Expedia Books its First Patent

theodp writes "Courtesy of a Microsoft patent reassignment, MS spin-off Expedia was awarded its first patent Tuesday for Matching an offer with a quote, which essentially consists of pairing a customer with the supplier quoting the lowest rate. Prior to this invention, Microsoft explained, 'An effective electronic exchange system for satisfying an offer by a purchaser with a quote from a supplier has eluded those skilled in the art.'"

NASDAQ?

[Markus Registrada]

It seems as if NASDAQ should have something to say about this...

Re:NASDAQ?

[ThePilgrim]

Not sure about NASDAQ, but any of the compair and contrast price web sites should be able to supply prier art.

Date files was 25, August 2000

Re:Microsoft employees

[Dr. Smeegee]

EEEEGAD! Goat.cx link. Shade your eyes!

(The sad, sick thing is, I've seen the stupid pic so much I'm numbed to the stretchiness and bloody pinky shiny... BLARRRF! Okay, maybe not...)

skilled?

[Phillup]

"Skilled in the art"

Perhaps they need to look outside their own campus?

It really isn't that hard to walk a list looking for a value that closely matches another value.

Outside their campus? Like maybe...

[leonbrooks]

...somewhere [ebay.com] that's already matching millions of purchasers and suppliers a day?

[anti-microsoft subject]

[Zarf]

[anti-software patents comment]

[unfunny joke about patenting something like cheese]

[freedom as in speech closing comment]

Re:[anti-microsoft subject]

[wayne606]

[naive suggestion that there must be more than meets the eye because even patent office employees have got to have at least one working brain cell]

Re:[anti-microsoft subject]

[bersl2]

[off-color troll, whose text contains no fewer than two dollar signs, wherein there exists the notion that said corporation creates a vacuum]

Re:[anti-microsoft subject]

[Zarf]

[poorly formulated response and misdirected zeal]

Re:[anti-microsoft subject]

[djcapelis]

[Random Quote from Patent Application which do not address your comment in the least]

Patent Patenting things...

[deggy]

Perhaps I could patent:

A method for defining and specifying an object, idea or concept in order to exercise control over it's application wherever its implementation is attempted by persons outside the control of the rights owner without prior consent and/or payment.

And then charge a license fee to anyone who tries to patent anything.

Re:Patent Patenting things...

[Orthanc_duo]

Now that is a patent I would like to see.

Welcome...

[leonbrooks]

...to the meta-patent! (-:

"HyperFoo Patents Inc, where patents really meta!"

Re:Patent Patenting things...

[Kissing Crimson]

Then sue the USPTO. That'll wake them up.

So does this mean ...

[jbarr]

...that PriceWatch [pricewatch.com] and Price Grabber [pricegrabber.com] are subject to this patent? Seems like they achieve similar functionality in concept.

Hasn't this one already been done?

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

Isn't this the same dubious patent concept that Priceline.com was using to sue people as part of their business model?

Stock Exchange

[Bewray]

Um, let's see. The stock exchange is a place to match buyers with sellers. People selling for less will get matched with the buyers who want it for less.
NASDAQ is a completly computerized stock exchange, and all the others offer computerized exchanges.

So... Expedia patented what now?

Re:Stock Exchange

[Orthanc_duo]

Who needs the stock exchange. Any street market where haggling is involved is covered by this patent.

Re:Stock Exchange

[Bewray]

You say: " Who needs the stock exchange. Any street market where haggling is involved is covered by this patent."
The headline says: "An effective electronic exchange system..."

What kind of markets do you go to? Are the robots hard-asses over the price or will they eventually give you a better price?

Re:Stock Exchange

[Anonymous Coward]

NASDAQ is a long-established player, which makes me think they ran unix or other non-Microsoft systems. Can anyone verify? It would be nice to have Wall Street on the side of the penguin... They might even (correctly) spin Microsoft as anti-competitive for once.

Order fullfillment

[MrWa]

How does the stock exchange work again?

Did anyone actually read the patent?

[Anonymous Coward]

I did. It basically says that you provide a high and a low bid for what you want, and the "system" provides the lowest bidder that's closest to your high point.

In eBay terms, it knows what your reserve bid is, and tries to suck as much of it up as it can, calling it "reasonable profit."

There's a lot of prior art on this, namely the airlines. They've been doing this for at least a decade, and it's part of why tickets bought at the last minute departure are more expensive.

Left one part out

[Anonymous Coward]

The "system" allows merchants to provide several low quotes. For example, a hotel could offer every rate between $100 and $1,000 per night in $5 increments. If you're dumb and specify $150 to $200 per night as a range, and $190 is the second lowest bid, then the hotel will charge you $185, instead of the $150, which was your lowest starting point, despite there being a definitely lower price ($100) that the hotel was willing to accept.

It's all about getting as many Benjamins out of my pocket as they can.

In other news...

[sydbarrett74]

In other news, Microsoft has patented, trademarked and copyrighted the three English articles: 'a', 'an' and 'the'. Anyone using these three words must enter into a EULA with Microsoft and pay royalties and licencing fees. When asked, why they applied for all three forms of intellectual property protection, Microsoft public spokesperson Mike Rosov replied, 'We simply wanted a way to cover our bases -- woops, I just said "a"!'

Priceline.com

[sconeu]

Wouldn't Priceline be prior art?

Maybe they can threaten to have Shatner sing at the PTO unless this is revoked?

old people

[raffe]

WTF happend with the "...ony old people..." joke?
Did it die soooo fast?
Damn i am getting old!