Fayetteville, AR, July 31, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EquityNet (www.equitynet.com) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Patent and Trade Office granted the Company's third crowdfunding patent on July 9, 2013 as patent number 8,484,110. The patent is titled "Electronic Enterprise Monitoring Apparatus" and describes an automated and interactive system for the monitoring of private businesses through a networked platform.
EquityNet's Founder/CEO and inventor of the patent, Judd Hollas, stated, "This invention and granted patent describes the first system capable of monitoring the performance of private businesses. It allows investors and others to create a customized monitoring profile and captures information about privately-held businesses before producing a monitoring and benchmarking analysis of the business. This is a system/apparatus patent and hence, much stronger than a business method patent. It was also granted after the U.S. Supreme Court's Bilski section 101 decision and therefore was reviewed and granted by the U.S. Patent Office under those more stringent criteria."
In addition to the newly-granted patent, EquityNet has a significant portfolio of granted and pending patents in the United States, covering multiple distinct inventions. EquityNet's patent number 7,698,188 titled "Electronic Enterprise Capital Marketplace" describes an automated crowdfunding platform for enabling efficient capitalization of privately-held businesses. EquityNet's patent number 7,908,194 titled "Electronic Enterprise Analysis Apparatus" describes an automated system for analyzing and scoring privately-held businesses.
EquityNet operates one of the industry's leading equity crowdfunding platforms and provides the most advanced technology to its thousands of members, including entrepreneurs, accredited investors, and institutional business supporters such as the U.S. Army and Cisco Systems. EquityNet's patented technology enables entrepreneurs, for example, to analyze and refine their business plan and offers investors the industry's most advanced business screening technology. Mr. Hollas added, "EquityNet's newly patented technology for business monitoring will add a terrific new set of capabilities for entrepreneurs and investors alike. It will enable both parties to monitor and predict business performance, thereby offering opportunities for both parties to improve and accelerate business progress."
Later this year, the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) is expected to go into effect, allowing non-accredited investors to invest in startups in exchange for equity. Experts have estimated that crowdfunding could expand the population of potential investors from 2 million to over 50 million investors. These new investors are expected to increase the amount of potentially available capital from $1 trillion currently to over $5 trillion. Most importantly, the increase in investments could add 1.5 million jobs over the next 5 years.
The abstract for patent number 8,484,110 is as follows: An automated and interactive system that facilitates efficient capitalization/liquidation and monitoring of private enterprises through a network-driven marketplace is disclosed. The system may be comprised of a dynamic process for enterprise characterization, a customizable computational engine that utilizes statistical reference information to quantify a multi-factor scoring value for each unique enterprise, a customizable system for investor-users to filter, rank, and screen enterprise prospects, a customizable system for monitoring the performance of enterprises, an integrated internal system for electronic communication between market participants, and an empirical feedback system that provides a dynamic knowledge base of statistical reference information for various computational components of the invention
To learn more about EquityNet's crowdfunding technology, visit equitynet technology.
###
About EquityNet
Launched in 2005, EquityNet is a pioneering equity crowdfunding platform with multiple patents granted for its advanced capabilities. It is used by entrepreneurs, angel investors, government entities, business incubators, and other members of the entrepreneurial community to plan, analyze, and capitalize privately-held businesses. EquityNet provides access to 20,000+ individual investors and has helped thousands of entrepreneurs across North America raise over $207 million in capital. For more information, visit www.equitynet.com