Appeal No. 2004-1980
Application No. 10/153,200
of vendors in an online collaborative environment. An
understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of
exemplary independent claim 31 and dependent claim 32, which are
reproduced as follows:
31. For use in connection with a communication network
capable of providing communications between a plurality of
customer networks capable of generating service requests and
a plurality of vendor networks capable of fulfilling said
service requests, a system for brokering service requests
between a plurality of customers wherein each customer is
represented by a customer network and a plurality of
vendors wherein each vendor is represented by a vendor
network, said system comprising:
a main controller capable of receiving a first service
request from a first of said plurality of customer networks,
generating a first record associated with said first service
request, and storing said first record in storage device
associated with said main controller;
wherein said main controller is further capable of
determining a nature of a first requested service associated
with said first service request, and in response to a
determination of said nature of said first requested
service, allowing at least one of said plurality of vendor
networks to access said first record in said storage device;
and
a customer transfer controller located within each of
said plurality of customer networks, said customer transfer
controller capable of receiving at least one inquiry from at
least one vendor network through said main controller, and
in response to receiving said inquiry, transferring to said
at least one vendor network through said main controller at
least one of: a message, a data file, a software application
and a document that responds to said inquiry.
2
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