METHOD, SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATIC REAL-TIME ITERATIVE COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS OVER THE INTERNET IN A MULTIPLE-BUYER, MULTIPLE-SELLER MARKETPLACE OPTIMIZING BOTH BUYER AND SELLER NEEDS BASED UPON THE DYNAMICS OF MARKET CONDITIONS

• US 20100191580A1
• Filed: 03/03/2010
• Published: 07/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peak Silver Advisors LLC
• Original Assignee: Peak Silver Advisors LLC
• Inventors: Chatter, Priti, Goyal, Rohit, Chatter, Mukesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,577,745 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A method of communications network shopping by buyers of products and services for purchasing such from sellers in which buyers request an automatic reverse auctioneer or auction controller to initiate a reverse auction in real time amongst willing sellers and to solicit their automatic real-time iterative bidding price quotations for such products and services to be returned automatically over the network back to the controller under the iterative processing guidance of the controller to assure a best bid price quotation for the buyer; and automatically effecting buyer notification or purchase at such best price, all while the buyer may remain on-line, and without any manual intervention.

Claims

6. A method of automatically conducting a reverse auction in real-time and on-line over the Internet for buyers and sellers of products and/or services, that comprises:

submitting buyer requests over the Internet to the sellers through an intermediate reverse auction controller and accompanied by respective buyer-specific personal profile information;

receiving over the Internet at the controller and processing the sellers'"'"' price quotations, each automatically tailored by the respective seller to the respective buyer'"'"'s specific profile information;

automatically successively returning to the sellers the better of such price quotations received at the controller for seller-iterative further automatic bettering of the price bids amongst the sellers, each also based upon each seller-specific predetermined marketing strategy and/or market conditions;

continuing the iterative bidding until a best price bid quotation is received at the controller; and

thereupon automatically notifying the buyer of such best price quotation and/or effecting purchase.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the reverse auction is conducted and completed while the buyer remains on-line on the Internet.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein there is no manual intervention in the conducting of the reverse auction.

9. A method of conducting real-time commercial transactions between buyers and sellers of products and services through an intermediate reverse auction controller communicating on-line with both buyer and seller over the Internet,

the method comprising:

submitting on-line buyer requests for seller price quotations in a customer packet containing at least one of the buyer request;

respective buyer-specific personal profile; and

/or respective buyer shopping portfolio information;

through the intermediate controller, to sellers each equipped with an automatic seller engine storing that seller'"'"'s specific predetermined marketing strategy and/or market condition information;

automatically processing at the controller the price quotations received back from the sellers to initiate iterative rounds of real-time automatic seller engine competitive bettering of the price quotations within each seller'"'"'s respective specific predetermined marketing strategy and/or market conditions, and until a best price quotation is received; and

thereupon automatically notifying the buyer of such best price quotation.

10. A method of conducting a fully automated on-demand instantaneous and real-time reverse auction for products and/or services over the Internet wherein buyers request a reverse auction controller to solicit from sellers quotes and iterative automatic competitive bidding amongst the sellers in order to become the best-price supplier for the buyer,

the method comprising:

buyers initiating on-line Internet requests to the controller for soliciting quotations on identified products or services and/or for conducting a reverse auction amongst the sellers;

automatically processing such requests at the reverse auction controller and immediately forwarding the same as a customer packet including at least one of the request;

specific unique individual buyer profile information; and

/or information as to the specific buyer'"'"'s shopping portfolio;

over the Internet to a plurality of sellers each having respective automated seller engines containing information data unique to the seller'"'"'s individual business model-driven constraints and/or to market data;

upon receipt from the controller of a customer packet, dynamically and automatically generating in each seller'"'"'s respective engine, a unique bid quotation tailor-made for that buyer and based upon buyer-specific information in the customer packet, the prevailing market conditions and/or the competitive environment, and transmitting the bid quotation automatically back to the controller over the Internet;

causing the controller thereupon to process the bid quotations received from the sellers, and to set the seller engines into automatically competing amongst themselves, for iterative better bids using the current best bid quotations as a basis for further successive automated rounds until only a best bid quotation remains, and with the controller matching the best bid with the buyer'"'"'s request in real-time and without any manual intervention; and

automatically notifying the buyer of the best bid.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said buyer shopping portfolio is for multiple similar or dissimilar products.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the controller initiation of the reverse auction process and the real-time matching of seller automated engines bid quotations in response to the desired buyer request is conducted while the buyer remains on-line.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein said process is effectible 24 hours a day, seven days a week

14. The method of claim 10 wherein said buyer information includes one or more of buyer'"'"'s prior purchasing volumes and price ranges, willingness to accept seller or reverse auction service provider promotions and/or advertisements, particular classes of desired sellers, and price limits.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein said best bid represents the lowest price.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein said best bid represents the highest rate.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein said automatic reverse auction obviates the requirement and expense of manual tracking and comparisons across many seller competitors.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein the buyer obtains not only instantaneous on-demand non-stale response to its request, but also benefits by the forced real-time iterative competition amongst the sellers.

19. The method of claim 10 wherein the buyer requests that only certain class/classes of sellers participate in the iterative competitive seller bidding.

20. The method of claim 10 wherein the buyer sets a desired price limit for its shopping portfolio and desired product(s).

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the buyer requests an automatic price watch, and if and when the controller finds that such price is matched by a bid, the buyer is automatically so notified.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the buyer requests an automatic price watch, and if and when such price is found by the controller to be matched by a bid, the requested product or service is automatically purchased.

23. The method of claim 10 wherein said reverse auction allows the buyer to obtain the best possible price from multiple sellers, but also enables the seller to compete iteratively in real-time for the buyer'"'"'s business.

24. The method of claim 10 wherein each seller automated engine maintains its own pricing data therein, thereby enabling dynamically generating a unique price tailor-made for each buyer based on the customer packet, prevailing market conditions and/or the competitive environment.

25. The method of claim 10 wherein said buyer profile contains details for the controller to develop a unique buyer consumer index to assist the seller automated engines in offering bid prices better than are available to buyers generally and are commensurate with and specific to the buyer profile.

26. The method of claim 25 where said consumer index also enables the seller automated engines to do targeted advertising and/or promotions of buyer interest.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the buyer may designate sub-buyers and their respective profiles on the account of the buyer.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the buyer and its sub-buyers pool their buying power to obtain optimum seller automated engine pricing and/or obtain group discount eligibility.

29. The method of claim 10 wherein a private reverse auction is requested and conducted amongst preselected sellers only.

75. The method of claim 10 wherein the controller subdivides groups of dissimilar products among corresponding groups of matching sellers.

76. The method of claim 10 wherein sellers return bids contingent upon predetermined circumstances.

77. The method of claim 76 wherein the seller'"'"'s bid may be a bid quotation contingent upon buyer credit approval.

30. A method of communications network shopping by buyers of products and/or services for purchasing such from sellers, comprising:

buyers requesting an automatic reverse auction controller over the network to conduct a reverse auction in real time amongst willing sellers and to solicit their automatic real-time iterative bidding price quotations for such products and services, to be returned automatically over the network back to the controller under the iterative processing guidance of the controller to assure a best bid price quotation for the buyer; and

automatically effecting buyer notification or purchase at such best price, all without any manual intervention.

31. A system for automatically conducting a reverse auction in real-time and on-line over a communications network for buyers and sellers of products and services, having in combination:

buyer and seller computers and an intermediate reverse auctioneer controller communicating in real time with said computers on-line over the network;

the buyer computer submitting buyer requests for price quotation bids over the network to the sellers through the intermediate reverse auctioneer controller for the seller computers automatically to respond to the controller back over the network with such price quotations;

the intermediate reverse auctioneer controller being provided with a processor for processing the seller price quotations received back over the network at the controller and for successively returning them to the seller computers for iterative further automatic price bid bettering amongst the sellers, until a best price quotation is received; and

the controller thereupon enabling the automatic notifying of, or purchasing by, the buyer at such best price quotation.

32. The system of claim 31 and in which the reverse auction is adapted for being conducted at any time, twenty four hours a say, seven days a week, and on a global basis.

33. The system of claim 32 and in which the reverse auction is conducted and completed while the buyer may remain on-line on the network.

34. The system of claim 32 wherein there is no manual intervention in the conducting of the reverse auction.

35. A system for automatically conducting a reverse auction in real time and on-line over the Internet for buyers and sellers of products and/or services, that comprises:

buyer and seller computers and an intermediate reverse auctioneer controller communicating in real time with buyer and seller computers on-line over the Internet;

the buyer computer submitting buyer requests over the Internet to the sellers through the intermediate reverse auctioneer controller as a customer packet including at least one of the buyer request, buyer-specific profile information, and/or buyer-specific shopping portfolio information;

the controller being provided with a processor for receiving and processing the seller price quotations, automatically tailored to information in the customer packet, and for successively returning to the seller computers the better of such price quotations received at the controller for seller-iterative further automatic bettering of the price bids amongst the sellers, each based upon seller-specific predetermined marketing strategy and/or the current market conditions until a best price bid quotation is received; and

the controller thereupon enabling the automatic notifying of, or purchasing by, the buyer at such best price quotation.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the reverse auction is conducted and completed while the buyer may remain on-line on the Internet.

37. The system of claim 35 wherein there is no manual intervention in the conducting of the reverse auction.

38. A system for conducting real-time transactions between buyers and sellers of products and/or services through an intermediate reverse auctioneer controller communicating on-line with both buyer and seller over the Internet, the system having, in combination:

a processor contained in the intermediate reverse auctioneer controller for receiving over the Internet and automatically processing on-line buyer requests for seller price quotations and for thereupon communicating the same over the Internet to sellers as a customer packet including at least one of the buyer request, buyer-specific personal profile information, and/or buyer-specific shopping portfolio information;

each seller being equipped with a seller automatic engine storing that seller'"'"'s specific predetermined marketing strategy and/or market condition information and responsive to the buyer requests in order automatically to create and to respond to the controller with a price quotation based upon the buyer request and information in the customer packet, and within the respective guidelines of seller-specific predetermined information stored in that seller'"'"'s automatic seller engine;

said processor automatically processing the price quotations received back over the Internet from the seller automatic engines to initiate an iterative real-time automatic seller engine competitive bettering of the price quotations within said respective guidelines, until a best price quotation is received; and

the controller thereupon enabling the automatic notifying of, or purchasing by, the buyer at such best price quotation.

1. A method of automatically conducting a reverse auction in real-time and on-line over a communication network for buyers and sellers of products and/or services, that comprises:

submitting buyer requests for seller price quotation bids over the network to the sellers through an intermediate reverse auction controller; and

automatically processing seller price quotations received back over the network at the controller and successively returning the better price quotations to the sellers for iterative further automatic price bid further bettering amongst the sellers, until a best price quotation is received; and

communicating the best price quotation back to the buyer for purchase at the best price quotation.

2. The method of claim 1 and in which the reverse auction may be conducted at any time, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and on a global basis.

3. The method of claim 2 and in which the reverse auction may be conducted and completed while the buyer remains on-line.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said buyer requests include a targeted price watch request;

and, upon the controller automatically finding a seller price bid match of said targeted price, automatically so notifying the buyer and/or effecting said purchase.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein there is no manual intervention in the conducting of the reverse auction.

39. The system of claim 38 wherein the system conducts said transactions totally automatically without any manual intervention.

40. The system of claim 38 wherein the reverse auctioneer controller initiation of the reverse auction process and the real-time matching of seller automated engines bid quotations in response to the desired buyer request is conducted while the buyer may remain on-line.

41. The system of claim 40 wherein said auction is effectible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

42. The system of claim 38 wherein the purchasing history and shopping portfolio includes one or more of buyer'"'"'s prior purchasing volumes and price ranges, willingness to accept seller or reverse auction service provider promotions and/or advertisements, particular classes of desired sellers and price limits.

43. The system of claim 38 wherein said best bid represents the lowest price.

45. The system of claim 38 wherein said best bid represents a highest rate.

46. The system of claim 38 wherein the operation of said automatic reverse auction obviates the requirement and expense of manual tracking and comparisons across many seller competitors.

47. The system of claim 38 wherein the buyer obtains not only instantaneous on-demand non-stale response to its request, but also benefits by the forced real-time iterative competition amongst the sellers.

48. The system of claim 38 wherein the auction is a private auction involving only pre-selected invited sellers.

49. The system of claim 38 wherein the buyer sets a desired price limit for its shopping portfolio or desired product.

50. The system of claim 38 where the buyer requests multiple products for the auction.

51. The system of claim 38 wherein the buyer requests an automatic price watch, and if and when the reverse auction controller determines that such price is matched by a bid, buyer is automatically so notified.

52. The system of claim 49 wherein buyer requests an automatic price watch, and if and when the reverse auction controller automatically determines that such price is matched by a bid, the controller automatically effects the purchase of the requested product or service.

53. The system of claim 38 wherein said reverse auction allows the buyer to obtain the best possible price from multiple sellers, but also enables the seller to compete iteratively in real-time for the buyer'"'"'s business.

54. The system of claim 38 wherein each seller automated engine maintains its own pricing data therein, dynamically generating a unique price tailor-made for each buyer based on the customer packet, prevailing market conditions and/or the competitive environment.

55. The system of claim 38 wherein said buyer profile contains details for the reverse auctioneer controller to develop a unique buyer consumer index to assist the seller automated engines in offering bid prices better than are generally available to buyers and are commensurate with and specific to the buyer profile.

56. The system of claim 55 wherein said consumer index also enables the seller automated engines to do targeted advertising and/or promotions of buyer interest.

57. The system of claim 55 wherein the buyer may designate sub-buyers and their respective profiles on the account of the buyer.

58. The system of claim 57 wherein the buyer and its sub-buyers pool their buying power to obtain optimum seller automated engine pricing and/or obtain group discount eligibility.

47-1. The system of claim 38 wherein the buyer designates that certain class/classes of sellers only, participate in the iterative competitive seller bidding.

59. A method of automatically requesting and receiving in real-time and on-line over a communication network, twenty four hours a day and seven days a week, on a global basis, price quotations from sellers of products and/or services, that comprises:

submitting buyer requests for seller price quotation over the network to the sellers through an intermediate controller;

automatically generating a price quotation at a seller responsive to the buyer'"'"'s request and returning the quotation to the controller over the Internet;

automatically processing the seller price quotations received back over the network at the controller and thereupon communicating them back to the buyer, all with no manual intervention;

thereby enabling a buyers decision in real-time.

60. The method of claim 59 and in which the automatic processing at the controller includes seeking a match of a buyer'"'"'s price request and a seller'"'"'s price quotation and thereupon automatically notifying the buyer of such match or effecting the buyer purchase.

61. The method of claim 59 wherein the buyer request includes buyer-specific profile information, and the seller price quotation reflects consideration of such buyer-specific profile information in the automatic generating of the price quotation.

62. A method of conducting real-time transactions between buyers and sellers of products and/or services through an intermediate controller communicating on-line with both buyer and seller over the Internet, the method comprising:

submitting on-line buyer requests for seller price quotations, through the intermediate controller, to sellers each equipped with an automatic seller engine storing that seller'"'"'s specific predetermined marketing strategy and market condition information;

automatically generating in each seller automatic engine a price quotation responsive to the buyer'"'"'s request for quotation, and automatically returning the quotation to the controller over the Internet; and

automatically processing at the controller the price quotations received back from the sellers and automatically communicating back to the buyer the better of the price quotations received from the sellers, all with no manual intervention;

thereby enabling a buyer'"'"'s purchasing decision.

63. A method of conducting real-time transactions between buyers and sellers of products and/or services through an intermediate controller communicating on-line with both buyer and seller over the Internet, the method comprising:

submitting on-line buyer requests for seller price quotations accompanied by respective buyer-specific personal profile, through the intermediate controller, to sellers each equipped with an automatic seller engine storing that seller'"'"'s specific predetermined marketing strategy and market condition information;

automatically generating in each seller automatic engine a price quotation responsive to the buyer'"'"'s request for quotation, tailored to the buyer'"'"'s said specific profile and within the respective seller'"'"'s said specific marketing strategy and/or market condition information and automatically returning the quotation to the controller;

automatically processing at the controller the price quotations received back from the sellers and automatically communicating back to the buyer the better of the price quotations received from the sellers, all with no manual intervention.

64. The method of claim 63 wherein each submitted buyer request is accompanied by buyer-specific shopping portfolio information.

71. The method of claim 64 wherein the buyer fills in elements of various fields of a data information packet, including requested product or service identification and personal buyer-specific profile information where appropriate, and providing such to the controller by way of a request for the initiation of a reverse auction amongst appropriate sellers in the controller database, or just a request for price quotations from such sellers;

and

the controller processes this buyer raw data information and adds additional information to fields of the submitted data packet, and, from its stored database of sellers, selects those that may match the buyer'"'"'s product requests and forwards this “

initialized”

packet to such sellers.

72. The method of claim 71 wherein at the seller end, initialized packet information is received and processed, and the seller'"'"'s engine automatically proceeds to update the packet by adding thereto the seller'"'"'s price bid quotation, thereupon returning this now “

intermediate”

packet to the controller.

73. The method of claim 72 wherein the controller automatically collects and processes the intermediate packets from the sellers, compares the received bids, and further updates the recently participating sellers with statistics to be added to their databases of competitive marketing information;

and the controller enables refinements of the buyer using the packet to request target price and time frame in price watches, and for automated notification and/or automated purchase.

74. The method of claim 73 wherein the invention thus enables the same data packet to be used by all of the buyer, the controller and the seller for their respective needs, thereby minimizing an explosion of required data packets and minimizing the time the buyer must spend online.

65. A system for automatically requesting and receiving in real-time and on-line over the Internet price quotations from sellers of products and/or services, having, in combination:

buyer and seller computers and an intermediate controller communicating in real time with both computers on-line over the Internet;

the buyer computer submitting buyer requests for price quotation bids to the sellers, through the intermediate controller, for the seller computers automatically to respond to the controller with such price quotations;

the controller being provided with a processor for processing the seller price quotations received back at the controller and thereupon automatically communicating them back to the buyer computer, and all with no manual intervention.

66. The system of claim 65 and in which the buyer request includes buyer-specific profile information, and the seller quotation reflects consideration of such buyer-specific profile information in the seller automatic price quotation response.

67. The system of claim 66 wherein the automatic processing at the controller includes the processor seeking a match of a buyer'"'"'s price request and a seller'"'"'s price quotation and thereupon automatically notifying the buyer of such match or effecting the buyer purchase.

68. A system for conducting real-time transactions between buyers and sellers of products and/or services through an intermediate controller communicating on-line with both buyer and seller over a communication network, the system having, in combination:

a processor contained in the intermediate controller for receiving over the network and automatically processing on-line buyer requests for seller price quotations, accompanied by respective buyer-specific personal profile and shopping portfolio information, and for thereupon communicating the same requests over the network to sellers;

each seller being equipped with a seller automatic engine storing that seller'"'"'s specific predetermined marketing strategy and market condition information and responsive to the communicated buyer requests in order automatically to create and to respond to the controller with a price quotation based upon the buyer request and said buyer-specific profile information where supplied and within the respective guidelines of the seller-specific predetermined information stored in that seller'"'"'s automatic seller engine;

said processor automatically processing at the controller the price quotations received back over the network from the seller automatic engines and automatically communicating back to the buyer the better of the price quotations received from the sellers, all with no manual intervention.

69. A method of automatically conducting a reverse auction in real-time and on-line over a communication network for buyers and sellers of products and/or services connected to the network, that comprises:

interposing an intermediate controller in the network between the buyers and sellers and causing the controller automatically to respond to buyers'"'"' requests and automatically to conduct iterative seller bidding to achieve a best price quotation for the buyer.

70. The method of claim 69 wherein the further steps are performed of automatically effecting buyer notification and/or purchase at such best mice, and without any manual intervention.