System and method providing market mechanisms for trading in forward contracts on heterogeneous goods
First Claim
1. A box office for trading in forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to events, comprising:
- a computerized exchange for trading forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to events, the exchange comprising;
a storage medium having instructions and data structures;
a central processing unit operable to manipulate the data structures and to perform operations based on the instructions, the instructions including;
instructions to cause the central processing unit to create a market for forward contracts exchangeable for tickets issued from an issuer wherein each forward contract guarantees delivery of at least one ticket satisfying a ticket description, the instructions including instructions to cause the central processing unit to;
receive bid and ask requests for forward contracts exchangeable for tickets wherein each bid and ask includes a tickets description;
match bid records against ask records using a matching criteria including instructions to match multiple asks to satisfy one bid by aggregating tickets descriptions from the multiple asks or unreleased ticket inventory to satisfy the tickets description in a bid record; and
upon close of the market in forward contracts exchangeable for tickets, delivering from the issuer to a holder of forward contracts, tickets corresponding to each respective forward contract ticket description.
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Accused Products
Abstract
System and method for trading in forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to events. A computerized exchange of the box office provides for trading forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to events. Instructions direct a central processing unit to receive bid and ask requests for forward contracts wherein each bid and ask includes a tickets description, match bid records against ask records using a matching criteria including instructions to match multiple asks or unreleased ticket inventory to satisfy one bid by aggregating tickets descriptions from the multiple asks or unreleased ticket inventory to satisfy the tickets description in a bid record, and upon close of the virtual market in forward contracts, delivering from the issuer to a holder of forward contracts, tickets corresponding to each respective forward contract ticket description.
39 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A box office for trading in forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to events, comprising:
a computerized exchange for trading forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to events, the exchange comprising; a storage medium having instructions and data structures; a central processing unit operable to manipulate the data structures and to perform operations based on the instructions, the instructions including;
instructions to cause the central processing unit to create a market for forward contracts exchangeable for tickets issued from an issuer wherein each forward contract guarantees delivery of at least one ticket satisfying a ticket description, the instructions including instructions to cause the central processing unit to;receive bid and ask requests for forward contracts exchangeable for tickets wherein each bid and ask includes a tickets description; match bid records against ask records using a matching criteria including instructions to match multiple asks to satisfy one bid by aggregating tickets descriptions from the multiple asks or unreleased ticket inventory to satisfy the tickets description in a bid record; and upon close of the market in forward contracts exchangeable for tickets, delivering from the issuer to a holder of forward contracts, tickets corresponding to each respective forward contract ticket description. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of operating a box office for trading in forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to events to create a computerized market for forward contracts exchangeable for tickets issued from an issuer wherein each forward contract guarantees delivery of at least one ticket satisfying a ticket description, comprising:
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receive on a server computer bid and ask requests for forward contracts exchangeable for tickets wherein each bid and ask includes a tickets description and is transmitted to the server computer from a user; operating the server computer to match bid records against ask records using a matching criteria including instructions to match multiple asks to satisfy one bid by aggregating tickets descriptions from the multiple asks or unreleased ticket inventory to satisfy the tickets description in a bid record; and upon close of the market in forward contracts, causing the server computer to deliver from the issuer to a holder of forward contracts, tickets corresponding to each respective forward contract ticket description. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A box office for trading in forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to events, comprising:
a computerized exchange for trading forward contracts exchangeable for tickets, the exchange comprising; a storage medium having instructions and data structures; a central processing unit operable to manipulate the data structures and to perform operations based on the instructions; a network connection connected to the central processing unit and to a network, the network connection operable to enable the data processing system to receive messages from and transmit messages to remote client computers; wherein the instructions comprise instructions to cause the central processing unit to; associate an entity, as a holder, with a forward contract exchangeable for tickets to an event, wherein the forward contract guarantees delivery of at least one ticket satisfying a contract definition from a ticket issuer to the holder wherein the contract definition provides a definition translatable into seat assignments; receive on the network bid messages for forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to the event from prospective buyers of forward contracts for tickets to the event; and receive on the network ask messages from respective holders of forward contracts for tickets to the event; wherein the data structures further comprises; an order book data structure associating bid values and ask values with respect to forward contracts exchangeable for tickets, and a holder data structure associating the respective forward contracts with the respective holders of each forward contract in the market for forward contracts exchangeable for tickets to the event; wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to cause the central processing unit to; create a bid record in the order book data structure in response to receiving a bid message; create an ask record in the order book data structure in response to receiving an ask message from a holder of a forward contract; match bid records against ask records against a matching criteria including instructions to match multiple asks or unreleased ticket inventory to satisfy one bid by coalescing contract definitions from the multiple asks or unreleased ticket inventory to satisfy the contract definition in a bid record; upon successfully matching a bid to an ask for one of the forward contracts, update a record in the holder data structure to identify the buyer associated with the matching bid for the forward contract as the current holder of the forward contract corresponding to the ask record; upon a closing of the market, deliver tickets satisfying the contract definition corresponding to each respective forward contract to the holder of the forward contract as indicated in the holder data structure at the time of closing of the market in forward contracts for tickets to the event. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
Specification