WO 2015/077865 Al 4 June 2015 (04.06.2015) W P O P C T
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(12) INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION PUBLISHED UNDER THE PATENT COOPERATION TREATY (PCT) (19) World Intellectual Property Organization International Bureau (10) International Publication Number (43) International Publication Date WO 2015/077865 Al 4 June 2015 (04.06.2015) W P O P C T (51) International Patent Classification: (81) Designated States (unless otherwise indicated, for every G06Q 90/00 (2006.01) H04L 12/16 (2006.01) kind of national protection available): AE, AG, AL, AM, G06Q 30/06 (2012.01) AO, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BH, BN, BR, BW, BY, BZ, CA, CH, CL, CN, CO, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK, DM, (21) International Application Number: DO, DZ, EC, EE, EG, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, GT, PCT/CA20 14/000847 HN, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IR, IS, JP, KE, KG, KN, KP, KR, (22) International Filing Date: KZ, LA, LC, LK, LR, LS, LU, LY, MA, MD, ME, MG, 26 November 2014 (26.1 1.2014) MK, MN, MW, MX, MY, MZ, NA, NG, NI, NO, NZ, OM, PA, PE, PG, PH, PL, PT, QA, RO, RS, RU, RW, SA, SC, (25) Filing Language: English SD, SE, SG, SK, SL, SM, ST, SV, SY, TH, TJ, TM, TN, (26) Publication Language: English TR, TT, TZ, UA, UG, US, UZ, VC, VN, ZA, ZM, ZW. (30) Priority Data: (84) Designated States (unless otherwise indicated, for every 61/908,946 26 November 2013 (26. 11.2013) US kind of regional protection available): ARIPO (BW, GH, GM, KE, LR, LS, MW, MZ, NA, RW, SD, SL, ST, SZ, (72) Inventor; and TZ, UG, ZM, ZW), Eurasian (AM, AZ, BY, KG, KZ, RU, (71) Applicant : BOROVEC, George [CA/CA]; 74A Chemin TJ, TM), European (AL, AT, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ, DE, de la Riviere, Wakefield, Quebec J0X 3G0 (CA). DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, LT, LU, LV, MC, MK, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK, (74) Agents: PERLEY-ROBERTSON, HILL & MCDOU- SM, TR), OAPI (BF, BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GQ, GALL LLP/SRL et al; 1400-340 Albert Street, Ottawa, GW, KM, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG). Ontario K1R 0A5 (CA). [Continued on nextpage] (54) Title: METHODS AND SYSTEMS RELATING TO SOCIAL SELLING AND PURCHASING (57) Abstract: Within online commerce trust is a significant barrier to users exploiting it as they tend to limit themselves to already known brands and retailers. Providing buyers and WHAT'S sellers with increased confidence in respect of the other .INISIDE party's identity in a transaction or weighting their decision of from whom or where to purchase therefore should increase acceptance and exploitation of online commerce. Leveraging social networks and / or social media should support this es pecially with concepts such as classified advertisements that are generally direct person-to-person or person to small inde pendent retailers / service providers. Aspects such as open discussions, agreements, etc. are supported by embodiments of the invention such that breaches are verifiable and harder for the breaching party to avoid subsequently without losing reputation further. At the same time user's social networks provide increased confidence in respect of purchasing second hand items etc. as well as referrals for retailers. Figure 17 WO 2015/077865 Al llll II II 11III II Published: before the expiration of the time limit for amending the — with international search report (Art. 21(3)) claims and to be republished in the event of receipt of amendments (Rule 48.2(h)) METHODS AND SYSTEMS RELATING TO SOCTAL SELLING AND PURCHASING CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [001] This patent application claims the benefit of United States Patent & Trademark Provisional Patent Application 61/908,946 filed November 26, 2013 entitled "Methods and Systems relating to Social Selling and Purchasing", the entire contents of which are included by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [002] This invention relates to social network purchasing and selling and more particularly to methods and systems for social network incentivized group selling, social network enabled classified advertisements, social media based negotiations, and social network buyer / seller ratings. BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION [003] Classified advertising is one of a plethora of advertising methods that have been established over time and is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Advertisements in a newspaper are typically short, as they are charged for by the line, and one newspaper column wide. Whilst publications printing news or other information often have sections of classified advertisements; there are also publications which contain only advertisements. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements typically used by businesses, and are mostly placed by private individuals with single items they wish to sell or buy and like most forms of printed media, the classified advertisement has found its way to the Internet. [004] Internet classified advertisements (commonly referred to as classified ads or classifieds) do not typically use per-line pricing models, so tend to be longer. They are also searchable, unlike printed material, can have global reach as well as being local, and may foster a greater sense of urgency as a result of their daily structure and wider scope for audiences. Because of their self-policing nature and low cost structures, some companies offer free classifieds internationally. Other companies focus mainly on their local hometown region, while others blanket urban areas by using postal codes. Craigslist.org was one of the first online classified sites, and has grown to become the largest classified source, bringing in approximately 45 million unique visitors in November 201 according to comScore Media Metrix (http://marketingland.com/comparing-comscores-top-50-sites-2006-and-2012-29269). In contrast eBay™ a web based consumer-to-consumer online auction and shopping website in the same month had approximately 70 million unique visitors whilst Google™ sites, Yahoo™ sites, Microsoft™ sites, and Facebook™ sites had approximately 190 million, 170 million, 1 0 million, and 150 million unique visitors respectively. At the same time a growing number of sites and companies have begun to provide specialized classified marketplaces online, catering to niche market products and services, including for example automobiles, boats, real estate, pets, employment, and adult services, amongst others. In many cases, these specialized services provide better and more targeted search capabilities than general search engines or general classified services can provide but may be limited in their user base. At the same time a number of online services called aggregators crawl and aggregate classifieds from sources such as blogs and RSS feeds, as opposed to relying on manually submitted listings. [005] However, whilst classifieds have been available extensively for nearly three hundred years the problems for a buyer have remained unchanged. A buyer must constantly devote time pouring over pages classified listings, if it is misclassified may not see it, or the classified may continue to run, even after the item is sold, for example. Whilst online classified listings improve searching to locate potentially relevant classified listings and potentially improve timely removal of sold items they raise other issues of which the largest is that buyers or sellers are wary of each other. Whilst a buyer may seek classifieds with a geographic bias there is nothing to prevent a seller being physically separated by significant distance from their stated location and in fact they could even be within a different country. Except for an email address it is often difficult for buyers or sellers to judge whether the other party is "legitimate." With some online classified services, such as craigslist, even this is obfuscated from the other party. Such concerns include when buying an expensive item via a classified listing as to whether the item is as described, whether it works if mechanical, electrical, or electronic, or is even genuine. These concerns are raised higher when the seller is an individual rather than a business, for example. These drawbacks also apply to traditional classified listings and whilst many classified services offer a rating system to provide subsequent buyers and sellers with some indication of the reputation of the respective sellers or buyers these are subject to abuse through the use of "shill" buyers or sellers who rate transactions highly, often with no actual transaction taking place. Another problem with such rating systems is that they inherently favors volume buyers or sellers (e.g. businesses) over individuals as either a buyer would probably buy from a business seller with 500 ratings rather than an individual seller with only one rating, even if an excellent rating, and that negative feedback / ratings tend to have less impact on higher volume buyers or sellers. [006] Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide buyers and sellers with increased confidence in respect of the identity of the other party in a transaction or weighting their decision of whom to purchase from as they have increased confidence. Equally, a seller may increase their chances of selling an item where buyers have increased confidence. Such confidence is increased where there is a personal relationship or connection between the buyer and seller either directly or through mutual contacts. Accordingly, social networks and / or social media may increase the effectiveness of classifieds as well as ratings as associations of those rating are defined within the social networks and / or social media. [007] In many instances there is a discrepancy between what a buyer wishes to obtain in remuneration versus what the seller is willing to pay. Currently if a buyer and seller reach an agreement and there is a breach then that is only known to these parties unless one provides feedback which is essentially heresay and nothing stops the other party disappearing and re-appearing under another email address, name, etc.