Patent ID: 7970662

Claim:
A method for establishing and brokering a transaction between purchasers and vendors over a wide area network, the method carried out on a computing system communicatively coupled to the wide area network, the method comprising: providing a request template to at least one potential purchaser over said wide area network; receiving request information from said at least one potential purchaser into said request template, over said wide area network, said request information comprising a description of goods or services requested by said at least one potential purchaser; comparing said description of goods or services requested by said at least one potential purchaser with vendor information comprising descriptions of goods and services offered by a plurality of vendors, said comparing carried out automatically; identifying at least one potential vendor in said vendor information offering goods or services similar to said goods or services requested by said at least one potential purchaser, said identifying carried out automatically; generating a sub-list of identified potential vendors for review by said at least one potential purchaser; receiving a selection of at least one of said identified potential vendors from said sub-list; communicating said request information to said at least one identified potential vendor; communicating a response from at least one of said at least one identified potential vendor to said at least one potential purchaser, said response comprising a proposal to provide goods or services to said at least one potential purchaser at a specified price and according to specified terms; and communicating an acceptance, rejection, or request for continued negotiations from said at least one potential purchaser to said at least one of said at least one identified potential vendor.