System and method for online offer and bid management with sealed bids

• US 20020065760A1
• Filed: 11/29/2000
• Published: 05/30/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Morrison, William James, Wiesehuegel, Leland James, Roberts, Rebecca Lynn
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,574 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A network computer system and method in which a manufacturer or service provider may communicate goods or services which are available for bidding by bidders. The bids received from the bidders are intended to be sealed bids, and most often to be single instance sealed bids. The invention collects the sealed bids from the bidders and maintains them as inaccessible from the traders and online system administration staff until certain conditions, such as expiration of a bidding time window, have been met. Following the meeting of the predetermined conditions, the bids are unsealed, either by administrator command or automatically, and made available and accessible to the traders and system administration staff. The system and method prevents potential security and confidentiality problems with online sealed bid systems, and protects the integrity of the sealed bid collection process.

Claims

1. A sales offering method for restricting access by traders to collected online sealed bids in an online offering and bidding system, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a computer-readable bid repository of collected sealed bids and unsealed bids communicative to an online offering and bidding system;

unsealing one or more sealed bids in said bid repository through a restricted process; and

presenting via a computer user interface said unsealed bids to a trader thereby preventing presentation of bids which are sealed to traders.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of providing a computer-readable bid repository comprises providing a computer database in which each sealed bid and unsealed bid are represented by one or more database records.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2 wherein said step of providing database records representing sealed bids and unsealed bids comprises providing database records which include a field indicating a bid status as sealed or unsealed.

4. The method as set forth in claim 2 wherein said step of providing database records representing sealed bids and unsealed bids comprises providing database records which include a field indicating a bid seal expiration time.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of unsealing one or more sealed bids in said bid repository through a restricted process comprises providing a secure system administrator console and identification process which allows only an authorized system administrator to change sealed bids to unsealed bids.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein said step of unsealing one or more sealed bids in said bid repository through a restricted process comprises:

providing a bid seal expiration time parameter with each sealed bids;

providing a system clock or timer;

comparing each bid seal expiration time parameter with a current status of a system clock or timer responsive; and

determining that bids for which bid seal expiration time parameters which are before or less than the current status of a system clock or timer are unsealed bids.

7. A computer-readable medium containing program code for a sales offering computer system for restricting access by traders to collected online sealed bids in an online offering and bidding system, said program code when executed by a sales offering computer system causes the sales offering computer system to perform the steps of:

providing a computer-readable bid repository of collected sealed bids and unsealed bids communicative to an online offering and bidding system;

unsealing one or more sealed bids in said bid repository through a restricted process; and

presenting via a computer user interface said unsealed bids to a trader thereby preventing presentation of bids which are sealed to traders.

8. The computer-readable medium as set forth in claim 7 wherein said program code for providing a computer-readable bid repository comprises program code for providing a computer database in which each sealed bid and unsealed bid are represented by one or more database records.

9. The computer-readable medium as set forth in claim 8 wherein said program code for providing database records representing sealed bids and unsealed bids comprises program code for providing database records which include a field indicating a bid status as sealed or unsealed.

10. The computer-readable medium as set forth in claim 8 wherein said program code for providing database records representing sealed bids and unsealed bids comprises program code for providing database records which include a field indicating a bid seal expiration time.

11. The computer-readable medium as set forth in claim 7 wherein said program code for unsealing one or more sealed bids in said bid repository through a restricted process comprises program code for providing a secure system administrator console and identification process which allows only an authorized system administrator to change sealed bids to unsealed bids.

12. The computer-readable medium as set forth in claim 7 wherein said program code for unsealing one or more sealed bids in said bid repository through a restricted process comprises program code for causing the sales offering computer system to perform the steps of:

providing a bid seal expiration time parameter with each sealed bids;

accessing or reading a system clock or timer;

comparing each bid seal expiration time parameter with a current status of a system clock or timer responsive; and

determining that bids for which bid seal expiration time parameters which are before or less than the current status of a system clock or timer are unsealed bids.

14. The sealed bid sales offering system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said sales offering system is a computer network server.

15. The sealed bid sales offering system as set forth in claim 14 wherein said computer network server is an Internet server.

16. The sealed bid sales offering system as set forth in claim 14 wherein said computer network server is a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server.

17. The sealed bid sales offering system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said sales offering system is adapted for communications with trader console computers which are web browser devices.

18. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said database query server is adapted to retrieve unsealed bids from said bid database for presentation to a trader which meet criteria including a match with a trader'"'"'s location code.

19. The system as set forth in claim 13 wherein said database query server is adapted to retrieve unsealed bids from said bid database for presentation to a trader which meet criteria including a match with a trader'"'"'s goods category code.

20. The system as set forth in claim 13 further comprising a restricted access administrator console communicative with said bid database for allowing conversion of sealed bids to unsealed bids.

21. The system as set forth in claim 13 further comprising a system clock or timer for use by said database query server communicative to determine which seals of sealed bids have expired as a criteria for retrieving unsealed bids.

13. A sealed bid sales offering system in a computer network, said computer network enabling communications between said sales offering system and trader consoles, said offering system comprising:

a bid database containing sealed bids and unsealed bids, said database accessible and queriable by said sales offering system;

a database query server communicative to said bid database for querying and retrieving unsealed bids from said bid database for presentation to a trader which meet criteria indicating the bids are unsealed and intended for a trader; and

an bid communicator for presenting said retrieved unsealed bids to a trader.