Patent ID: 7882009

Claim:
A lease auction method comprising the steps of: (a) providing to at least one lessor's computer via a computer network a first plurality of lessee entered qualitative lessor variables and a first plurality of lessee entered quantitative lessor data regarding a lease input at a lessee's computer; (b) receiving from each lessor's computer via the computer network a second plurality of lessor entered qualitative lessor variables and a second plurality of lessor entered quantitative lessor data regarding the lease; (c) receiving from the lessee's computer via the computer network for at least one of the lessor entered qualitative lessor variables for each lessor at least one of a grade and a relative weight related to an importance of the at least one lessor entered qualitative lessor variable to the lessee; (d) for each lessor, processing the at least one of the grade and the relative weight received for the at least one lessor entered qualitative lessor variable and the lessor entered quantitative lessor data to determine a weighted total score; (e) ranking the weighted total scores; (f) displaying the ranked weighted total scores on the lessee's computer and each lessor's computer via the computer network; and (g) repeating steps (c) through (f) each time a change of at least one of the lessor entered qualitative lessor variables or at least one of the lessor entered quantitative lessor data is received from at least one of the lessor's computers via the computer network, wherein the lessor entered qualitative lessor variables and the lessee entered qualitative lessor variables each include at least one of the following: lessor's lease documents; lessor's reputation; lessor's knowledge of the item being leased; lessor's status as a private or public entity; and whether the lessor is also a vendor.