COMPUTERIZED SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ANONYMOUS COLLABORATIVE AUCTIONS

摘要

A computerized auction system is used for collecting bids from a plurality of producers. The bids are placed on individual components of a multi-component ensemble. Bids from separate marketers are added and affect the rank of a single ensemble within a potential consumer's ensemble search result. The bids are cooperative as the separate bids on the components are added to form the single bid on the ensemble. The bids are anonymous such that each bidding marketer is kept unaware of whether another marketer's bid was combined with the bidding marketer's bid.

主权项

1. A computerized auction system, comprising:
a server computer comprising communications electronics, a memory device, and a processing circuit communicably coupled to the communications electronics and the memory device; wherein the memory device comprises a database describing a plurality of ensembles for potential consumption by consumers, wherein each ensemble comprises a set of components which must be consumed by the consumers for the ensemble to be consumed; wherein the processing circuit receives, via the communications electronics, a consumer selection defining characteristics of a consumer-desired ensemble; wherein the processing circuit receives, via the communications electronics, a plurality of bids from a plurality of marketers, wherein each bid specifies a component and a price; wherein the processing circuit is configured to cause an output ensemble to be reported to the consumer making the selection, wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the output ensemble by finding an ensemble that meets the characteristics of the consumer-desired ensemble and which is associated with the highest component bid total spanning one or more components and one or more marketers per component of the ensemble.