Apparatus and method for remote sellers to initiate auction instances at an auction facilitator system and receive or make payment for items bought and sold with the system by book entry accounting between participant accounts accessible to the system

• US 7,970,652 B1
• Filed: 04/25/2000
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Woolston, Thomas G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kalinowski; Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): JOHNSON, GREGORY L
• Application Number:
  US09/557,617
• Time in Patent Office: 4,081 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/35, 705/37, 705/39, 705/5, 705/68, 705/70, 705/80
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

An apparatus and method for an internet-based auction and payment system for facilitating participant initiated autonomous auction instances and book entry payment transfers between participant accounts maintained, tracked or accessible by the system for participants to make payments to other participants on the system for items won at the autonomous auction instances. Furthermore, categories for the classification of items at auction may be selected by a seller while the seller is isolated from communication with the auction system to facilitate the asynchronous creation of data records by user for subsequent bulk listing and auction initiation. Data records may include data headers when transmitted to the auction system to provide authorization and program interface usage measurements.

Claims

1. An internet-based auction and transaction system for executing autonomous ascending bid auction instances for a plurality of independent participants in response to the initiation of the instances by the plurality of independent participants and for establishing multiple participant accounts that can be debited and credited in accounting for funds used and generated by participant transactions in the system, the system comprising:

(a) a computer system in communication with the Internet and configured to execute a plurality of substantially simultaneous processes;

(b) one or more processes executing on the computer system to perform the following;

(i) maintain multiple participant accounts, each account accessible based on information received from a participant, the multiple participant accounts are debited and credited for the funds used and generated by participant transactions with the system;

(ii) automatically, in response to information received via a participant interface to the system, initiate an autonomous ascending bid auction selling process based at least in part on information electronically received from a participant acting as a seller participant in the system, the ascending bid auction selling process describing an item offered for sale via the system generated autonomous ascending bid auction process to potential buyer participants;

(iii) connecting a participant acting as a buyer in the system to at least one participant account maintained by the system and associated with the participant acting as the buyer in the system; and

(iv) clearing by book entry transaction the payment between the participant acting as the buyer in the system with the participant acting as the seller in the system by debiting the participant account of the participant acting as the buyer and crediting the participant account for the participant acting as the seller within the system, the transaction between the participant acting as the buyer in the system and the participant acting as the seller in the system being responsive at least in part to the participant acting as the buyer in the system winning an item at the autonomous ascending bid auction process that was generated by the system in response to the participant acting as a seller via the participant interface to the system.

2. The internet-based auction and transaction system of claim 1, wherein the initiated selling process, generated in response to a participant input from a participant interface to the system where the participant is acting as a seller, comprises providing a predetermined category selection to the participant acting as the seller, the predetermined category selection providing a topical arrangement of selling instances to participants acting as buyers by maintaining a topical navigation scheme for participants acting as buyers to navigate a topically arranged interface to the system wherein the topical navigation scheme corresponds at least in part to the predetermined category selection provided to the participant acting as the seller with an interface providing a selection of a category for the selling instance.

3. The internet-based auction and transaction system of claim 1, wherein the initiated selling instance, generated in response to a participant input from a participant interface to the system where the participant is acting as a seller, includes item description information and the system provides a unique code to confirm item listing to the participant acting as a seller.

4. The internet-based auction and transactional system of claim 1, wherein:

the transactional system is under a first entity'"'"'s control;

the information describing the item is offered for sale in an ascending bid auction mode and is received from a computer system independently operated by the participant acting as the seller, and

the auction process for the participant acting as the seller is initiated while the item remains outside the first entity'"'"'s possession.

5. The internet-based auction and transaction system of claim 1, wherein the auction process for the participant acting as the seller is initiated while the item remains outside the first entity'"'"'s control.

6. The internet-based auction and transaction system of claim 1, wherein the auction process for the participant acting as the seller is initiated while the item remains in the control of the participant acting as the seller.

7. An automated method, performed by a computer-based auction and transaction apparatus for conducting multiple simultaneous participant-to-participant autonomous ascending bid auctions via a connection to a data packet network and the world wide web in a fully automated, topically arranged system that can be navigated by topical categories, and wherein sellers and buyers can consummate transactions between user accounts maintained by the system by book entry transaction, the computer-based auction and transaction apparatus being under the control of a first entity, the method comprising:

tracking the accounts with the computer-based auction and transaction apparatus;

receiving via the data packet network from a participant acting as a seller a description of an item offered for auction, the received description including a category selected from a list of categories provided from the apparatus;

in response to receiving a description of an item for auction from the seller participant, generating a unique tracking identifier for the item;

displaying, in response to a search request from a participant acting as a buyer, the description of the item for auction in a presentation format via the world wide web, the display including advertisements that generate revenue for the auction system;

initiating an autonomous ascending bid auction process at the computer-based auction with the apparatus for an item posted by the seller participant, the auction being conducted while the item for auction remains outside of the first entity'"'"'s possession;

receiving at least one bid for the item for auction from at least one bidder via a computer interface, an automated computer-implemented auction process processing the bid to determine whether to post the bid as the current high bid for the item for auction;

determining a final high bidder for the item via the computer-implemented auction process and notifying the high bidder that he or she is the winner of auction; and

clearing a payment by book entry transaction between a participant account that is tracked with the apparatus and associated with the winning bidder and an account that is tracked with the apparatus and associated with the seller participant for the item that was autonomously auctioned by the apparatus.

8. An apparatus for conducting autonomous Internet auctions and for transferring funds between users of the system by book entry between user accounts associated with the apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a computer system operationally connected to the Internet;

a process executing on the computer system maintaining a participant'"'"'s account associated with at least one selling participant;

a storage device operationally connected to the computer system, the storage device storing a database of data records, each data record identifying at least one item to be auctioned by the computer system via an autonomous auction process;

a data interface operationally connected to the computer system, the data interface providing electronic connectivity between the computer system and the Internet;

a worldwide web-to-database mapping module, the worldwide web-to-database mapping module providing a link between a hypertext mark up language page server and the storage device;

an electronic mail module operationally connected to the data interface and executing on the computer system, the electronic mail module providing an information link to the participant seller of the item for auction represented by a data record stored by the data storage device;

the computer system executing an auction program that is an autonomous ascending bid auction process that is started by a remote selling participant; and

a process executing on the computer system to verify a participant purchaser information and connect that participant to a deposit or charge account maintained by the system, and then authorizing that participant to execute a process on the apparatus to clear a charge from the result of an auction process by debiting the participant account for the purchase of an item won by participation with the autonomous ascending bid auction program and depositing an amount representing the result of the auction process to the participant seller'"'"'s account maintained by the apparatus by book entry transaction.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:

a process executing on the apparatus to credit a system account a transaction fee based at least in part on the result of the autonomous ascending bid auction program.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:

a process executing on the apparatus to extract a commission fee from the seller participant based at least in part on the result of the autonomous ascending bid auction program.

11. An apparatus for conducting fully automated simultaneous Interact auctions and for transferring funds between users of the system by book entry transaction between user accounts associated with an accounts database, the apparatus comprising:

a computer system operationally connected to the Internet and controlled by a first entity;

an accounts database operationally connected to the computer system;

a process executing on the computer system maintaining a participant'"'"'s account associated with a selling participant in the accounts database;

a storage device operationally connected to the computer system, the storage device storing a database of data records, the data record identifying an item to be auctioned by the computer system;

a data interface operationally connected to the computer system, the data interface providing electronic connectivity between the computer system and the Internet;

the computer system executing an auction program that executes an autonomous ascending bid auction in response to an input received from a remote selling participant, wherein the autonomous ascending bid auction is conducted while the item being auctioned remains outside of the first entity'"'"'s possession; and

a process executing on the computer system to verify a participant purchaser information and connect that participant to a deposit or charge account maintained by the system, and then authorizing that participant to execute a process on the apparatus to clear a charge from the result of an auction process by debiting the participant account for the purchase and crediting an amount representing the result of the auction process to the participant seller'"'"'s account by book entry transaction.