V
CONFIRM WHETHER CONSUMER WILL
SUBMIT POSTSALE DATA 604
I
PROVIDE CONSUMER WITH INCENTIVE
614
DOES CONSUMER
AGREE TO PARTICIPATE?
606 UPDATE AGGREGATE DATA FOR ITEM
BASED ON RECEIVED POST-SALE DATA
616
Yes
SSIGN IDENTIFIERS'TO CONSUMER AND/
OR ITEM AND DETERMINE CLASS AND/OR
SEND REMINDER TO CONSUMER
TYPE OF ITEM
618
608
v
1
ESTABLISH SCHEDULE FOR SUBMITTING TERMINATE CONSUMER INCENTIVES IF
POST~SALE DATA — RESPONSE NOT RECEIVED WITHIN A
610 PREDETERMINED TIME 620
v1
END
FIG. 6
US. Patent
Jul. 29, 2008 Sheet 7 0f 9 US 7,406,436 B1
19a;
/
SMART DEVICE IS INSTALLED
702
V
REQUEST FOR TRANSMISSION OF
OPERATIONAL DATA
704
DOES CONSUMER
AGREE TO PARTICIPATE?
706
TRANMIT OPERATIONAL DATA AT
PREDETERMINED TIMES
708 NO
END
FIG. 7