Patent ID: 7536336

Claim:
A method for transacting multi-party electronic commerce over a network, comprising: creating a plurality of atomic offers associated with a plurality of suppliers; creating a plurality of hierarchical offers based on the plurality of atomic offers, the plurality of hierarchical offers including: at least one first-level offer including at least a first one of the plurality of atomic offers, and at least one second-level offer including the first-level offer and at least a second one of the plurality of atomic offers not included within the first-level offer, creating at least one counter offer associated with a consumer; storing the plurality of atomic offers, the plurality of hierarchical offers and the counter offer in a computer memory: matching the counter offer to one of the plurality of hierarchical offers to create a zero-sum offer; and closing the zero-sum offer, wherein the first one of the plurality of atomic offers is an atomic offer for a first good or service, and the second one of the plurality of atomic offers is an atomic offer for a second good or service different from the first good or service.