FAIR DISCOUNTING AUCTION

• US 20080313027A1
• Filed: 06/12/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jain, Kamal, Vohra, Rakesh Vinay, Pai, Mallesh
• Granted Patent: US 7,778,869 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0212 Chance discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 Rebates after completed purchase
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates employing an online auction in which a coupon is fairly administered. An online auction environment that can employ an auction to identify a fair market value of at least one of a good or a portion of a service, wherein the auction can receive at least one bid from a bidder with a coupon and a bidder without a coupon. A randomizer component that can select one of a collection of bidders having coupons or a collection of bidders not having coupons based on a randomizing technique, wherein the online auction environment can identify an auction winner as a highest bidder within the selected collection, the highest bidder provides a highest bid from both the collection of bidders having coupons and the collection of bidders not having coupons.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates employing an online auction in which a coupon is fairly administered, comprising:

an online auction environment that employs an auction to identify a fair market value of at least one of a good or a portion of a service;

the auction receives at least one bid from a bidder with a coupon and a bidder without a coupon;

a randomizer component that selects one of a collection of bidders having coupons or a collection of bidders not having coupons based on a randomizing technique; and

the online auction environment identifies an auction winner as a highest bidder within the selected collection, the highest bidder provides a highest bid from both the collection of bidders having coupons and the collection of bidders not having coupons.

2. The system of claim 1, the randomizing technique is at least one of a coin flip, a mathematical equation simulating a random outcome, a random number generator with a number designating an outcome, or a mathematical equation simulating a randomness of a coin flip.

3. The system of claim 1, the coupon is at least one of a discount, a promotion, a bundled product, a bundled service, a free good, a free service, a percent discount, a monetary value discount, a rebate, or a monetary benefit bundled with a purchase.

4. The system of claim 1, the good is an ad unit related to online advertising.

5. The system of claim 4, the ad unit is utilized by a publisher to sell for advertising and is the smallest unit of the advertisement that can be rendered.

6. The system of claim 4, the ad unit is sold at an ad price which is for the ad unit in a specific location on at least one of a website, a webpage, a page, or a site.

7. The system of claim 6, the ad price is a price for the ad unit in terms of a measurement that correlates to an estimate of traffic for the ad unit.

8. The system of claim 7, the measurement is at least one of a percent rotation for the advertisement, a cost/price per click (CPC), a price per 1000 impressions (CPM), a price per N impression, where N is a positive integer, or a unit of measurement related to a sale of a portion of the ad unit.

9. The system of claim 1, the auction winner, if selected from the collection of bidders having coupons, pays a price associated with the highest bid including the coupon.

10. The system of claim 1, the auction winner, if selected from the collection of bidders not having coupons, pays a price which is the maximum between 1) a price associated with the highest bid from the bidders not having coupons;

and

     2) a price associated with the highest bid from the bidders having coupons including the coupon.

11. The system of claim 1, at least one of the good or the portion of service is withheld from the auction based upon the highest bidder not being within the randomly selected collection.

12. The system of claim 1, the randomizer component employs the randomizing technique during at least one of the following instances:

before a start of an auction;

a start of an auction;

an end of an auction;

a point of time between the start of the auction and the end of the auction;

or after a conclusion of an auction.

13. The system of claim 1, the auction is at least one of a standardized high-bid winner auction, a Vickrey auction, a Dutch auction, a second price auction, a silent auction, a sealed-bid auction, or a mixed goods auction.

14. A computer-implemented method that facilitates enhancing an online auction environment by utilizing a coupon in a fair manner, comprising:

randomly selecting one of a collection of bidders with coupons or a collection of bidders without coupons;

receiving a bid within an auction or at least one of a good or a portion of service; and

identifying a winner of the auction if;

1) a bidder submits a highest bid amongst the collection of bidders with coupons and the collection of bidders without coupons; and

2) the bidder is within the randomly selected collection.

15. The method of claim 14, the good is an ad unit associated with online advertising space related to at least one of a website, a site, a page, a webpage, or an Internet address.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising randomly selecting the collection utilizing at least one of a coin flip, a mathematical equation simulating a random outcome, a random number generator with a number designating an outcome, or a mathematical equation simulating a randomness of a coin flip.

17. The method of claim 14, the coupon is at least one of a discount, a promotion, a bundled product, a bundled service, a free good, a free service, a percent discount, a monetary value discount, a rebate, or a monetary benefit bundled with a purchase.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

withholding at least one of the good or the portion of service if the highest bid is not from the randomly selected collection.

19. The method of claim 14, the auction is at least one of a standardized high-bid winner auction, a Vickrey auction, a Dutch auction, a second price auction, a silent auction, a sealed-bid auction, or a mixed goods auction.

20. A computer-implemented system that facilitates employing an online auction in which a coupon is fairly administered, comprising:

means for employing an auction to identify a fair market value of at least one of a good or a portion of a service;

means for receiving at least one bid from a bidder with a coupon and a bidder without a coupon;

means for randomly selecting one of a collection of bidders having coupons or a collection of bidders not having coupons; and

means for identifying an auction winner as a highest bidder within the selected collection, the highest bidder provides a highest bid from both the collection of bidders having coupons and the collection of bidders not having coupons.