Patents Examined by James W. Myhre
  • Patent number: 9286624
    Abstract: A system and method of displaying information on images representing geographic objects captured by a camera is provided. In one aspect, the information is an advertisement and the advertisement is displayed such that its shape is based on the surface angle of the geographic object relative to the perspective from which the object is being viewed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen Chau
  • Patent number: 9245283
    Abstract: A method of providing incentives to customers which involves providing customers with cards having changeable display areas. During a transaction, the cards are received from the customers and an incentive image is displayed on the display areas of the cards when they are returned to the customers. The incentive images can be coupons, discount certificates, or other marketing or promotional offerings, prize notifications, loyalty rewards, etc. The cards can be credit cards, including gift cards, debit cards, ATM cards, shoppers' cards, merchants' cards, phone cards, casino cards, or any other similar cards. A transaction card that displays updated value balances on the card and a system for performing the value updates is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Inventor: Karen Nixon Lane
  • Patent number: 9208517
    Abstract: A system and method of generating advertising inventory by marketers sharing content with others via a social network or other electronic communication across a network. This embodiment may include allowing one or more content providers, such as a publisher, to provide links to content items, such as articles, news stories, videos, etc. The content items may be provided directly by the content provider or by a clearinghouse entity or other intermediary. A subscriber, such as an advertiser or marketer, may then search for relevant content items from one or more content providers. The subscriber may provide ancillary content, such as an advertisement or other electronic content, for association with the selected content item. Thus, when the subscriber shares a URL identifying the selected content item, such as an article, via a social network, the URL may be encoded with a unique identifier identifying the subscriber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: The New York Times Company
    Inventors: Matthew T. Boggie, Amy E. Hyde, Guy Dassa, Bobby Roe
  • Patent number: 9002750
    Abstract: For secure user authentication using a one-time password (OTP) application is pre-stored on a device for generating a OTP value responsive to entry of a valid PIN, no part of the PIN is stored on the device and pre-storing on a server the PIN and a valid shared secret for the user. Upon receiving entry a purported PIN, a purported shared secret is dynamically synthesized on the device by the OTP application based on the purported PIN of the user and a purported OTP value is generated based on the purported shared secret. When entry of the purported OTP value is received by the server in an attempt to log on the server from another device, the server cryptographically calculates a purported shared secret based on the purported OTP value, and log on to the server from the other device is allowed if the calculated purported shared secret corresponds to the pre-stored shared secret.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Citicorp Credit Services, Inc. (USA)
    Inventors: Ronald King-Hang Chu, Mark Kogen, Warren Tan, Simon Ma, Yosif Smushkovich, Gerry Glindro, Jeffrey William Coyte Nicholas
  • Patent number: 8996405
    Abstract: A system is described for providing for a revenue generator to bid exclusively on mobile search traffic. The system may include a processor, a memory and an interface. The memory may store a plurality of bids, a keyword, a mobile search request and a mobile advertisement associated with a revenue generator. The interface may communicate with a user and a plurality of revenue generators. The processor may receive bids on the keyword from the revenue generators. The bids may apply to the keyword when the keyword is searched for through the mobile carrier. The processor may receive the mobile search request from the user. The processor may determine if the mobile search request originated from the mobile carrier. The processor may serve the user the advertisement if the mobile search request originated from the mobile carrier, otherwise the mobile advertisement is not served for the keyword.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Arvind Gupta, Kenta Umezu, Sean P. Walker, Ian B. Brayshaw
  • Patent number: 8996402
    Abstract: Systems and methods for planning and booking advertising campaigns are provided. In operation, a booking engine generates a collection of proposed campaigns in response to a campaign request, where the each of the proposed campaigns corresponds to a scenario of atom availability. Such scenarios can account for possible or anticipated changes in the number and cost of atoms or any other changes of interest to the advertiser. The availability for the atoms in the campaign request can be projected using the past history and the known future unavailability of the atoms and is further modified to account for the variation in atom availability associated with each scenario. Thereafter, the booking engine can present the results for each scenario to the advertiser and allow him to select a campaign.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Eswar Priyadarshan, Dan Marius Grigorovici, Omar Abdala, Prasenjit Mukherjee
  • Patent number: 8990103
    Abstract: Systems and methods for managing electronic content from multiple content providers in a dynamic environment are provided. In operation, an advertiser can plan and book an electronic advertisement campaign by providing a campaign request specifying a requested inventory slot of atoms in an inventory space and other associated data. Thereafter, a proposed campaign can be generated based on an estimated availability of the atoms and any performance criteria specified by the advertiser. Once the proposed campaign is accepted and booked, the proposed campaign can be managed along with other active campaigns. These active campaigns can be managed based on a relative priority of the campaigns and an estimated availability for the atoms in the inventory space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Eswar Priyadarshan, Dan Marius Grigorovici, Omar Abdala, Hao Duong
  • Patent number: 8930282
    Abstract: Techniques are described that facilitate generating useful content based on user interactions, such as by providing an answer-providing service that facilitates interactions between users who supply questions and users who supply responses to the questions of other users, as well as using the generated content in various ways. In some situations, users are compensated for participating in interactions with the answer-providing service in various ways, including by sharing a portion of an ongoing revenue stream generated from an answer to a question with users who provided responses that are used as part of the answer. In some situations, the sharing of an ongoing revenue stream related to an answer may be split between the users who provided the responses for the answer in various manners, including based on assessed levels of expertise of those users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph C. Park, Kian Fai Leong
  • Patent number: 8924251
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing one or more pages of an electronic document are provided herein. Some of the methods may include evaluating one or more pages obtained from an electronic document to determine at least one of a pagination and an order for each of the one or more pages, reducing the size of each of the one or more pages, while utilizing at least a portion of the pagination of the each of the one or more pages, associating the one or more pages together according to the determined order, and providing at least one of the one or more pages to a network-enabled computing system upon receiving a request to obtain at least one page of the electronic document from the network-enabled computing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: VLSI Research Inc.
    Inventors: Manjesh Singh Ailaney, Gerald Dan Hutcheson
  • Patent number: 8880423
    Abstract: Techniques for estimating advertisement inventory for search retargeting segments are provided. A total inventory for each cluster of a plurality of clusters is estimated based on a history of previously viewed pages and previously used search keywords that were submitted by users is searches performed prior to accessing the previously viewed pages. A search retargeting (SRT) segment is received that includes a set of search keywords. The SRT segment is received in a request for deliverable advertisement inventory for advertisements associated with the SRT segment. A deliverable inventory for the received SRT segment is estimated based on the estimated total inventories for the clusters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventor: Qiong (James) Zhang
  • Patent number: 8856028
    Abstract: An advertisement impression distribution system is programmed to generate an allocation plan for serving a number of advertisement impressions changeable as a result of one or more events, the allocation plan to allocate a first portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy guaranteed demand and a second portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy non-guaranteed demand.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Jian Yang, Jianchang Mao
  • Patent number: 8849692
    Abstract: A method of registering a partner for an advertising program is described. The method includes receiving advertising partner information and creating a partner web page having a format for the partner in accordance with the advertising partner information. The creating may include presenting a plurality of partner web page formats to the partner and receiving a selection of the format from the plurality of partner web page formats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Justin M. Rosenstein, Amin Zoufonoun
  • Patent number: 8788332
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure are related to methods, apparatuses, and articles associated with mutually supportive social networking and online advertising. In embodiments, a method may include facilitating a user of a social network in interacting with social media contributed by other users. The user's interaction may be monitored, and the user may be credited with participation credits. The method may further include facilitating setting up a product sample offering program on the social network, by an online advertiser, to offer samples of a product for redemption by users of the social network, using participation credits, and administering the product sample offering program accordingly. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Sircle, Inc.
    Inventors: Cindy M. Engstrom, Dianne Dominguez
  • Patent number: 8781897
    Abstract: A media targeting system and method uses visual pattern recognition techniques in association with consumer transactions as the basis for building a targeting database, which is then later used for automated consumer identification and targeted advertising purposes. The invention solves the problem of generating a large scale, robust media targeting database without relying on active or passive participation by consumers. Also disclosed are other demographics estimation systems and methods which facilitate less expensive media targeting capabilities which can be used in conjunction with the more robust transaction associated method disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Inventor: Brent Thomas McKay
  • Patent number: 8768770
    Abstract: This paper presents a practical method for measuring the impact of multiple marketing events on sales, including marketing events that are not traditionally trackable. The technique infers which of several competing media events are likely to have caused a given conversion. The method is tested using hold-out sets, and also a live media experiment for determining whether the method can accurately predict television-generated web conversions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Lucid Commerce, Inc.
    Inventors: Brendan Kitts, Brian Burdick, Dyng Au, Liang Wei, Amanda Powter
  • Patent number: 8762204
    Abstract: The way in which Websites are reviewed for use in an advertising network may be improved by (a) accepting a collection including one or more documents, (b) determining whether or not the collection complies with policies of an advertising network, and (c) approving the collection if it was determined that the collection complies with the policies. The collection may be added to the advertising network if the collection is approved such that (e.g., content-targeted) advertisements may be served in association with renderings of documents included in the collection. The collection may be a Website including one or more Webpages. The policy may concern (A) content of the one or more documents of the collection, (B) usability of a Website wherein the collection of one or more documents is a Website including one or more Webpages, and/or (C) a possible fraud or deception on the advertising network or participants of the advertising network by the collection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Pavan Kumar Desikan, Lawrence Ip, Timothy James, Sanjeev Kulkarni, Prasenjit Phukan, Dmitriy Portnov, Gokul Rajaram
  • Patent number: 8756100
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for facilitating the purchase of excess items. In one embodiment, customer information and inventory data are retrieved from a merchant client. A determination is made on whether excess items exist. A list of target purchasers is generated based on data associated with a user account, and offers are generated and sent by electronic communication to the list of target purchasers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: David C. Yanacek, Gustavo Eduardo Lopez, Steven T. Rabuchin, Michael M. George, Brandon H. Yarbrough
  • Patent number: 8751335
    Abstract: Techniques for providing advice on personal style include receiving advice field data and a demonstration message. The advice field data indicates multiple fields to be filled by an advisor to provide information on how to improve personal style of an advisee based on an image provided by the advisee. The demonstration message includes first image data that indicates example personal style of a first user. An advice prompt message is sent to a different second user. The advice prompt message includes second image data based on the first image data, and the advice field data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Inventors: Noel Rita Molinelli, Derek Gatts
  • Patent number: 8751327
    Abstract: The following disclosure relates generally to techniques for generating useful content based on user interactions, such as by enabling users to submit questions to and otherwise interact with an answer-providing service. In some situations, one or more interfaces are provided to allow users to specify a variety of types of questions for the answer-providing service, such as via a GUI and/or using a messaging interface based on email or other types of electronic messages. When communications occur via electronic messages, the answer-providing service may in some situations generate and include unique tracking identifiers in electronic messages sent to users, so that the users can reply back to the messages in order to provide a command to the answer-providing service that includes a tracking identifier previously sent to the user and thus verify that the command is sent by someone with access to the electronic messages of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Joseph C. Park, Kian Fai Leong
  • Patent number: 8751310
    Abstract: A targeted in-game advertising system is provided where advertising content may be delivered to a video game network environment. Advertisements may be delivered through the tagging of advertising assets in the video game environment according to one or more characteristics including user geographical location, personal preferences, a personal profile, video game preferences or video game genre. Methodologies for tracking advertising impressions are also provided based on monitoring the video game environment to determine the quality of impression to which the user is exposed in the video game environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC
    Inventors: Glen van Datta, Gary Zalewski