Methods and systems for purchase of commodities

• US 7,991,685 B2
• Filed: 03/18/2009
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Farms Technology, LLC (Corteva, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Farms Technology, LLC (Corteva, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fritsch, Daniel Scott, Tatge, Jason G
• Primary Examiner(s): THEIN, MARIA TERESA T
• Application Number:
  US12/406,470
• Publication Number:
  US 20090177574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• 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

Abstract

The invention is directed to methods and systems for commodities procurement with concomitant hedging. The invention enables automatic commodity purchase at a desired basis level when a seller'"'"'s price matches a buyer'"'"'s basis bid and concomitantly automatically placing an electronic commodities order to hedge the buyer'"'"'s purchase.

Claims

1. A commodity purchasing system, comprising:

a data storage device;

a processor connected to the data storage device;

a buyer interface, recorded on the data storage device, comprising a set of pictures, text or voice statements that provide instructions and protocols that will cause a buyer-operated computer to display to a buyer sell data received from a plurality of sellers, and to receive from the buyer hedge transaction data and bid data, said hedge transaction data including a hedge commodity, and said bid data including a basis for a desired commodity;

a network connection to a commodity exchange that periodically receives a real-time exchange rate quote for the hedge commodity;

a bid generating program, comprising computer-readable instructions to cause the processor to periodically update the bid data for said buyer so that the bid data includes an updated bid price for the desired commodity, wherein said bid generating program calculates said updated bid price by subtracting the basis from the real-time exchange rate quote;

a plurality of seller interfaces, recorded on the data storage device, comprising a set of pictures, text or voice statements that provide instructions and protocols that will cause a respective plurality of seller-operated computers to display to the plurality of sellers, respectively, the bid data received from the buyer, and to receive the sell data from the plurality of sellers, said sell data including, for each seller, a net sell price for the desired commodity and a transaction cost associated with selling the desired commodity to the buyer, wherein said transaction cost is based on a cost each seller will incur or avoid in connection with delivering the desired commodity at a time and a location specified by said each buyer;

an offer generating program, comprising computer-readable instructions that cause the processor to periodically update the sell data for each seller in the plurality of sellers so that the sell data for each seller includes a specific offer for the buyer, the specific offer including a specific sell price for the buyer, wherein said offer generating program calculates the specific sell price by adding the transaction cost associated with said buyer to the net sell price; and

a conformance monitoring program that periodically compares the bid data for the buyer to each specific offer for said buyer, and sends an alert to a particular seller in the plurality of sellers and the buyer if a conformance is detected between the bid data for said buyer and the particular seller'"'"'s specific offer for said buyer;

wherein, the processor, operating under control of the conformance monitoring program, detects the conformance when (i) the updated bid price in the bid data for the buyer matches the specific sell price in the particular seller'"'"'s specific offer for the buyer, (ii) a quality specification in the bid data for said buyer matches a quality attribute in the particular seller'"'"'s specific offer for the buyer, (iii) a type specification in the bid data for said buyer matches a type attribute in the particular seller'"'"'s specific offer for the buyer, and (iv) a color specification in the bid data for said buyer matches a color attribute in the particular seller'"'"'s specific offer for the buyer.

2. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein the hedge commodity and the desired commodity are the same.

3. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein each seller interface in the plurality of seller interfaces comprises an interactive web page.

4. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein each seller interface in the plurality of seller interfaces comprises an e-mail transmittal.

5. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein each seller interface in the plurality of seller interfaces comprises a voice message.

6. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein the buyer interface comprises an interactive web page.

7. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein the buyer interface comprises an e-mail transmittal.

8. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein the buyer interface comprises a voice message.

9. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein the bid generating program, the offer generating program and the conformance monitoring program are embodied in one computer program.

10. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein said offer generation program is further configured to cause the processor to remove the specific offers from the sell data of the particular seller responsive to the conformance monitoring program causing the processor to send the alert.

11. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein the alert comprises one or more e-mail messages.

12. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein the alert is presented to the particular seller via a seller interface associated with the particular seller.

13. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, wherein the alert is presented to the buyer via the buyer interface.

14. The commodity purchasing system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of buyer interfaces, recorded on the data storage device, each comprising a set of pictures, text or voice statements that provide instructions and protocols that will cause a respective plurality of buyer-operated computers to display to a respective plurality of buyers the sell data received from the plurality of sellers, and to receive from the plurality of buyers hedge transaction data and bid data, said hedge transaction data for each buyer including a hedge commodity, and said bid data for each buyer including a basis for the desired commodity;

wherein

the bid generating program further comprises computer-readable instructions that cause the processor to periodically update the bid data for each buyer in the plurality of buyers so that said bid data for said each buyer includes an updated bid price for the desired commodity, wherein said updated bid price is calculated by subtracting said each buyer'"'"'s basis from the real-time exchange rate quote, and

the conformance monitoring program further comprises computer-readable instructions that cause the processor to periodically compare the bid data for each buyer in the plurality of buyers to the specific offer for said each buyer from each seller, and sends an alert to the particular seller in the plurality of sellers and a particular buyer in the plurality of buyers if a conformance is detected between the bid data for said particular buyer and the particular seller'"'"'s specific offer for said particular buyer.