Import/export tax to deal with ad trade deficits

• US 7,698,166 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2007
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bal, Hrishikesh, Chickering, David Max, Biggs, Jody D., Flake, Gary W., Meek, Christopher A., Brewer, Brett D., Burdick, Brian, Dominowska, Ewa
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew S
• Assistant Examiner(s): ULLAH MASUD, MOHAMMAD R
• Application Number:
  US11/747,963
• Publication Number:
  US 20080103947A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,065 Days
• Field of Search: 704/226, 705/14, 705/19, 705/26, 705/35, 705/37, 705/400, 707/1, 707/100, 726/4, 726/27
• US Class Current: 705/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/207 Tax processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission

Abstract

For a multi-party advertising exchange including advertising and publishing entities, each participant specifies tax rate(s), such as import tax and export tax, that apply to at least one other entity in the exchange. Since tax rate(s) can be expressed in different transactional terms by different parties, each tax rate is reduced to a common tax rate expression within the exchange for comparison. Intelligent tax rate selection and support can be provided to dynamically set tax rates that achieve utilitarian goals for the individual participants taking into account the tax rates expressed by other participants and their respective advertising goals, and dynamically adjusting tax rates over time in response to condition changes. Various refinements are provided and disclosed according to a host of optional implementations.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating transactions for advertisement space for participants in an advertising exchange having at least two participating advertising entities from disparate advertising networks or disparate advertising exchanges, comprising:

employing a processor to execute computer readable instructions stored on a computer readable medium to perform the following acts;

receiving a first expression of a tax defined by a first participant in the advertising exchange that defines at least one tax preference of the first participant pertaining to conducting at least one transaction in the advertising exchange with a second participant, wherein the first expression include a tax rate in a first unit measure that is translatable to a common tax measure within the advertising exchange;

receiving a second expression of a tax defined by the second participant in the advertising exchange that defines at least one tax preference of the second participant pertaining to conducting the at least one transaction in the advertising exchange with the first participant, wherein the second expression is in a second unit measure that is translatable with respect to the common tax measure within the advertising exchange; and

normalizing the first expression and the second expression to the common tax measure enabling a quantifiable comparison of the tax defined by the first participant and the tax defined by the second participant.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving the first expression further includes receiving an expression of an import tax or export tax defined by a first participant in the advertising exchange that defines at least one preference with respect to import or export characteristics of the at least one transaction in the advertising exchange.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said normalizing includes normalizing the tax defined by the first participant according to a first advertising cost model to a common advertising cost model as part of conducting the at least one transaction.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein said normalizing includes normalizing the tax defined by the first participant according to a cost per click (CPC) advertising cost model and the tax defined by the second participant according to a cost per acquisition (CPA) cost model to the common advertising cost model.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said normalizing includes normalizing a flat fee tax defined by the first participant and a tax rate defined by the second participant according to a cost per acquisition (CPA) cost model to the common advertising cost model.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said normalizing includes normalizing the tax defined by the first participant according to first way to express a tax and the tax defined by the second participant according to a second way to express a tax, different from the first way, to a common way to express a tax as part of conducting the at least one transaction.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein normalizing includes converting the first and second expressions to the common tax measure based on expected revenue from the at least one advertising transaction.

8. A system to facilitate trading of advertising, comprising:

at least one processor that executes the following computer executable components stored on at least one computer readable medium;

a publisher broker component to represent at least one publisher, wherein the publisher broker component determines at least one ask for an advertisement space of the at least one publisher;

an advertiser broker component to represent at least one advertiser, wherein the advertiser broker component manages at least one bid for the advertisement space by the at least one advertiser;

an exchange component that generates at least one transaction for the advertisement space between the publisher broker component and the advertiser broker component, wherein the publisher broker component and the advertiser broker component are advertising entities of disparate advertising networks, and

at least one tool that receives from the publisher broker component or the advertiser broker component a specification of at least one objective corresponding to a policy of the publisher broker component or the advertiser broker component, and automatically calculates a tax rate that helps achieve the at least one objective by imposing a tax equal to the tax rate on transactions that meet conditions specified by the at least one objective, wherein the exchange component automatically applies the tax for the publisher broker component or the advertiser broker component in at least one transaction.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the exchange component automatically normalizes additional taxes specified by the publisher broker component or the advertiser broker component to a common tax measure.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the tax takes into account a reactive measure against market conditions.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the tax includes at least one exchange tax applying to advertising or publishing inventory that is imported or exported from or to another exchange.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one tool receives a specification of a preference relating to the quality of advertising involved in advertising transactions, and wherein the exchange component automatically determines the tax rate based on the preference.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one tool receives a specification of a preference relating to the performance of advertising or publishing inventory involved in advertising transactions, and wherein the exchange component automatically determines the tax rate based on the preference.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one tool receives a specification of a preference relating to the relevance of advertising involved in advertising transactions, and wherein the exchange component automatically determines the tax rate based on the preference.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one tool receives a specification of a preference relating to the amount of risk the first participant is willing to undertake in advertising transactions, and wherein the exchange component automatically determines the tax rate based on the preference.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one tool receives a specification of a preference relating to the size of other participants in advertising transactions, and wherein the exchange component automatically determines the tax rate based on the preference.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the tool takes into account a retaliatory measure taken by a competitor while trading.

18. A method for facilitating transactions for advertisement space in an advertising exchange between participants from at least two disparate advertising networks, comprising:

employing a processor to execute computer readable instructions stored on a computer readable medium to perform the following acts;

receiving a first utility function having an impact on a tax from a first participant by the advertising exchange, wherein the tax specified by the first participant applies to at least one transaction in the advertising exchange conducted with at least one other participant and includes a tax rate at a first unit of measure;

based on a normalized representation for taxes in the exchange enabling comparison of disparate types of taxes, exposing the tax to the at least one other participant, and exposing at least a second tax associated with the at least one other participant that applies to the first participant; and

in response to the second tax exposed to the first participant, receiving an instruction from the first participant to change the first utility function to have a different impact on the tax applying to the at least one transaction conducted with the at least one other participant.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

conducting the at least one transaction with the at least one other participant in the advertising exchange based on the different impact on the tax.