TRANSACTION ARBITER SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20140258017A1
• Filed: 05/19/2014
• Published: 09/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Price Setter, L.L.C.
• Original Assignee: Jorge Maass
• Inventors: MAASS, JORGE ARTURO
• Granted Patent: US 9,892,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• 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 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A transaction arbiter system and method is disclosed which incorporates a merchant function database under control of a transaction arbiter that permits merchants to interact in an automated way with bids generated by other merchants. Rather than utilizing fixed price schedules as taught by the prior art, the present invention permits each merchant to define a set of functions which describe how the merchant will respond to a customer request-for-quote for a given product or service. These merchant functions interact with both the customer request-for-quote and the results of other merchant functions to generate a dynamic real-time bidding system which integrates competition among merchant bidders to achieve an optimal consumer price for a given product or service.

Claims

1. A system for generating a price quote over a network from at least one merchant in response to a request for quote (RFQ) by at least one customer, comprising:

a merchant database storing merchant data relating to a plurality of merchants and to products or services provided by the plurality of merchants;

a price quote server in communication over the network with a customer input device and said merchant database, said price quote server storing executable instructions that when executed perform a method comprising;

receiving, over the network, RFQ data for a product or service generated from said customer input device within the RFQ, said RFQ data including parameters specified from said at least one customer;

communicating with said merchant database responsive to the RFQ;

generating, by the price quote server, a price quote result satisfying the RFQ parameters as indicated by the merchant data stored within the merchant database; and

communicating, from the price quote server over the network, the price quote result to the customer input device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of generating further includes generating the price quote of a merchant providing a best price most closely matching the user specified configuration of the particular product or service.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based upon a variable price that varies responsive to the merchant data relating to the plurality of merchants and to the particular product or service.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based upon a merchant function defined by the merchant data.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the merchant function describes how a given merchant will respond to at least one of the merchant data of at least one other merchant, in response to the RFQ parameters specified in the RFQ of the customer.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based upon a process defined by the merchant data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of generating further comprises selecting the plurality of merchants based on a geographic location of the merchants.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based on an algorithm associated with each of the plurality of merchants defined by the merchant data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based on adjustable price data associated with the particular product or service.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions further cause generating a graphical interface of the determined price quote.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the graphical interface further presents the determined price quote with a set of historical transaction prices and parameters, the graphical interface presenting the determined price quote and the set of historical transaction prices and parameters within a curve or histogram.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer input device comprises at least one of a cell phone a mobile device and a computer, and further wherein the at least one of the cell phone, the mobile device and the computer include at least one of a bar code scanner, a global positioning device, RFID hardware and NFC hardware.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the merchant data further comprises historical pricing data relating to the product or services provided by the plurality of merchants.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the step of generating further comprises searching the pricing data to generate the price quote.

15. A method of processing transactions generating a price quote result from at least one merchant in response to a request for quote (RFQ) from at least one customer comprising the steps of:

receiving, over the network, RFQ data for a product or service generated from a customer input device within the RFQ, said RFQ data including parameters specified from said at least one customer;

communicating with said merchant database responsive to the RFQ;

generating, by a price quote server, a price quote result satisfying the RFQ parameters as indicated by the merchant data stored within the merchant database; and

communicating, from the price quote server over the network, the price quote result to the customer input device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises generating the price quote of the merchant providing a best price most closely matching the user specified configuration of the particular product or service.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based upon a variable price that varies responsive to the merchant data relating to the plurality of merchants and to the particular product or service.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based upon a merchant function defined by the merchant data.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the merchant function describes how a given merchant will respond to at least one of the merchant data of at least one other merchant, in response to the RFQ parameters specified in the RFQ of the customer.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based upon a process defined by the merchant data.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises selecting the plurality of merchants based on a geographic location of the merchants.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based on an algorithm associated with each of the plurality of merchants defined by the merchant data.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises determining the price quote based on adjustable price data associated with the particular product or service.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises generating a graphical interface of the determined price quote.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the step of generating further comprise presenting the determined price quote with a set of historical transaction prices and parameters within a curve or histogram.

26. The method of claim 15, wherein the customer input device comprises at least one of a cell phone a mobile device and a computer, and further wherein the at least one of the cell phone, the mobile device and the computer include at least one of a bar code scanner, a global positioning device, RFID hardware and NFC hardware.

27. The method of claim 15, wherein the merchant data further comprises historical pricing data relating to the product or services provided by the plurality of merchants.

28. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of generating further comprises searching the pricing data to generate the price quote.

29. A system for generating a price quote for a product or service, comprising:

a merchant database storing merchant data relating to a plurality of merchants and to products or services provided by the plurality of merchants;

a price quote server located on a network having a processor therein, said price quote server storing executable instructions that configure the processor to;

receive a user specified configuration of particular product or service;

obtain a price quote for a plurality of merchants responsive to the user specified configuration of the particular product or service and the merchant data associated with the particular product or service within the merchant database;

provide the price quote for at least one of the plurality of merchants to a user device providing the user specified configuration.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor is configured to provide the price quote of the merchant providing a best price most closely matching the user specified configuration of the particular product or service.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the price quote based upon a variable price that varies responsive to the merchant data relating to the plurality of merchants and to the particular product or service.

32. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the price quote based upon a merchant function defined by the merchant data.

33. The system of claim 29, wherein the merchant function describes how a given merchant will respond to at least one of the merchant data of at least one other merchant, in response to the RFQ parameters specified in the RFQ of the customer.

34. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the price quote based upon a process defined by the merchant data.

35. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor is further configured to select the plurality of merchants based on a geographic location of the merchants.

36. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the price quote based on an algorithm associated with each of the plurality of merchants defined by the merchant data.

37. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the price quote based on adjustable price data associated with the particular product or service.

38. The system of claim 29, wherein the processor is further configured to generate a graphical interface of the determined price quote.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the graphical interface further presents the determined price quote with a set of historical transaction prices and parameters, the graphical interface presenting the determined price quote and the set of historical transaction prices and parameters within a curve or histogram.

40. The system of claim 29, wherein the customer input device comprises at least one of a cell phone a mobile device and a computer, and further wherein the at least one of the cell phone, the mobile device and the computer include at least one of a bar code scanner, a global positioning device, RFID hardware and NFC hardware.

41. The system of claim 29, wherein the merchant data further comprises historical pricing data relating to the product or services provided by the plurality of merchants.

42. The system of claim 29, wherein the step of obtaining further comprises searching the pricing data to generate the price quote.

43. A method for generating a price quote for a product or service, comprising:

receiving a user specified configuration of particular product or service;

obtaining a price quote for a plurality of merchants responsive to the user specified configuration of the particular product or service and merchant data associated with the particular product or service within the merchant database;

providing the price quote for at least one of the plurality of merchants to a user device providing the user specified configuration.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of providing provides the price quote of the merchant providing a best price most closely matching the user specified configuration of the particular product or service.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of obtaining further comprises determining the price quote based upon a variable price that varies responsive to the merchant data relating to the plurality of merchants and to the particular product or service.

46. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of obtaining further comprise determining the price quote based upon a merchant function defined by the merchant data.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein the merchant function describes how a given merchant will respond to at least one of the merchant data of at least one other merchant, in response to the RFQ parameters specified in the RFQ of the customer.

48. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of obtaining further comprises determining the price quote based upon a process defined by the merchant data.

49. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of obtaining further comprises selecting the plurality of merchants based on a geographic location of the merchants.

50. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of obtaining further comprises determining the price quote based on an algorithm associated with each of the plurality of merchants defined by the merchant data.

51. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of obtaining further comprises determining the price quote based on adjustable price data associated with the particular product or service.

52. The method of claim 43, further including generating a graphical interface of determined price quote.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the step of generating further comprise presenting the determined price quote with a set of historical transaction prices and parameters within a curve or histogram.

54. The method of claim 43, wherein the customer input device comprises at least one of a cell phone a mobile device and a computer, and further wherein the at least one of the cell phone, the mobile device and the computer include at least one of a bar code scanner, a global positioning device, RFID hardware and NFC hardware.

55. The method of claim 43, wherein the merchant data further comprises historical pricing data relating to the product or services provided by the plurality of merchants.

56. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of obtaining further comprises searching the pricing data to generate the price quote.