Patent ID: 7831523
Filing Date: 2010-11-09
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. An automated method for bargaining in a round by round manner to achieve a binding bargained payment for a transaction, said method being capable of multiple rounds comprising: inputting signals comprising one or more offers for sale from at least one first party and one or more offers to purchase from at least one second party, into a computer capable of receiving the signals, wherein the offers are either submitted round by round or one or both parties may submit more than one offer before the completion of any round, automatedly comparing the offers round by round, wherein each such offer corresponds to a sequential round; and analyzing the offers by automatedly comparing the offers corresponding to a first round to determine if they satisfy a predetermined criterion; and if the first round offers satisfy the criterion, providing a response to at least one of the parties that indicates that the comparison analysis has produced an agreement on a binding bargained payment that is calculated as a function of at least one of the offers in the first round; if, however, the analysis of the offers indicates that the first round offers do not satisfy the criterion for achieving a binding bargained payment for the first round, then, permitting the parties on both sides of the transaction to engage in at least one subsequent round by submitting at least one offer after the first round has been completed or based on the submission of a second round offer before the completion of the first round; automatedly analyzing the offers then in the second round by comparing the offers for that round and determining if they satisfy the criterion for that round; and if the offers for that round satisfy the criterion for that round providing a response to at least one of the parties that indicates that the comparison analysis has produced an agreement on a binding bargained payment calculated as a function of at least one of the offers for that round; if, however, the offers in that round do not satisfy the criterion for that round, conducting any number of subsequent rounds on the same or similar basis; wherein the method enables (a) a different predetermined criterion to be applied, if desired, to rounds subsequent to the first round, and (b) during a given round no indication of the amount of any offer from one party for that round is provided for use by the party on the opposite side of the transaction and no indication of the amount of any offer for purchase for that round is provided for use by the first party, wherein said automation is implemented by a computer, and the automated analysis and comparison is completely automated and wherein at least one of the criteria includes at least one criterion allowing for the agreement on the binding bargained payment when the offer for sale is greater than the offer for purchase.