Method, system and computer program product for facilitating an auction behavior and automatic bidding in an auction

• US 8,548,895 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2011
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Inventor Holdings LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Walker Digital LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Inventors: Ware, Adam, Walker, Jay S., Tedesco, Daniel E., Van Luchene, Kathleen M., Jorasch, James A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert, Ella
• Application Number:
  US13/022,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20110131111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 967 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 705/26, 705/26.1, 705/27, 705/27.1, 705/35, 705/36, 705/36.R, 705/37, 705/36.1
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

One or more proxy bidders is associated with a rule which determines a time to place a bid. The proxy bidder places a bid at the determined time, instead of immediately after the bidder'"'"'s prior bid is exceeded. Such rules may be selected for all proxy bidders to encourage a desired auction behavior. By controlling the placement of bids based on rules associated with the desired auction behavior, bids may be placed in a manner that seems natural and competitive to bidders in the auction when, in fact, they are placed in accordance with the selected rules. The desired auction behavior may be selected statically for an auction or dynamically during the auction. Historical auction data maybe analyzed to characterize the behavior of an auction, such as the average period of time between bids and the average increment between bids. Rules may be generated to correspond to a behavior so as to provide the same average time and increment between bids.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

retrieving, by a computer, a stored indication of a desired sales behavior assigned to a specific sale;

retrieving, by the computer and based on the desired sales behavior assigned to the specific sale, a stored indication of a plurality of proxy bidder rules;

receiving, by the computer, an indication of a request for a first bidder to establish a first proxy bidder for the specific sale; and

assigning, by the computer, a first one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules to the first proxy bidder.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer, an indication of a request for a second bidder to establish a second proxy bidder for the specific sale; and

assigning, by the computer, a second one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules to the second proxy bidder.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second ones of the plurality of proxy bidder rules are assigned by coordinating proxy bidder rules to achieve the desired sales behavior assigned to the specific sale.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules is assigned based on a sequential selection sequence from the plurality of proxy bidder rules.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules is assigned based on a random selection sequence from the plurality of proxy bidder rules.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating, by the computer and after the assigning first one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules to the first proxy bidder, the specific sale;

comparing, by the computer, an actual behavior of the specific sale to the desired sales behavior assigned to the specific sale to determine whether the desired sales behavior is being achieved; and

replacing, by the computer and in the case that the desired sales behavior is not being achieved, the first one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules assigned to the first proxy bidder with a different one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer comprises an auction server.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor result in:

retrieving a stored indication of a desired sales behavior assigned to a specific auction-style sale,

retrieving, based on the desired sales behavior assigned to the specific auction-style sale, a stored indication of a plurality of proxy bidder rules;

receiving an indication of a request for a first bidder to establish a first proxy bidder for the specific auction-style sale; and

assigning a first one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules to the first proxy bidder.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device in communication with the processor, the memory device storing instructions that when executed by the processor result in;

retrieving a stored indication of a desired sales behavior assigned to a specific sale;

retrieving, based on the desired sales behavior assigned to the specific sale, a stored indication of a plurality of proxy bidder rules;

receiving an indication of a request for a first bidder to establish a first proxy bidder for the specific sale; and

assigning a first one of the plurality of proxy bidder rules to the first proxy bidder.