Pre-Grant Publication Number: 20090063295
Collaborate on the process of community review for this application. Posting will not be forwarded to the USPTO.
Flagging a post as an ACTION ITEM signals further research. Flagging SPAM and ABUSE helps to manage discussion.
Placing double brackets around a reference to a claim or prior art will create a hyperlink to the original
ex. [[claim 1]] and [[prior art 2]].
Facilitator's Comment 
Action Item Show without Noise
The gifts giving system card seems like a novel idea for technically savvy people looking to give a creative gift while still following a “gift card” style of giving that many people end up buying. The fun part is that either a dollar amount limit or number of items limit can be set as parameters for the recipient. The buyer however isn’t charged until the gifts have been chosen, which can be a big plus for people who are short on cash at the time they need to buy a gift. This could be a great marketing tool, giving the freedom consumers have with using the online gift card, and having opportunities for companies to give their own promotions.
Another big plus is for people many miles away who can’t send a physical gift to the recipient without it being terribly costly. They simply are able to go online set parameters for the online gift card and send it to the recipient to enjoy. With this technology they do something nice for the recipient without actually being there.
Another constraint is that the recipient needs to have a computer or internet access to benefit from the gift and on top of that must possess at least a minimal skill set in online browsing. In the description of the patent, two big themes are number of gifts and cost of gifts. Gift cards already allow recipients the freedom of choosing how many items they want to purchase based on the balance available on the card, they are limited however to a set of merchandise based on where the purchase was made. Basic VISA/Mastercard gift cards however, are not. Online retailers like Amazon.com already have gift card systems in place that will compete with this online database.
A few catch phrases that capture the idea of this innovation could be “for the people on the go trying to reach their friends from afar” or “give now, pay later.” It would be a gamble to get into the details of the “number of items” idea because people might just see it as just another place selling their own version of a gift card, and with there being so many out there already this innovation would get lost in the mix.
E-markets such as Amazon, eBay, and other online shops can take advantages of this solution to expand their business. They can make their database of potential gifts available to consumers to be given to others. Storing a database of preferences of goods and services will assist shopping website to gain knowledge on their customers, understanding wants and needs, as well as what is given among consumers, not just what they buy for themselves. Customers will have more flexibility to shop and make decisions.
A problem will arise if vendors do not wish to join this interaction. They also may not agree to have all of their merchandise available to the system. On the other hand, if many vendors join and have similar products available to the consumers, this may cause confusion or unwanted competition. Having too large of a database to choose from may make the gift givers settle for choices they don’t intend.
The solution relies a great deal on the interface between givers and recipients. This system will need to be very easy to use for each party. The solution, however, does not take much notice of the vendors. Stock of products and the price of products play important role in this system. It will be complicated keeping both givers and receivers updated on any changes in information, availability of items, and prices. Stocking will need changed more than day by day. Many gift givers may be frustrated if the gifts they want to give are no longer available once their recipient goes to pick a gift. A change in a vendor’s original quoted prices can also change, and therefore cause problems for the gift giver.
Lastly, the system rule does not specify who will pay the shipping fees for purchased items and whether the shipping fees are included in the value of present or not. Usually the recipient expects that they will receive presents free of charge. Yet, having the gift giver pay addition fees to get the present to the recipient may affect the total that they had planned to spend. In this system, the shipping fees are specified during the last procedure; while it should be paid more attention at the time when giver makes a list of gifts, not when the recipient chooses a gift.
Since the act of gift giving has typically been unilateral and did not take into consideration the recipients tastes and preferences, Smith saw a potential solution that would effectively link online purchasing and the gift recipients. The new invention gives recipients the flexibility to select items that they would prefer while having the gift giver set limits upon what they could choose. This would make sure the gift would be meaningful, useful, and enjoyable to the recipient while remaining in the constraints set by the giver such as cost, time, and the amount of gifts they can choose from.
This invention is different from previous ones because it takes into account the other side of the gift giving process and it allows a gift giver to give something the recipient actually wants. This would work the best with multivendor sites because it would give the gift recipient more options to choose from. In the past a gift giver would have to choose all of the options such as size and color and with this a gift recipient can choose these options without the hassle of having to return the gift.
Recipients can now choose any gifts which they like best from those provided in a list by the givers. They also can choose and make decision to receive gifts at their convenience. The recipients can also only chose a gift until an allotted time expires. This was they don’t have to rush to choose their gifts; yet, can’t put the decision off forever. This benefits givers because they will not be invoiced for the gift until the recipient has chosen one.
As additional vendors or merchants join the gift systems, the database of available gifts will become larger. This means that there will be more choices for both parties. Givers and recipients could potentially choose multi-vendors for a large range of gifts, or single vendors for more specific gifts.
Managing shipments of many presents can also by a daunting task. When a single giver has to purchase presents for one person repeatedly, this could also be consolidated to avoid wasted time and resources. Therefore, the use of a one-stop gift selection source like this will help in these situations.
Since 1790 The United States has granted patents to eager Americans looking for lawful protection of their unique ideas. It is in this tradition in which we recommendation that a patent be granted to Mr. Michael George Smith for electronic commerce rule-based multi selection gifting. It is our contention that this idea is unique enough to be of benefit to the community at large and underscores the theory that ideas need to be build on in order to spur innovation. It is the progression of ideas such as this that keep our patent process moving in a forward direction and gives hope and inspiration to all future entrepreneurs. It is for this reason, among others, that we feel a right to exclude other individuals should be voted on in the affirmative for this particular patent application.
The suitability of this patent for business involves the economic sense of the strategy, the ability of the organization to obtain economies of scale, scope or experience, and the suitability of the plan for the current environment and available capabilities. There is clearly strong precedent for the current economic environment being willing and capable to support e-commerce and Internet based retailers. Some well know examples would be Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. And there are clear examples of internet based customizable businesses like Dell.com, and any major automobile company with their highly interaction based car specification web sites. Additionally, there is no doubt of the success of internet retailers realizing economies of scale and scope. Such examples might be Overstock.com, or the wholesale type stores like Costco, BJ’s and Sam’s Club. The question becomes whether this particular patent makes economic sense given these business examples. Is there enough demand for customizable, electronic retailing gifting? One could argue that there is, as this model is very similar to other online gifting companies like Cookiegrams.com, FTD.com, Ediblearrangements.com, and the vast multitude of corporate gifting sites. The difference in this case is the ability of the gift receiver to select from multiple retail sources and the fact that the gift giver is only billed for the portion of the gift that is used.
Feasibility of the business plan involves the availability of resources. Is there funding, people, time and information available to bring this plan to fruition? In the current economic times there is a glut of IT professionals available to work on the underlying technology. And there are plenty of businesses willing to sell customer lists of users that may be interested in such a service. However, funding for a business that is extremely similar to many other existing on-line retailers may prove elusive. The business developer must have available a very detailed and thorough cash flow, forecasting and break-even analysis to convince an investment group to participate. And time is always against the new business developer, as the concept may already be under development by someone else.
Acceptability of the business plan involves the expectations of the stakeholders like customers, shareholders and employees. Does the stakeholder return meet expectations for this type of business? Does it increase wealth of the shareholders, does it motivate and reward its employees, and most importantly, does the plan provide better value to the customer than many other electronic retailer sites? One might argue that if done properly, with the right amount of customer service, that this idea can be translated into a profitable and successful on-line business. But this kind of evaluation proves too complicated to perform in this setting. And what are the risks of failure? As this is strictly a distribution based plan, with inventory held by the suppliers rather than this business owner, the risk of failure for employees and customers is relatively low. The main risk lies with the investment group.
The electronic commerce rule-based multi-selection gifting patent is appealing to all parties involved in the gift purchasing and giving process. This includes not only the gift giver and their recipient, but also the retailer from which the gift is purchased. With online retailers more popular than ever before, the implementation of this patent compliments the current offerings of electronic commerce perfectly.
The ever-expanding realm of electronic commerce provides numerous prospects for the proposed patent and there are an endless number of online retailers would be willing to participate in this type of venture and who would be willing to align their business marketing plans with the multi-selection gifting process. This potential support by existing online retailers would create an endless virtual inventory and would open up an enormous selection of merchandise for the selection of gifts. With the popularity of online shopping today, this process has the potential to be very appealing to the consumer as well. The gift giver will be able to tailor their gift selections more towards their recipient’s personality and taste. This is a common process in Corporate America today for service and performance awards. The employee is typically presented with a pamphlet of gift choices for reaching a milestone in their career or as a reward for their performance. This ensures the satisfaction of the recipient because they had the opportunity to choose the item that was most appealing to them.
The selection and billing process serves as an advantage to the gift giver. The gift giver will be much more willing to participate knowing that they will not be billed until the recipient has made their selection and the transaction is complete. There would also be an opportunity to implement a gift suggestion component to aide the gift giver in their selection process, similar to Amazon.com’s “People who bought this item, also liked…” This could entice the gift giver to selections they may never have thought of or retailers that they had never before considered.
Shortcomings of this patent appear to be minimal. In our opinion, the most significant hurdle will be gaining the financial backing and investment necessary to implement such an idea given the current economic climate. Apart from external factors contributing to limitations of this patent, it may be difficult to gain the support and participation of existing electronic retailers, or worse yet, they could potentially resist the idea and create a barrier against entering the market. Another potential drawback on the consumer side of the equation is the added effort it would take to select an array of gifts, rather that purchase a single gift, or easier yet, simply give a gift card which seems to be increasing in popularity year after year.