Multiple criteria buying and selling model

• US 7,818,212 B1
• Filed: 10/22/1999
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Valentine Communications LLC
• Original Assignee: Ewinwin Incorporated
• Inventors: Mesaros, Gregory J.
• Primary Examiner(s): RUDY, ANDREW J
• Application Number:
  US09/426,063
• Time in Patent Office: 4,015 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/8, 705/26, 705/35, 705/37, 705/50, 705/74, 705/77, 705/80, 705/7, 705/10, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0627 using item specifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A multiple criteria buying and selling system and method is provided. A seller initially establishes a deal structure for a product, which provides seller defined selling criteria information relating to the purchasing of the product, such as volume per unit price, quality, delivery time and warranty information. A buyer will be able to review a list of deals if the seller'"'"'s selling criteria matches a buyer defined buying criteria. The deal structure is preferably set up so as to provide buyers with both price and non-price criteria information that the buyer'"'"'s would consider important in a purchase of the type of product being offered by the seller. The deal structure is electronically made available to potential buyers of the product. For example, the deal structure may be displayed on an Internet site.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented methodology for transacting business over a network, including:

at least one computer executing instructions for carrying out a method comprising;

offering a plurality of deals for at least one of a product or service offered by at least one seller, each of the plurality of deals includes at least one seller criteria;

receiving input including a plurality of price and non-price buying criteria by a buyer for the at least one of a product or service, the non-price criteria including at least one distribution criterion;

correlating the plurality of deals for the at least one of a product or service offered by the at least one seller to the price and non-price buying criteria inputted by the buyer;

notifying the seller of the at least one of a product or service when the buying criteria does not match the seller criteria; and

outputting a list of deals in real time from amongst the plurality of deals that match the price and non-price buying criteria of the buyer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein offering the plurality of deals is based on a plurality of selling criteria defined by the seller.

3. The method of claim 2, including in each of the plurality of selling criteria defined by the seller an offering criteria defining limits of each of the plurality of selling criteria defined by the seller.

4. The method of claim 3, including in each of the plurality of buying criteria inputted by the buyer an ordering criteria defining limits of each of the plurality of buying criteria inputted by the buyer.

5. The method of claim 4, including in the list of deals from amongst the plurality of deals that match the buying criteria of the buyer matching deals in which the ordering criteria of the buyer match the offering criteria of the seller.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising enabling additional selling criteria to each of the plurality of deals.

7. The method of claim 1, including in each of the plurality of buying criteria inputted by the buyer an ordering criteria defining limits of each of the plurality of buying criteria inputted by the buyer.

8. The method of claim 7, including in the list of deals from amongst the plurality of deals that match the buying criteria of the buyer matching deals which match the ordering criteria of the buyer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a distribution criterion includes at least one of seller reputation, reliability, timeliness, delivery options, financing options, or warranties.

24. The method of claim 1, the at least one seller criteria is determined prior to receiving the buying criteria.

29. The method of claim 1, the act of inputting a plurality of price and non-price buying criteria occurs prior to a negotiation or acceptance between the buyer and the seller and/or the act of notifying the seller of the particular product or service occurs after a negotiation or acceptance is completed.

10. A method of transacting business over the Internet, comprising:

at least one computer executing instructions for carrying out a method comprising;

hosting a web site that facilitates an Internet based transaction for a sale of at least one of a good or a service;

providing access via the web site to at least one buyer and at least one seller to carry out the sale, the at least one seller outputs a list of deals in real time when a plurality of price and non-price buying criteria defined by the buyer matches a plurality of price and non-price selling criteria defined by the seller, wherein non-price criteria associated with the at least one buyer includes at least one distribution criterion; and

alerting the at least one seller of the at least one good or service when at least one buyer criterion of the plurality of price and non-price buying criteria fails to match any portion of the plurality of price and non-price selling criteria.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising defining the plurality of price and non-price selling criteria by including offering criteria which defines acceptable ranges of the each of the plurality of price and non-price selling criteria defined by the at least one seller.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising defining the plurality of price and non-price buying criteria by including ordering criteria which defines acceptable ranges of the each of the plurality of price and non-price buying criteria defined by the at least one buyer.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising purchasing at least one good or service from the seller when the ordering criteria of the at least one buyer matches the offering criteria of the at least one seller.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving a discount on the purchasing based on a previous purchase made by the at least one buyer from the at least one seller.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising limiting the purchasing to particular buyers that meet and accept terms and conditions governing the sale as defined by the at least one seller.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising enabling the at least one seller to review other buyer defined buying criteria not used in matching of the plurality of price and non-price buying criteria and the plurality of price and non-price selling criteria.

17. A computer implemented method for conducting business electronically, comprising:

linking at least one seller and at least one buyer via a computer system;

providing the at least one buyer a plurality of deals from the at least one seller, wherein one or more deal has seller defined price and non-price selling criteria that differs from other price and non-price criteria defined by other sellers;

matching at least one deal of the plurality of deals that meets at least one buyer defined price and non-price buying criteria, the non-price criteria including at least one distribution criterion;

informing the seller of a particular product or service when buyer defined criteria differ from seller defined criteria;

outputting a list of the one or more matching deals to the at least one buyer in real time; and

receiving one or more orders from one or more deals from at least one buyer via the computer system.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising configuring a server to provide the plurality of different buyers access to view the at least one of the plurality of deals via one or more of the at least one remote computers.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising configuring a server to provide the plurality of different buyers with deals that the buyer defined buying criteria match the seller defined selling criteria.

30. The method of claim 17, further comprising omitting from the act of matching the buyer defined criteria that differ from the seller defined criteria and alerting a particular seller of the buyer defined criteria that differs when the particular seller does perform the act of outputting a list to the buyer.

31. The method of claim 17, further comprising omitting from the act of matching the buyer defined criteria that differ from the seller defined criteria and alerting a particular seller of the buyer defined criteria that differs when the particular seller does not perform the act of outputting a list to the buyer.

20. A system that facilitates electronic sale of a product or service, comprising:

means for offering a list of deals electronically to potential buyers, each deal contains both selling criteria and offering criteria for a product or service;

means for receiving from the potential buyer both buying criteria and ordering criteria;

means for matching offering criteria to ordering criteria; and

means for conducting a sale of the product or service in real time when the offering criteria matches the ordering criteria and informing the seller when buying criteria does not match selling criteria.

25. The system of claim 20, the selling criteria are received from the potential seller and the selling criteria describe both a price and non-price feature of the product or service.

26. The system of claim 20, the buying criteria are received from the potential buyer and the buying criteria describe both a price and non-price feature of the product or service.

27. The system of claim 20, the offering criteria define a value or range of the selling criteria.

28. The system of claim 20, the ordering criteria define a value or range of the buying criteria.

21. A method for conducting web-based transactions comprising the following computer-implemented acts:

connecting potential sellers of a particular good or service with potential buyers of the particular good or service through a computer system;

receiving multiple offers for the particular good or service from the potential sellers, an offer including both (1) seller criteria defining characteristics or qualities of the particular good or service offered by a respective potential seller and (2) offer criteria establishing a value or range of respective seller criteria;

aggregating the multiple offers into a deal for the particular good or service enabling a potential buyer to access the deal by selecting the particular good or service and to select any seller criteria specified by at least one of the potential sellers;

receiving a query from a potential buyer including seller criteria selected by the potential buyer, buyer criteria input by the potential buyer and defining characteristics or qualities of the particular good or service sought by the potential buyer and not available for selection from amongst the seller criteria and order criteria defining a value or range associated with either the seller criteria or the buyer criteria;

displaying in real time any offers where the order criteria for seller criteria selected by the potential buyer correspond to offer criteria for seller criteria input by a potential seller; and

providing the potential seller with buyer criteria that fail to match any seller criteria input by the potential seller.

22. A method for conducting web-based transactions comprising the following computer-implemented acts:

displaying to a potential buyer a list of goods or services offered by a potential seller, the displaying including both seller criteria and offer criteria;

displaying seller criteria based upon a selection of a particular good or service from the list, the seller criteria is determined prior to receiving buyer criteria;

receiving both order criteria and buyer criteria for the particular good or service;

outputting in real time offers in which the offer criteria matches the order criteria; and

reporting to a seller of the particular good or service buyer criteria that does not match seller criteria.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising defining the seller criteria as a set of minimum inputs based upon a determination by at least one of a system administrator and subset of the plurality of sellers, the subset including sellers of the selected good or service.