Patent ID: 7505935
Filing Date: 2009-03-17
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for the authentication of buyers and sellers and for the transmission of trading instructions in a trading and auction system, comprising the steps of: Requiring that a prospective buyer or seller register with the trading and auction system before being able to place trading instructions, including requiring that said prospective buyer or seller provide a unique identifier of a SMS messaging-capable wireless device in the possession of the prospective buyer or seller, the SMS messaging-capable wireless device configured to send and receive short message protocol messages, each of the messages having a single ‘Sender’ field and a single ‘Recipient’ field; Assigning a password to said prospective buyer or seller; Communicating said password to said prospective buyer or seller and receiving a confirmation of said password from said prospective buyer or seller, wherein at least one of said steps of communicating said password and receiving a confirmation of said password are performed using said SMS wireless device's messaging capability; Activating said prospective buyer or seller's account or trading instruction if said communicated password matches the assigned password; Assigning a unique identification number to each product or service for sale or auction at said trading and auction system; Sending short message protocol messages to a buyer's SMS messaging-capable wireless device concerning offers or bids made by that buyer in relation to a product or service when the buyer has been outbid or has no longer made a winning offer, with the unique identification number of the product or service included in the only ‘Sender’ field of each short message protocol message to the buyer; Receiving higher bid short message protocol messages concerning a buyer's trading instructions on a product or service from that buyer's SMS messaging-capable wireless device wherein said unique identification number automatically inserted in the ‘Recipient’ field as a result of the buyer selecting a ‘reply’ option, determining the product or service by extracting and recognizing the unique identification number of the product or service from the only ‘Recipient’ field of received higher bid short message protocol messages from the buyer, identifying the buyer by extracting and recognizing the unique identifier of the SMS wireless device from the only ‘Sender’ field of each message from the buyer and parsing a text body of each higher bid short message protocol messages to determine the buyer's trading instructions for that product or service.