Patent ID: 7475036

Claim:
A method of conducting an on-line auction, the method comprising: organizing a geographic area into a plurality of regions, wherein virtual Internet property ownership rights of the geographic area are divided in a manner such that each region has a virtual Internet property ownership right associated thereto; distributing the virtual Internet property ownership rights of the geographic area to multiple owners, wherein the virtual Internet property ownership rights associated with at least some of the individual regions are owned by different owners; establishing an auction platform that is accessible to a plurality of sellers and a plurality of buyers via a distributed computer network throughout the geographic area wherein the plurality of sellers can list items for sale and wherein the plurality of buyers can place bids on the items listed for sale; auctioning at least one item listed by at least one of the plurality of sellers to a buyer who indicates a willingness to pay the highest price for the item listed for sale; and distributing a portion of the proceeds from the transaction to the virtual Internet property rights owners of the region where the transaction is located.