Patent ID: 7376611

Claim:
A method for aggregating and satisfying demands from different users for at least one item, the method comprising the steps performed by a data processing system of: electronically aggregating information reflecting demand for an item based on input requests from different users for the item, each request having been received from a different user and including user identification information associated with the different user, wherein said aggregating step aggregates requests from different users for the item and the information for each different user is aggregated independent of a commitment by the different users to purchase the item; providing aggregated information to a plurality of suppliers, each capable of supplying the item without also providing the different user's user identification information from the request; receiving at least one proposed response from at least one of the suppliers, including a proposal for providing the item to the different users; and providing the proposed response to each of the different users based on the user identification information associated with each different user, wherein the different users can determine whether to commit to purchasing the item.