Conditional purchase offer management system

• US 8,700,481 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2011
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Priceline.com LLC (Booking Holdings, Inc., fka Priceline Group Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Priceline Com Incorporated (Booking Holdings, Inc., fka Priceline Group Inc.)
• Inventors: Walker, Jay S., Schneier, Bruce, Jorasch, James A., Case, T. Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): ZURITA, JAMES H
• Application Number:
  US13/298,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20120089476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1, 705/27.1
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/00 Payment architectures, schemes or protocols apparatus for performing or posting payment transactions G07F7/08, G07F19/00; electronic cash registers G07G1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• 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 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0637 Approvals
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 : Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 : Travel agencies
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 : Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 : for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/944 : Business related
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 : Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 : Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 : Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A conditional purchase offer (CPO) management system is disclosed for receiving CPOs from one or more customers, such as airline passengers, and for evaluating the received CPOs against a number of CPO rules defined by a plurality of sellers, such as airlines, to determine whether any seller is willing to accept a given CPO. A CPO rule is a set of restrictions defined by a given seller, such as an airline, to define a combination of restrictions for which the seller is willing to accept a predefined price. The CPO rules may be securely stored by one or more servers. The CPO management system permits a seller to correct for forecasting errors, if necessary, or other competitive forces which have produced excess capacity, by providing inventory for sale to CPO customers.

Claims

1. A processor-implemented method of processing the sale of goods or services, comprising:

obtaining, by a processor, a purchase offer from a customer for the purchase of goods or services, said purchase offer containing at least one customer-defined condition including a price;

identifying one or more rules from a plurality of sellers, each of said rules containing one or more seller-defined restrictions including a price, wherein the price is not disclosed to the customer;

preventing said customer from identifying said price, wherein preventing comprises one of;

(i) limiting the number of said purchase offers which may be obtained from said customer in a time period;

(ii) assessing a penalty to said customer if said customer does not purchase said goods or services if a seller accepts said purchase offer;

(iii) evaluating a rating of said customer containing information regarding the likelihood that said customer will purchase said goods or services corresponding to said purchase offer; and

(iv) binding said customer to purchase said goods or services if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions; and

comparing by the processor said purchase offer to said rules to determine whether any of said sellers is willing to accept said purchase offer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an acceptance of said purchase offer to said customer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising binding said customer to purchase said goods or services if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said rating comprises a ratio of purchases to purchase offers by said customer.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more of said sellers has an associated inventory management system and wherein said rules for said seller are generated by said associated inventory management system.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating a counteroffer if one or more of said sellers does not accept said purchase offer and said purchase offer is within a predefined tolerance of at least one of said rules.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said seller rules are configured to discourage purchase offers by customers typically willing to pay the full retail price for said goods or services.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said rules define a combination of said seller-defined restrictions for which a seller is willing to accept a predefined price.

9. A processor-implemented method of processing the sale of goods or services, comprising:

obtaining, by a processor, a purchase offer from a customer for the purchase of said goods or services, said purchase offer containing at least one customer-defined condition;

identifying one or more rules from a plurality of sellers, each of said rules containing one or more seller-defined restrictions including a price;

comparing by the processor said purchase offer to said rules to determine whether any of said sellers is willing to accept said purchase offer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions; and

preventing said customer from identifying said price, wherein preventing comprises one of;

(i) limiting the number of said purchase offers which may be obtained from said customer in a time period;

(ii) assessing a penalty to said customer if said customer does not purchase said goods or services if a seller accepts said purchase offer;

(iii) evaluating a rating of said customer containing information regarding the likelihood that said customer will purchase said goods or services corresponding to said purchase offer; and

(iv) binding said customer to purchase said goods or services if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said rating comprises a ratio of purchases to purchase offers by said customer.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing an acceptance of said purchase offer to said customer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising binding said customer to purchase said goods or services if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein one or more of said sellers has an associated inventory management system and wherein said rules for said seller are generated by said associated inventory management system.

14. The method according to claim 9, further comprising generating a counteroffer if one or more of said sellers does not accept said purchase offer and said purchase offer is within a predefined tolerance of at least one of said rules.

15. An apparatus for the sale of goods or services, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor disposed in communication with said memory, and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to;

obtain a purchase offer from a customer for the purchase of said goods or services, said purchase offer containing at least one customer-defined condition;

identify one or more rules from a plurality of sellers, each of said rules containing one or more seller-defined restrictions including a price;

compare said purchase offer to said rules to determine whether any of said sellers is willing to accept said purchase offer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions; and

prevent said customer from identifying said price, wherein preventing comprises one of;

(i) instructions to limit the number of said purchase offers which may be obtained from said customer in a time period;

(ii) instructions to assess a penalty to said customer if said customer does not purchase said goods or services if a seller accepts said purchase offer;

(iii) instructions to evaluate a rating of said customer containing information regarding the likelihood that said customer will purchase said goods or services corresponding to said purchase offer; and

(iv) instructions to bind said customer to purchase said goods or services if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising instructions to provide an acceptance of said purchase offer to said customer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising instructions to bind said customer to purchase said goods or services if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said seller-defined restrictions.

18. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein one or more of said sellers has an associated inventory management system and wherein said rules for said seller are generated by said associated inventory management system.

19. The apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising instructions to generate a counteroffer if one or more of said sellers does not accept said purchase offer and said purchase offer is within a predefined tolerance of at least one of said rules.

20. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said seller rules are configured to discourage purchase offers by customers typically willing to pay the full retail price for said goods or services.