Match engine marketing
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. A method of generating a product/service/benefit result list in response to a match request from a PSB seeker using in whole or in part a computer-compatible network, comprising:
- maintaining a database including a plurality of PSB listings, wherein each PSB listing is associated with a PSB provider, at least one PSB criteria factor, and a modifiable bid amount that is independent of other components of the PSB listing, the bid amount being associated with at least one of the PSB and the PSB provider, the bid amount corresponding to a money amount that is deducted from an account of a PSB provider associated with the PSB upon receipt of a request of at least one of information about the PSB provider or the PSB itself;
receiving a PSB match request, which includes seeker criteria information, from the PSB seeker;
identifying the PSB listings having PSB criteria which generate a match with the PSB match request;
ordering the identified PSB listings into a PSB result list in accordance with the values of the respective bid amounts for the identified PSB listings;
receiving a retrieval request from the PSB seeker to retrieve information associated with a PSB listing in the result list;
recording a retrieval request event including account identification information corresponding to the PSB provider, to permit maintenance of accurate account records.
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Abstract
Enabling advertisers using a computer network such as the Internet and a match engine to submit their offerings to product, service, benefit seeking entities. In some embodiments, a database having accounts for the providers is made available. Accounts contain contact and billing information for an advertiser; and at least one offering having at least a description, a criteria set comprising one or more criterion factors, and a bid amount. An advertiser influences a position of an offering in the advertiser'"'"'s account by first selecting offering relevant criteria. The advertiser enters the criteria and the description into a listing; influencing at least in part the position for the listing within a results page through an online bidding process. This results page is generated in response to a seeking entity query of the match engine. Pay for performance demographic, geographic, psychographic criteria/characteristics targeted directly advertising (frictionless advertising) is enabled.
74 Citations
229 Claims
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1. A method of generating a product/service/benefit result list in response to a match request from a PSB seeker using in whole or in part a computer-compatible network, comprising:
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maintaining a database including a plurality of PSB listings, wherein each PSB listing is associated with a PSB provider, at least one PSB criteria factor, and a modifiable bid amount that is independent of other components of the PSB listing, the bid amount being associated with at least one of the PSB and the PSB provider, the bid amount corresponding to a money amount that is deducted from an account of a PSB provider associated with the PSB upon receipt of a request of at least one of information about the PSB provider or the PSB itself; receiving a PSB match request, which includes seeker criteria information, from the PSB seeker; identifying the PSB listings having PSB criteria which generate a match with the PSB match request; ordering the identified PSB listings into a PSB result list in accordance with the values of the respective bid amounts for the identified PSB listings; receiving a retrieval request from the PSB seeker to retrieve information associated with a PSB listing in the result list; recording a retrieval request event including account identification information corresponding to the PSB provider, to permit maintenance of accurate account records. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 80, 94, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103)
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12. A method of generating an advertising presentation using at least in part a computer-compatible network, comprising:
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maintaining a database including a plurality of advertisements, wherein each advertisement is associated with a provider and a modifiable bid amount that is independent of other component(s) of the advertisement, each advertisement being searchable; identifying the advertisement(s) having demographic and/or psychographic and/or firmographic criteria which generate at least a partial match with an entity; arranging the identified advertisement(s) into said advertising presentation at least in part in accordance with the values of the respective bid amounts for the identified advertisement(s). - View Dependent Claims (13)
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14. A method of generating a result list in response to a match request from a seeker using a computer network, comprising:
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maintaining a database including a plurality of listings, wherein each listing is associated with criteria and a modifiable bid amount that is independent of other components of the listing; receiving a match request from the seeker; identifying the listings having criteria which generates a match with the match request; ordering the identified listings into a result list in accordance with the values of the respective bid amounts for the identified listings; receiving a retrieval request from the seeker to retrieve information associated with a listing in the result list; generating a listing activity report including information on retrieval requests received from seekers.
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15. An apparatus having stored thereon at least:
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at least one database having at least one account record for each of a plurality of advertising providers, the account record including; at least one listing corresponding to at least one criteria, a modifiable bid amount that is independent of other components of the listing, a locator corresponding to the address/location of a document residing on a network server, a description, and a title; an account balance; a history of listings included in the advertising provider'"'"'s account record; payment processing information, wherein said payment processing information is accessible to a network and isolated from public access; and a payment history; programming code for providing the advertising provider with login access in response to authentication, wherein the advertising provider'"'"'s login access grants the advertising provider access to modify the advertising provider'"'"'s account, the advertising provider not being provided with access to modify the accounts of others; programming code for adding money to the account of an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider; programming code for adding a listing to an account of an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider; programming code for deleting a listing to an account of an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider; programming code for modifying the listing of an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider; programming code for generating an activity report for an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider; programming code for receiving a match request from a device, the request including at least one criteria, the request being received from a device; programming code for generating a result list in response to the match request, the result list including listings from the accounts on the database, wherein the criteria for each listing in the result list generates a match with the match request, the listings in the result list arranged in an order determined at least in part by using the bid amounts of the listings. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of enabling a provider to update information relating to a listing on a result list generated by a matching engine, comprising the steps of:
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maintaining an account database having at least one account record for each of a plurality of providers, said account record including at least one listing having criteria and a modifiable bid amount that is independent of the other components of the listing; and an account identifier; receiving from a provider a change request for a listing in the provider'"'"'s account; updating the listing in the provider'"'"'s account record in response to the change request; determining a position for the updated listing in a result list generated by the matching engine in response to a criteria information included match request received from a seeker using the matching engine, where the criteria of the updated listing generates a match with the match request and the position of the updated listing in the result list is determined at least in part by using the bid amount. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 55)
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34. A method of enabling a provider using a computer-compatible network to update information relating to a listing within a result list generated by a match engine in response to a match request received from a remote device over the computer-compatible network, comprising the steps of:
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maintaining an account database having at least one account record for each of a plurality of providers of the computer-compatible network, said account record including an account identifier, and at least one listing having criteria and a modifiable bid amount that is independent of other components of the listing; providing the provider with authenticated login access, wherein the provider'"'"'s login access permits the provider to modify the provider'"'"'s account record; modifying listing of the account record upon receiving a request from said provider; and generating a result list comprised of listings wherein the criteria for each listing generates a match with the criteria data included match request, the listings in the result list arranged in an order corresponding in whole or in part to the bid amounts of the listings. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58)
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59. A method of enabling a provider using at least one computer-compatible network to update information relating to a listing within a result list generated by a matching engine, said method comprising the steps of:
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maintaining a database having at least one account record for at least one provider using the computer-compatible network(s), said account record including; at least one listing, where each listing includes a criteria field having at least one criteria factor, a modifiable bid amount that is independent of the other components of the listing, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) corresponding to the address of a document residing on a network server, a description, and a title; an account balance; payment processing information for the provider, said payment processing information maintained isolated from public access via the computer-compatible network(s); payment histories of the provider; and listing histories of the provider; providing the provider with login access in response to authentication, wherein the provider'"'"'s login access permits the provider access to modify the provider'"'"'s account record, the provider not being provided with access to modify account records of others; modifying the listing of a provider upon receiving a request from said provider; receiving a match request, the match request including at least one criteria factor identified from at least one seekers criteria data set, the match request being received over a network from a seekers device; and generating a result list in response to the match request, the result list including listings of the account records on a computer-compatible network, wherein the criteria for each listing in the result list generates a match with the match request, the listings in the result list arranged in an order determined using at least in part the bid amounts of the listings. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85)
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86. Computer executable instructions stored on a tangible medium for collecting and analyzing data describing the bid options available for a PSB provider to determine if and/or when and/or where said PSB provider'"'"'s advertisement(s) will appear, comprising a plurality of PSB bid modules, each capable of collecting bid data from PSB providers, determining the location and/or appearance frequency of said PSB provider'"'"'s advertisement(s), and providing the information necessary to select the location and/or appearance frequency of said provider'"'"'s advertisement(s);
- wherein the location of said provider'"'"'s advertisement(s) is/are determined at least in part by at least one bid on one or more demographic and/or psychographic and/or firmographic.
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87. A distributed information match mechanism comprising:
- means for storing a plurality of provider/advertiser registrations;
means for receiving one or more entity demographics and/or psychographics and/or firmographics via a network;
means for resolving said entity demographics and/or psychographics and/or firmographics against each of a plurality of provider/advertiser registrations to determine one or more matching provider/advertiser registrations each indicating a corresponding provider/advertiser information location;
means for transmitting;
at least in part monetarily determined as a result of one or more auctions of and/or bids on one or more demographic and/or psychographic and/or firmographic;
match results to a device. - View Dependent Claims (88, 89, 90, 91)
- means for storing a plurality of provider/advertiser registrations;
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92. A method comprising:
- maintaining a database including a plurality of product and/or service and/or benefit listings;
wherein at least one product, service, benefit listing is associated with a bid and criteria;
receiving a match or combination match/search request from a seeker/searcher;
identifying the product and/or service and/or benefit listings having criteria generating a match with said match or combination match/search request;
ordering any identified product, service, benefit listings into at least one match or combination match/search result list in accordance at least in part with the values of the respective bids for the identified product, service, benefit listings;
receiving a retrieval request from said seeker/searcher to retrieve information associated with a product and/or service and/or benefit listings in the result list or lists. - View Dependent Claims (93)
- maintaining a database including a plurality of product and/or service and/or benefit listings;
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95. Computer executable instructions stored on a tangible medium comprising:
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a database having at least one account record for each of a plurality of advertising providers using a computer-compatible network, the account record including; at least one listing corresponding to at least one criteria, a bid amount, a locator corresponding to the address of a document residing on a network server, a description, and a title; an account balance; a history of listings included in the advertising provider'"'"'s account record; payment processing information, wherein said payment processing information is accessible to the computer-compatible network and isolated from public access via the computer-compatible network; and a payment history; programming code for providing the advertising provider with login access in response to authentication, wherein the advertising provider'"'"'s login access grants the advertising provider access to modify the advertising provider'"'"'s account, the advertising provider not being provided with access to modify the accounts of others; programming code for adding money to the account of an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider, programming code for adding a listing to an account of an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider; programming code for deleting a listing to an account of an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider; programming code for modifying the listing of an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider; programming code for generating an activity report for an advertising provider upon receiving a request from said advertising provider, programming code for receiving a match request from a remote device, the request including at least one criteria; programming code for generating a result list in response to the match request, the result list including listings from the accounts on the database, wherein the criteria for each listing in the result list generates a match with the match request, the listings in the result list arranged in an order determined using at least in part the bid amounts of the listings. - View Dependent Claims (96, 97, 98)
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104. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable medium including executable instructions that when executed by at least one processor performs functions comprising:
- maintaining a database having at least one account record for at least one provider using at least one network, said account record including;
at least one listing, where each listing includes a criteria field having at least one criteria factor, a modifiable bid amount that is independent of the other components of the listing, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) corresponding to the address of a document residing on a network server, a description, and a title;
an account balance;
payment processing information for the provider, said payment processing information maintained isolated from public access via at least one network;
payment histories of the provider; and
listing histories of the provider;
providing the provider with login access in response to authentication, wherein the provider'"'"'s login access permits the provider access to modify the provider'"'"'s account record, the provider not being provided with access to modify account records of others;
modifying the listing of a provider upon receiving a request from said provider;
receiving a match request, the match request including at least one criteria factor obtained from at least one criteria source, the match request being received via at least one network from a seeker at/with a remote device and generating a result list in response to the match request, the result list including listings of the account records on at least one network, wherein the criteria for each listing in the result list generates a match with the match request, the listings in the result list arranged in an order determined using at least in part the bid amounts of the listings. - View Dependent Claims (105)
- maintaining a database having at least one account record for at least one provider using at least one network, said account record including;
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106. A tangible computer readable medium including a computer program, executable by a machine, for providing match results based on criteria, the computer program comprising executable instructions for:
- maintaining a database including a plurality of product, service, benefit listings;
wherein each product, service, benefit listing is associated with a bid and criteria;
receiving a match request from said seeker;
identifying the product, service, benefit listings having criteria generating a match with said match request;
ordering the identified product, service, benefit listings into a result list in accordance at least in part with the values of the respective bid amounts for the identified product, service, benefit listings;
receiving a retrieval request from said seeker to retrieve information associated with a product, service, benefit listing in the result list; and
recording a retrieval request event in database corresponding to said seeker'"'"'s retrieval request.
- maintaining a database including a plurality of product, service, benefit listings;
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107. A match engine comprising:
- at least one tangible match repository configured to perform matches; and
a match component configured to;
receive via an apparatus a match request including at least the demographics and/or psychographics and/or firmographics of a seeker, generate a plurality of matches, each of the plurality of matches being associated with at least one of a plurality of advertisers, receive at least one of at least in part monetarily determined match results from the at least one match repository for the match request, and transmitting said match results to at least one apparatus. - View Dependent Claims (108, 109, 110, 111)
- at least one tangible match repository configured to perform matches; and
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112. A web page or web site comprising a plurality of data fields for entering and/or selecting a plurality of biddable search term keywords and a plurality of indicator mechanisms for indicating which of a plurality of demographics and/or psychographics and/or firmographics to utilize in increasing and/or decreasing the amount to be paid for said keyword or keywords.
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113. A method of presenting an advertisement, the method comprising:
- associating one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes with an advertisement;
receiving input from a user, wherein the received input comprises one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes;
identifying at least a partial match between the multigraphic and/or firmographic attribute or attributes associated with the advertisement and the received input; and
presenting the advertisement to the user;
wherein the determination of the presentation order and/or size of and/or dimensions of and/or location of the advertisement is based at least in part on a bid on at least one of the said multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes. - View Dependent Claims (114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125)
- associating one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes with an advertisement;
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126. A system for presenting an advertisement, the system comprising processor electronics configured to perform operations comprising:
- associating one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes with an advertisement for which at least one bid has been received;
receiving input from a user via a device, wherein the received input comprises one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes;
identifying a match between the multigraphic and/or firmographic attribute or attributes associated with the advertisement and the received input; and
presenting the advertisement to the user. - View Dependent Claims (127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134)
- associating one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes with an advertisement for which at least one bid has been received;
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135. An article of manufacture comprising machine-readable instructions for presenting an advertisement, the machine-readable instructions being operable to perform operations comprising:
- associating one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes with an advertisement for which at least one bid has been received;
receiving input from a user, wherein the received input comprises one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes;
identifying a match between the multigraphic and/or firmographic attribute or attributes associated with the advertisement and the received input; and
presenting the advertisement to the user. - View Dependent Claims (136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150)
- associating one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes with an advertisement for which at least one bid has been received;
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151. A method of presenting an advertisement, the method comprising:
- receiving input from a user via a physical device, wherein the received input comprises one or more psychographic and/or firmographic attributes;
identifying one or more relevant advertisements based on a match between the received input and one or more psychographic and/or firmographic attributes having predetermined associations with a plurality of advertisements; and
delivering at least one relevant advertisement to a physical device. - View Dependent Claims (152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167)
- receiving input from a user via a physical device, wherein the received input comprises one or more psychographic and/or firmographic attributes;
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168. A method of enabling an advertiser to select a monetary amount to pay for an advertisement, the method comprising:
- enable the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receive an indication of an initial monetary bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said one or more keywords;
thereafter enable the increasing or decreasing of said initial bid by an additional monetary amount through enabling the advertisers ability to select one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable and/or not applicable to advertisers targets. - View Dependent Claims (169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180)
- enable the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receive an indication of an initial monetary bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said one or more keywords;
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181. A method of enabling an advertiser to prevent an advertisement from being presented to one or more particular multigraphic and/or firmographic groups, the method compromising:
- enable the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receive an indication of a bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said one or more keywords, enable the selecting of one or more unwanted multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable to one or more of said groups;
correlating advertisers unwanted attributes with one or more groups having said unwanted attributes;
thereafter not presenting said advertisement to said group or groups.
- enable the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receive an indication of a bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said one or more keywords, enable the selecting of one or more unwanted multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable to one or more of said groups;
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182. A system for enabling an advertiser to select a monetary amount to pay for an advertisement, the system comprising processor electronics configured to perform operations comprising:
- enable the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receive an indication of an initial monetary bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said keywords;
thereafter enable the increasing or decreasing of said initial bid by an additional monetary amount through enabling the advertisers ability to select one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable and/or not applicable to advertisers targeted seekers. - View Dependent Claims (183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 194, 195)
- enable the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receive an indication of an initial monetary bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said keywords;
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193. A system for enabling an advertiser to prevent an advertisement from being presented to one or more particular multigraphic and/or firmographic groups, the system comprising processor electronics configured to perform operations comprising:
- enable the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receive an indication of a monetary bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said keywords, enable the selecting of one or more unwanted multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable to one or more of said groups;
correlating advertisers unwanted attributes with one or more groups having said unwanted attributes;
thereafter not presenting said advertisement to said group or groups.
- enable the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receive an indication of a monetary bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said keywords, enable the selecting of one or more unwanted multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable to one or more of said groups;
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196. An article of manufacture comprising machine-readable instructions for enabling an advertiser to select a monetary amount to pay for an advertisement, the machine-readable instructions being operable to perform operations comprising:
- enabling the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receiving an indication of an initial monetary bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said keywords;
thereafter enabling the increasing or decreasing of said initial bid by an additional monetary amount through enabling the advertisers ability to select one or more multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable and/or not applicable to advertisers targets. - View Dependent Claims (197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208)
- enabling the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receiving an indication of an initial monetary bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said keywords;
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209. An article of manufacture comprising machine-readable instructions for enabling an advertiser to prevent an advertisement from being presented to one or more particular multigraphic and/or firmographic groups, the machine-readable instructions being operable to perform operations comprising:
- enabling the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receiving an indication of a bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said one or more keywords, enabling the selecting of one or more unwanted multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable to one or more of said groups;
correlating advertisers unwanted attributes with one or more groups having said unwanted attributes;
thereafter not presenting said advertisement to said groups.
- enabling the selecting of one or more search term keywords for an advertisement, receiving an indication of a bid amount advertiser is willing to pay for said one or more keywords, enabling the selecting of one or more unwanted multigraphic and/or firmographic attributes applicable to one or more of said groups;
- 210. A system comprising the auctioning of and/or bidding on of entity demographics and/or psychographics and/or firmographics.
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215. A method comprising the auctioning of and/or bidding on of entity demographics and/or psychographics and/or firmographics;
- wherein said auctioning and/or bidding is conducted at least in part utilizing at least one computing device.
- View Dependent Claims (216, 217, 218, 219)
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220. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable medium including executable instructions that when executed by at least one processor performs functions comprising:
- auctioning and/or bidding on entity demographics and/or psychographics and/or firmographics.
- View Dependent Claims (221, 222, 223, 224)
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225. An article of manufacture comprising machine-readable instructions, the machine-readable instructions being operable to perform operations comprising:
- the auctioning of and/or bidding on of entity demographics and/or psychographics and/or firmographics.
- View Dependent Claims (226, 227, 228, 229)
Specification