Patents Examined by Michael Stibley
  • Patent number: 9836752
    Abstract: A method comprises providing a first set of geographically distributed pods for storing account information on a first set of advertisements associated with web properties associated with a first set of geographically distributed users; enabling the first set of users to update the account information on the first set of pods, each user being associated with at least one advertisement and a particular pod that is not the most distant pod from the user; recognizing that the first set of pods cannot satisfy a user demand threshold; coupling an additional pod for storing additional account information on a second set of advertisements for a second set of users; enabling the second set of users to update the additional account information, the additional pod being not the most distant pod from the second set of users; receiving a content request; and identifying a particular advertisement based on the content request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2017
    Assignee: Excalibur IP, LLC
    Inventor: Robert J. Collins
  • Patent number: 9779413
    Abstract: A method and system for placement of graphical objects on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such objects. The graphical objects might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on that ad. The page includes positions for receipt of the object material. Data regarding the past performance of the objects is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the objects on the page. The objects are arranged according to a calculation and returned to the user on the requested page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Excalibur IP, LLC
    Inventors: Charles McElfresh, Paul Mineiro, Michael Radford
  • Patent number: 9779414
    Abstract: A method and system for placement of graphical objects on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such objects. The graphical objects might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on that ad. The page includes positions for receipt of the object material. Data regarding the past performance of the objects is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the objects on the page. The objects are arranged according to a calculation and returned to the user on the requested page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Excalibur IP, LLC
    Inventors: Charles McElfresh, Paul Mineiro, Michael Radford
  • Patent number: 9779412
    Abstract: A method and system for placement of graphical objects on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such objects. The graphical objects might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on that ad. The page includes positions for receipt of the object material. Data regarding the past performance of the objects is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the objects on the page. The objects are arranged according to a calculation and returned to the user on the requested page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Excalibur IP, LLC
    Inventors: Charles McElfresh, Paul Mineiro, Michael Radford
  • Patent number: 9779415
    Abstract: A method and system for placement of graphical objects on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such objects. The graphical objects might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on that ad. The page includes positions for receipt of the object material. Data regarding the past performance of the objects is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the objects on the page. The objects are arranged according to a calculation and returned to the user on the requested page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Excalibur IP, LLC
    Inventors: Charles McElfresh, Paul Mineiro, Michael Radford
  • Patent number: 9710821
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, computer readable medium, computer system, network, or system is provided for mobile and online payment systems for mobile and online promotions or offers or daily deal coupons or daily deal coupons aggregation provided using impressions tracking and analysis, location information, 2D and 3D mapping, social media, and user behavior and information for generating mobile and internet posted promotions or offers or daily deal coupons or daily deal coupons aggregation for, and/or sales of, products and/or services in a social network, online or via a mobile device-for mobile and web based promotions or offers that connect information and user behavior data to a user or related demographic location or user specified or predicted demographic location(s) for targeted promotions or offers for products and/or services in a social network, online or via a mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Inventor: Stephan Heath
  • Patent number: 9691082
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for providing a dynamic subscription update feature in a wireless communications network are disclosed herein. An exemplary system for providing a dynamic subscription update feature in a wireless communications network is configured to receive offline data and in-call data from a plurality of network entities for use in determining, in accordance with one or more rules, whether at least one subscriber is eligible to receive a subscription update offer and receive a response message indicating whether the at least one subscriber accepts or declines the offer. A device configured to receive a subscription update offer and respond with an acceptance or decline message is disclosed. Methods for operating the aforementioned system and device are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2017
    Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC
    Inventors: Leonard Burnett, LiSuan Poh
  • Patent number: 9159073
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for optimizing and managing advertising campaigns. The method of the present invention comprises storing one or more advertisement data structures associated with an ad group data structure in the ad group data structure. One or more ad group data structures associated with a campaign data structure are stored in an ad campaign data structure. Additionally, one or more ad campaign data structures associated with an advertised property are stored in an account data structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Robert J. Collins, Scott Melvin Harvester, Paul Joseph Apodaca
  • Patent number: 9076162
    Abstract: A method for the placement of advertisements on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such advertisements. The advertisements might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on an advertisement. Data regarding the past performance of the advertisements is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with the system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the advertisements on the page. The server performs a calculation regarding the likelihood that an event will occur for a given advertisement displayed to a user. The advertisements are arranged according to this calculation and returned to the user on the requested page. The likelihood can also be multiplied by a weighting factor and the advertisements arranged according to this product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Charles McElfresh, Paul Mineiro, Michael Radford
  • Patent number: 9043860
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for extracting advertisement keywords in association with situations of scenes of video include: establishing a knowledge database including a classification hierarchy for classifying situations of scenes of video and an advertisement keyword list, segmenting a video script corresponding to a received video in units of scenes, and determining a situation corresponding to each scene with reference to the knowledge database, and extracting an advertisement keyword corresponding to the situation of a scene of the received video with reference to the knowledge database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignees: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Korea University Research and Business Foundation
    Inventors: Hyung-dong Lee, Jung-tae Lee, Hee-seon Park, Young-in Song, Hae-chang Rim
  • Patent number: 8712841
    Abstract: An application store provides an incentive based recommendation method for recommending a mobile station content item. A user of a first mobile station recommends the mobile station content item to a second user. The application store distributes the recommendation through a mobile communication network to a mobile station of the second user. The application store stores information associated with the recommendation and detects access of the mobile station content item by the second user. In response to the detected access, the application store provides a reward to the first user based on the stored information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Cellco Partnership
    Inventors: Padmanabha D. Rajagopalan, Lavanya Ramanujam, Ioannis Tsampalis
  • Patent number: 8660895
    Abstract: The present invention is a method and system for producing a set of ratings for out-of-home media based on the measurement of behavior patterns and demographics of the people in a digital media network. The present invention captures a plurality of input images of the people in the vicinity of sampled out-of-home media in a digital media network by a plurality of means for capturing images, and tracks each person. The present invention processes the plurality of input images in order to analyze the behavior and demographics of the people. The present invention aggregates the measurements for the behavior patterns and demographics of the people, analyzes the data, and extracts characteristic information based on the estimated parameters from the aggregated measurements. Finally, the present invention calculates a set of ratings based on the characteristic information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: VideoMining Corporation
    Inventors: Varij Saurabh, Jeff Hershey, Satish Mummareddy, Rajeev Sharma, Namsoon Jung
  • Patent number: 8595073
    Abstract: A system and method for determining the identity of a product and then calculating an offer price for the product are disclosed. The identity of the product may be determined using near-field communication in one aspect. The system and method are operable to enable retailers to provide a lowest price for the product and conduct a series of offer calculations to determine an offer for a consumer. The offer is based, in part, on costs to the consumer in executing the transaction (e.g., travel time, fuel, etc.). The offer may be higher than the lowest price as determined by each retailer, respectively, while still providing a discount to the consumer to entice a purchase of the product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Stephen A. Sprigg, Richard W. Gardner, Mahesh Moorthy, Scott Papineau, Samuel Jacob Horodezky
  • Patent number: 8589231
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer programs for categorizing the sensitivity of web pages are presented. In one method, a space of sensitive pages is identified based on the sensitivity categorization of a first plurality of web pages and a second plurality of web pages. The first plurality of web pages is obtained by performing search queries using known sensitive words, and the second plurality of web pages includes randomly selected web pages. Additionally, the method identifies a third plurality of web pages that includes web pages on or near the boundary between the space of sensitive pages and the space of non-sensitive pages. The space of sensitive pages is then redefined based on the sensitivity categorization of the first, second, and third pluralities of web pages. Once the space of sensitive pages is defined, the method is used to determine that a given web page is sensitive when the given web page is in the space of sensitive pages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Dragomir Yankov, Suju Rajan, Scott J. Gaffney, Dun Liu, Wanlin Pang, Adwait Ratnaparkhi
  • Patent number: 8527350
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for processing events related to presented content. In one aspect, a method includes determining a time window count of a number of advertising events associated with an advertisement during at least one time window before a conversion event; and determining a credit that represents a strength of an association between the advertisement and the conversion event, wherein determining a credit includes selecting a weighting model for the at least one time window count.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Sheng Ma, Sarah Masters, Fan Zhang
  • Patent number: 8521601
    Abstract: Embodiments include methods, apparatus, and systems for marketing and selling feature length movies over one or more networks. One method of marketing includes placing, at plural different internet locations, advertisements to purchase a feature length movie (FLM) before the FLM is publicly available to buy on digital video disk (DVD); soliciting, before the FLM is publicly available to buy on DVD, public individuals not previously affiliated with the FLM to become salespeople who sell the FLM over network spaces belonging to the public individuals; and compensating a salesperson for each sale of the FLM that occurs as a result of an advertisement at network spaces belonging to the salesperson.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Inventors: Philip Scott Lyren, Robert Louis Lyren
  • Patent number: 8521588
    Abstract: A method and system for placement of graphical objects on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such objects. The graphical objects might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on that ad. The page includes positions for receipt of the object material. Data regarding the past performance of the objects is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the objects on the page. The server performs a calculation regarding the likelihood that an event will occur for a given object, as displayed to a particular user. The objects are arranged according to this calculation and returned to the user on the requested page. The likelihood can also be multiplied by a weighting factor and the objects arranged according to this product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Charles McElfresh, Paul Mineiro, Michael Radford
  • Patent number: 8458024
    Abstract: An initiator computing device may acquire a digital coupon having a first value. The initiator computing device may share the digital coupon with a recipient computing device. An advertisement server may be notified that the initiator computing device has shared or has an intent to share the digital coupon with the recipient computing device. The advertisement server may calculate a second value associated with the digital coupon and assign the second value to the digital coupon responsive to the initiator computing device sharing the digital coupon with the recipient computing device. Further, the advertisement server may receive logging information associated with sharing the digital coupon. The logging information can facilitate monitoring the influence of the digital coupon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2013
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Adam J. Spanky Compain, Tia Gao
  • Patent number: 8438059
    Abstract: A system may present dynamic content to an e-mail recipient in the form of an image implementing frame-sequence animation. Each frame may present an offer to the recipient. Upon selection of an offer, the system may determine which offer the recipient selected by determining which frame was displayed when the recipient responded. The e-mail may include an image URI specifying a frame-sequence animation image. The image URI may include an identifier, which may allow the system to determine when the recipient opened the e-mail message, and a link URI, which may also include the identifier. When the recipient indicates a response to an offer, the system may associate the link URI with the image URI and may determine to which offer the recipient was responding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Mypoints.com Inc.
    Inventors: James John Bohannon, Robert B. Bushman
  • Patent number: 8417570
    Abstract: A method and system for automated media delivery to mobile devices and mobile device lockscreens. The method includes receiving a first media request associated with a first target device, obtaining a first user account associated with the first media request, wherein the first user account comprises first user category criteria; selecting a first user-submitted media item based on the first user category criteria, and sending, to the first target device, the first user-submitted media object, wherein the first user-submitted media object is presented on a lock screen of the first target device. The method further includes receiving a second media request associated with the first target device, selecting a first advertiser-submitted media object based on the first user category criteria, and sending, to the first target device, the first advertiser-submitted media object, wherein the first advertiser-submitted media object is presented on the lock screen of the first target device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2013
    Assignee: 1Spire, Inc.
    Inventors: Patrick Thielke, Josh Cincinnati