P/00/009A Section 29 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 INNOVATION PATENT SPECIFICATION Invention Title: VEHICLE REVERSE AUCTION SYSTEM AND METHOD Applicant: BestBuyNew P/L The invention is described in the following statement: 7019 2 VEHICLE REVERSE AUCTION SYSTEM AND METHOD Field of the invention The present invention relates broadly to a vehicle reverse auction system and 5 a computer-implemented method of conducting a vehicle reverse auction. Background of the invention A potential buyer intending to purchase a vehicle, such as an automobile, jet ski or motorcycle, can visit a vehicle auction yard where the potential buyer competes with other potential buyers by placing bids to purchase a vehicle on offer. Generally 10 each bid has an associated bid price higher than the previous bid price or the starting bid price. The potential buyer with the highest bid price will be able to purchase the vehicle on offer. Such a vehicle auction system works in favour of the vehicle seller since the bid price increases after each bid and the vehicle seller is able to receive the maximum return from the potential buyers. In other words, such a system works 15 against the potential vehicle buyers. A reverse auction is a type of auction in which the roles of buyers and sellers are reversed. In an ordinary auction (also known as a forward auction), buyers compete to obtain a good or service, and the price typically increases over time. In a reverse auction, sellers compete to obtain business, and prices typically decrease 20 over time. It is known to conduct a reverse auction via an Internet-based online auction site. However, existing Internet-based online reverse auction sites are cumbersome and ill-adapted to the reverse auctioning of vehicles. It would be desirable to provide a vehicle reverse auction system and a 25 computer-implemented method of providing a vehicle reverse auction which is suited to the reverse auctioning of vehicles, and which overcomes or ameliorates the disadvantages of known reverse auction systems and methods. SPEC-918507.doc 3 Summary of the invention In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a vehicle reverse auction system comprising a computer processor and a memory storing a series of instructions to cause the computer processor to: 5 receive from a potential vehicle purchaser a request to purchase a vehicle; receive from a first bidder a first bid associated with a first price for selling the vehicle; receive from a second bidder, subsequent to receiving the first bid, a second bid associated with a second price lower than the first price for selling the vehicle; and 10 cause display of the second price as a current bid price. Such a vehicle reverse auction system ensures that bid prices decrease monotonically after each subsequent bid is received. In a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a vehicle reverse auction system comprising a computer processor and a memory storing a series of 15 instructions to cause the computer processor to: receive from a potential vehicle purchaser a request to purchase a vehicle; receive from a first bidder a first bid associated with a first price and a supplementary price for selling the vehicle; receive from a second bidder, subsequent to receiving the first bid, a second 20 bid associated with a second price lower than the first price and higher than supplementary price for providing the vehicle; and cause display of a price lower than the second price but not lower than the supplementary price as a current bid price. A vehicle auction system having features according to this second aspect 25 allows a bidder to have an opportunity, when being outbid by others, to swiftly place an automatic bid by the system without initially revealing the bidder's lower bid price. In a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer-implemented method of conducting a vehicle auction system, the computer-implemented method comprising: SPEC-18507.doc 4 receiving from a potential vehicle purchaser a request for purchasing a vehicle; receiving from a first bidder a first bid associated with a first price for selling the vehicle; receiving from a second bidder a second bid, subsequent to receiving the first 5 bid, associated with a second price lower than the first price for selling the vehicle; and causing display of the second price as a current bid price. In a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer-implemented method of providing a vehicle auction system, the computer-implemented method 10 comprising: receiving from a potential vehicle purchaser a request for purchasing a vehicle; receiving from a first bidder a first bid associated with a first price and a supplementary price for selling the vehicle; receiving from a second bidder a second bid, subsequent to receiving the first 15 bid, associated with a second price lower than the first price and higher than supplementary price for selling the vehicle; and causing display of a price lower than the second price but not lower than the supplementary price as a current bid price. Preferably the method further comprises the step of providing contact 20 information associated with the potential vehicle purchaser to a successful bidder. More preferably the method further comprises, before the step of providing contact information associated with the potential vehicle purchaser to a successful bidder, the step of receiving payment of a fee from the successful bidder. Preferably the method comprises the step of providing the request to multiple 25 bidders including the first bidder and the second bidder. More preferably the step of providing the request to multiple bidders includes providing the request to a predetermined list of multiple bidders. In one embodiment, the predetermined list of multiple bidders includes a list of registered or authorised bidders. Preferably the method further comprises the step of providing the current bid 30 price to the vehicle purchaser. SPEC-018507.doc 5 Preferably the step of receiving a request includes the step of receiving information associated with the vehicle. More preferably the step of receiving information associated with the vehicle includes receiving any one or more of the following of the vehicle: make, vehicle type, model, year, exterior colour, interior 5 colour, registration status and location. Preferably the step of receiving the first bid includes the step of receiving the first bid within a predetermined period. Preferably the step of receiving the second bid includes the step of receiving the second bid within a predetermined period. 10 Brief description of the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of a vehicle reverse auction system in accordance with the present invention. Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a method of providing a vehicle reverse auction system in accordance with the present invention. 15 Detailed description of the preferred embodiment(s) The present invention relates generally to a computer-implemented system for facilitating auctioning of vehicles, including land vehicles, such as motorcars and motorcycles, and water vehicles, such as jet skis. Figure 1 illustrates an implementation of the vehicle reverse auction system 10 20 in accordance with the present invention. The system 10 may include a computer processor, such as a web server 12 hosting a website, with interconnection means 14 such as a network cable or wireless transceiver configured to provide bidirectional information transfer through a network 16 such as the Internet. Potential vehicle purchasers may access the website hosted by the web server 12 via a networked 25 device, such as an Internet-connected mobile phone 20 or an Internet-connected computer 22. The network device 18 may include a display to display the website's contents downloaded or received from the web server 12. Typically this displaying process involves the network device 18 requesting contents from the web server 12, which SPEC-918507.doc 6 then provides information or instructions, such as in the form of hypertext mark-up language (HTML) codes, to cause the network device's display to display the requested content. This process is hereinafter simply described as the website displaying the content. 5 Vehicle sellers wishing to sell a vehicle to potential vehicle purchasers may access the website in a similar way. Furthermore vehicle sellers may register by submitting via the website their details to be stored in the web server 12. In some embodiments, the system maintains a database of registered vehicle sellers. The system 10 is further configured to perform a series of related functions or 10 steps to facilitate the vehicle bidding process. In one embodiment illustrated in Figure 2, the web server 12 at step 31 is configured to receive via the network 16 from a potential vehicle purchaser a request for purchasing a vehicle. The request may include any information associated with the desired vehicle, such as make, vehicle type, model, year, exterior colour, interior colour, registration status and location. The 15 request may also include information associated with the auction, such as the maximum price that the potential purchaser is willing to pay and the duration of the auction. The system 10 may at step 32 require the potential purchaser to register with the auction website if the potential purchase has not already registered. If the 20 potential purchaser has already registered, the system 10 may at step 33 require the potential purchaser to provide his or her login details, such as a username/password combination that the potential purchaser may have selected or may have been provided during the registration at step 32. At step 34, the potential purchaser is required to pay a listing fee. The system 25 10 may provide to the potential purchaser a link to a payment website through which payment details such as credit card details to pay the listing fee may be entered. At step 35, email alerts with information associated with the request may then be sent via the network 16 to registered vehicle sellers with an invitation to the bidding process. The system 10 may determine whether all or only some of the registered 30 vehicle sellers, depending for example on the vehicle sellers' registered preferences, will be sent the notification. In one embodiment, the request may be sent to a list of SPEC-918507.dcC 7 predetermined bidders, such as all known vehicle dealers matching the vehicle location information in the request or any reputable vehicle dealers. At step 36, registered vehicle sellers may be able to review the information associated with the request on the website before placing bids. The web server 12 5 may be configured to receive from one or more vehicle sellers (or bidders) bids with their respective associated prices for providing or selling a vehicle to the potential vehicle purchaser. At the start of the bidding process, the system 10 may cause the website to display the price associated with the maximum price that the potential purchaser is 10 willing to pay. Alternatively the website may initially display the bid price associated with a first received bid. At any time, the website may at step 37 display the current or the lowest bid price such that interested bidders and the potential purchaser may be able to seek updates on the progress of the reverse auction by accessing the website. Each subsequent bid price must be lower than the previous bid price. The 15 system 10 may refuse to receive a bid if its associated bid price is equal or higher than the previous bid price. For example, a first bidder may place a bid of $10,000 for selling a vehicle. The system 10 may then cause the display of a current bid of $10,000 on the website. When a second bidder places a bid of $9,500 to outbid the first bidder, the second bidder's bid of $9,500 may be displayed on the website as the 20 current bid price. In one or more embodiments, each bid may also be associated with a supplementary price. The supplementary price may represent the lowest bid price that a particular bidder is willing to offer if and when the bidder's normal bid price is outbid by a subsequent bidder. In this case, the system 10 may place an automatic 25 bid based on the supplementary price on behalf of the bidder. For example, a first bidder may place a bid of $10,000 for selling a vehicle and associate the bid with a supplementary bid price of $9,000. The system may then cause the display of a current bid of $10,000 on the website, but without causing the display of the supplementary bid of $9,000. When a second bidder places a bid of 30 $9,500 to outbid the first bidder's bid of $10,000, a bid based on the first bidder's SPEC-918507.doc 8 supplementary price of $9,000 is automatically placed by the system 10 to outbid the second bidder. The automatic bid price may be calculated by the system 10 by subtracting a predetermined amount from the second bidder's bid price. In the above example, the 5 automatic bid price may be calculated by taking $100 off the second bidder's bid price of $9,500 to arrive at the automatic bid price of $9,400. This predetermined amount may be fixed by the system 10, or may be specified by the first bidder when the supplementary price is associated with the first bid. Continuing with the above example, if a further bid of $9,250 is received by the 10 system 10 (from the second bidder or a third bidder), the system 10 may place a second automatic bid on behalf of the first bidder. The second automatic bid may be calculated by taking $100 off $9,250 to arrive at the second automatic bid price of $9,150. If yet a further bid of $9,050 is received by the system 10 (from the second 15 bidder, the third bidder or a fourth bidder), the system 10 may place a third automatic bid on behalf of the first bidder. The third automatic bid may initially be calculated by taking $100 off $9,050 to initially arrive at the third automatic bid price of $8,950, which is however lower than the lowest price ($9,000) that the first bidder is willing to offer. In this case, the system 10 may place the third automatic bid of $9,000 on 20 behalf of the first bidder. In other words, the automatic bid price is either (a) the previously received bid price less the predetermined amount or (b) the supplementary price, whichever is greater. Alternatively, the system 10 may not place the third automatic bid at all. In a similar embodiment, each bid may be associated with multiple supplementary prices 25 and the system 10 may place automatic bids based on a price, among the multiple supplementary prices, which is the highest among the multiple supplementary prices that are lower than the current bid price. The preceding examples describe bidding processes in which both the first and second bidders place bids without supplementary bids, and in which the first bidder 30 place bids with supplementary bids but the second place bids without supplementary bids. It will be appreciated that the invention is also suitable for us in bidding SPEC-918507.doc 9 processes in which both the first and second bidders place bids with supplementary bids, and in which the first bidder place bids without supplementary bids but the second place bids with supplementary bids. The auction may last for a predetermined period, which may be a default time 5 period or may be set by the potential purchaser as provided in the request, and then conclude at step 38. The bidder of the lowest bid, namely the successful bidder, may be notified at step 39, for example by way of an automated email, of their successful bid. The bidding fee may also be paid from the successful bidder's registered credit card or other payment mechanism. Unsuccessful bidders are not required to pay the 10 bidding fee. Now that the preferred embodiments of the vehicle reverse auction system are described, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention has the following advantages: * The vehicle reverse auction system works in favour of a vehicle 15 purchaser by decreasing the bid price after each bid and the purchaser is therefore able to purchase a desired vehicle at the minimum cost provided among the bidders. * Using supplementary or automatic bids, a bidder is not required to re place a subsequent bid when outbid by another bidder. This generally 20 accelerates the bidding process and allows more bids to be placed, which generally translates to lower vehicle cost for the purchaser. " The requirement of a bidding fee to be paid at the conclusion of the bidding process and only by the successful bidder encourages more bidders to place bids, which generally translates to lower vehicle cost for 25 the purchaser. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention described herein is susceptible to variations and modifications other than those specifically described. All variations and modifications are to be considered within the ambit of the present invention the nature of which is to be determined from the foregoing description. 30 SPEC-918507.doc