Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
It seems as if NASDAQ should have something to say about this...
"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.
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
[anti-software patents comment]
[unfunny joke about patenting something like cheese]
[freedom as in speech closing comment]
[signature]
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.
...that PriceWatch and Price Grabber are subject to this patent? Seems like they achieve similar functionality in concept.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
Isn't this the same dubious patent concept that Priceline.com was using to sue people as part of their business model?
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
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?
My spoon is too big!
How does the stock exchange work again?
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.
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, 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"!'
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
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...)
Wouldn't Priceline be prior art?
Maybe they can threaten to have Shatner sing at the PTO unless this is revoked?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
...somewhere that's already matching millions of purchasers and suppliers a day?
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
...to the meta-patent! (-:
"HyperFoo Patents Inc, where patents really meta!"
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
WTF happend with the "...ony old people..." joke?
Did it die soooo fast?
Damn i am getting old!