Abstract: A method of determining the compatibility of respective information associated with at least two parties is described.

Abstract: A method of and system for defining a common interactions protocol between two entities is described. The method comprises inputting a description of each entity's messaging guidelines, the description including the entity's constraints on interacting with the other entity; calculating the union of the two descriptions; determining whether the union is satisfiable using a constraint resolver; providing the intersection of the two descriptions as the common interactions protocol if the union is satisfiable; and indicating where any incompatibility lies if the union is not satisfiable.

Abstract: A method of participating by a purchaser in a plurality of negotiations for purchasable items, where an item may be a good or a service, in order to obtain one of a plurality of alternative collections of complementary purchasable items, comprising maintaining a probabilistic model of said negotiations and making bids or offers to increase the probability of success in negotiations for purchasable items in one of said alternative collections determined from current states of said negotiations and said probabilistic model as providing a largest expectation of value to the purchaser.

Abstract: An electronic trading entity (400) comprises a computing device having a processor, memory, user interface, and communications functionality, the computer entity comprising an algorithm (700) for monitoring a plurality of auction entities remotely over the internet; a algorithm (701) for calculating bids and for purchase of goods/services with a plurality of auction entities; an algorithm (702) for selecting individual auction entities with which to trade; a web browser (506) to allow a user to search for auction entities and add these to a stored list of entities at the bidding device. Bid calculation and offer calculation algorithms operate to optimally place bids at a lowest overall cost to the trading entity, or place offers with the object of obtaining the highest overall monetary figures for goods or services for sale by the trading entity.

Abstract: Automated negotiation with multiple sellers in order to buy a quantity of a good or service, can be achieved by determining two or more alternative options for purchasing the quantity; setting a target price for purchasing the quantity and hence target prices for each negotiation required to complete each alternative option; providing the target price for each negotiation to a party carrying out said negotiation; receiving information on the progress of each negotiation, redetermining the target prices and providing redetermined target prices for at least some of the negotiations to the party carrying out that negotiation; and detecting a completion condition and providing information to the party carrying out any negotiation still in progress for terminating that negotiation.

Abstract: A method, implementable with suitable apparatus, for providing automated assistance for negotiation to acquire a quantity of a good or service from a seller comprises receiving a target price for acquiring the quantity; determining an attitude towards the seller, wherein the attitude represents a likelihood of acquiring the quantity for no more than the target price; and providing the attitude for use in a negotiation process. A method, implementable with suitable apparatus, of automatic negotiation to acquire a quantity of a good or service from a seller, comprises receiving a target price for acquiring the quantity and determining at least one rule for making a further offer to the seller based on the target price and on information received in negotiations with that seller.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for use in making a purchase decision regarding purchase of a plurality of units of a good or service from a plurality of potential suppliers (14) at one or more purchasing times, the apparatus being arranged to determine, estimate or otherwise obtain one or more outcomes for each purchasing time based on one or more quantities of units (16) of the good or service potentially or actually required to be purchased at the purchasing time and/or predicted fluctuations of price of said good or service during said purchase period and access details (10) of terms under which said good or service may be purchased from each of the potential suppliers (14).

Abstract: Apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention comprises a contract repository (200) in which details of each of a plurality of contracts established with a supplier of a good or service is stored. Similarly, each of a plurality of purchase orders (30) submitted by one or more buyers are stored in a purchase order repository 300. A subsystem (1) for linking purchase orders (30) to contracts (20) and for aggregating information is provided.

Abstract: A method of determining a bidding strategy for the simultaneous purchase of at least one individual service component (34) from one or more forward auctions (22a,22b), and the provision of a composite service (36) requested by a reverse auction (20), is described. The method comprises: identifying forward auctions (22a,22b) selling the at least one individual service component (34); identifying a reverse auction (20) requesting a composite service (36) comprising the at least one service component (34); determining a plurality of possible combinations of the identified forward (22a,22b) and reverse auctions (20); estimating the expected benefit of bidding in each of the plurality of possible combination of auctions (20,22a,22b) by use of likelihood models (44), wherein each likelihood model (44) establishes the likelihood of a particular bid succeeding in a given auction; and selecting the combination of auctions to increase the expected benefit for use as the bidding strategy.

Abstract: A computerised method for measuring compatibility among negotiation proposals of participants which communicate using an electronic communications network comprises the steps of: submitting proposals to a centralised negotiation processor from the participants; returning information on compatible or near-compatible proposals to each participant from a centralised negotiation processor; locally measuring compatibility of the returned proposals based on the participant's preferences over the parameters being negotiated using a local compatibility measurer; and ranking the returned proposals based on the local measurements of compatibility of the proposals.

Abstract: There is provided computerised apparatus and a method of converting a financial portfolio strategy into a set of tactics.

Abstract: A method of and system for defining a common interactions protocol between two entities is described. The method comprises inputting a description of each entity's messaging guidelines, the description including the entity's constraints on interacting with the other entity; calculating the union of the two descriptions; determining whether the union is satisfiable using a constraint resolver; providing the intersection of the two descriptions as the common interactions protocol if the union is satisfiable; and indicating where any incompatibility lies if the union is not satisfiable.

Abstract: A computerised method for improving security in multi-party multivariate negotiation between negotiating participants which communicate using an electronic communications network comprises the steps of: submitting proposals from the participants to the centralised negotiation processor via the electronic communications network; returning compatible proposals to each participant from the centralised negotiation processor; locally assigning a utility score to each compatible proposal based on the participant's preferences over the parameters being negotiated; and submitting the assigned utility scores for the compatible proposals to the centralised negotiation processor from each participant.

Abstract: Preference maps may be used in automated negotiating systems. The creation of a preference map is an onerous duty in cases where many parameters are to be negotiated. By automating the creation of user questions and iteratively producing further questions based on a partially created preference map, the burden of generating the preference map may be reduced. This allows more complex negotiations over greater numbers of parameters to be carried out using automatic agents.

Abstract: A multi-dimensional preference map may be used to assist an agent such as a negotiating agent to make decisions and recommendations based on a users preference embodied in the map. The generation of a multi-dimensional map may be created using partial information in the form of constraining rules which operate over a range of one or more of the dimensions of the preference map.

Abstract: A multi-parameter proposal is accepted by a proposal assessor which passes the initial proposal to a preference mapper which acts to reduce the number of parameters in the initial proposal. The negotiation is then carried out using a strategy designed to operate on the lower number of parameters. Counter proposals are expanded using the preference mapper so that counter proposals are expressed in substantially the same form as the incoming proposals.

Abstract: In many electronic auctions, the auction house will usually set a fixed time for the auction to end and the highest bidder at the termination of the auction is declared the winner. Various bidding strategies are employed by human traders to try to secure goods at artificially low prices, one such strategy being to delay bidding until very close to the deadline for the close of bidding. An automated bidding agent 1 and method of operating the bidding agent 1 are disclosed which have the capacity to evaluate the appropriate last minute bid to place to maximise the chances of securing the goods bid for. The bidding agent 1 comprises a bid model that processes auction data from the e-auction 5 of interest and user preferences input by the user to evaluate the optimal last minute bid to place.

Abstract: A method of determining a bidding strategy for purchasing a plurality of goods from a plurality of different types of on-line auctions is described. The method comprises: accessing probabilistic belief models for each of the plurality of different types of auctions; considering combinations of bids in each specific auction type for the plurality of different types of auctions; removing each possible bid of the combination of bids which fails to meet a predefined constraint of that type of auction for the plurality of different types of auctions, by use of the probabilistic belief models; estimating the expected benefit of each possible combination of bids across different types of auctions by use of the probabilistic belief models; and selecting the combination of bids across different types of auction which provides the highest expected benefit, for use as the bidding strategy.

Abstract: A method and associated apparatus for negotiating automatically involve the following. A committing and undeniable negotiation proposal is submitted anonymously by a participant to a central server prior to agreement formation. The server matches a compatible proposal to the participant's committing and undeniable negotiation proposal to form an agreement. The server verifies, with the participant's collaboration, that the matched committing and undeniable proposal forming the agreement belongs to the participant.

Abstract: A method of determining a bidding strategy for purchasing a plurality of goods from a plurality of different types of on-line auctions is described. The method comprises: accessing probabilistic belief models for each of the plurality of different types of auctions; considering combinations of bids in each specific auction type for the plurality of different types of auctions; removing each possible bid of the combination of bids which fails to meet a predefined constraint of that type of auction for the plurality of different types of auctions, by use of the probabilistic belief models; estimating the expected benefit of each possible combination of bids across different types of auctions by use of the probabilistic belief models; and selecting the combination of bids across different types of auction which provides the highest expected benefit, for use as the bidding strategy.