Transaction arbiter system and method

• US 8,533,097 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2005
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Price Setter, L.L.C.
• Original Assignee: Jorge Maass
• Inventors: Maass, Jorge Arturo
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Eric T
• Assistant Examiner(s): BAIRD, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US11/190,991
• Publication Number:
  US 20060259421A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,967 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A transaction arbiter system and method is disclosed which incorporates a merchant function database under control of a transaction arbiter that permits merchants to interact in an automated way with bids generated by other merchants. Rather than utilizing fixed price schedules as taught by the prior art, the present invention permits each merchant to define a set of functions which describe how the merchant will respond to a customer request-for-quote for a given product or service. These merchant functions interact with both the customer request-for-quote and the results of other merchant functions to generate a dynamic real-time bidding system which integrates competition among merchant bidders to achieve an optimal consumer price for a given product or service.

Claims

1. A system for processing arbitrated price quote transactions over a network from at least one merchant in response to a request for quote (RFQ) by at least one customer, comprising:

a customer input device,

a merchant database and

a transaction arbiter processing component in communication over the network with said customer input device and said merchant database via a remote host computer system, said transaction arbiter processing component storing at least one of algorithms and executable instructions that when executed perform a method comprising;

(a) receiving, over the network, RFQ data for a product or service generated from said customer input device, said RFQ data including parameters specified from said at least one customer;

(b) communicating, via the remote host computer system with said merchant database;

(c) inputting, via the remote host computer system, at least one of merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters from at least one merchant, and storing said merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters into said merchant database, said merchant data including information on the merchant and at least one of products and services available from at least one merchant, said merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters further describing how a given merchant will respond to at least one of merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters from at least one other merchant, in response to the parameters specified in the customer'"'"'s RFQ;

(d) interrogating, by the transaction arbiter processing component, and identifying at least one of merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters stored in said merchant database satisfying the parameters of the customer RFQ, and the transaction arbiter processing component performing at least one of;

interacting with, processing, and executing a sequence of at least one of algorithms, permutations and calculations using said identified merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters;

(e) generating, by the transaction arbiter processing component, an arbitrated price quote result satisfying the RFQ parameters;

(f) communicating, from the transaction arbiter processing component over the network, the arbitrated price quote result to the customer input device;

(g) receiving, by the customer input device over the network, the arbitrated price quote result from the transaction arbiter processing component in response to the RFQ.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer input device communicates with the transaction arbiter processing component via at least one of a computer network, a communication network and the Internet.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the customer input device is at least one of a computer, a telephone and a mobile device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the transaction arbiter processing component, a merchant function database and a system application is hosted in at least one of the customer input device and the remote host computer system.

5. The system as in claim 1, wherein the customer input device includes at least one of a UPC scanner, a GPS, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) hardware applications.

6. The system of claim 1, where said customer RFQ parameters include at least one of customer location, merchant locations and their proximity to each other, and other parameters, wherein said locations are determined through the use of at least one of maps, GPS coordinates and zip codes.

7. The system of claim 1, where said merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters include at least one of algorithms, time schedules, merchant location, merchant identifying information, product information, service information, product or service availability information, asking price, maximum price, minimum price, percentage under closest competitor, maximum discount and other data, limiting parameters or functions.

8. A method of processing transactions generating an arbitrated price quote result from at least one merchant in response to a request for quote (RFQ) from at least one customer comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving, over the network, RFQ data for a product or service generated from a customer input device, said RFQ data including parameters specified from said at least one customer;

(b) communicating, via the remote host computer system with a merchant database;

(c) inputting, via the remote host computer system, at least one of merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters from at least one merchant, and storing said merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters into said merchant database, said merchant data including information on the merchant and at least one of products and services available from at least one merchant, said merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters further describing how a given merchant will respond at least one of merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters from at least one other in response to the parameters specified in the customer'"'"'s RFQ;

(d) interrogating, by the transaction arbiter processing component, and identifying at least one of merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters stored in said merchant database satisfying the parameters of the customer RFQ, and the transaction arbiter processing component performing at least one of;

interacting with, and processing, and executing a sequence of at least one of algorithms, permutations and calculations using said identified merchant data, bidding functions and limiting parameters;

(e) generating, by the transaction arbiter processing component, an arbitrated price quote result satisfying the RFQ parameters;

(f) communicating, from the transaction arbiter processing component over the network, the arbitrated price quote result to the customer input device;

(g) receiving, by the customer input device over the network, the arbitrated price quote result from the transaction arbiter processing component in response to the RFQ.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the customer input device communicates with the transaction arbiter processing component via at least one of a computer network, a communication network and the Internet.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the customer input device is at least one of a computer, a telephone and a mobile device.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of the transaction arbiter processing component, a merchant function database and a system application is hosted in at least one of the customer input device and the remote host computer system.

12. The method as in claim 8, wherein the customer input device includes at least one of a UPC scanner, a GPS, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) hardware applications.

13. The method of claim 8, where said customer RFQ parameters include at least one of a customer locations, merchant locations and their proximity to each other, and other parameters , wherein said locations are determined through the use of at least one of maps, GPS coordinates and zip codes.

14. The method of claim 8, where said merchant data, functions and limiting parameters include at least one of algorithms, time schedules, merchant location, merchant identifying information, product information, service information, product or service availability information, asking price, maximum price, minimum price, percentage under closest competitor, maximum discount and other data limiting parameters or functions.