Patent ID: 7490058

Claim:
A method for automating contract negotiation between a first party having a first computing system and a second party having a second computing system, each of the first computing system and the second computing system being coupled to a communications network and having one or more applications running thereon, the method comprising the steps of: establishing a common negotiation protocol that specifies negotiation operations, the negotiation protocol being agreed upon by the first party and the second party prior to the contract negotiation; conducting a pre-negotiation between the first party and the second party to form a negotiation meta contract to control the contract negotiation, in accordance with the negotiation protocol, wherein the meta contract is formed at least in part from information provided by at least one of the first party and the second party in at least one electronic document, prior to the negotiation; communicating a request to negotiate; and conducting a fully automated negotiation, according to the negotiation meta contract, between the one or more applications running on each of the first computing system and the second computing system, wherein each of the first computing system and the second computing system maintains a contract state of the negotiation.