US 8,788,364 B1Granted

System for configuration and implementation of an assignment auction or exchange

AssigneeAuctionomics, Inc.

InventorsPaul R. Milgrom, Steve Goldband

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A system and method for configuring and executing an assignment exchange or auction with extensions to allocate items among bidders is disclosed. A server initializes the assignment auction or exchange and receives bid messages from one or more bidder devices, each bidder device associated with a bidder. Bidder devices may also communicate one or more constraints to the server to affect the allocation of items among bidders by the server. Additionally, the server includes bidder configuration data modifying the presentation of auction or exchange data to different bidders, allowing different bidders to receive different amounts of information regarding the auction or exchange. The bidder configuration data also allows the server to enable or restrict the types of bid messages different bidders may communicate to the server.

Claims33

Dependent claims

An apparatus for allocating one or more items in an auction and exchange, comprising:

a processor;
and
a tangible computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by the processor cause the processor to:
receive data identifying the one or more items and identifying one or more bidder identifiers, a bidder identifier associated with a bidder;
receive bidder preference data associated with a first bidder identifier;
receive one or more first bid messages from a first bidder device associated with a first bidder having a first bidder identifier, a first bid message including the first bidder identifier, an item identifier, a maximum quantity associated with the item identifier and the first bidder identifier and a first price associated with the item identifier;
receive one or more second bid messages from a second bidder device associated with a second bidder having a second bidder identifier, a second bid message including the second bidder identifier, the item identifier, a maximum quantity associated with the item identifier and the second bidder identifier and a second price associated with the item identifier;
determine prices associated with the one or more items using one or more stored pricing rules;
determine an allocation of items between the first bidder and the second bidder, the allocation maximizing a total difference between one or more maximum prices associated with bid messages to buy one or more items and one or more minimum prices of bids to sell one or more items;
and
determine prices associated with the one or more items using one or more stored pricing rules.

8 more elements

A system for allocating one or more items in an auction and exchange, comprising:

a first bidder device associated with a first bidder;
a second bidder device associated with a second bidder;
a server coupled to the first bidder device and to the second bidder device, the server for:
receiving data identifying the one or more items, a first bidder identifier associated with the first bidder and a second bidder identifier associated with the second bidder;
receiving bidder preference data associated the first bidder;
receiving one or more first bid messages from the first bidder device, a first bid message including the first bidder identifier, an item identifier, a maximum quantity associated with the item identifier and the first bidder identifier and a first price associated with the item identifier;
receiving one or more second bid messages from the second bidder device, a second bid message including the second bidder identifier, the item identifier, a maximum quantity associated with the item identifier and the second bidder identifier and a second price associated with the item identifier;
determining prices associated with the one or more items using one or more stored pricing rules;
and
determining an allocation of items between the first bidder and the second bidder, the allocation maximizing a total difference between one or more maximum prices associated with bid messages to buy one or more items and one or more minimum prices of bids to sell one or more items.

7 more elements

A computer-implemented method for allocating one or more items in an auction and exchange, comprising:

receiving, at a server, data identifying the one or more items and identifying one or more bidder identifiers, a bidder identifier associated with a bidder;
receiving, at the server, bidder preference data associated with a first bidder identifier;
receiving, at the server, one or more first bid messages from a first bidder device associated with a first bidder having a first bidder identifier, a first bid message including the first bidder identifier, an item identifier, a maximum quantity associated with the item identifier and the first bidder identifier and a first price associated with the item identifier;
receiving, at the server, one or more second bid messages from a second bidder device associated with a second bidder having a second bidder identifier, a second bid message including the second bidder identifier, the item identifier, a maximum quantity associated with the item identifier and the second bidder identifier and a second price associated with the item identifier;
determining, at the server, prices associated with the one or more items using one or more stored pricing rules;
and
determining, at the server, an allocation of items between the first bidder and the second bidder, the allocation maximizing a total difference between one or more maximum prices associated with bid messages to buy one or more items and one or more minimum prices of bids to sell one or more items.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.