Patent · US Expired

System and method for motivating submission of conditional purchase offers

US6041308A · kind A · utility

326Cited by
56References
71Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 4, 1998
Grant dateMar 21, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 4, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG07G1/00
  • WIPO fieldIT methods for management
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for encouraging buyers to submit CPOs to a CPO management system for a desired product. The CPO management system processes each received CPO to determine whether one or more sellers are willing to accept a given CPO. The disclosed CPO management system compensates buyers if the buyer's conditional purchase offer is rejected, or expires before an acceptance is received. If a CPO is rejected by the sellers, or has expired before an acceptance is received, the CPO management system evaluates one or more stored compensation offers to determine if the buyer is eligible for rejection compensation. The compensation offers may optionally require that the conditional purchase offer satisfies one or more additional predefined eligibility criteria. If the predefined criteria is met, the rejection compensation is provided to the buyer. The rejection compensation can include, for example, (i) a cash award, (ii) a prize, or (iii) a coupon or credit that may be redeemed for a discount against future transactions, thereby encouraging future use.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.