James A Sherry

US Patent:

20020169706, Nov 14, 2002

Filed:

May 10, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/852934

Inventors:

Tushar Chandra - San Jose CA, US
James Sherry - New York NY, US
Charles Tresser - New York NY, US
Paula Austel - Cortlandt Manor NY, US
Ronald Perez - Mt. Kisco NY, US
Sean Smith - Hanover NH, US

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F017/60

US Classification:

705/037000

Abstract:

Apparatus and methods for providing secure electronic brokers are provided. The apparatus and methods make use of trading programs and their matching rules (and if needed some negotiation protocols) which allows the apparatus to communicate with customers using messaging middleware, thereby becoming an electronic broker or e-broker for the customers. The e-broker device publishes, using Pub/Sub messaging technology, for example, the type of trades it expects to broker. Potential users subscribe, using content based matching, to the types of trades they would like to make. Together with its advertising, the e-broker publishes the public part of its public encryption scheme. The user then sends it encrypted bids and the public part of its own public encryption scheme to the e-broker. When the users submit their identification, the e-broker device checks their overall quality (credit, reputation, etc.). In some cases, once a bid is put by some initial bidder, the e-broker will publish the sort of matching bid it seeks in a way which does not compromise the interests of the first bidder, possibly after getting approval from the initial bidder on the message to be published. In some cases, possibly after negotiation, an e-broker may simply create a contact between matching bidders. In other cases, matching is binding for the deal to be made.