Method for conducting an on-line bidding session with bid pooling

• US 7,848,958 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Issued: 12/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hanger Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Generale Micro Fr LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Brown, David W., Brown, Stephen J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Garg; Yogesh C
• Application Number:
  US11/732,155
• Publication Number:
  US 20070239592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,345 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/26.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The invention presents a method for conducting an on-line bidding session to accumulate a collective bid for a property. The bidding session is conducted over a computer network that includes a central computer, a number of remote computers, and communication lines connecting the remote computers to the central computer. According to the method, at least one bidding group is registered in the central computer. The bidding group can be an association, institution, or group of investors formed for the purpose of bidding together for the property. The bidding group has a total bid for the property which is tracked in the central computer. The central computer receives bids entered from the remote computers by members of the bidding group. Each bid includes an individual bid amount which is contributed to the total bid of the group to accumulate the collective bid for property.

Claims

1. A tangible computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising:

instructions for registering a bidding group in a central computer, wherein the bidding group is associated with a total bid;

instructions for receiving in the central computer a bid comprising an individual bid amount and a bid designation indicating the registered bidding group; and

instructions for contributing the individual bid amount to the total bid of the registered bidding group indicated by the bid designation to accumulate a collective bid of the bidding group for a property.

2. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for creating bidder accounts in an account creation computer networked to the central computer, wherein each of the accounts comprises a bidder name, a bidder identification number, and a financial account number.

3. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the bidder accounts are created by bidders from the remote computers prior to entering the bids.

4. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 2, further comprising instructions for creating registration records in a database accessible to the central computer, wherein each of the registration records corresponds to a respective one of the bidder accounts and includes the bidder name and the bidder identification number of the corresponding bidder account.

5. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 4, further comprising:

instructions for receiving in the central computer with each of the bids the name and the identification number of the bidder who entered the bid;

instructions for verifying that the name and the identification number match an existing registration record in the database prior to contributing the individual bid amount to the total bid; and

instructions for recording a bid record in the database, wherein the bid record comprises the bid amount and the identification number of the bidder who entered the bid.

6. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 5, further comprising:

instructions for determining that the total bid exceeds a threshold value for the property;

instructions for declaring the bidding group a winning group;

instructions for retrieving the bid records from the database;

instructions for matching each of the bid records to a corresponding bidder account; and

instructions for charging the corresponding bidder account the bid amount stored in the bid record.

7. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for displaying the total bid on the remote computers and updating the total bid in real-time after each of the individual bid amounts is added to the total bid.

8. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for displaying on the remote computers a description of the property.

9. A system for conducting an on-line bidding session to accumulate a collective bid for a property, the system having a computer network comprising:

means for registering a bidding group, wherein the bidding group is associated with a total bid;

means for receiving a bid comprising an individual bid amount and a bid designation indicating the registered bidding group; and

means for contributing the individual bid amounts to the total bid of the registered bidding group indicated by the bid designation to accumulate a collective bid of the bidding group for the property.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising means for creating accounts comprising a bidder name, a bidder identification number and a financial account number.