Internet-based auction method
OwnerHenry C. Yueninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system enable users to purchase goods and services at an optimal price using a reverse auction process. The preferred approach incorporates two phases: first, the process determines the most favorable advertised price for the item sought, based on a search and review of multiple vendors offering the item for sale. Second, the process negotiates a sale price lower than the most favorable advertised price by soliciting bids from multiple vendors of the item, where each bid represents an offer for sale of the item at a price lower than the most favorable advertised price. The purchaser selects a bid received from the pool of vendors, and the process generates a purchase order to the vendor corresponding to the selected bid for the item.
Claims2
A method of purchasing goods and services over the Internet, comprising the steps of:
- obtaining a posted price associated with the goods and services from a first set of multiple vendors over the Internet;
- determining a lowest posted price of the posted prices obtained in the previous step;
- submitting a starting bid over the Internet which is lower than the lowest posted price;
- collecting one or more reverse bids from a second set of multiple vendors over the Internet, wherein each reverse bid represents a price which is lower than the starting bid;
- selecting a final bid from among the reverse bids;
- and
- purchasing the goods or services using the final bid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.