ITEM RESERVATION

• US 20090319389A1
• Filed: 06/23/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Bapna, Abhishek, Muthukrishnan, Shanmugavelayutham, Feldman, Jon
• Granted Patent: US 8,301,491 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Items can be reserved in advance of a future spot market sale. A reservation price can be determined for the item based on an expected spot market price required to obtain the item in the future sport market sale, a time until the spot market sale, and/or market signals. The reservation price can converge to the expected spot market price as the time of the future spot market approaches.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining a future spot price for an item, the future spot price being an estimated price that is required for settlement in a spot market at a future time;

determining a time value factor that defines a time dependent value of acquiring the item prior to the item being offered in the spot market at the future time; and

determining a reservation price for the item at a current time based on the future spot price and the time value factor, the reservation price converging to the future spot price as the current time approaches the future time.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting the reservation price based on market signals.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining a market signal based on observed market conditions.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein adjusting the reservation price comprises increasing the reservation price based on a demand signal.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein adjusting the reservation price comprises decreasing the reservation price over time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the future spot price for the item comprises determining the future spot price for the item based on previous actual spot market prices for the item.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the spot market is an online auction.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the item is an online advertisement placement.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a bid for the item; and

reserving the item based on the bid and the reservation price.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the item is reserved when the bid satisfies the reservation price.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein reserving the item removes the item from a list of available items that are presented by a computer in response to a query.

12. A reservation system, comprising:

a pricing module to determine a reservation price for an item based on an expected future price for the item in a spot market at a future time; and

a reservation store to store auction information and reservation information for placements;

a feedback module to provide market signals to the pricing module,

wherein the pricing module is operable to adjust the reservation price based on a time remaining until the spot market.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the pricing module is further operable to adjust the reservation price based on market signals.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising an inventory module to identify and maintain a list of available placement inventory and provide a market signal to the feedback module based on the available placement inventory.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the inventory module is operable to reserve the item for a bidder when a bid satisfies the reservation price.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the inventory module is operable to remove the item from the list of available inventory when the item is reserved.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the feedback module is operable to provide an updated market signal when the item is removed from the list of available inventory.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the pricing module is further operable to determine the expected future price based on historical auction price information.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the spot market is an online auction.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the item is an online advertisement placement.

21. A device, comprising:

means for determining a future spot price for an item, the future spot price being an estimated price that is required for settlement in a spot market at a future time;

means for determining a time value factor that defines a time dependent value of acquiring the item prior to the item being offered in the spot market at the future time; and

means for determining a reservation price for the item at a current time based on the future spot price and the time value factor, the reservation price converging to the future spot price as the current time approaches the future time.

22. The device of claim 21, further comprising means for adjusting the reservation price based on market signals.