Priceline Anxiously Awaits
BidBudget Web Site's Debut
By JANE COSTELLO
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION
When Budget Rent a Car (www.drivebudget.com) goes live with its new "BidBudget" Web site this month, one of the first bids may come from officials at Priceline.com (www.priceline.com).
Within the next few days, visitors to the Budget Rent a Car Web site will be able to name their own price to rent a Cavalier, Grand Am or other rental vehicle via the company's new "BidBudget" service. Customers view the cars and complete an online form to submit a bid for a rental car at the price they choose. Budget will notify users within 24 hours if their bid is accepted.
If this process sounds familiar, it should: the voice of Priceline spokesman William Shatner has flooded the airwaves since last April with the prediction that the "name-your-price" method of e-commerce will be "big, really big."
And though "really big" is hard to quantify, Priceline claims to sell 7,000 tickets each day to consumers who fill out the online form and submit bids for tickets. Airlines like Delta, Trans World Airlines and America West routinely make excess inventory available to Priceline, which then sells the tickets to customers whose bids fall within an acceptable range.
Budget also sees potential dollar signs in being able to rid itself of excess inventory via its Web site. However, Priceline holds a patent on the "name-your-price" process for e-commerce, and executives at Priceline's headquarters in Stamford, Conn., will be visiting BidBudget on opening day to determine if there is any infringement on their patent.
A spokesman for Priceline says that while the company will not comment on any potential legal issues, they will be taking a "close look" at BidBudget when it makes its debut.
Although Budget readily admits the concept is the same, Bob Aprati, the company's senior legal counsel, points out that even though Priceline is "making a lot of noise" about owning the patent to this particular method of e-commerce, it's not possible to trademark an idea, only a process.
"Once you disclose an idea to the public, it's in the public domain," he says. "What we're doing is off old technology, so I can't for the life of me think how that would interfere with Priceline."
But when asked if Budget's process differs substantially from Priceline's, Mr. Aprati expressed more cautious optimism.
"We sure as hell hope so," he said. "Hopefully our technology people have done their homework."
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