Instant Messaging for Placing Orders - ICAP Ocean Tomo Announces Convenient New Way to Sell - With Over One Billion Users Worldwide(1)

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Feb 28, 2011, 10:45 ET

CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As customers spend more time using communication related media and entertainment sources, vendors must find new ways to promote and sell their products. This market change makes the patented process developed by Shadow Enterprises and represented by ICAP Ocean Tomo of interest to virtually every company doing eCommerce.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100614/CG20517LOGO)

The portfolio will be auctioned at ICAP Ocean Tomo's Spring 2011 Live IP Auction in New York on March 31st.

Key Characteristics & Benefits

The lot discloses the following:

Technology to power a vendor's instant messaging presence to create an automated sales channel.
The patent in this lot allows for a system where a vendor signs on with an instant messaging service using a unique name, which customers can add to their contact lists.
Software resident on a vendor's computer responds by supplying a list of goods and/or services. The customer makes one or more selections and generates an order to the vendor.
Customers are then able to initiate an instant message communication with a selected vendor for ordering purposes.
Now vendors can have commerce-enabled instant messaging profiles just as they have eCommerce websites.
Instant messaging commerce applications have additional advantages:
1. They are powerful and engaging interactive marketing tools that provide a constant presence to the customer.
2. They allow vendors to send out proactive marketing messages
System supplies a platform useful for conducting market research and enabling and viral marketing.
Overall, enabling commerce through new technologies increases revenues by creating alternative methods for accepting customer orders.
Additional sales platforms also serve to extend the reach, exposure, and appeal of vendor brands.
This lot has already been cited by Pivot Solutions and Rockwell Collins.

Market Potential

This patent should be of interest for the following reasons:

Market research suggests that by 2012 there will be more than 1.6 billion instant messaging users around the world.(1)
In addition, the worldwide market for online mobile shopping is projected to reach $119 billion by 2015.(1)
Based on figures such as these, this lot should be of interest to software companies, retailers, mobile service providers, and virtually all entities involved in eCommerce.

To learn more about the assets available for sale in this portfolio:

Contact Dean Becker of ICAP Ocean Tomo at [email protected]

About ICAP Ocean Tomo LLC

ICAP Ocean Tomo is the intellectual property brokerage division of ICAP and the world's premier patent auction firm.

About ICAP

ICAP is the world's premier interdealer broker and provider of post trade services. The Group matches buyers and sellers in the wholesale markets in interest rates, credit, commodities, foreign exchange, emerging markets, equities and equity derivatives through voice and electronic networks. ICAP plc was added to the FTSE 100 Index on 30 June 2006. For more information go to www.icap.com.

(1) http://www.cnbc.com/id/35443154/Mobile_Online_Shopping_to_Double_in_2010

SOURCE ICAP Ocean Tomo