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Expedia Books its First Patent

Posted by timothy on from the trust-fund-baby dept.

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.'"

5 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. NASDAQ? by Markus+Registrada · · Score: 3, Insightful

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

  2. skilled? by Phillup · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "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
  3. Stock Exchange by Bewray · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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!
    1. Re:Stock Exchange by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      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.

  4. Order fullfillment by MrWa · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How does the stock exchange work again?