SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENCOURAGING COMPETITIVE PARTICIPATION IN AN AUCTION

• US 20140114791A1
• Filed: 01/02/2014
• Published: 04/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Inventor Holdings LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Inventor Holdings LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Inventors: Walker, Jay S., Van Luchene, Andrew S., Tedesco, Daniel E.
• Application Number:
  US14/146,344
• Publication Number:
  US 20140114791A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

In both an on-line and a conventional auction, an auctioneer may encourage competitive bidding behavior through the provision of rewards to those bidders whose bids meet predetermined criteria. For example, a bidder may be rewarded if her bid exceeds a prior bid by a threshold value. An auctioneer may further discourage non-competitive bidding behavior by penalizing those bidders whose bids fall below predetermined standards.

Claims

1. A method of rewarding desired bidding behavior in an auction for the sale of a product, the auction comprising a start time and an end time, and the auction comprising bidding data descriptive of bids that have been submitted in the auction and for the product, the method comprising:

identifying, by an auction server, a plurality of bidders associated with the bidding data;

determining, by the auction server, a predetermined auction bidding condition stored in a database;

determining, by the auction server and by comparing the auction bidding data to the predetermined auction bidding condition, that a bidding behavior reward offer should be output;

selecting, by the auction server, at least one bidder from the plurality of bidders;

transmitting, by the auction server and to a device associated with the selected at least one bidder, the bidding behavior reward offer;

determining, by the auction server, that the at least one bidder accepts the bidding behavior reward offer; and

providing, via the auction server and to the at least one bidder, prior to the end time of the auction, a reward associated with the bidding behavior reward offer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the plurality of bidders comprises identifying a plurality of respective unique bidder identifiers associated with the bids that have been submitted in the auction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined auction bidding condition comprises one or more of:

(i) a condition that less than a threshold number of bids have been received in a certain time period;

(ii) a condition that a high bid in the auction is below a predetermined threshold, and;

(iii) a condition that the high bid in the auction is below the predetermined threshold after a certain amount of elapsed time of the auction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting of the at least one bidder from the plurality of bidders is based on a determination that the at least one bidder satisfies a qualifying criteria.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the providing of the reward:

determining, by the auction server, that the at least one bidder has satisfied a qualifying condition of the bidding behavior reward offer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the qualifying condition of the bidding behavior reward offer comprises one or more of a condition that:

(i) the at least one bidder submits a bid within a predetermined threshold amount of time after a submission of a previous bid;

(ii) the at least one bidder submits a number of increasing magnitude bids exceeding a predetermined threshold;

(iii) a bid by the at least one bidder exceeds a current high bid by a predetermined bid spread; and

(iv) a bid by the at least one bidder is submitted after a predetermined amount of time since a previous bid was submitted.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the qualifying condition of the bidding behavior reward offer comprises a condition that one or more of:

(i) the greatest bid in the auction exceeds a certain threshold; and

(ii) the at least one bidder has participated in greater than a predetermined number of previous auctions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises a random selection.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the reward comprises one or more of:

(i) a supplement to a bid made by the at least one bidder;

(ii) a unit of a different product;

(iii) an amount of frequent flyer miles;

(iv) a warranty for the product; and

(v) a free shipment of the product.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the reward is provided by a third-party.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

altering, based upon a request from the at least one bidder, the end time of the auction.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

rating the at least one bidder based on the at least one bidder'"'"'s previous participation in auctions.

13. A system, comprising:

a processing device; and

a memory device in communication with the processing device, the memory device storing instructions that when executed by the processing device result in;

identifying a plurality of bidders associated with the bidding data;

determining a predetermined auction bidding condition stored in a database;

determining, by comparing the auction bidding data to the predetermined auction bidding condition, that a bidding behavior reward offer should be output;

selecting at least one bidder from the plurality of bidders;

transmitting, to a device associated with the selected at least one bidder, the bidding behavior reward offer;

determining that the at least one bidder accepts the bidding behavior reward offer; and

providing, to the at least one bidder, prior to the end time of the auction, a reward associated with the bidding behavior reward offer.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processing device result in:

identifying a plurality of bidders associated with the bidding data;

determining a predetermined auction bidding condition stored in a database;

determining, by comparing the auction bidding data to the predetermined auction bidding condition, that a bidding behavior reward offer should be output;

selecting at least one bidder from the plurality of bidders;

transmitting, to a device associated with the selected at least one bidder, the bidding behavior reward offer;

determining that the at least one bidder accepts the bidding behavior reward offer; and

providing, to the at least one bidder, prior to the end time of the auction, a reward associated with the bidding behavior reward offer.