Computer implemented methods and apparatus for auctions

• US 6,021,398 A
• Filed: 05/03/1999
• Issued: 02/01/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Efficient Auctions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Lawrence M. Ausubel
• Inventors: Ausubel, Lawrence M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tkacs, Stephen R.
• Application Number:
  US09/303,636
• Time in Patent Office: 274 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/26, 705/27, 705/37, 705/44, 705/40, 705/5, 705/6, 705/7, 705/8, 705/10, 705/30, 705/35, 705/36, 283/56, 340/825.26, 340/825.27, 340/825.28, 340/825.29, 902/22, 902/24, 379/91, 379/92, 379/93, 707/1, 707/3, 707/4, 707/5, 707/10, 707/104
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1809 for auctioneering devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A computer implemented system and method of executing an auction. The system has at least two intelligent systems, one for the auctioneer and at least one for a user. The auction is conducted by the auctioneer'"'"'s system communicating with the user system(s). The auctioneer'"'"'s system receives information from the user system(s) based on bid information entered by the user(s). With this information the auctioneer'"'"'s system determines whether the auction can be concluded or not and appropriate messages are transmitted to the user(s).

Claims

1. A dynamic computer implemented auction system for multiple dissimilar objects operating in multiple rounds comprising:

a) an auctioneer'"'"'s system and at least two user systems, the auctioneer'"'"'s system communicatively coupled to user systems;

b) each user system including;

b1) means for receiving messages from the auctioneer'"'"'s system and for displaying those messages;

b2) means for receiving bid related information from a user and for transmitting bid information to the auctioneer'"'"'s system, where said bid information includes a value parameter P_i and an associated object subset identification S_i, where the object subset identification S_i identifies a set of objects and where the value parameter P_i specifies a payment proposed by the bidder in return for the objects of subset S₁ ;

c) said auctioneer'"'"'s system including;

c1) means for generating and transmitting messages to user systems, said messages including a message to initiate an auction, a non-final message indicating that the auction will continue at least one more round, and a final message indicating that the auction has terminated;

c2) means for receiving bid information from user systems in multiple rounds of bidding;

c3) decision means responsive to the bid information received from the user systems for determining if an auction should continue or not, wherein the decision means includes;

c31 ) means to initiate the generation of a non-final message to at least one user system in response to a determination to continue the auction;

c32) means to initiate the generation of a final message to at least one user system in response to a determination not to continue the auction; and

c33) selecting means to select an n-tuple of bids (S_i, P_i), at most one from each user system, which selection is effective to optimize the sum of the different value parameters P_i of the selected bids subject to the constraint that the associated subsets S_i of all of the selected bids are compatible.

2. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein the selecting means selects bids to optimize the sum of the different value parameters P_i of the selected bids subject to the constraint that the associated subsets S_i of every pair of selected bids are disjoint.

3. The auction system of claim 2 wherein the decision means compares the sum of the parameters P_i from the selected bids to a function of the sum of the parameters P_i of an earlier round of selected bids.

4. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein the object subset identifications S₁ are vectors of quantities of each type of object and the selecting means optimizes the sum of'"'"'the different value parameters P_i of the selected bids subject to the constraint that tile sum of quantities of each type of object, from each selected bid, are less than or equal to thle quantity of each type of object within the auction.

5. The auction system of claim 4 wherein the decision means compares the sum of the parameters P_i from the selected bids to a function of the sum of the parameters P_i of an earlier round of selected bids.

6. The auction system of claim 1 wherein the set of objects includes at least one object which is related to at least one other object.

7. The auction system of claim 6 wherein the decision means compares the sum of the parameters P_i from the selected bids to a function of the sum of the parameters P_i of an earlier round of selected bids.

8. The auction system of claim 1 wherein the decision means compares the sum of the parameters P_i from the selected bids to a function of the sum of the parameters P_i of an earlier round of selected bids.

9. A dynamic computer implemented auction system for auctions for plural objects operating in multiple rounds at changing prices, said auction system comprising:

a) an auctioneer'"'"'s system and at least two user systems, the auctioneers system communicatively coupled to user systems;

b) each user system including;

b1) means for receiving messages from the auctioneer'"'"'s system and for displaying those messages;

b2) means for receiving bid related information from a user and for transmitting bid information to the auctioneer'"'"'s system, where said bid informatioin specifies at least quantities of objects; and

c) said auctioneer'"'"'s system including;

c1) means for generating and transmitting messages to user systems, said messages including a message to initiate an auction, a non-final message indicating that the auction will continue at least one more round, and a final message indicating that the auction has terminated, said non-final message also indicating a current quantity of objects, where the current quantity of objects may be greater than a quantity of objects in a prior round;

c2) means for receiving bid information from user systems in one or more rounds of bidding; and

c3) decision means responsive to the bid information received fiom the user systems for determining if an auction should continue or not, said decision means including;

c31) means to initiate the generation of a non-final message to at least one user system in response to a determination to continue the auction;

c32) means to initiate the generation of a final message to at least one user system in response to a determination not to continue the auction; and

c33) means for comparing a sum of quantities specified in bids in a current round with the quantity of objects specified by the auctioneer'"'"'s system for a current round and termninating the auction when that comparison shows that the sum ot quantities specified in bids is equal to or less than the quantity specified by the auctioneer'"'"'s s,system.

10. An auction system as recited in claim 9 wherein the plural objects include at least two different types of objects and at least two objects of each type.

11. An auction system as recited in claim 9 wherein the plural objects are multiple identical objects, at least one said message includes a current price, and a bid comprises a quantity of the objects that the bidder wishes to transact.

12. An auction system as recited in claim 9 wherein the plural objects includes at least one object which is related to at least one other object.

13. An auction system as recited in claim 9 wherein the bid information transmitted by a user system is limited to a current round bid.

14. An auction system as recited in claim 9 wherein the user system receives bid related iniform-ation only for the current round from a user and transmits bid information only for a current round bid.

15. An auction system as recited in claim 9 wherein the auctioneer system records a message specifying a quantity of objects for one or more rounds beyond a current round.

16. A method for conducting a dynamic computer implemented auction for multiple dissimilar objects operating in multiple rounds comprising:

a) providing an auctioneer'"'"'s system,

b) conveying messages concerning an auction to users from the auctioneer'"'"'s system, said messages including a message to initiate an auction, a non-final message indicating that the auction will continue at least one more round, and a final message indicating that the auction has terminated

c) receiving bid related information from plural users and, in response, conveying bid information from the users to the auctioneer'"'"'s system, where said bid informaition includes a value parameter P_i and an associated object subset identification S_i, where the object subset identification S_i identifies a set of objects and where the value parameter P_i specifies a payment proposed by the bidder in return for the objects of subset S_i ;

d) determining, in response to the bid information, if an auction should continue or not, including selecting an n-tuple of bids (S_i, P_i), at most one from each user, to optimize the sum of the different value parameters P_i of the selected bids subject to the constraint that the associated subsets S_i of all of the selected bids are compatible.

17. A method as recited in claim 16 wherein the selecting selects bids to optimize the sum of the different value parameters P_i of the selected bids subject to the constraint that the associated subsets S_i of every pair of selected bids are disjoint.

18. A method as recited in claim 17 further including comparing, the sum of the parameters P_i of the selected bids to a function of the sum of the parameters P_i of an earlier round of selected bids.

19. A method as recited in claim 16 wherein the object subset identifications S_i are vectors of quantities of each type of object and the selecting optimizes the sum ot the different value parameters P_i of the selected bids subject to the constraint that the sum ot quantities of each type of object, from each selected bid, are less than or equal to the quantity of each type of object within the auction.

20. A method as recited in claim 19 further including comparing the sum of the parameters P_i of selected bids to a function of the sum of the parameters P_i of in earlier round of selected bids.

21. A method as recited in claim 16 wherein the set of objects includes ait least one object which is related to at least one other object.

22. A method as recited in claim 21 further including comparing the sum of the parameters P_i of selected bids to a function of the sum of the parameters P_i of all earlier round of selected bids.

23. A method as recited in claim 16 further including comparing the sum of thle parameters P_i of the selected bids to a function of the sum of the parameters P_i of an earilier round of selected bids.

24. A method as recited in claim 16 further including, at a determination not to continue the auction, assigning objects identified in a selected bid to the user in return for the bid value parameter P_i.

25. A method for conducting a dynamic computer implemented auction for plural objects operating in multiple rounds at changing prices comprising:

a) providing an auctioneer'"'"'s system and transmitting messages from the auctioneer'"'"'s system to users, said messages including a message to initiate an auction, a non-final message indicating that the auction will continue at least one more round, and a final message indicating that the auction has terminated, said non-final message also indicating a current quantity of objects, where the current quantity of objects may be greater than a quantity of objects in a prior round;

b) receiving bid related information from users and, in response, transmitting bid information to the auctioneer'"'"'s system, where said bid information specifies at least quantities of objects; and

c) determining at the auctioneer'"'"'s system, in response to the bid information received from the users if an auction should continue or not, including comparing a sum of quantities specified in bids in a current round with the quantity of objects specified by the auctioneer'"'"'s system for a current round and terminating the auction when that comparison shows that the sum of quantities specified in bids is equal to or less than the quantity specified by the auctioneer'"'"'s system.

26. A method as recited in claim 25 wherein the plural objects include at least two different types of objects and at least two objects of each type.

27. A method as recited in claim 25 wherein the plural objects are multiple identical objects, at least one said message includes a current price, and a bid comprises a quantity of the objects that the bidder wishes to transact.

28. A method as recited in claim 27 further including assigning quantities specified in bids in a final round at a price associated with a most recent round in which the sum of quantities bid was equal to or greater than the quantity specified by the auctioneer'"'"'s system.

29. A method as recited in claim 25 wherein the set of objects includes at least one object which is related to at least one other object.

30. A method as recited in claim 25 wherein the bid information is limited to a current round bid.

31. A method as recited in claim 25 wherein the user system receives bid related information only for the current round from a user and transmits bid information only for a current round bid.

32. A method as recited in claim 25 wherein the auctioneer system records a message specifying, a quantity of objects for one or more rounds beyond a current round.