The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 19, 1999
Filed:
May. 13, 1997
Brett Allsop, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Robin Smith, Mill Valley, CA (US);
Amir H Taghinia, Hayward, CA (US);
Sameer K Shamsuddin, San Francisco, CA (US);
James W Morris, San Francisco, CA (US);
Fogdog Sports, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method is described of providing dealer authorization information to a remote processing system. A local processing system receives information from a manufacturer for updating a database of authorized dealers. The local processing system then receives a validation request from the remote processing system via a network. In response to receiving the validation request, the local processing system queries the database and transmits information to the remote processing system, including an indication of whether a particular dealer is an authorized dealer for one or more manufacturers. The validation request is generated in response to the remote processing system's having identified a predetermined HTML tag in a dealer World Wide Web page. Capability to recognize the tag and transmit a validation request in response thereto is provided by a Web browser plug-in downloaded to the remote processing system. The local processing system may also include a number of order processing units for electronic commerce. Each order processing unit is customized for a specific manufacturer and a specific dealer and provides a customized user interface for ordering products only from the one specific manufacturer and dealer. A customer using a remote processing system accesses an order processing unit by first accessing a manufacturer Web site, which provides a hypertext link to one of the processing units.