Patent ID: 7433841
Filing Date: 2008-10-07
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method of participating by a purchaser in a plurality of negotiations for purchasable items, where an item may be a good or a service, in order to obtain one of a plurality of alternative collections of complementary purchasable items, comprising: inputting in a computer processor a requirement for at least one item desired to be purchased; identifying by the computer processor the plurality of alternative collections of complementary purchasable items that satisfy the requirement; maintaining in a computer memory accessible by the computer processor a probabilistic model for each one of said plurality of negotiations, wherein said probabilistic model contains computer executable codes which perform the following process: receiving the determined expected values for each of the plurality of the alternative collections of complementary purchasable items at the computer processor by executing the probabilistic model for each one of said plurality of negotiations; identifying by the computer processor at least one collection of the plurality of the complementary collections of purchasable items, wherein the identified complimentary collection has the highest expected value among the expected values determined by the probabilistic model; and making bids or offers on behalf of the purchaser for purchasable items in the identified collection meeting the requirement, wherein said purchasable items are offered to be purchased in combination to meet a predetermined quantity requirement and to meet a purchaser's or a customer's offered price to pay for said combination of purchasable items comprising different goods or services.