Appeal 2007-2370
Application 09/373,141
1 Claim 63 rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Shkedy,
2 eCommerce, and the Appellant's admitted prior art.
3 Claim 63 is as follows:
4 A computer-implemented auction system for negotiating discount
5 credits between sellers offering at least one pre-defined category of
6 goods or service items and buyers wishing to purchase goods or
7 service items selected from said category,
8 comprising:
9 an auction system having an auction engine that presents a first
10 interface for access by buyers in communicating willingness to
11 purchase items selected from a pre-defined category at a negotiated
12 category discount and a second interface for access by sellers in
13 communicating willingness to offer items selected from the pre-
14 defined category;
15 the first interface including a commitment amount field through which
16 each buyer communicates the amount that buyer will commit to spend
17 and a requested discount field through which each buyer
18 communicates the smallest discount that buyer will accept;
19 a data storage associated with the auction engine for storing the
20 identity of buyers who have communicated willingness to purchase
21 items from the pre-defined category, and for storing bid data
22 indicative of the commitment amount and requested discount
23 communicated by each buyer;
24 the auction system further having a compilation system that analyzes
25 the bid data to present information to sellers through the second
26 interface indicative of the aggregate commitment amounts associated
27 with different requested discounts;
28 the second interface having a discount offer field through which each
29 seller communicates the discount that seller is willing to offer;
30 a commitment system having a mechanism for terminating
31 negotiation in response to a pre-defined criterion and for identifying a
32 selected seller that has offered the greatest discount during the
33 negotiation;
14
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