Patents Examined by Jonathan Ouellette
  • Patent number: 9361636
    Abstract: Methods and computer-readable media are provided herein for implementing custom application programming interfaces (API) for creating, managing, and provisioning packages of online applications. An offer management service API is implemented that provides methods for creating and modifying offers for packages of online applications. An offer provisioning API is implemented that provides methods enabling the provisioning of online applications for subscribers to offers. An application provider API is published and utilized to provision and maintain individual instances of online applications provided by application providers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Yunus Mohammed, Apurva F Dalia, Christopher Gariepy, Venugopala Rao Moram, Joydeep Bhattacharyya, Sandeep P Karanth, Christopher J Saam, Lizhong Huang, Rodrigo Junqueira Lode
  • Patent number: 9363222
    Abstract: Approaches for facilitating selective user moderation of social media channels are disclosed. In certain implementations, one or more posts from a user for submission to a channel directed to a topic may be received. An event relating to the topic may be identified. A predetermined time period associated with the event may be identified. At least some access privileges of the user for the channel may be disabled for at least a portion of the predetermined time period based on a determination that the one or more posts are indicative of one or more undesired characteristics. In some implementations, the predetermined time period may include a first time period before the event begins, a second time period during which the event occurs, a third time period after which the event ends, or other time period associated with the event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: Yapp Media, LLC
    Inventors: Darren Bounds, Eric Goldstein
  • Patent number: 9338047
    Abstract: In one implementation, a computer-implemented method includes receiving information related to users of a social network site and determining a graph for at least a portion of the social network, the graph including a plurality of nodes connected by directional links where each node corresponds to a user having a profile page on the social network and where each directional link corresponds to a user viewing at least an aspect of a profile page for another user. The method can further include identifying first nodes as including content associated with a particular subject of interest, and seeding the identified first nodes with first scores. The method can also include determining second scores for second nodes by propagating the first scores across the social graph based upon third nodes having viewed aspects of profile pages associated with the first nodes and the second nodes; and providing the determined second scores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Ranveer Kunal, Kiran S. Panesar, Madhukar N. Thakur, Amogh S. Asgekar
  • Patent number: 9324120
    Abstract: Embodiments of the invention leverage mobile proliferation to enable laypersons to initiate a timely and effective emergency response in case of an emergency, such as a medical emergency, e.g. cardiac event. Mobile apps are made available as part of an organization's overall response plan and program, allowing bystanders of emergency events to easily initiate notification of trained responders, for example in their facility, in a timely manner commensurate with the type of emergency specific to their facility. More particularly, embodiments of the invention use mobile applications to alert certified first trainees to respond to the scene of the emergency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2016
    Assignee: EMERGENCY UNIVERSITY, INC.
    Inventor: Odelia Braun
  • Patent number: 9311611
    Abstract: A method for service level management comprises identifying connected enterprise application components and, under control of an automated system, relating historical performance for the connected enterprise application components and electronically creating a service level agreement based on the historical performance relation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
    Inventors: Myles Suer, Barbara Newton, David Baron, Michael Lazarus
  • Patent number: 9305405
    Abstract: A fuel tax measuring and reporting tool is provided for a mobile refrigeration unit that is capable of providing state-by-state fuel tax reporting, automatically, relating to fuel consumed by a mobile refrigeration unit. Fuel use of an engine powering the refrigeration unit is measured based on either power consumption by, or fuel flow to, the engine. Processing of this data locally or remotely allows accurate fuel tax reporting in connection with transmission of this data from the site of the mobile refrigeration unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignee: Omnitracs, LLC
    Inventor: Michael Golden
  • Patent number: 9305003
    Abstract: An online social network is provided in which members of the online social network control who may view their personal information and who may communicate with them. The members control who may view their personal information by setting a visibility preference. A member may not view another member's full personal profile if the measure of relatedness between the two is greater than the visibility preference of the other member. The members also control who may communicate with them by setting a contactability preference. A member may not communicate with another member if the measure of relatedness between the two is greater than the contactability preference of the other member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignee: Facebook, Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Galbreath, Christopher Lunt
  • Patent number: 9292880
    Abstract: The circle model powered suggestions and activities system provides a way to efficiently and effectively manage relationships. The circle model powered suggestions and activities system provides a way to model relationships for a user and assist the user with creating groupings of relevant constituents into context circles, provide suggested activities to members of the modeled relationships as well as facilitate the user with managing the user's relationships. The system analyzes public and private data, and tracks the user's interactions and the interactions of the constituents' of the user in order to generate suggested activities (including conversation starters) for the users and the constituents of the users. The system refines the semantic analysis and learning algorithms used to perform the analysis by analyzing the activities engaged in by the users and the constituents of the users related to suggested activities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: Groupon, Inc.
    Inventors: Naveen Koorakula, Sakina Arsiwala, Sebastian Heycke, Jonas Werner Huckestein
  • Patent number: 9286595
    Abstract: A compliance manager system automates monitoring, reporting, certification and remediation of user entitlements and roles, making it possible for organizations to easily establish a sustainable access governance model. The system enables organizations to gain enterprise-wide visibility into all user entitlements and roles and, in particular, to monitor who has access to what application, how they got access, and who approved such access. In one embodiment, a discovery and aggregation mechanism acquires identity, entitlement and role information together with associated metadata from enterprise infrastructure and applications. This information is normalized producing a unified view that is complete and correlated across users, entitlements, roles and resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: EMC Corporation
    Inventors: Deepak Taneja, Prasad V. Bhamidipati, Bushan Yadav Byragani, Sanjay Nadimpalli, Joaquin Lull
  • Patent number: 9275404
    Abstract: Techniques for determining the popularity of a business entity are provided. A communication is received at a computing system. The computing system searches the received communication for a business entity name. The computing system also searches the received communication for information related to an opinion about the business entity. Based on the information related to the opinion, the computing system determines a customer satisfaction rating of the business entity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: EMPIRE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT LLC
    Inventor: Arvind Vijay Keerthi
  • Patent number: 9256895
    Abstract: In some embodiments, the instant invention provides an improved computer system programmed for searching which includes at least the following components: a specialized computer machine, at least one processor for executing a particular program code stored in a memory, where the particular program code is configured to perform the following operations upon the execution: obtaining business information regarding a plurality of businesses and a plurality of offerings offered by the plurality of businesses; generating a rating score for each business based on consumer ratings; associating each business with the rating score; and concurrently conducting a plurality of searches of the business information based on: business identifying search parameter(s) obtained from each consumer, a geographic indication, a plurality of ranked filtering criteria, a rating score filtering parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignee: Whozagood, Inc.
    Inventor: Zale Zeviar
  • Patent number: 9251519
    Abstract: A news aggregation server aggregates and monetizes restricted news content. The news aggregation server fetches the restricted news content from multiple news source servers that are remote from the news aggregation server. The news aggregation server aggregates the fetched restricted news content and searches the aggregated news content based on input received from a client. The news aggregation server provides access to selected news content from the aggregated news content that is relevant to the client input and charges the user a price for accessing the selected restricted news content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Krishna Bharat, Michael Schmitt, Mike Curtiss, Marissa Mayer, Kerah Pelczarski, Janny Zhou, Duane Scott Hess
  • Patent number: 9235862
    Abstract: Methods and systems for providing financial and/or board member information in a secured manner to members of boards of directors of companies and others through a publicly-available widely disseminated network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2016
    Assignee: Thomson Reuters Global Resources
    Inventors: Gregory Radner, Eric C. Prussman, Michael W. Stevens, Danh Dang, Nicole Bahlin, Rebecca Cho Khurana, Neeraj Jain, Robert Coran, Jeron Paul, Carmine Zinni
  • Patent number: 9235842
    Abstract: The subject invention provides an information source, such as an advertiser or product vendor, with a method for transferring information to contacts for which the information source has no contact data. The information source stores information in an information database which communicates the information to a referrer which has the desired contact data. The referrer uses a communication device to transfer the information to one or more contacts using contact data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2016
    Assignee: GROUPON, INC.
    Inventors: James F. Kramer, Paul C. Ning
  • Patent number: 9218589
    Abstract: Systems and methods for the issuance, management and conveyance of endorsements to authorities, the system comprising an endorsement issuance module configured to issue an endorsement associated with an endorsee, wherein the endorsement prescribes to specified endorsement issuance rules, an endorsement conveyance module configured to validate the endorsement according to the specified endorsement conveyance rules, and an endorsement management module configured to maintain the specified rules according to an authority.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2015
    Inventors: Arthur F. Register, Jr., Franklin J. Camper
  • Patent number: 9208474
    Abstract: In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a human resource management platform that includes applications targeted to solve a variety of human resource, compensation, and performance management problems. Applications of the human resource management platform include business applications such as performance driven compensation that may provide a single solution for driving employee performance and organizational success by automation of goal setting, performance measurement, and employee rewards by directly linking performance results to rewards.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: ADP, LLC
    Inventors: Robert C. McKeown, David B. Turetsky, Timothy Downey, John Erb
  • Patent number: 9189942
    Abstract: The present invention is directed toward systems and methods of tracking pick-ups, drop-offs, and changes of responsibility for children entering or exiting from a school. The systems and methods incorporate an automated process in which an acknowledgement is created upon entry of a biometric. The acknowledgment must be delivered to the teacher before responsibility for the child is accepted or relinquished.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Inventor: Rezia Fatima Begum Roston
  • Patent number: 9171306
    Abstract: Apparatus and methods for authorizing an exchange between a customer and a services provider. The apparatus may include an electronic processor that is configured to: (1) calculate a reference event profile; and (2) determine a difference between a prospective transaction profile and the reference event profile. The prospective transaction profile may be based on the initiation of a prospective transaction by an individual whose identity has not been verified. The reference event profile may be based on a plurality of customer events that correspond to one or many different customers. The apparatus may include an output device that is configured to output authentication test information that corresponds to the difference. The authentication test information may support a revised prospective transaction profile that is more similar to the reference event profile than is the initial prospective event profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Bank of America Corporation
    Inventors: Xu He, Robert Timothy Leedy, Jr., Todd Inskeep, David Shroyer, George C. Schroth
  • Patent number: 9165327
    Abstract: A handheld electronic device includes one or more networking applications that enables the handheld electronic devices to be used as a networking device. The networking application monitors the types of contact that the user has with individuals, the frequency of contact, and type of contact, to infer the closeness of the relationships between the user and the contact. The networking application may monitor not only network based contact, but also physical contact between the two individuals. Knowledge of the closeness level may enable the handheld electronic device to classify contacts, so that different contacts may be handled differently by the handheld electronic device. The closeness level may also be used to alert the user to the presence of people that are close contacts. An anonymizing service may be provided to enable communications between people without requiring them to exchange sensitive personal information until the closeness level reaches a particular threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2015
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Arn Hyndman, Malgorzata Hyndman, Nicholas Sauriol
  • Patent number: 9135663
    Abstract: A computer-assisted method, computer system, and program product provide the functionality of a portal for persons to find, based on a topic of interest, the nearest relevant in-person gathering of other persons interested in the topic as well. The system provides for the automated creation of groups and for their automatic sustainment through automatic scheduling of periodic gatherings. Strangers in geographic proximity are automatically brought together into chapters formed around the topic of interest. Chapters may be led by organizers, and gatherings may have hosts. Automatic functions for venue selection, venue voting, cancellation, and feedback are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2015
    Assignee: Meetup, Inc.
    Inventors: Scott Heiferman, Peter Kamali, Matthew Meeker, Peter Steinberg, Dervala Hanley