# US 8,464,943 B2 · Competitive advertising and sales infrastructure > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 8,464,943 B2 - Document ID: US8464943B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 13/540,277 - Filed: 2012-07-02 - Published: 2012-10-25 - Granted: 2013-06-18 - Earliest claimed: 1999-04-19 - Assignees: Enpulz, LLC - Applicants: James D. Bennett; Christopher C. Winslade - Inventors: James D. Bennett; Christopher C. Winslade - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8464943B2 ## CPC - G06Q 40/03: Credit; Loans; Processing thereof - G06Q 20/20: Point-of-sale [POS] network systems - G06Q 30/02: Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising - G06Q 30/0207: Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates - G06Q 30/0222: {During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions} - G06Q 30/0224: {based on user history} - G06Q 30/0235: constrained by time limit or expiration date - G06Q 30/0239: {Online discounts or incentives} - G06Q 30/0244: {Optimization} - G06Q 30/0251: Targeted advertisements - G06Q 30/0253: {During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions} - G06Q 30/0255: {based on user history} - G06Q 30/0257: {User requested} - G06Q 30/0261: {based on user location} - G06Q 30/0269: {based on user profile or attribute} - G06Q 30/0601: Electronic shopping [e-shopping] - G06Q 30/0605: {Pooling transaction partners, e.g. group buying or group selling} - G06Q 30/0611: {Request for offers or quotes} - G06Q 30/0613: {using intermediate agents} - G06Q 30/0625: {by formulating product or service queries, e.g. using keywords or predefined options} - G06Q 30/0641: {utilising user interfaces specially adapted for shopping} - G06Q 40/04: Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange - G06Q 40/08: Insurance - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## Abstract A system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption provides customers making online purchases to automatically retrieve and redeem all applicable rebates and coupons during an online purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system makes purchases from merchants or manufacturers using all applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system automatically retrieves coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site and to retrieve manufacturer's and merchant's coupons prior to an online purchasing activity for subsequent submission to an online merchant during a subsequent purchasing activity. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A central portal system supporting a plurality of buyers and a plurality of independent sellers, the central portal system comprising: a first central service that couples with a plurality of independent sales portals of the plurality of independent sellers to receive first data and send second data, both the first data and the second data being associated with a plurality of competing advertisement posts; the first central service interacting with a central database to store the first data, the first central service receiving from a first of the plurality of independent sales portals of a first of the plurality of independent sellers via a program interface at least a portion of the first data constructed from contents of a first database of the first of the plurality of independent sellers, the program interface at least in part providing a common mapping interface between the central database and the first database to support data synchronization; a second central service that couples with a plurality of buyer computers of the plurality of buyers to offer competitive advertising based on selections from the plurality of competing advertisement posts; and the second central service vectoring a first of the plurality of buyer computers to the first of the plurality of independent sales portals and assessing a fee for performing the vectoring. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises product data. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The central portal system of claim 2, wherein the first data further comprises pricing data. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The central portal system of claim 3, wherein the pricing data comprises pricing data for product offerings of differing sellers. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The central portal system of claim 2, wherein the first data further comprises product availability data. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the first data further comprises seller rating data. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the second central service supports searching of the central database by the plurality of buyer computers. ### Claim 8 (depends on 7) The central portal system of claim 7, wherein the supported searching is across multiple product categories. ### Claim 9 (depends on 7) The central portal system of claim 7, wherein the supported searching further includes category browsing. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises pricing data. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The central portal system of claim 10, wherein the pricing data comprises pricing data for product offerings of differing sellers. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises product availability data. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the first data comprises seller rating data. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the fee comprises a fee based upon vectoring of the buyer. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the fee comprises a transaction completion fee. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the fee is assessed to a seller. ### Claim 17 (depends on 1) The central portal system of claim 1, wherein the fee comprises a portion of a sales amount.