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AssigneeEfficient Auctions LLC
InventorsLawrence M. AUSUBEL, Oleg V. BARANOV
Estimating the term…
The present invention provides improvements applicable to dynamic auctions such as clock auctions or combinatorial clock auctions. In a first embodiment, the present invention includes an improved activity rule that constrains the bids that may be submitted by a bidder, based on the bidder's own prior bids, In a second embodiment, the present invention includes an improved pricing rule that appropriately discounts the amounts (as compared to linear pricing) of bids that need to be submitted by a bidder. In a third embodiment, the present invention includes an improved iterative first-price auction. Bidders successively make bids, often a bid for a package of items at a specified price. When the auction concludes, some of these bids become “winning” bids; the respective bidders win the items specified in their winning bids and pay the prices specified in their winning bids. In some preferred embodiments, the present invention combines two or all three of these improvements.
A computer system for determining an allocation of a plurality of items among a plurality of bidders, said items including a plurality of types of items that are related to each other as complements or substitutes, said system comprising:
A method implemented in a system, said system comprising a first computer and a plurality of other computers that are located remotely from the first computer, said plurality of other computers interconnected to the first computer by a communication system, said method for determining an allocation of a plurality of items among a plurality of bidders, said items including a plurality of types of items that are related to each other as complements or substitutes, said method comprising:
The method of claim 20 wherein the plurality of items includes at least ten items. 22, The method of claim 21 wherein the testing tests whether a bidder's bid, when taken together with the bidder's prior bids, satisfies GARP.
The method of claim 22, further comprising calculating one bidder's guaranteed winning value associated with a package of the plurality of types of items and outputting said one bidder's guaranteed winning value, said one bidder's guaranteed winning value based upon the bids of other bidders than said one bidder and an activity rule applied to the other bidders by said constraining.
A non-transitory computer readable medium for executing a sequence of instructions recorded in said medium to perform a method implemented in a system, said system comprising a first computer and a plurality of other computers that are located remotely from the first computer, said plurality of other computers interconnected to the first computer by a communication system, said method for determining an allocation of a plurality of items among a plurality of bidders, said items including a plurality of types of items that are related to each other as complements or substitutes, said method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.