Patent ID: 7401034

Claim:
An auction method comprising: receiving a specification defining an auction for an item, said specification comprising a plurality of attributes of said item wherein attributes of said plurality of attributes comprise a plurality of values and a plurality of attribute scores associated with said plurality of values and wherein a portion of said plurality of attributes comprise a relative weight, wherein said relative weight is an indication of relative importance between said plurality of attributes, and wherein an attribute score indicates the relative importance of the attribute compared to the same attribute having different values; publishing said auction to at least one bidder; receiving a bid from said bidder, said bid comprising a plurality of bid values wherein each of said plurality of bid values is associated with at least one of said attributes; and calculating a composite score for said bid, said calculating comprising: determining a plurality of attribute scores corresponding to said received bid based on said received plurality of bid values and said plurality of values of said received specification that have a corresponding attribute scores; calculating a weighted score for each of said plurality of attribute scores by multiplying each of said plurality of attribute scores by its corresponding relative weight; and totaling said weighted score of each of said plurality of attribute scores.