Patent ID: 7778883

Claim:
A method of managing an electronic contract, the method comprising: managing a set of business rules, the managing including logically organizing the set of business rules into a plurality of business disciplines; obtaining a plurality of terms and conditions sets, each terms and conditions set comprising a unique set of instances of business rules selected from the set of business rules; selecting one of the plurality of terms and conditions sets for the electronic contract; generating using at least one computing device a product list filter for the electronic contract, wherein the product list filter includes at least one representation criterion for generating a set of products for the electronic contract, the generating including: obtaining product needs for a buyer; identifying a set of desired products from a set of available products for a seller based on the product needs; and generating the product list filter based on the identified set of desired products, wherein the product list filter includes at least one of: a product selection criterion or a product exclusion criterion; storing the selected terms and conditions set and the product list filter as a contract profile for the electronic contract; locking the contract profile to prevent unilateral amendment of the electronic contract, wherein at least one of the selected terms and conditions set and the product list filter defines a dynamic element for the contract, wherein the dynamic element is allowed to change after the contract profile is locked; obtaining a set of non-negotiable elements for the electronic contract; creating the electronic contract based on the contract profile and the set of non-negotiable elements, the creating including: generating a contract proposal based on the contract profile; providing the contract proposal to a party to the electronic contract; and generating the electronic contract based on the contract proposal and the set of non-negotiable elements.