Conditional purchase offer management system for cruises
US6134534A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 4, 1997 |
| Grant date | Oct 17, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 4, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG07F9/026
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A conditional purchase offer (CPO) management system is disclosed for receiving CPOs from one or more customers, such as cruise and airline passengers, and for evaluating the received CPOs against a number of CPO rules defined by a plurality of sellers, such as cruise operators and airlines, to determine whether any seller is willing to accept a given CPO. A CPO is a binding offer containing one or more conditions submitted by a customer for purchase of an item, such as airline travel, at a customer-defined price. A CPO rule is a set of restrictions defined by a given seller, such as a cruise operator or an airline, to define a combination of restrictions for which the seller is willing to accept a predefined price. The CPO rules may be securely stored by one or more servers. The CPO management system permits a seller to correct for forecasting errors, if necessary, or other competitive forces which have produced excess capacity, by providing inventory for sale to CPO customers. If a CPO is accepted by more than one seller, the CPO management system executes a post-sell multi-bind process to permit each accepting seller to directly market to the customer and post-sell their product…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.