Patent ID: 7555447

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for facilitating a commercial transaction involving a product, the method performed using one or more computer systems each comprising one or more processing units and one or more memory units, the method comprising: using the one or more computer systems, communicating a globally unique identifier (GUID) for a particular product to a seller of the particular product, the GUID comprising: a class identifier (CID) that uniquely identifies at least one product class in which the product is categorized, along with a plurality of other products, within a class hierarchy of a global content directory server for a distributed plurality of seller databases, each seller database being associated with a corresponding seller and distinct from the other seller databases in the distributed plurality of seller databases, the product class defining one or more attributes of the products categorized in the class; and a product identifier (PID) that uniquely identifies the particular product from among the plurality of products categorized in the product class uniquely identified by the CID; and using the one or more computer systems, specifying to the seller a desired commercial transaction involving the particular product uniquely identified by the GUID to facilitate the desired commercial transaction involving the particular product uniquely identified by the GUID.