35 results about "Internet auctions" patented technology

A content collection, sharing, and tracking method and system allows individuals or groups to incorporate the content of one another into their own context for creative referenced re-use. Users browse the content of other users and add content to a tool known as a GRAB BAG. Users may be part of affinity groups such as social networks or have common interests such as an interest in a single Internet auction site. The GRAB BAG storage system keeps track subsequent revisions and contexts for the piece of content in all instances where it is grabbed. When users incorporate the content they have grabbed into their own content, it appears with a link to the original author as well as with links to track the dissemination of the original content. The GRAB BAG storage system is created to reference content so that identical items under two different contexts need not be duplicated in full.

A method and system for auctioning or sales of deliverable prepared food via the Internet permit customers to purchase or bid on prepared food items. A food preparation and delivery portion of the system includes a delivery vehicle, which may have a mobile kitchen for the preparation of food items en-route. The location of the delivery vehicle is determined from a global positioning system (GPS) receiver in the vehicle or via another location-finding mechanism. Food items with an estimated time of arrival (ETA) is displayed on a web page that provides an interface for purchase or bidding. Bidding may be made for the actual food item purchase or for a scheduled delivery time. Items may be re-auctioned, causing the delivery of a food item to be transferred to another bidder. Audio and / or visual communication with an ordering point and / or delivery vehicle may be provided in the user interface.

Disclosed is a method by which suretyship bonds and guaranties can be purchased and deployed over the Internet in real time, providing automatic application evaluation and policy binding. The principal's credit card information is used in a repeating cycle of pre-authorized charges so that the card account serves as effective collateral. A bond seal image, safeguarded against piracy, appears in Web pages indicating the existence of bond coverage. A dynamically updated gauge displays the margin of coverage available under the bond at any given moment. Means of integrating the information technology of auction site and surety company are also disclosed. The invention makes possible an unprecedented level of security in user-to-user auction environments and eliminates the need for online escrow services. Means of accepting bidder deposit accounts is also disclosed, enabling automatic, electronic payment the moment an Internet auction closes and eliminating the need for online payment services.

An Internet auction method, system and computer site where independent and / or unrelated buyers are automatically pooled to buy products / services as a group in order to entice competitive bidding from pre-approved sellers who take advantage of the large group sales to bid (offer) discounts. The buyers purchase "buying power' or "value' from a winning seller, not a specific product / service at a specific price. In this way, buyers who have interest in a similar product type, join an auction pool to commit to a spending amount based on a discount rate they desire. Sellers competitively bid to win that pooled sales amount. The seller or sellers having the greatest discount and best meeting the buyer's individual conditions wins the business. All buyers who requested the winning bid discount rate or less, receive "buying power' redeemable at that seller.

A method for enabling risk management for sellers of items on Internet auction sites with the steps of: Automatically detect new bids on auctions, Evaluate bidders on the basis of their past performance using an artifical intelligence system, Maintain on a central server rating information for bidders, Maintain on the central server a seller's preferences for dealing with bidders in each rating category, Based upon the rating act on the auction by: canceling bid, notifying seller, or accepting the bid, Based upon the bidder's country of registration notify the seller, Allow sellers to see all auctions with bidders on one screen, Allow sellers to see a list of other auctions where their bidders have placed bids, Automate auction fee refund processing, and Allow sellers to see a list of all pending and recently completed auction refund requests, allow anonymous reprisal-free bidder feedback.

An online electronic marketplace in which carriers bid for loads tendered by shippers, and shippers purchase the most attractive transportation services. The system described herein efficiently matches loads and capacities, lowers transaction costs, and creates value through enhanced visibility to information resulting in efficient transportation and financial transactions. According to specific embodiments, the present invention combines a neutral marketplace patterned after a stock exchange, with the electronic format of an Internet auction site to create a trading system for the logistics industry.

There is described a method and system for managing Internet auction transactions by creating an auction website by, for example, a financial institution. The auction website is accessible by the financial institution's account holders (e.g., holders of checking, savings, credit card, and investment accounts). Thus, all buyers and sellers in auction transactions on the auction site, for example, have accounts with the financial institution, with settlements occurring between the accounts of the users at the financial institution. Payments are debited from the buyer's account(s) with a credit going to the account of the seller, less any fees. All charges occur internally, so no interchange is owed, for example, to a card association in connection with a transaction. Financial institution customers benefit from the system in that buyers and sellers are authenticated and settlement occurs almost instantaneously.

A personal computer (PC) adapted to function as a personal digital assistant (PDA) includes: a central processing unit (CPU) responsive to a control signal to load a first operating system or a second operating system, wherein the first operating system is run by the PC in a first PC mode and the second operating system is run by the PC in a second PDA mode. Various software application programs that may be run in PDA mode include Internet auction applications, electronic mail access applications, and Internet radio applications.

An online electronic marketplace in which carriers bid for loads tendered by shippers, and shippers purchase the most attractive transportation services. The system described herein efficiently matches loads and capacities, lowers transaction costs, and creates value through enhanced visibility to information resulting in efficient transportation and financial transactions. According to specific embodiments, the present invention combines a neutral marketplace patterned after a stock exchange, with the electronic format of an Internet auction site to create a trading system for the logistics industry.

A method and system for facilitating the delivery of one or more packages between parties involved in Internet auctions and other types of transactions in which the sender and the recipient wish to remain anonymous with respect to each other. The sender consigns each package to a third party consignee who assigns a unique identifier to each package and digitally stores that information until a destination location becomes known, for instance, through conclusion of an Internet auction of the item(s) contained in a package. Then, the consignee arranges for each package to be picked up and for a shipping label to be applied only to those packages where the unique identifier on the package matches the unique identifier on the shipping label generated by a common carrier based on data supplied by the consignee. Once the shipping label is applied, the package is delivered to the destination address.

A method and process for simultaneously searching one or more internet auctions, augmented with automatic seller ratings expressing risk-of-injury to a buyer, with the steps of: A search parameter entry client, An artificial intelligence-based analysis engine that generates ratings of sellers expressing risk-of-injury to a buyer, An easy to understand ‘rating’ display automatically presented to the buyer, A server system that accepts requests for rating sellers and returns the desired ratings, A web browser or instant messenger component or web page that monitors a buyer's current URL and which interacts with the server system to return and display the seller's ‘rating’ when the buyer is browsing an online auction listing, A web browser or instant messenger component or web page that interacts with the server system to allow a search of the online auction service platform which returns a sorted list of rated sellers.

A real-time auction system that is the same as traditional auctions by utilizing the internet. The system utilizes computers in which a number of buyers bid a price for a product and the bids are transmitted over the internet to a computer for an organizer, an assessor, a center and each buyer. If there is more than one bid over a reserve price set by the assessor the process repeats until at only one bid is left. The one bid left is the successful bidder. When there are no bids above the reserve price set, the process repeats a predetermined number of times.

Various methods and systems for auctioning mutually exclusive items such as golf tee times, restaurant reservations, concert tickets or hotel reservations are disclosed. Mutually exclusive can refer to items that cannot be possessed simultaneously because of physical limitations or to multiple items that could be simultaneously physically possessed but the bidder would only want possession of, at most, one of the items. An electronic auction method therefore performs the following operations: (1) an ordered processing of ranked bids to compare currently active bids with current winning bids to determine the new winning bids; (2) notifying unsuccessful bidders via e-mail to increase their bids; (3) comparing the new bid amount to all outstanding active and winning bids if the unsuccessful active bid is increased; (4) designating the active bid an inactive bid and designating the next highest ranked bid as the user's current active bid if the unsuccessful bid is not increased in the allotted time; and, (5) continuing the protocol until all bidders either have a winning bid or no remaining active bids. An auction system includes a Central Auction Controller (CAC) that allows sellers to list items for auction and users to enter bids and rank orderings. The CAC maintains a central database comprising a database of user information, a database of items and bids and a database of vendor information. Administration of the system is accomplished via an I / O device and CPU and an optional e-mail processor allows automated messaging to users. This methodology allows users to effectively bid on a large number of mutually exclusive items but receive at most one item at the end of the auction. This method has the favorable effects for the users of: (1) increasing the probability of successfully bidding for at least one item; (2) making the auction process more convenient by greatly reducing the need for actively monitoring the auction; and, (3) decreasing the possibility a user will be out bid at the last moment and receive no item. This method has the favorable effects for the seller of increasing the probability their listed items will sell and increasing the expected average sales price.

A method and system for processing goods for auction by an online auction provider includes providing a multiplicity of sites within a designated limited geographical area for customer drop-off of goods desired to be sold at online auction, wherein the sites consist of a plurality of pre-existing free-standing multi-unit public storage facilities in the designated geographical area available to the general public for individual unit monthly rental; processing the dropped-off goods to assess their suitability for online auction; and uniquely identifying each of the acceptable dropped-off goods for placement in a queue for auction by the online auction provider. The uniquely identified dropped-off goods are relocated to a central location for placement in the auction queue of the online auction provider.

A real-time auction system that is the same as traditional auctions by utilizing the internet. The system utilizes computers in which a number of buyers bid a price for an article and the bids are transmitted over the internet from the buyers' computers to a computer for an organizer, an assessor, a center and each buyer. If there is more than one bid equal to of above the reserve price set by the assessor, the process repeats until there is only one bid left. The one bid left the successful bidder. When there are no bids above the reserve price set, the process repeats a predetermined number of times.

A system and method of automating and managing bids within the context of an Internet auction is disclosed. The present invention permits continuous monitoring and verification of auctions on the Internet based on criterion such as highest bid on an item, maximum permissible bid, and a restriction on the number of successful bids in the auctions by any given participant (0109). The present invention permits embodiments incorporating an auction profile database (0101) that is generated by an auction profile configuration tool (0102) to act as input to an item search manager (0104) that takes data from an item database (0105) and control from an item selector (0103) to then interact with an auction bid controller (0106) that communicates with the remote auction site via an auction command interface (0107).In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, an information processing system and computer readable storage medium is disclosed for carrying out the above method.

Disclosed is a method by which suretyship bonds and guaranties can be purchased and deployed over the Internet in real time, providing automatic application evaluation and policy binding. The principal's credit card information is used in a repeating cycle of pre-authorized charges so that the card account serves as effective collateral. A bond seal image, safeguarded against piracy, appears in Web pages indicating the existence of bond coverage. A dynamically updated gauge displays the margin of coverage available under the bond at any given moment. Means of integrating the information technology of auction site and surety company are also disclosed. The invention makes possible an unprecedented level of security in user-to-user auction environments and eliminates the need for online escrow services. Means of accepting bidder deposit accounts is also disclosed, enabling automatic, electronic payment the moment an Internet auction closes and eliminating the need for online payment services.

A method, activity monitoring station and system automatically track lost or stolen items. The method begins by searching a sales activity database for at least one sales data record containing information for items sold or offered for sale on at least one Internet site, and searching a loss database for at least one loss data record containing information relating to lost or stolen items. The at least one sales data record is compared to the at least one loss data record to discover at least one matching item. If at least one matching item is discovered, a suspicious activity report is generated.

A personal computer (PC) providing the function of a personal digital assistant (PDA), comprising: a central processing unit (CPU), which loads a first operating system or a second operating system in response to a control signal, Wherein the first operating system is run by the PC in a first PC mode, and the second operating system is run by the PC in a second PDA mode. Various software applications that can run in PDA mode include Internet auction applications, e-mail access applications, and Internet radio applications, among others.

A system and method of automating and managing bids within the context of an Internet auction is disclosed. The present invention permits continuous monitoring and verification of auctions on the Internet based on criterion such as highest bid on an item, maximum permissible bid, and a restriction on the number of successful bids in the auctions by any given participant (0109). The present invention permits embodiments incorporating an auction profile database (0101) that is generated by an auction profile configuration tool (0102) to act as input to an item search manager (0104) that takes data from an item database (0105) and control from an item selector (0103) to then interact with an auction bid controller (0106) that communicates with the remote auction site via an auction command interface (0107).

A plurality of internet auctions, which are transacted independently for a transaction partner and independently for a transaction object, are combined to improve reliability of a transaction, correctness of an appraisement of a commodity and a guarantee of the commodity and achieve a fair and safe internet auction. An internet auction of the commodity, a guarantee charge internet auction and a reverse internet auction of a guaranteed written opinion are combined in one transaction, although they are originally done independently for a transaction partner and independently for a transaction object, by letting a plurality of third parties who are neutral be participated in the transaction between a seller of the commodity and a buyer. Thus, the seller of the commodity and the buyer can fairly and safely transaction the commodity on the internet auction.

The invention discloses an application system combining online shopping with logistics. The application system comprises a transnational internet auction page system, a customer information login system, a payment system and a logistics system, wherein the transnational internet auction page system is provided with a shopping page platform for a customer to observe, select and purchase; the customer information login system is used for carrying out creation and maintenance actions of customer information such as registration and login authentication by a customer; the payment system is provided for carrying out payment and check-out actions by the customer after the customer chooses to purchase, and is used for verifying whether the payment of the customer is successful or not; and the logistics system is used for requiring the customer to input personal information of a recipient, wherein the personal information of the recipient at least comprises the name and the address of an object to whom the customer wants to send goods and articles, and a postal parcel of corresponding goods and articles can be sent to the corresponding address in a transnational mail mode by the logistics system after the personal information of the recipient is input completely.

The present invention relates to an Internet auction system (1) for mediating and managing the purchase and sale of a product by receiving bid information from a plurality of customer terminals (2) via a communication network (4), and the system comprises: a product registration and management module (11) for receiving information on a product to be auctioned off from a seller terminal (3) and storing the received information; a product bid management module (13), as a product bid module, for receiving bid information from the customer terminals (2) and storing the received bid information, wherein the bid information includes a bidding price; and a preferential successful bid management module (17) for allowing a customer who has more possession time than other customers to preferentially receive a successful bid of the product. The preferential successful bid management module (17), according to the present invention, comprises a possession time calculation module (171) for calculating a possession time for each customer terminal, wherein the possession time is the time in which a received bidding price maintains the highest bidding price.

The invention discloses a system and a method based on Internet auction, relating to the technical field of Internet, the system comprises a homepage module, a registration and login module, a competitive purchase history module, an auction module and a personal center module, the system is used for realizing auction, after the auction is started, all successfully registered auctioneers participate in the auction after paying the deposit corresponding to the product auction price, the price of the auction is increased every time according to the price increase amplitude set by the product, andwhen the auction time is over, the auction is not successful, i.e., flow auction is carried out; when the auction price reaches the highest transaction price before the auction time is over, transaction is performed according to the price, and auction is over; and when the auction is finished and the price is between the lowest transaction price and the highest transaction price, transaction is performed according to the price. By adopting the technical scheme, the method can be effectively combined with the Internet and community marketing to achieve the purpose of facilitating transactions,a lot of intermediate links are saved for achieving the transactions, and a good social network communication effect is achieved.

A method of using wireless communication device to tender for remaining seats of higher class in a transportation tool which is about to depart or has just departed. The method includes steps (a) to (e). In step (a), before or after the transportation tool departs, the transportation company transmits data of remaining seats of higher class to an Internet auction website or an auction website on a wireless communication network. In step (b), before or after the transportation tool departs, authorized passengers start tendering for the remaining seats via the wireless communication network. In step (c), the passengers winning the remaining seats pay the difference with a credit card through a terminal of the wireless communication network or directly pay the difference to a serviceman. In step (d), after paid, a passenger seat list is changed and transmitted to the transportation company. In step (e), the transportation company transmits the data of successful switch of seats back to the transportation tool for a serviceman to lead the passengers to new seats.

The invention differs from traditional auction methodology, wherein the highest bidder is the successful bidder, to the lowest unique bidder is the successful bidder. The invention also differs from traditional and internet auctions, in that, no bidder is aware of any other bidder's bid(s). The invention differs from all other auction methodologies in that it compensates multiple lowest unique bidders as defined in claim number 3, who were not the successful bidder as defined in claim number 2.

A method, activity monitoring station and system automatically track lost or stolen items. The method begins by searching a sales activity database for at least one sales data record containing information for items sold or offered for sale on at least one Internet site, and searching a loss database for at least one loss data record containing information relating to lost or stolen items. The at least one sales data record is compared to the at least one loss data record to discover at least one matching item. If at least one matching item is discovered, a suspicious activity report is generated.