Patent ID: 7464053

Claim:
A method for conducting buyer-driven and buyer-executed electronic commerce transactions, comprising the steps of: providing a controller which allows a buyer to specify, via an electronic network, at least one term selected from the group consisting of minimum quantities the buyer would agree to purchase, minimum qualities the buyer would accept, the minimum length of time to which the buyer would agree to be bound to purchase said minimum quantities containing said minimum qualities, and the maximum or minimum price the buyer would pay, wherein said controller allows sellers to specify, via an electronic network, conditional sales offers said sellers would agree to be bound by, and wherein said controller stores said conditional sales offers in a database; querying said database for relevant conditional sales offers that match said at least one term specified by said buyer; generating, based upon said buyer's prior specification of said at least one term, a plurality of mutually created conditional original sales offers to said buyer from a corresponding plurality of sellers, each of said plurality of conditional original sales offers including said at least one term specified by said buyer and at least one term specified by at least one of said plurality of sellers, said at least one term specified by at least one of said plurality of sellers being a term not specified by said buyer, wherein each of said plurality of mutually created conditional original sales offers are binding upon said corresponding plurality of sellers yet not binding upon said buyer; using said electronic network to transmit at least one of said mutually created conditional original sales offers to said buyer; and receiving via said electronic network said buyer's acceptance of said at least one mutually created conditional original sales offer, wherein said buyer has the ability to reject at least one of said mutually created conditional original sales offers, and wherein said acceptance binds said buyer to said at least one mutually created conditional original sales offer.