DECISION SUPPORT FOR TAX RATE SELECTION

• US 20080103792A1
• Filed: 05/25/2007
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Biggs, Jody D., Flake, Gary W., Meek, Christopher A., Brewer, Brett D., Burdick, Brian, Dominowska, Ewa, Bal, Hrishikesh, Chickering, David Max
• Application Number:
  US11/753,784
• Publication Number:
  US 20080103792A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

For a multi-party advertising exchange including advertising and publishing entities, each participant specifies tax rate(s), such as import tax and export tax, that apply to at least one other entity in the exchange. Since tax rate(s) can be expressed in different transactional terms by different parties, each tax rate is reduced to a common tax rate expression within the exchange for comparison. Intelligent tax rate selection and support can be provided to dynamically set tax rates that achieve utilitarian goals for the individual participants taking into account the tax rates expressed by other participants and their respective advertising goals, and dynamically adjusting tax rates over time in response to condition changes. Various refinements are provided and disclosed according to a host of optional implementations.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating transactions for advertisement space in an advertising exchange that federates participants including publishers and advertisers from at least two disparate advertising networks, comprising:

inputting, by a participant to the advertising exchange, at least one objective of the participant according to at least one input process;

initiating at least one transaction in the advertising exchange with at least one other participant in the advertising exchange; and

automatically translating the at least one objective to at least one tax applying to the at least one other participant as a term of the at least one transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

exposing to the participant at least one tax of the other participant to apply to the participant as a term of the at least one transaction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the translating includes automatically translating the at least one objective to the at least one tax based on the at least one tax of the other participant.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the translating includes translating the at least one objective to an import tax applying to the at least one transaction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the translating includes translating the at least one objective to an export tax applying to the at least one transaction.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the translating includes translating the at least one objective to an exchange tax applying to the at least one transaction.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the inputting includes inputting, by a participant to the advertising exchange, at least one objective of the participant with respect to any one or more of revenue, risk, quality, relevance or volume of an aspect of the at least one transaction.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically changing the at least one tax as a reactive measure to a change of the at least one tax of the other participant.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically changing the at least one tax as a reactive measure to a change of supply condition or demand condition, or both, of the advertising exchange.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically changing the at least one tax for the participant including evaluating a performance metric for past tax rates or fees selected by the participant relative to the at least one objective of the participant.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the translating includes normalizing the at least one objective to a common tax measure for the at least one tax of the participant.

12. A computing device comprising means for performing the method of claim 1.

13. A system to facilitate trading of advertising, comprising:

a publisher broker to represent at least one publisher, wherein the publisher broker determines an ask for an advertisement space on the at least one publisher'"'"'s webpage;

an advertiser broker to represent at least one advertiser, wherein the advertiser broker manages one of the at least one advertiser'"'"'s bid for the advertisement space;

an exchange to facilitate a transaction for the advertisement space between the publisher broker and the advertiser broker; and

at least one tool provided at the publisher broker or the advertiser broker that automatically determines at least one tax rate or fee for the publisher broker or the advertiser broker that applies to the transaction in the exchange.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one tool determines an optimal import tax or optimal export tax, or both, on the objectives of the publisher broker or advertiser broker in the exchange.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one tool determines the at least one tax rate or fee based on the objectives of the publisher broker or advertiser broker in the exchange.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one tool determines the at least one tax rate or fee based on current market conditions of the exchange.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one tool changes the at least one tax rate or fee as a reaction to a change of a tax rate or fee of another publisher broker or advertiser broker.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one tool changes the at least one tax rate or fee based on an evaluation of past performance of tax rates or fees for the participant.

19. A method for facilitating transactions for advertisement space in an advertising exchange that federates participants including publishing entities and advertising entities from at least two disparate advertising networks, comprising:

initiating, by a participant in the advertising exchange, at least one transaction with at least one other participant in the advertising exchange; and

automatically applying at least one tax to the at least one transaction in the advertising exchange on behalf of the participant that applies to the at least one other participant.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the applying includes applying the at least one objective to an export tax, an import tax, or both applying to the at least one transaction.