Patent ID: 6934686

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for enabling a warranty transaction, comprising: receiving a warranty request from a customer computer: the warranty request specifying a particular item that a customer desires to cover under a warranty; the warranty request comprising an identification of the particular item and desired warranty coverage characteristics of the warranty under which the particular item is to be covered; and the warranty request enabling: (i) access to, from one or more sources other than the warranty request, historical data for the particular item based on the warranty request; (ii) generation of a plurality of warranty packages for the particular item, each specific to the warranty request, based on one or more rules each associating historical data for generic items with one or more warranty coverage characteristics for generic items; and (iii) communication of a customer-selected one of the plurality of request-specific warranty packages generated for the particular item for bidding on the customer-selected one of the plurality of request-specific warranty packages generated for the particular item based on the warranty request; in response to receiving the warranty request from the customer computer, accessing, from one or more sources other than the warranty request, historical data for the particular item based on the warranty request; in response to accessing the historical data for the particular item, generating a plurality of warranty packages for the particular item, each specific to and comprising warranty coverage characteristics consistent with the warranty request, according to the historical data for the particular item and one or more rules each associating historical data for generic items with one or more warranty coverage characteristics for generic items; in response to generating the plurality of request-specific warranty packages for the particular item, communicating the plurality of request-specific warranty packages generated for the particular item to the customer computer; receiving a customer selection of at least one of the plurality of request-specific warranty packages generated for the particular item from the customer computer; and in response to receiving the customer selection of one of the plurality of request-specific warranty packages generated for the particular item, communicating the customer-selected one of the plurality of request-specific warranty packages generated for the particular item to one or more warranty provider computers for bidding on the customer-selected one of the plurality of request-specific warranty packages generated for the particular item.