Network-based system for facilitating interactive participation by remote bidders in live auctions

• US 20020174060A1
• Filed: 07/01/2002
• Published: 11/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Noah S. Friedland, Sky T. Kruse
• Inventors: Friedland, Noah S., Kruse, Sky T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,216,103 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

A distributed auction system allows remote bidders to interactively participate by computer in live auctions conducted on-site by an auctioneer. The system includes a console program that runs on a computer at a site of the auction. A human proxy that attends the live auction enters auction state information into an interface of the console program for real time dissemination to the remote bidders. The human proxy also receives via the interface information about valid bids placed by the remote bidders, and communicates such bids to the auctioneer. The auction state information is disseminated to the remote bidders via a set of nodes that are hierarchically connected such that different nodes are assigned to different sets of remote bidders. These nodes also filter out invalid bids received from the remote bidders, based on stored auction state information, to prevent such bids from unnecessarily being communicated to the human proxy.

Claims

1. A method for distributing a live auction conducted by a human auctioneer to remote bidders over a communications network, the live auction having a state reflecting a history of auction transactions and information about sequences and groupings of items to be sold, the method comprising:

monitoring the live auction to detect changes in the state of the live auction;

when a change in the state of the live auction is detected, encapsulating the detected state change in a first message and transmitting the first message over the communications network to the remote bidders;

monitoring the remote bidders to detect submissions of bids by the remote bidders;

when submission of a bid by a remote bidder is detected, encapsulating the bid into a second message, and transmitting the second message on the computer network;

processing the second message at an intermediate node on the computer network to determine whether the bid is valid; and

if the bid is determined by the intermediate node to be valid, transmitting the second message from the intermediate node to a site of the live auction over the communications network for submission of the bid to the auctioneer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the intermediate node is one of a plurality of intermediate nodes that filter out invalid bids from the remote bidders, said plurality of intermediate nodes arranged in a hierarchy such that each node services a respective subset of the remote bidders.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the second message at an intermediate node comprises comparing the bid to auction state information stored by the intermediate node to determine whether the bid is valid.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the live auction to detect changes in the state of the live auction comprises providing for a human proxy at the site of the live auction to detect, and to input data describing, said changes in the state of the live auction.

5. A method for allowing remote bidders to participate by computer in a live auction conducted by an auctioneer in the presence of on-site bidders, the method comprising:

maintaining a real time state of the live auction on an auction server, wherein the auction server determines the real time state based at least upon (a) bids submitted by the remote bidders; and

(b) state information entered into a computer by a human proxy for the remote bidders, including information about successful bids from the on-site bidders;

communicating information about the real time state of the auction from the auction server to a plurality of network nodes for distribution to the remote bidders to thereby allow the remote bidders to monitor the auction in real time;

with the plurality of nodes, receiving bids from the remote bidders, and filtering out invalid bids based at least upon the real time state information received from the auction server; and

communicating valid bids from the plurality of nodes to the auction server, and from the auction server to the human proxy for submission to the auctioneer;

whereby at least some of the invalid bids are prevented from being transmitted to the auction server so that a processing load on the auction server is reduced.

6. The method as in claim 5, wherein filtering out invalid bids comprises, at a node of the plurality of nodes, comparing a monetary amount of a bid submitted by a remote bidder to a current high bid amount.

7. The method as in claim 5, wherein filtering out invalid bids comprises, at a node of the plurality of nodes, determining whether a bid message received from a remote bidder identifies a currently valid auction.

8. The method as in claim 5, wherein filtering out invalid bids comprises, at a node of the plurality of nodes, determining whether a bid message received from a remote bidder identifies a currently valid lot.

9. The method as in claim 5, further comprising blocking, at a node of the plurality of nodes, a request by a user to connect to a current auction when the user is not authorized to participate in the auction.

10. The method as in claim 5, further comprising maintaining on the auction server the real time states of a plurality of additional auctions concurrently.

11. The method as in claim 5, wherein the plurality of nodes include multiple leaf nodes of a tree structure, and the method further comprises maintaining connections with the remote bidders such that each leaf node maintains connections with a different subset of the remote bidders.

13. The system as in claim 12, wherein the auction console program includes user interface functions for the human proxy to select predefined auction status messages to broadcast to the remote bidders.

14. The system as in claim 12, wherein the auction console program comprises an applet which runs within a web browser program.

15. The system as in claim 12, further comprising a client program that is adapted to be used by the remote bidders, the client program configured to encapsulate a bid submission from a remote bidder for transmission to the auction server, and to display real time auction status information to the remote bidder.

16. The system as in claim 12, wherein the auction server comprises a database which stores state information for multiple auctions concurrently, including auctions occurring in different locations.

17. The system as in claim 12, further comprising a network of nodes coupled between the auction server and the computers of the remote bidders, wherein a plurality of said nodes are programmed to filter bid messages from the computers of remote bidders based on auction state information received from the auction server, such that at least some bid messages that represent invalid bids are prevented from unnecessarily being passed to the auction server.

18. The system as in claim 17, wherein the plurality of nodes include multiple leaf nodes, each leaf node maintaining connections with a respective subset of the remote bidders.

19. The system as in claim 17, wherein each of the plurality of nodes is programmed to block bid messages based on comparisons of bid amounts of the bid messages to a current high bid.

12. A system for allowing remote bidders to participate by computer in a live auction conducted by a human auctioneer in the presence of on-site bidders, the system comprising:

an auction console program which runs on a computer at a site of the auction, the auction console program providing an interface for a human proxy to communicate with the remote bidders in real time about the live auction, the interface providing functionality for the human proxy to receive bids from the remote bidders for communication to the auctioneer, and further providing functionality for the human proxy to enter information about a current state of the auction, including information about successful bids from on-site bidders; and

an auction server which communicates with the console program and with computers of the remote bidders, the auction server programmed to maintain a real time auction state which reflects the information entered by the human proxy and bids submitted by the remote bidders, the auction server further programmed to communicate information about the real time auction state to the remote bidders to allow the remote bidders to monitor the auction in real time.

20. A method for allowing remote bidders to participate in real time by computer in a live auction conducted by an auctioneer in the presence of on-site bidders, comprising:

maintaining a real time state of the live auction on an auction server, wherein the auction server determines the real time state based at least upon (a) bids submitted by the remote bidders; and

(b) state information entered into a computer by a human proxy for the remote bidders, including information about successful bids from the on-site bidders;

communicating information about the real time state of the auction from the auction server over a computer network to computers of the remote bidders to thereby allow the remote bidders to monitor the auction in real time; and

communicating valid bids submitted by the remote bidders from the auction server to the human proxy for submission to the auctioneer, such that the remote bidders participate in the auction by computer in real time.

21. The method as in claim 20, further comprising maintaining on the auction server the real time states of a plurality of additional auctions concurrently.

22. The method as in claim 20, further comprising, at each of a plurality of nodes coupled between the auction server and the computers of the remote bidder, filtering out invalid bids based upon real time state information received from the auction server to reduce a processing load on the auction server.