Method and system for maintaining the integrity of electronic auctions using a configurable bid monitoring agent

• US 6,408,283 B1
• Filed: 05/14/1999
• Issued: 06/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ariba Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: FreeMarkets Incorporated (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Alaia, Marc, Stevens, Robert G., Becker, David J., Rago, Vincent F., Rupp, William D., Kinney, Sam E. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Millin, Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, JAGDISH
• Application Number:
  US09/311,582
• Time in Patent Office: 1,131 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/37, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A method and system for conducting electronic auctions is described. A dynamic lot closing extension feature avoids collisions in closing times of multiple lots by dynamically extending the closing time of a subsequent lot if a preceding lot'"'"'s closing time is extended to be too close to the subsequent lot'"'"'s then-currently scheduled closing time. Scheduled closing times can be extended with a flexible overtime feature, in which the properties of the event triggering the extension and the duration of the overtime period(s) can be tailored to a particular auction, particular lots of products within an auction, and to the particular time within an auction process. The bidding status of a lot can be set to a “pending” status after the nominal closing time for submission of bids to allow bidders to alert the auction coordinator of technical problems in submission of bids. This allows the possibility for a lot to be return to open status for further bidding by all bidders. The auction may be paused by the auction coordinator to correct technical, market and miscellaneous problems that may arise during the course of an auction. Individual bid ceilings can be set for each bidder so that they are required to bid lower than certain thresholds determined in advance of the auction. Failsafe error detection is performed to prevent erroneous bids from entering the auction. The auction coordinator has the ability to override any erroneous bids that are entered to prevent prejudice to the auction.

Claims

1. A method of limiting bids in an electronic auction, comprising:

offering a lot to a plurality of bidders;

receiving a bid from a bidder for said lot;

determining whether said bid is better than a previous bid by said bidder by at least a predefined positive percentage; and

accepting said bid in accordance with said determination.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said accepting step comprises presenting a warning to the bidder if said bid is better than the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and accepting said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said accepting step comprises accepting said bid only if said bid fails to beat the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage.

4. A method of limiting bids in an electronic auction, comprising:

offering a lot to a plurality of bidders;

receiving a bid from a bidder for said lot;

determining whether said bid is better than or meets a threshold defined by a historical lot price; and

accepting said bid in accordance with said determination.

5. A method of limiting bids in an electronic auction, comprising:

offering a lot to a plurality of bidders;

receiving a bid from a bidder for said lot;

determining whether said bid is better than a market leading bid by at least a predefined positive percentage; and

accepting said bid in accordance with said determination.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said accepting step comprises presenting a warning to the bidder if said bid is better than the market leading bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and accepting said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said accepting step comprises accepting said bid only if said bid fails to beat the market leading bid by at least the predefined positive percentage.

8. A method to limit bids in an electronic auction, comprising the steps of:

(a) offering a lot, defined at least in part by an originator, to a plurality of potential bidders, said lot having at least one product;

(b) defining a closing time for said lot, wherein said closing time for said lot defines a time before which bids for the lot are to be submitted by a potential bidder;

(a) receiving bids from potential bidders for said lot;

(b) determining whether an erroneous bid has been submitted by a bidder;

(c) if an erroneous bid has been submitted, deleting in real-time an erroneous bid and any consequential bids of said erroneous bid from the auction; and

(d) communicating with potential bidders that said erroneous bid and said consequential bids have been deleted from the auction.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein step (b) comprises the step of receiving a communication from a bidder that a submitted bid is in error.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein step (c) comprises the step of deleting bids from the auction based upon input from an auction coordinator.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein step (d) comprises the step of causing a message dialog box to be displayed to the potential bidders.

12. A method to limit bids in an electronic auction, comprising:

receiving a bid for a lot from a bidder;

determining whether said bid passes a fail-safe criteria, wherein said fail-safe criteria comprises;

comparing said bid to a previous bid received from said bidder; and

determining whether said bid is better than said previous bid by at least one of a predefined positive percentage and a predefined positive price; and

accepting said bid in accordance with said determination.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said accepting step comprises presenting a warning to the bidder if said bid fails the fail-safe criteria, and accepting said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said accepting step comprises presenting a warning to the bidder if said bid is better than the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and accepting said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said accepting step comprises accepting said bid only if said bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

16. A method to limit bids in an electronic auction, comprising:

receiving a bid for a lot from a bidder;

determining whether said bid passes a fail-safe criteria, wherein said fail-safe criteria comprises;

comparing said bid to a threshold defined by a historical price for said lot; and

determining whether said bid is better than the threshold by at least one of a predefined percentage and a predefined price; and

accepting said bid in accordance with said determination.

17. A method to limit bids in an electronic auction, comprising:

receiving a bid for a lot from a bidder;

determining whether said bid passes a fail-safe criteria, wherein said fail-safe criteria comprises;

comparing said bid to a previous bid for said lot; and

determining whether said bid is better than said previous bid by at least one of a predefined positive percentage and a predefined positive price; and

accepting said bid in accordance with said determination.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said accepting step comprises presenting a warning to the bidder if said bid fails the fail-safe criteria, and accepting said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said accepting step comprises presenting a warning to the bidder if said bid is better than the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and accepting said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein said accepting step comprises accepting said bid only if said bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

21. A method to limit bids in an electronic auction, comprising:

receiving a first bid for a lot from a bidder;

accepting said first bid as one of a plurality of bids for said lot;

determining that said first bid is an erroneous bid;

removing said first bid from said plurality of bids in accordance with said determination;

receiving a second bid for said lot based on said first bid;

accepting said second bid as one of said plurality of bids; and

removing said second bid from said plurality of bids in accordance with said determination.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said bids are received from a plurality of bidders, and further comprising:

sending a message to each of said bidders that said first and second bids are erroneous; and

receiving an acknowledgment to said message from each of said bidders.

23. A machine-readable medium that includes instructions for limiting bids in an electronic auction wherein such instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a bid for a lot from a bidder;

determine whether said bid passes a fail-safe criteria, wherein said fail-safe criteria comprises;

comparing said bid to a previous bid received from said bidder; and

determining whether said bid is better than said previous bid by at least one of a predefined positive percentage and a predefined positive price; and

accept said bid in accordance with said determination.

24. The machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein said instructions cause said processor to present a warning to the bidder if said bid fails the fail-safe criteria, and accept said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

25. The machine readable medium of claim 24, wherein said instructions cause said processor to present a warning to the bidder if said bid is better than the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and accept said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

26. The machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein said instructions cause said processor to accept said bid only if said bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

27. A machine-readable medium that includes instructions for limiting bids in an electronic auction wherein such instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a bid for a lot from a bidder;

determine whether said bid passes a fail-safe criteria, wherein said fail-safe criteria comprises;

comparing said bid to a threshold defined by a historical price for said lot; and

determining whether said bid is better than the threshold by at least one of a predefined percentage and a predefined price; and

accept said bid in accordance with said determination.

28. A machine-readable medium that includes instructions for limiting bids in an electronic auction wherein such instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a bid for a lot from a bidder;

determine whether said bid passes a fail-safe criteria, wherein said fail-safe criteria comprises;

comparing said bid to a previous bid for said lot; and

determining whether said bid is better than said previous bid by at least one of a predefined positive percentage and a predefined positive price; and

accept said bid in accordance with said determination.

29. The machine readable medium of claim 28, wherein said instructions cause said processor to present a warning to the bidder if said bid fails the fail-safe criteria, and accept said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

30. The machine readable medium of claim 29, wherein said instructions cause said processor to present a warning to the bidder if said bid is better than the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and accept said bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

31. The machine readable medium of claim 28, wherein said instructions cause said processor to accept said bid only if said bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

32. A machine-readable medium that includes instructions for limiting bids in an electronic auction wherein such instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a first bid for a lot from a bidder;

accept said first bid as one of a plurality of bids for said lot;

determine that said first bid is an erroneous bid;

remove said first bid from said plurality of bids in accordance with said determination;

receive a second bid for said lot based on said first bid;

accept said second bid as one of said plurality of bids; and

remove said second bid from said plurality of bids in accordance with said determination.

33. The machine readable medium of claim 32, wherein said bids are received from a plurality of bidders, and further comprising:

sending a message to each of said bidders that said first and second bids are erroneous; and

receiving an acknowledgment to said message from each of said bidders.

34. A method of limiting bids in an online auction, comprising:

receiving a bid from a bidder and entering it into the auction;

determining whether the bid is erroneous; and

if the bid is erroneous, deleting the erroneous bid and any consequential bids of said erroneous bid from the auction;

whereby bidders in the online auction are connected over a communications network and submit bids into the online auction via an electronic link.

35. The method of claim 34, additionally comprising:

communicating with bidders that said erroneous bid and said consequential bids have been deleted form the auction.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein said determining comprises receiving a communication from the bidder that the received bid is in error.

37. A machine-readable medium that includes instructions for limiting bids in an online auction wherein such instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a bid from a bidder and enter it into the auction;

determine whether the bid is erroneous; and

if the bid is erroneous, delete the erroneous bid and any consequential bids of said erroneous bid from the auction;

whereby bidders in the online auction are connected over a communications network and submit bids into the online auction via an electronic link.

38. The machine-readable medium of claim 37, additionally comprising instructions that cause the processor to:

communicate with bidders that said erroneous bid and said consequential bids have been deleted from the auction.

39. The machine-readable medium of claim 37, wherein said instructions cause the processor to determine whether the bid is erroneous in response to receipt of a communication from the bidder that the received bid is in error.

40. A method for a bidder to remove a bid that was submitted in response to an erroneous bid in an online auction, comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying current bids in the online auction to the bidder, wherein at least one bid has been submitted to the auction in error;

(b) submitting a bid from the bidder that is in response to said erroneous bid;

(c) receiving a notification that the bid submitted in step (b) was in response to an erroneous bid; and

(d) displaying current bids in the online auction to the bidder, wherein said erroneous bid and the bid submitted in step (b) are both removed;

whereby the bidder is one of a plurality of bidders connected by a communications network to the online auction and submits bids into the auction via an electronic link during the conducting of the auction.

41. A machine-readable medium that includes instructions for removing a bid that was submitted in response to an erroneous bid in an online auction wherein such instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

(a) display current bids in the online auction to a bidder, wherein at least one bid has been submitted to the auction in error;

(b) submit a bid from the bidder that is in response to said erroneous bid;

(c) receive a notification that the bid submitted in (b) was in response to an erroneous bid; and

(d) display, in response to the error notification, current bids in the online auction to the bidder, wherein said erroneous bid and the bid submitted in response to said erroneous bid are both removed;

whereby the bidder is one of a plurality of bidders connected by a communications network to the online auction and submits bids during the conducting of the auction via an electronic link.

42. A bidding device operated by a bidder during an electronic auction, said bidding device comprising:

software that displays information about a lot to a bidder during the electronic auction;

wherein the software submits a previous and a current bid by the bidder to the electronic auction via an online connection;

wherein the auction determines whether the current bid is better than the previous bid by at least a predefined positive percentage; and

wherein the auction accepts the current bid in accordance with whether the current bid is better than the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage.

43. The bidding device of claim 42, wherein the bidding device presents a warning to the bidder if the current bid is better than the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and the auction accepts the current bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the current bid.

44. The bidding device of claim 42, wherein the auction accepts the current bid only if the current bid fails to beat the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage.

45. A bidding device operated by a bidder during an electronic auction, said bidding device comprising:

software that displays information about a lot to a bidder during the electronic auction;

wherein the software submits a bid by the bidder to the electronic auction via an online connection;

wherein the auction determines whether the current bid meets a threshold defined by a historical lot price; and

wherein the auction accepts the current bid in accordance with whether the current bid meets the threshold.

46. A bidding device operated by a bidder during an electronic auction, said bidding device comprising:

software that displays information about a lot to a bidder during the electronic auction;

wherein the software submits a bid by the bidder to the electronic auction via an online connection;

wherein the auction determines whether the bid is better than a market leading bid by at least a predefined positive percentage; and

wherein the auction accepts the current bid in accordance with whether the bid is better than the market leading bid by at least the predefined positive percentage.

47. The bidding device of claim 46, wherein the bidding device presents a warning to the bidder if the bid is better than the market leading bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and the auction accepts the bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

48. The bidding device of claim 46, wherein the auction accepts the bid only if the bid fails to beat the market leading bid by at least the predefined positive percentage.

49. A bidding device operated by a bidder during an electronic auction, said bidding device comprising:

software that displays information about a lot to a bidder during the electronic auction;

wherein the software submits a previous and a current bid by the bidder to the electronic auction via an online connection;

wherein the auction determines whether the current bid passes a fail-safe criteria by determining whether the current bid is better than the previous bid by at least one of a predefined positive percentage and a predetermined positive price; and

wherein the auction accepts the current bid in accordance with whether the current bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

50. The bidding device of claim 49, wherein the bidding device presents a warning to the bidder if the current bid fails the fail-safe criteria, and the auction accepts the current bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the current bid.

51. The bidding device of claim 50, wherein the bidding device presents a warning to the bidder if the current bid is better than the previous bid by at least the predefined positive percentage, and the auction accepts the current bid only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the current bid.

52. The bidding device of claim 49, wherein the auction accepts the current bid only if the current bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

53. A bidding device operated by a bidder during an electronic auction, said bidding device comprising:

software that displays information about a lot to a bidder during the electronic auction;

wherein the software submits a bid by the bidder to the electronic auction via an online connection;

wherein the auction determines whether the bid passes a fail-safe criteria by determining whether the bid is better than a threshold defined by a historical price for the lot by at least one of a predefined positive percentage and a predetermined positive price; and

wherein the auction accepts the bid in accordance with whether the current bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

54. The bidding device of claim 53, wherein the bidding device presents a warning to the bidder if the bid fails the fail-safe criteria, and the auction accepts the current bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

55. The bidding device of claim 53, wherein the auction accepts the bid only if the bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

56. A bidding device operated by a bidder during an electronic auction, said bidding device comprising:

software that displays information about a lot to a bidder during the electronic auction;

wherein the software submits a bid by the bidder to the electronic auction via an online connection;

wherein the auction determines whether the bid is better than a previous bid for the lot by at least one of a predefined positive percentage and a predefined positive price; and

wherein the auction accepts the bid in accordance with whether the bid is better than the previous bid by at least one of the predefined positive percentage and the predefined positive price.

57. The bidding device of claim 56, wherein the bidding device presents a warning to the bidder if the bid fails the fail-safe criteria, and the auction accepts the bid in the auction only if, in response to the warning, the bidder confirms the bid.

58. The bidding device of claim 56, wherein the auction accepts the bid only if the bid passes the fail-safe criteria.

59. A bidding device operated by a bidder during an electronic auction, said bidding device comprising:

software that displays information about a lot to a bidder during the electronic auction, wherein a bid for the lot has been submitted to the auction in error;

wherein the software submits a bid by the bidder to the electronic auction via an online connection in response to the erroneous bid; and

wherein the auction deletes, in response to receipt of a communication from a bidder that submitted the erroneous bid, both the erroneous bid and the bid submitted in response to the erroneous bid.