Mediabids.com, the online print advertising space marketplace, has been awarded a patent for Online Trading for the Placement of Advertising in Media. The patent, issued August 1, 2006, is for an online system that allows advertisers to create auctions for ad placement in any media. Currently Mediabids is focused entirely on print publications.

The patented system enables businesses to solicit bids of advertising space from publications that participate on Mediabids.com. The advertiser then chooses a winner, or the bid that best fits his or her advertising plans.

When asked if this would effect eBay's new e-Media Exchange auction marketplace for advertisers, Mediabids.com President Jedd Gould said, "We don't know what they're doing, and patents are very specific." He said the company "does not have a list" of companies to whom it wants to license the patent to (http://www.redherring.com/article.aspx?a=17831)

Mediabids, launched in 2003, works with over 3,500 newspapers and magazines, bringing together buyers of print advertising with publications that have ad space to sell.

http://www.mediabids.com