Patent ID: 7305360

Claim:
A method adapted to be used for commercial transactions, the method comprising the steps of: making a first set of personal profiles available, from at least one buy-side user to at least one sell-side user, each personal profile in the first set of personal profiles including a first set of first values for a plurality of information fields, the plurality of information fields relating to commercial transactions, receiving a second set of personal profiles, from the at least one sell-side user at the at least one buy-side user, each personal profile in the second set of personal profiles including a second set of values for the plurality of information fields, based upon at least part of the first set of personal profiles and at least part of the second set of personal profiles, making at least part of the second set of personal profiles available from the at least one buy-side to the at least one sell-side user, based upon the at least part of the first set of personal profiles and the at least part of the second set of personal profiles, receiving a request to enter into a trusted relationship from the at least one sell-side user at the at least one buy-side user, receiving a set of trusted relationship information, and making the set of trusted relationship information available whereby a commercial transaction is facilitated and a trusted relationship is entered into between the at least one sell-side user and the at least one buy-side user and wherein the relationship includes a variable level of trust which affects the amount of infrastructure functionality available to one or more users and wherein the variable level of trust comprises a first level of trust and a second level of trust and wherein the first level of trust is set by the at least one buy-side user and the second level of trust is set by the at least one sell-side user.