Patent ID: 7184975
Filing Date: 2007-02-27
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A cooperative sales system interconnected via a network for selling an intangible product and for selling a tangible product, said sales system comprising: a user terminal apparatus connected to the network; and a plurality of servers, including: an intangible product sales server connected to the network for carrying out a sale of the intangible product, a tangible product sales server connected to the network for carrying out a sale of the tangible product, a tangible product manufacturer server connected to the network and having a tangible product database for storing availability and delivery time data about the tangible product, and a finance company server; said user terminal apparatus including: operator means for receiving inputs provided by a user, terminal communication means for transmitting data to and receiving data from said plurality of servers, display means for displaying the data received by said terminal communication means, and terminal control means for controlling said communication means to receive data from at least one of said plurality of servers, for controlling said display means to display the received data, and for controlling said communication means to transmit inputted data that is provided by the user in response to the received data displayed by said display means; said intangible product sales server including: intangible server communication means for transmitting data to and receiving data from other devices connected to the network, intangible product data storage means for storing data about the intangible product, intangible server user information storage means for storing personal data about the user, and intangible server control means for controlling said intangible server communication means to transmit first display data to said user terminal apparatus, the first display data including requests for the user to provide personal data about the user and to provide ordering data about the intangible product, for controlling said intangible server communication means to receive user-provided personal data about the user and to receive user-provided ordering data about the intangible product from said user terminal apparatus, and in response to receiving the user-provided personal data and the user-provider ordering data, for searching said intangible product data storage means to retrieve information about the intangible product based on the received ordering data about the intangible product, for controlling said intangible server user information storage means to store the received personal data about the user, for controlling said intangible server communication means to transmit at least some of the received personal data about the user and at least some of the received ordering data about the intangible product to said tangible product sales server, and for controlling said intangible server communication means to transmit the retrieved information about the intangible product to said user terminal apparatus; said tangible product sales server including: tangible server communication means for transmitting data to and receiving data from further devices connected to the network, tangible product data storage means for storing product data about the tangible product, tangible server user information storage means for storing the data about the user, and tangible server control means for controlling said tangible server communication means to receive the at least some of the personal data about the user and the at least some of the ordering data about the intangible product transmitted by said intangible product sales server, and in response to receiving the at least some of the personal data about the user and the at least some of the ordering data about the intangible product, for controlling said tangible server user information storage means to store the received at least some of the personal data about the user, for searching said tangible product data storage means to retrieve information about the tangible product based on the received at least some of the ordering data about the intangible product, for controlling said tangible server communication means to transmit second display data to said user terminal apparatus, the second display data including the retrieved information about the tangible product and a request for the user to provide ordering data related to the tangible product, for controlling said tangible server communication means to receive user-provided ordering data related to the tangible product from said user terminal apparatus, and for controlling said tangible server communication means to transmit the user-provided ordering data related to the tangible product and a request for the availability and delivery time data about the tangible product to said tangible product manufacturer server; said tangible product manufacturer server for receiving the user-provided ordering data related to the tangible product and the request for the availability and delivery time data about the tangible product, for accessing said tangible product database to obtain the availability and delivery time data about the tangible product, and for transmitting the availability and delivery time data about the tangible product to said tangible server communication means of said tangible product sales server; said tangible product sales server for controlling said tangible server communication means to receive the availability and delivery time data about the tangible product from said tangible product manufacturer server, for controlling said tangible server communication means to transmit the availability and delivery time data about the tangible product to said user terminal apparatus, and for controlling said tangible server communication means to transmit the at least some of the personal data about the user, the at least some of the ordering data about the intangible product, the ordering data related to the tangible product, and the availability and delivery time data about the tangible product to said finance company server; said finance company server for receiving the at least some of the personal data about the user, the at least some of the ordering data about the intangible product, the ordering data related to the tangible product, and the availability and delivery time data about the tangible product from said tangible product sales server, for generating estimate sheet data based on the received data, for generating third display data that includes the estimate sheet data and a request for user payment data, for transmitting the third display data to said user terminal apparatus, for receiving the user payment data from said user terminal apparatus, and upon receiving the user payment data, for transmitting a payment settlement notification to said intangible product sales server and to said tangible product sales server.