This Patent Application received a non-final rejection by the US Patent Office! An initial rejection is part of the typical course of a patent application.
The rejection was based in part on prior art found by Ask Patents community below!
AN OVERBROAD PATENT ON collaborative virtual shopping - This application from IBM seeks to patent the idea of...individuals shopping together online! 10 minutes of your time can help narrow US patent applications before they become patents. Follow @askpatents on twitter to help.
QUESTION - Have you seen anything that was published before 2/13/2012 that discusses:
individuals shopping together online with multiple shopping carts
If so, please submit evidence of prior art as an answer to this question. We welcome multiple answers from the same individual.
EXTRA CREDIT - A reference to anything that meets all of the criteria to the question above AND ALSO involves sharing information between users, such as shopping lists, price lists, or item comparisons between users
TITLE: Collaborative virtual shopping
Summary: [Translated from Legalese into English] A system for shopping together online. Users participate in a collaborative shopping session using multiple virtual shopping carts and share information with one another
Publication Number: US 20130211953 A1
Application Number: US 13/372,493
Assignee: IBM
Prior Art Date: Seeking prior Art predating 2/13/2012
Open for Challenge at USPTO: Open through 2/11/2014
Claim 1 requires each and every step below:
A system for collaborative shopping, comprising
A plurality of shopping devices interconnected by a network, the shopping devices being used by shoppers in a collaborative shopping session; and
A plurality of virtual shopping carts respectively associated with the shopping devices for sharing information on items of interest among the shoppers and enabling the shoppers to collaborate on the shopping
In English this means:
A system for shopping together online, comprising:
Devices (e.g. computers or smartphones or fancy in-store shopping carts) connected together by a network, used by shoppers in a collaborative shopping session
Virtual shopping carts associated with each device for sharing information between shoppers (e.g. price lists, shopping lists, comparisons, etc.)
Good prior art would be evidence of a system that did each and every one of these steps prior to 2/13/2012
You're probably aware of ten pieces of art that meet this criteria already... separately, the applicant is claiming sharing information between users, such as shopping lists, price lists, or comparisons between shopping cart items.
"Collaborative Virtual Shopping from the Applicant"
What is good prior art? Please see our FAQ.
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