Buying and selling goods and services using automated method and apparatus
First Claim
1. A method for a party to buy and sell goods and/or services from and to a plurality of counterparties over a computer network, which comprises:
- determining a bid price and an offer price at which the party is willing to buy or sell, respectively, a good or service;
providing the determined bid price and offer price for the good or service to the plurality of counterparties over the computer network;
receiving a signal from a counterparty over the computer network; and
buying the good or service from or selling the good or service to the counterparty upon receipt of the signal, wherein there is no requirement to pay a commission to a third party based on this purchase or sale of the good or service.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system are provided for a party to buy and sell goods and/or services from and to a plurality of counterparties over a computer network. The party determines a best bid price and a best offer price at which the party is willing to buy or sell a good or service. The party transmits the best bid and offer prices over the computer network, which may be the internet. By accessing the computer network, a counterparty can see a display of a bid and offer price for the good or service. The counterparty can click on the display to send a signal over the computer network to the party, and upon receipt of the signal, the party can buy the good or service from or sell the good or service to the counterparty. The method preferably includes maintaining a list of determined bid and offer prices in a stack manager software, which allows the party to automatically display a next best bid and offer price to the counterparties over the computer network after a transaction is completed.
123 Citations
58 Claims
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1. A method for a party to buy and sell goods and/or services from and to a plurality of counterparties over a computer network, which comprises:
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determining a bid price and an offer price at which the party is willing to buy or sell, respectively, a good or service;
providing the determined bid price and offer price for the good or service to the plurality of counterparties over the computer network;
receiving a signal from a counterparty over the computer network; and
buying the good or service from or selling the good or service to the counterparty upon receipt of the signal, wherein there is no requirement to pay a commission to a third party based on this purchase or sale of the good or service. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method for buying and selling goods and/or services over a computer network, comprising the steps of:
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providing a display over a computer network accessible by a plurality of customers;
maintaining a list of bids and offers to buy or sell a good or service, wherein the list is maintained using a stack manager software;
displaying on the display the bid to buy the good or service and the offer to sell the good or service;
receiving a signal over the computer network from a customer;
buying or selling the good or service over the computer network in response to the signal from the customer; and
replacing the displayed bid and offer with a second bid and offer automatically by computerized steps after the step of buying or selling the good or service. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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35. A method for a party to buy and sell goods and/or services from and to a plurality of counterparties over a network of computers, comprising the steps of:
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maintaining an electronic marketplace for buying and selling the goods and services, the electronic marketplace comprising the network of computers;
determining a bid price and an offer price at which the party is willing to buy or sell, respectively, a good or service;
transmitting and displaying the determined bid price and offer price for the good or service over the network of computers to the plurality of counterparties;
sending a signal from a counterparty to the party over the network of computers; and
buying the good or service from or selling the good or service to the counterparty over the network of computers in response to the signal, wherein the party is a principal in all trades, and wherein multiple counterparties can buy and/or sell goods and/or services in the electronic marketplace in transactions with the party, but the counterparties cannot enter into transactions with each other or with third parties in the electronic marketplace.
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44. A computer readable program storage device encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer, performs a method for buying and selling goods and/or services over a computer network, comprising:
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maintaining a list of determined bid and offer prices using a stack manager software module, wherein the stack manager software module allows a party to edit, view and control the list;
transmitting a best determined bid price and offer price for the good or service over the computer network to a plurality of counterparties, a quantity, amount or volume being associated with the best-determined bid price and offer price;
receiving a signal from a counterparty over the computer network interpreting the signal as an offer to sell or an offer to buy a good or service;
evaluating the offer to buy to determine whether the counterparty'"'"'s credit limit would be exceeded if the offer were accepted; and
buying the good or service from or selling the good or service to the counterparty at the best determined bid price and offer price, respectively, without human intervention. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
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47. A method for a party to buy and sell commodities from and to a plurality of counterparties over a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:
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establishing a set of parameters for a plurality of products for standardizing each of the products so that the products can be bought and sold as fungible commodities;
transmitting the set of parameters to the counterparties over the computer network;
determining a bid price and an offer price for a quantity, volume or amount of each of the products;
standing ready to buy at the bid price or sell at the offer price each of the products;
communicating the determined bid price and offer price for each of the products to the plurality of counterparties over the computer network;
receiving an offer to sell at the determined offer price or an offer to buy at the determined bid price the determined quantity, volume or amount of one of the products from one of the counterparties;
using a computer software adapted to receive and evaluate whether to accept the offer; and
accepting the offer without human intervention.
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Specification