Patent(s) of the Week (8/18/2009): Universal Shopping Cart
This week the USPTO issued three related patents to American Express Travel Related Services Company, each directed to universal shopping cart technologies. The idea is that the universal shopping cart will receive and store products and services from different Internet merchants as the consumer shops and then order those products or services. When the consumer is done shopping the shopping cart system completes the order without being directed to another merchant’s site.
In operation, a consumer will shop for one or more products, and the system monitors for products meeting criteria specified by the consumer. Then an order injection system places orders for products contained within the universal shopping cart from affiliated and non-affiliated merchants. After the products are ordered, the consumer can track the ordered products from the shopping site.
The patents include:
7,577,592 — Method, medium, and system for a universal shopping cart having order injection and common payment determination
7,577,593 — Method, medium, and system for a universal shopping cart having order injection and common payment determination
7,577,594 — Medium for a universal shopping cart having order injection and common payment determination
American Express Travel Related Services Company also received another patent on 8/18/2009, which was unrelated:
7,577,585 — Method and system for completing transactions involving partial shipments