METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING A SALE OFFER OVER AN ELECTRONIC NETWORK SYSTEM
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for generating a sale offer over an electronic network (such as the Internet). The method and apparatus may be used with a commercial sale system designed to increase the revenue income of Web site by offering, at a substantially discounted or virtually free basis, one more goods and/or services to visitors of the Web site. According to the features of the invention, the seller (who may be the owner or co-owner of the Web site) transmits a sale offer on the Web site for a high quality good or service, wherein the good or service can be purchased for free or a cost near to zero. The seller may make the offer visible and available to a number of perspective buyers, who are connected at that very moment to the Web site. According to an additional aspect of the invention, the sale offer may be available for only a very limited amount of time (e.g., one or more minutes) and may be offered at random or unpredictable times on the Web site in order to increase Web traffic to the site.
15 Citations
95 Claims
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1-61. -61. (canceled)
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62. A method for presenting a sale offer to individuals over an electronic network system, the method comprising:
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storing, in a database, a sale offer including terms to purchase a good or service at a predetermined offer price, the predetermined offer price being a substantially discounted price less than a market value of the offered good or service in a commercial marketplace; setting, using a controller, parameters for presenting the sale offer, the parameters specifying (i) at least one web site for displaying the sale offer, (ii) a limited time period during which the sale offer may be accepted while displayed on the at least one web site, and (iii) profile information for targeting a group of individuals for receiving the sale offer when visiting the at least one web site; presenting, based on the parameters, the sale offer to an individual from the targeted group of individuals when the individual visits the at least one web site, the terms of the sale offer being unpredictable to the individual; completing, after presenting the sale offer on the at least one web site, a sale of the offered good or service in response to an acceptance of the sale offer by the individual from the targeted group of individuals, the acceptance by the individual being communicated through the at least one web site within the limited time period; and inhibiting the acceptance of the sale offer by the individual or targeted group of individuals through the at least one web site after the limited time period expires. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73)
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74. A method for presenting a sale offer to individuals over an electronic network system, the method comprising:
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storing, in a database, a sale offer including terms to purchase a good or service at a predetermined offer price, the predetermined offer price being a substantially discounted price less than a market value of the offered good or service in a commercial marketplace, the substantially discounted price being set to increase the probability of acceptance of the sale offer by a targeted group of individuals; setting, using a controller, parameters for presenting the sale offer, the parameters specifying (i) at least one web site for displaying the sale offer, (ii) a limited time period during which the sale offer may be accepted when visiting the at least one web site; and
(iii) profile information associated with the targeted group of individuals;presenting, based on the parameters, the sale offer to an individual from the targeted group of individuals when the individual visits the at least one web site, the terms of the sale offer being unpredictable to the individual; completing, after presenting the sale offer on the at least one web site, a sale of the offered good or service in response to an acceptance of the sale offer by the individual from the targeted group of individuals, the acceptance by the individual being communicated through the at least one web site within the limited time period; and withdrawing the sale offer from the at least one web site after the limited time period expires. - View Dependent Claims (75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84)
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85. A method for presenting a sale offer to individuals over an electronic network system, the method comprising:
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storing, in a database, a sale offer including terms to purchase a good or service at a predetermined offer price, the predetermined offer price being a substantially discounted price less than a market value of the offered good or service in a commercial marketplace; setting, using a controller, parameters for presenting the sale offer, the parameters specifying (i) at least one web site for displaying the sale offer, (ii) a limited time period during which the sale offer may be accepted, and (iii) profile information for targeting a group of individuals for receiving the sale offer when visiting the at least one web site; presenting, based on the parameters, the sale offer to an individual selected from the targeted group of individuals when the individual visits the at least one web site, the terms of the sale offer being unpredictable to the individual; completing, after presenting the sale offer on the at least one web site, a sale of the offered good or service in response to an acceptance of the sale offer by the individual selected from the targeted group of individuals, the acceptance being communicated from the individual within the limited time period; and offsetting costs associated with providing the offered good or service at the substantially discounted price based on revenue generated from the at least one web site. - View Dependent Claims (86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95)
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Specification