×

Pricing and auctioning of bundled items among multiple sellers and buyers

  • US 7,840,447 B2
  • Filed: 10/30/2008
  • Issued: 11/23/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2007
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method of providing pricing for a bundle of items to a user from a bundle search engine, comprising:

  • providing a bundle search engine configured to collect and analyze information regarding members of a bundle submitted by a buyer;

    obtaining, via a first electronic interface provided by the bundle search engine, from the buyer bundle attributes for the members, the bundle attributes including criticality information representing a measure of desirability for inclusion of at least one of the members in the bundle, and including a price acceptance measure and a store choice, wherein the store choice specifies one or more acceptable stores from which the user may purchase a bundle and one or more stores which are excluded from consideration;

    selecting automatically, by the bundle search engine, a common one of the members based on the criticality information;

    identifying automatically, by the bundle search engine, sub-bundles according to the bundle attributes, the sub-bundles having alternative combinations of the members that compose the bundle, wherein each of the combinations includes the common member, and at least one of the members of the sub-bundles is not selected by the user;

    calculating prices automatically, by the bundle search engine, for additional versions of the bundle that include the alternative sub-bundles;

    configuring a second electronic interface to display the prices and the members of the additional versions of the bundle; and

    allowing the buyer to purchase at least one of the additional versions of the bundle via the bundle search engine.

View all claims
  • 4 Assignments
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×