Patent ID: 7219071

Claim:
A computer based method for carrying out an incentive award program by a business entity comprising the steps of: a. participating in a quantifiable transaction, the quantifiable transaction having at least two transacting parties, b. determining at least one of the transacting parties to be a recipient of an incentive award offered by the business entity, c. choosing as the incentive award an investment vehicle that is equity in the incentive award program, d. calculating the incentive award according to the formula: F n =F 1 R n-1 , where n is the current period since the onset of carrying out the method; F 1 is the fraction of ownership rights in the chosen equity provided to the recipient in the first period of carrying out the method; F n is the fraction of ownership rights in the chosen equity provided to the recipient in the current period of carrying out the method; R is a multiplier fraction greater than zero and less than one by which the provided fraction of ownership rights changes in successive periods; e. providing the chosen incentive award to the recipient, f. carrying out steps a–e using at least one computer processor and at least one computer storage means, wherein the business entity is selected from the group consisting of the owner of the incentive award program and an authorized operator of the incentive award program.