Patexia contests ask you to find, submit, and explain references that respond to our research questions. If you are new, see patent and prior art basics and tips for Patexia's prior art contests, and refer to the submission notes below. The following questions will help you understand specifically what we are looking for in this study. In this contest we are seeking prior art; published examples of an idea or invention before a specific date.
 

Problem Definition
Patexia seeks prior art for US Patent 7,454,355 (‘355) - “Method and system for providing real estate information using a computer network, such as the internet.” This patent allegedly describes a method of collecting and communicating the actions taken by a real estate professional and a number of clients when accessing a database of real estate information.

The basic method of collection and communication involves the following steps:

• A real estate professional (i.e., the professional) has access to an online database of real estate information  (i.e., the database/website)
• The professional authorizes a number of clients (i.e., the clients) to create accounts on the site
• The site monitors and collects the activities of the clients (e.g., pages viewed, prices of properties viewed, locations of the properties viewed, search criteria used, liked/starred properties, etc …)
• The site monitors and collects the activities of the professional (e.g. properties flagged for a specific client, etc…)
• The site passes some portion of the clients’ activities to the professional and some portion of the professional’s activities to the clients

Figure 1. Interaction between clients and a real estate agent via a computer network

Questions
To enter the contest, Patexia’s system will ask you the following questions. Contestants should focus their search by locating sources which answer these questions, and submitting a concise explanation of why the source(s) respond to a particular question. This explanation should specifically indicate where in the reference we can find the required supporting information. If you do not provide adequate explanations on how to locate the desired information in your reference, you will not get credit and will not be eligible for contest prizes.

Entries must answer all contest questions. Sources can include websites or pages of archived websites, however all sources need to be authenticated and clearly date to be considered.

1. Has the source been published before April 27th, 1999?
2. Does the source describe a method of communication between a real estate professional and a number of clients?
3. Does this source describe a real estate professional accessing a real estate information database over a computer network?
4. Does this source describe a professional authorizing accounts for a number of clients to use when accessing a database?
5. Does this source describe a method for collecting and storing the activities of a professional and a number of clients when accessing a database?
6. Does this source describe the sharing of some portion of a professional’s stored activities with a number of clients clients?
7. Does this source describe the sharing of some portion of a number of clients’ stored activities with the professional?
8. Does this source describe sending a notification to a professional whenever a specific activity is performed by a number of clients?
9. Does this source describe the storing of login data and login time as activities?
10. Does this source describe the storing of the items viewed and the date of first viewing as activities?
11. Does this source describe the storing of a tagged item and the earliest date of tagging as activities?
12. Does this source describe a professional and a number of clients being able to simultaneously view information in a database?
13. Does this source describe a client as a buyer and another client as a seller?
14. Does this source describe the generation of a buyer list, reviewable by a buyer,  in response to a request from a professional?
15. Does this source describe automatically updating a buyer list by comparing buyer criteria with the items in a database?
16. Does this source describe identifying new items, whose characteristics include identity, location, size, and price, on a buyer list during the comparing process?
17. [User Survey Question] Can you provide us with more information regarding your qualifications to enter this contest? (no reference needed, please provide a short list of your relevant background or qualifications.)
18. [User Survey Question] Can you provide us with more information regarding the time you spent researching the contests? (no reference needed, please provide an estimate of the time you spent researching this contest.)
19. [User Survey Question] Can you provide us with more information regarding the resources and databases you searched for this contest? (no reference needed, please provide a short list of sources that you used to research this contest.)