Patent Abstract:
The present invention provides a computer-implemented system for generating product endorsements, comprising a graphical user interface capable of querying at least one endorsement requester for the product information comprising at least product use information, target demographics information, and product origin information; a remote query engine capable of querying third party advisors on a network for product-related information related to a product indicated by the product information; at least one network port capable of remotely receiving via the network the product information from said graphical user interface, and the product-related information related to the product from the third-party advisors; at least one rules engine communicatively connected to said at least one network port, and comprising a plurality of rules to generate at least a tiered one of the product endorsements of a product responsively to the product information and the third party advisors information.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/531,707, filed Sep. 7, 2011, the entirety of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to providing access and a forum for allowing investment in companies, and, more particularly, to system and method for facilitating economic investments through social interactions. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    The present invention may enable about 3-5 companies, per show/program, whether shown via the internet, podcast or other transfer medium, to pitch their company/idea/product/service to 3-5 popular national or local celebrities to endorse their products. 
         [0004]    The present invention provides a computer-implemented system for generating product endorsements, comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having encoded thereon computer executable instructions for providing a graphical user interface capable of querying at least one endorsement requester for the product information comprising at least product use information, target demographics information, and product origin information; a remote query engine capable of querying third party advisors on a network for product-related information related to a product indicated by the product information; at least one network port capable of remotely receiving via the network the product information from said graphical user interface, and the product-related information related to the product from the third-party advisors; at least one rules engine communicatively connected to said at least one network port, and comprising a plurality of rules to generate at least a tiered one of the product endorsements of a product responsively to the product information and the third party advisors information; and a reporting engine capable of providing local delivery to the endorsement requester of the tiered endorsements. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0005]    The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosed embodiments. In the drawings: 
           [0006]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary computing system for use in accordance with herein described systems and methods; and 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing an exemplary networked computing environment for use in accordance with herein described systems and methods. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0008]    A computer-implemented platform and methods of use are disclosed that provide networked access to a plurality of types of digital content, including but not limited to video, audio, and document content, that may allow for social interaction with companies and ideas from those companies, such as via one or more applications, or “apps.” Described embodiments are intended to be exemplary and not limiting. As such, it is contemplated that the herein described systems and methods can be adapted to provide many types of users with access and delivery of many types of domain data, and can be extended to provide enhancements and/or additions to the exemplary services described. The invention is intended to include all such extensions. Reference will now be made in detail to various exemplary and illustrative embodiments of the present invention. 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  depicts an exemplary computing system  100  that can be used in accordance with herein described system and methods. Computing system  100  is capable of executing software, such as an operating system (OS) and a variety of computing applications  190 . The operation of exemplary computing system  100  is controlled primarily by computer readable instructions, such as instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as hard disk drive (HDD)  115 , optical disk (not shown) such as a CD or DVD, solid state drive (not shown) such as a USB “thumb drive,” or the like. Such instructions may be executed within central processing unit (CPU)  110  to cause computing system  100  to perform operations. In many known computer servers, workstations, personal computers, mobile devices, and the like, CPU  110  is implemented in an integrated circuit called a processor. 
         [0010]    It is appreciated that, although exemplary computing system  100  is shown to comprise a single CPU  110 , such description is merely illustrative as computing system  100  may comprise a plurality of CPUs  110 . Additionally, computing system  100  may exploit the resources of remote CPUs (not shown), for example, through communications network  170  or some other data communications means. 
         [0011]    In operation, CPU  110  fetches, decodes, and executes instructions from a computer readable storage medium such as HDD  115 . Such instructions can be included in software such as an operating system (OS), executable programs, and the like. Information, such as computer instructions and other computer readable data, is transferred between components of computing system  100  via the system&#39;s main data-transfer path. The main data-transfer path may use a system bus architecture  105 , although other computer architectures (not shown) can be used, such as architectures using serializers and deserializers and crossbar switches to communicate data between devices over serial communication paths. System bus  105  can include data lines for sending data, address lines for sending addresses, and control lines for sending interrupts and for operating the system bus. Some busses provide bus arbitration that regulates access to the bus by extension cards, controllers, and CPU  110 . Devices that attach to the busses and arbitrate access to the bus are called bus masters. Bus master support also allows multiprocessor configurations of the busses to be created by the addition of bus master adapters containing processors and support chips. 
         [0012]    Memory devices coupled to system bus  105  can include random access memory (RAM)  125  and read only memory (ROM)  130 . Such memories include circuitry that allows information to be stored and retrieved. ROMs  130  generally contain stored data that cannot be modified. Data stored in RAM  125  can be read or changed by CPU  110  or other hardware devices. Access to RAM  125  and/or ROM  130  may be controlled by memory controller  120 . Memory controller  120  may provide an address translation function that translates virtual addresses into physical addresses as instructions are executed. Memory controller  120  may also provide a memory protection function that isolates processes within the system and isolates system processes from user processes. Thus, a program running in user mode can normally access only memory mapped by its own process virtual address space; it cannot access memory within another process&#39; virtual address space unless memory sharing between the processes has been set up. 
         [0013]    In addition, computing system  100  may contain peripheral controller  135  responsible for communicating instructions using a peripheral bus from CPU  110  to peripherals, such as printer  140 , keyboard  145 , and mouse  150 . An example of a peripheral bus is the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. 
         [0014]    Display  160 , which is controlled by display controller  155 , can be used to display visual output generated by computing system  100 . Such visual output may include text, graphics, animated graphics, and/or video, for example. Display  160  may be implemented with a CRT-based video display, an LCD-based display, gas plasma-based display, touch-panel, or the like. Display controller  155  includes electronic components required to generate a video signal that is sent to display  160 . 
         [0015]    Further, computing system  100  may contain network adapter  165  which may be used to couple computing system  100  to an external communication network  170 , which may include or provide access to the Internet, and hence which may provide or include tracking of and access to the domain data discussed herein. Communications network  170  may provide user access to computing system  100  with means of communicating and transferring software and information electronically, and may be coupled directly to computing system  100 , or indirectly to computing system  100 , such as via PSTN or cellular network  180 . For example, users may communicate with computing system  100  using communication means such as email, direct data connection, virtual private network (VPN), Skype or other online video conferencing services, or the like. Additionally, communications network  170  may provide for distributed processing, which involves several computers and the sharing of workloads or cooperative efforts in performing a task. It is appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing communications links between computing system  100  and remote users may be used. 
         [0016]    It is appreciated that exemplary computing system  100  is merely illustrative of a computing environment in which the herein described systems and methods may operate and does not limit the implementation of the herein described systems and methods in computing environments having differing components and configurations, as the inventive concepts described herein may be implemented in various computing environments using various components and configurations. 
         [0017]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , computing system  100  can be deployed in networked computing environment  200 . In general, the above description for computing system  100  applies to server, client, and peer computers deployed in a networked environment, for example, server  205 , laptop computer  210 , and desktop computer  230 .  FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary illustrative networked computing environment  200 , with a server in communication with client computing and/or communicating devices via a communications network, in which the herein described apparatus and methods may be employed. 
         [0018]    As shown in  FIG. 2 , server  205  may be interconnected via a communications network  240  (which may include any of, or any combination of, a fixed-wire or wireless LAN, WAN, intranet, extranet, peer-to-peer network, virtual private network, the Internet, or other communications network such as POTS, ISDN, VoIP, PSTN, etc.) with a number of client computing/communication devices such as laptop computer  210 , wireless mobile telephone  215 , wired telephone  220 , personal digital assistant  225 , user desktop computer  230 , and/or other communication enabled devices (not shown). Server  205  can comprise dedicated servers operable to process and communicate data such as digital content  250  to and from client devices  210 ,  215 ,  220 ,  225 ,  230 , etc. using any of a number of known protocols, such as hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), simple object access protocol (SOAP), wireless application protocol (WAP), or the like. Additionally, networked computing environment  200  can utilize various data security protocols such as secured socket layer (SSL), pretty good privacy (PGP), virtual private network (VPN) security, or the like. Each client device  210 ,  215 ,  220 ,  225 ,  230 , etc. can be equipped with an operating system operable to support one or more computing and/or communication applications, such as a web browser (not shown), email (not shown), or independently developed applications, the like, to interact with server  205 . 
         [0019]    The server  205  may thus deliver applications specifically designed for mobile client devices, such as, for example, client device  225 . A client device  225  may be any mobile telephone, PDA, tablet or smart phone and may have any device compatible operating system. Such operating systems may include, for example, Symbian, RIM Blackberry OS, Android, Apple iOS, Windows Phone, Palm webOS, Maemo, bada, MeeGo, Brew OS, and Linux for smartphones and tablets. Although many mobile operating systems may be programmed in C++, some may be programmed in Java and .NET, for example. Some operating systems may or may not allow for the use of a proxy server and some may or may not have on-device encryption. Of course, because many of the aforementioned operating systems are proprietary, in prior art embodiments server  205  delivered to client device  225  only those applications and that content applicable to the operating system and platform communication relevant to that client device  225  type. 
         [0020]    JavaScript Serialized Object Notation (JSON), a lightweight, text-based, language-independent data-interchange format, is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262, 3.sup.rd Edition, dated December 1999. JSON syntax is a text format defined with a collection of name/value pairs and an ordered list of values. JSON is very useful for sending structured data over wire (e.g., the Internet) that is lightweight and easy to parse. It is language and platform independent, but uses conventions that are familiar to C-family programming conventions. The JSON language is thus compatible with a great many operating systems (a list of such systems is available at www.json.org). 
         [0021]    In an embodiment of the present invention, a user may access the present invention through a GUI and participate in the funding of a participating company or individual, such as, for example, providing a start-up and/or series A invested companies with source and/or seed capital, angel capital, or other forms of direct investment. 
         [0022]    The present invention may enable about 3-5 companies, per show/program, whether shown via the internet, podcast or other transfer medium, to pitch their company/idea/product/service to 3-5 popular national or local celebrities to endorse their products. 
         [0023]    The present invention may provide access to personal advisers whom may test each product and service, and may have about 24-48 hours to maker a decision to endorse each product. Personal advisors, or other designated personnel, may only choose one or more companies, but each company may only have one personal advisor. For example, if all three stars want the same company, they must fight it out; and fans, or other participants who are interactively coupled to the present invention, may choose to select the best fit. 
         [0024]    Such participants may call in, text, Tweet, or post via Facebook or other social medium, in their favorite company. 
         [0025]    Participating companies may, before their sign up for “show”, may be required to agree to that if they are selected by one, or more celebrities, their must provide a percentage of equity in the company to the star; and star will sign a minimum of 1 year endorsement contract with each company. The company that WINS will get $250K marketing budget (which may be managed by a third party), and the selected star will get a percentage of equity, like, for example, a 10% stake and cash compensation, like, for example, $50,000. 
         [0026]    Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the herein described systems and methods are susceptible to various modifications and alternative constructions. There is no intention to limit the scope of the invention to the specific constructions described herein. Rather, the herein described systems and methods are intended to cover all modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents falling within the scope and spirit of the invention and its equivalents.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6