Patent ID: 8458150

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of performing transactions on objects held in a database in accordance with fairness criteria, wherein two or more entities are capable of initiating transactions to the database, each transaction including (i) one or more transaction steps or operations, and (ii) a transaction ownership step, the fairness criteria defining rules for determining a fair propagation delay time period that must pass after transaction initiation, the method comprising: (a) one of the entities initiating a transaction on an object at the database; (b) immediately processing the steps or operations of the initiated transaction up to the transaction ownership step; (c) determining propagation delays between the database and at least some of the other entities that are capable of initiating transactions to the database; (d) using the propagation delays and the fairness criteria to determine the fair propagation delay period; and (e) upon determining that the fair propagation delay period has been exceeded, detecting whether any of the other entities initiated a transaction on the same object during the fair propagation delay time period, and if not, then the transaction initiating entity performing the transaction ownership step on the transaction initiated in step (a).