Patent ID: 6868401

Claim:
A method for processing transactions through a computer network for supporting the trading of a commodity product between a plurality of parties, comprising the steps of: maintaining a standard contract in a computer system, the standard contract including terms previously agreed upon by the parties and including terms by which the parties agreed to be bound, receiving a set of transaction terms, which include terms agreed upon by the parties for a transaction; producing a transaction contract, which is an instance of the standard contract populated with the set of transaction terms, in response to transaction information received from a buyer and/or from a seller for a transaction, making said transaction contract available to said buyer and to said seller, receiving an approval command from said buyer and said seller for affirming acceptance of said transaction contract, receiving scheduling information from said buyer and/or seller, generating a product delivery schedule based on said transaction contract and said scheduling information, making said product delivery schedule available to said buyer and said seller, receiving an approval command from said buyer and said seller for affirming acceptance of sand product delivery schedule, sending product delivery information, which is based on said product delivery schedule, to at least one delivery asset, receiving a product delivery report from said delivery asset, generating a product transaction invoice based on at least said product delivery report and said transaction contract, making said product transaction invoice available to said buyer and said seller, receiving an approval command from said buyer and said seller for affirming acceptance of said product transaction invoice, and sending a payment statement to said buyer and seller wherein said payment statement is based on said product transaction invoice.