Fair discounting auction

• US 7,778,869 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2007
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vohra, Rakesh Vinay, Pai, Mallesh M., Jain, Kamal
• Primary Examiner(s): Myhre; James W
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHORNESKY, ADAM B
• Application Number:
  US11/761,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20080313027A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,162 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/10, 705/14.14, 705/14.34, 705/14.39
• US Class Current: 705/14.14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0212 Chance discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 Rebates after completed purchase
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates employing an online auction in which a coupon is fairly administered. An online auction environment that can employ an auction to identify a fair market value of at least one of a good or a portion of a service, wherein the auction can receive at least one bid from a bidder with a coupon and a bidder without a coupon. A randomizer component that can select one of a collection of bidders having coupons or a collection of bidders not having coupons based on a randomizing technique, wherein the online auction environment can identify an auction winner as a highest bidder within the selected collection, the highest bidder provides a highest bid from both the collection of bidders having coupons and the collection of bidders not having coupons.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having stored therein computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

employ an auction to identify a fair market value of at least one of a good or a portion of a service;

receive at least one bid from a bidder with a coupon and a bidder without a coupon;

randomly select one of a collection of bidders having coupons or a collection of bidders not having coupons based on a randomizing technique; and

identify an auction winner as a highest bidder within the selected collection, the highest bidder providing a highest bid from both the collection of bidders having coupons and the collection of bidders not having coupons.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the randomizing technique is at least one of a coin flip, a mathematical equation simulating a random outcome, a random number generator with a number designating an outcome, or a mathematical equation simulating a randomness of a coin flip.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the coupon is at least one of a discount, a promotion, a bundled product, a bundled service, a free good, a free service, a percent discount, a monetary value discount, a rebate, or a monetary benefit bundled with a purchase.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the good is an ad unit related to online advertising.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the ad unit is utilized by a publisher to sell for advertising and is the smallest unit of the advertisement that can be rendered.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the ad unit is sold at an ad price which is for the ad unit in a specific location on at least one of a website, a webpage, a page, or a site.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the ad price is a price for the ad unit in terms of a measurement that correlates to an estimate of traffic for the ad unit.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the measurement is at least one of a percent rotation for the advertisement, a cost/price per click (CPC), a price per 1000 impressions (CPM), a price per N impression, where N is a positive integer, or a unit of measurement related to a sale of a portion of the ad unit.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the auction winner, if selected from the collection of bidders having coupons, pays a price associated with the highest bid including the coupon.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the auction winner, if selected from the collection of bidders not having coupons, pays a price which is the maximum between 1) a price associated with the highest bid from the bidders not having coupons;

and

     2) a price associated with the highest bid from the bidders having coupons including the coupon.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein at least one of the good or the portion of service is withheld from the auction based upon the highest bidder not being within the randomly selected collection.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the randomizing technique is employed during at least one of the following instances:

before a start of an auction;

a start of an auction;

an end of an auction;

a point of time between the start of the auction and the end of the auction;

or after a conclusion of an auction.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the auction is at least one of a standardized high-bid winner auction, a Vickrey auction, a Dutch auction, a second price auction, a silent auction, a sealed-bid auction, or a mixed goods auction.

14. A computer-implemented method that facilitates an online auction environment by utilizing a coupon, the method comprising:

randomly selecting one of a collection of bidders with coupons or a collection of bidders without coupons by a computing device that is communicatively coupled to the bidders through a network;

receiving, at the computing device, bids within an auction of at least one of a good or a portion of service; and

identifying a winner of the auction when;

1) a bidder submits a highest bid amongst the collection of bidders with coupons and the collection of bidders without coupons; and

2) the bidder is within the randomly selected collection.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the good is an ad unit associated with online advertising space related to at least one of a website, a site, a page, a webpage, or an Internet address.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising randomly selecting the collection utilizing at least one of a coin flip, a mathematical equation simulating a random outcome, a random number generator with a number designating an outcome, or a mathematical equation simulating a randomness of a coin flip.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the coupon is at least one of a discount, a promotion, a bundled product, a bundled service, a free good, a free service, a percent discount, a monetary value discount, a rebate, or a monetary benefit bundled with a purchase.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

withholding at least one of the good or the portion of service if the highest bid is not from the randomly selected collection.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the auction is at least one of a standardized high-bid winner auction, a Vickrey auction, a Dutch auction, a second price auction, a silent auction, a sealed-bid auction, or a mixed goods auction.