“Investment Instrument” in Patent Application Approval Process

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Politics & Government Week -- A patent application by the inventor Parikh, Aniket (Scarsdale, NY), filed on November 14, 2013, was made available online on June 11, 2015, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by VerticalNews correspondents.

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: "In finance, investment is the commitment of funds through collateralized lending, or making a deposit into a secured institution. To avoid speculation, an investment has been either directly backed by the pledge of sufficient collateral or insured by sufficient assets pledged by a third party. The types of investments can include equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, derivatives and commodities such as precious metals and gemstones.

"Historically, precious metals were important as currency but are now regarded mainly as investment and industrial commodities. Further, the precious metals may be used as a hedge against inflation, deflation or currency devaluation. The best-known precious metals are the coinage metals: gold, silver and platinum. Of all the precious metals, gold is the most popular as an investment.

"Conventionally, the individual investor and institutional investor can invest in precious metals through various investment vehicles such as bars, coins, Exchange traded products, certificates, accounts, derivatives, contracts for difference (CFDs), and spread betting disadvantages. Attempts have been made in the prior art to diversify the investment vehicle option in physical precious metals.

"In some cases, the prior art discloses a system for purchasing precious metals at fixed-monitory amount by a client, particularly a website for subscription registration, balance inquiries, same-day spot purchases, returns, sales, equal-value exchanges and investment, etc. The purchased precious metals by the clients has been placed in protective custody in a client account established with a purchasing organization, however the purchasing organization or system is not allowing the client to use, hold, or otherwise take possession of the precious metals during the investment period.

"In other cases, the prior art discloses a computer-implemented precious metals investment product and process for pricing a precious metals composite product, wherein the measured unit of a plurality of precious metal components is quoted and traded as a unit, thus allowing for uniformity in the ongoing offers to buy and sell a fixed quantity, or multiples of this fixed quantity, and pricing consistency for the metals. But the patent application fails to provide an option to client to take delivery of the precious metals without ownership of such metals.

"Still other instances of the prior art disclose an investment method for providing a positive return on the precious metal holding, wherein a special purpose vehicle being an enterprise is disposed to receive a purchase request from purchaser for purchasing the weight of the precious metal for the purchaser in response to the purchase request, to hold the purchased precious metal or derivative in trust, and to use the held precious metal as value/collateral for funding investments to derive a return on the investment. However, the purchaser is not allowed to hold the precious metal for his usage along with the investment benefit associated with the precious metals.

"Information relevant to attempts to address the problems found in the current state of the art, as described above, can be found in U.S. Patent Application Nos. US 20020087428 A1, US 20110258102 A1, and US 20070088647 A1 However, each one of these references suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages: the investment method does not allow for the case where the investor wants to take possession of or use the asset in which he has invested; the investment instrument fails to provide an option for the client to take delivery of the assets without ownership of said assets; and the purchaser is not allowed to hold the asset for his usage along with the investment benefit associated with the asset.

"It would, therefore, be desirable to have an investment instrument and associated method of using said investment instrument that at least provides for the investor taking possession of the investment asset, the investor taking delivery of the asset without taking ownership, and the investor holding the asset for his use in addition to receiving the investment benefit of the asset.

"While certain aspects of conventional technologies and methods in the relevant art have been discussed to facilitate disclosure of the invention, Applicant in no way disclaims these technical aspects or methods, and it is contemplated that the claimed invention may encompass one or more of the conventional technical aspects or methods discussed herein.

"In this specification, where a document, act, or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act, or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was, at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge, or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned."

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, VerticalNews journalists also obtained the inventor's summary information for this patent application: "In this specification and in the appended claims and drawings, words and phrases have the meanings commonly attributed to them in the relevant art except as otherwise specified herein.

"In this specification and in the appended claims and drawings, 'asset', including grammatical equivalents, singular and plural, is the object of an investment, which may be a tangible property, such as, but not limited to, jewelry, art, precious metals, or precious stones, or a intangible property, such as, but not limited to, a futures contract. A single 'asset' may also be comprised of multiple assets, but grouped as a single investment such as in jewelry or in a lot of goods. An 'asset' may have associated with it any combination of a cost of acquisition, a markup cost, and/or a markdown cost.

"In this specification and in the appended claims and drawings, 'liquidation value' is either the instant, spot cash, or distress sale price that makes the asset saleable in order to convert the asset to liquid cash.

"In this specification and in the appended claims and drawings, 'buy back value' is the pre-determined contract value. This buy back value may be a fixed monetary amount or it may be a value calculated based upon predetermined criteria such as, but not limited to, the quality or condition of the asset after use, and/or other pricing functions based on prices at the future date.

"In this specification and in the appended claims and drawings, 'melt value' is the monetary value that may be derived from the component parts of an asset. For example, the melt price of a piece of jewelry comprised of a precious stone and a base metal is the monetary value of precious stone plus the value of the base metal after melting down. Melting the base metal generally creates a loss in the labor value that was used to make the jewelry while the precious stones, which are not melted down, may not lose their labor value. By way of further example, the term 'melt value' is also used in this specification in reference to, for example, art, which is typically not actually 'melted' but, nonetheless, may be appraised for its component value to the extent that it can be divided into component parts (as in a painting and its frame).

"In this specification and in the appended claims and drawings, 'credit instrument' is any instrument that allows for the store of monetary wealth that can be used to buy goods and services, or traded for cash equivalents including stocks and shares in lieu. Credit instruments can be, but are not limited to, credit cards, online accounts having a cash balance, debit cards, or gift cards. Credit instruments are conveyed in conjunction with, or dependent on, a credit instrument contract, or terms of service, that defines aspects of the agreement such as, but not limited to repayment terms and variable credit limits.

"In this specification and in the appended claims and drawings, 'memo' is the taking of goods on consignment. It is also referred to as a 'memorandum'. For example, party X agrees to give merchandise to party Y to try to sell, or to a third party, or to buy for himself at a particular price and on certain terms of payment and for a period of time. The possession goes to party Y, but the ownership remains with X until a sale is confirmed and the parties agree upon the sale.

"In this specification and in the appended claims and drawings, 'funding of an investment' is contemplated to include non-cash funds. For example, an asset, a financial instrument, or another item of value, or a combination thereof, may be utilized to fund an investment.

"The present invention may address one or more of the problems and deficiencies of the prior art discussed above. However, it is contemplated that the invention may prove useful in addressing other problems and deficiencies in a number of technical areas. Therefore the claimed invention should not necessarily be construed as limited to addressing any of the particular problems or deficiencies discussed herein.

"In view of the foregoing, an embodiment herein provides a novel investment instrument, and associated method of using said investment instrument, for investing in assets, holding assets, and exiting the investment through an investment company. Specifically, the investment instrument and method of an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of an investor investing funds, or assets in kind, into an investment company, the investor choosing at least an asset for the investment, and offering to the investor the option to take possession of the chosen asset, while title to the asset remains with the investment company, or asset owner, for the duration of the investment period.

"The investment method may further comprise the step of investor receiving at least a credit instrument.

"The investment company can comprise various divisions, including, but not limited to, a banking division, an insurance division, an asset division, a factory division, and a retail division, wherein one or more investors can invest on at least an asset through the investment company.

"The investors can include at least one, some, or all of, a consumer, small retail investor, retailer, franchisee, institutional investor, manufacturer, designer, traders, or a mining company. Embodiments of the present invention disclosed herein, as well as other embodiments contemplated to be within the scope of the claims, may be carried out by any one, some, or all of the investor types described above. Naming of one investor type in any particular embodiment is by way of illustration only and not intended as any limitation on the invention or how it may be practiced.

"Retail sales profits need not be booked at the moment of sale but can slowly be booked over an extended period of time, or at the end of a specified period of time, especially for investible products or products that have some residual value over time. Retail profit can be used to give credit back to the consumer and, in doing so, can be used as an investment vehicle and over time, whereby, the consumer gets full value for the product as well as enjoyment for its use.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

"These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:

"FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of investment method for investors to invest on assets through an investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIGS. 2.1 to 2.5 illustrates flow chart(s) of a consumer's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIGS. 3.1 to 3.2 illustrates flow chart(s) of a small retail investor's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIGS. 4.1 to 4.4 illustrates flow chart(s) of a retailer's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of a franchisee's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a manufacturer's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart of a mining company's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIGS. 8.1 to 8.2 illustrates flow chart(s) of an institutional investor's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart of a designer's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein;

"FIG. 10 illustrates a flow chart of an asset trader's interaction with the investment company according to an embodiment herein."

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Parikh, Aniket. Investment Instrument. Filed November 14, 2013 and posted June 11, 2015. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=2238&p=45&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20150604.PD.&OS=PD/20150604&RS=PD/20150604

Keywords for this news article include: Patents, Mining and Minerals.

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