Patents by Inventor Lucy M. Zhao

Lucy M. Zhao has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10430787
    Abstract: A service provider generates a customer key and a merchant key for facilitating efficient provision of assistance, by the merchant, with the customer's shopping and payment, via customer-merchant key coupling. When a customer approaches or enters a merchant's store the customer has signed up with, the user device carried by the customer wirelessly broadcasts a signal for the customer key unique to the merchant key. When the merchant server picks up the signal, the service provider communicates to the merchant server information in the user's profile including identifiers, shopping preferences, or the shopping history of the customer, subject to any user-created restrictions contained in the profile so that a sales clerk of the store may approach the customer to give recommendations, suggestions, or other assistance with shopping, based on the information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: PAYPAL, INC.
    Inventor: Lucy M. Zhao
  • Publication number: 20150371225
    Abstract: A service provider generates a customer key and a merchant key for facilitating efficient provision of assistance, by the merchant, with the customer's shopping and payment, via customer-merchant key coupling. When a customer approaches or enters a merchant's store the customer has signed up with, the user device carried by the customer wirelessly broadcasts a signal for the customer key unique to the merchant key. When the merchant server picks up the signal, the service provider communicates to the merchant server information in the user's profile including identifiers, shopping preferences, or the shopping history of the customer, subject to any user-created restrictions contained in the profile so that a sales clerk of the store may approach the customer to give recommendations, suggestions, or other assistance with shopping, based on the information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2015
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Inventor: Lucy M. Zhao
  • Publication number: 20150348077
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for running a product trend application on a user device to obtain personalized product trend information from a service provider when making in-store purchase decisions. The user may use the product trend application to specify product trend information for products in a product category, for products purchased from a specific store, and/or for products purchased over a specified time period. The user device may obtain and transmit its current location to the service provider, which may provide a list of stores in the vicinity of the user device for which the product trend information is available. The user may also use the product trend application to select how the product trend information is filtered and displayed. Advantageously, the user may tailor the product trend information to the requirements of the user, such as to find the most popular product in a product category.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2015
    Publication date: December 3, 2015
    Inventor: Lucy M. Zhao
  • Patent number: 9123065
    Abstract: A service provider generates a customer key and a merchant key for facilitating efficient provision of assistance, by the merchant, with the customer's shopping and payment, via customer-merchant key coupling. When a customer approaches or enters a merchant's store the customer has signed up with, the user device carried by the customer wirelessly broadcasts a signal for the customer key unique to the merchant key. When the merchant server picks up the signal, the service provider communicates to the merchant server information in the user's profile including identifiers, shopping preferences, or the shopping history of the customer, subject to any user-created restrictions contained in the profile so that a sales clerk of the store may approach the customer to give recommendations, suggestions, or other assistance with shopping, based on the information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: EBAY INC.
    Inventor: Lucy M. Zhao
  • Publication number: 20140067477
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for running a product trend application on a user device to obtain personalized product trend information from a service provider when making in-store purchase decisions. The user may use the product trend application to specify product trend information for products in a product category, for products purchased from a specific store, and/or for products purchased over a specified time period. The user device may obtain and transmit its current location to the service provider, which may provide a list of stores in the vicinity of the user device for which the product trend information is available. The user may also use the product trend application to select how the product trend information is filtered and displayed. Advantageously, the user may tailor the product trend information to the requirements of the user, such as to find the most popular product in a product category.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2012
    Publication date: March 6, 2014
    Applicant: eBay, Inc.
    Inventor: Lucy M. Zhao
  • Publication number: 20140058870
    Abstract: A service provider generates a customer key and a merchant key for facilitating efficient provision of assistance, by the merchant, with the customer's shopping and payment, via customer-merchant key coupling. When a customer approaches or enters a merchant's store the customer has signed up with, the user device carried by the customer wirelessly broadcasts a signal for the customer key unique to the merchant key. When the merchant server picks up the signal, the service provider communicates to the merchant server information in the user's profile including identifiers, shopping preferences, or the shopping history of the customer, subject to any user-created restrictions contained in the profile so that a sales clerk of the store may approach the customer to give recommendations, suggestions, or other assistance with shopping, based on the information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2012
    Publication date: February 27, 2014
    Applicant: eBay, Inc.
    Inventor: Lucy M. Zhao
  • Publication number: 20130317925
    Abstract: A system according to an embodiment comprises one or more processors; and one or more memories adapted to store a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by the processor(s) are adapted to cause the system to: receive online search information in connection with one or more desired items from a user device of a user, wherein the user device includes an application loaded in the user device from a server at a remote location; auto-synchronize the online search information to a mobile device of the user; and send an alert via the mobile device when the mobile device is in a proximity of a point of sale location of the one or more desired items associated with the online search information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 23, 2012
    Publication date: November 28, 2013
    Applicant: eBay, Inc.
    Inventor: Lucy M. Zhao
  • Publication number: 20130317938
    Abstract: A user can obtain a list of products previously purchased at a store where the user is presently shopping via the user's mobile device. The user can use this list to determine if any of the products previously purchased should again be purchased on the present shopping trip. For example, the user can choose from an app on the mobile device to view products purchased by location. A location based shopping list system can then determine at which store the user is shopping based upon a GPS location provided by the user's mobile device. The location based shopping list system can then return the list of product previously purchased at that store.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 22, 2012
    Publication date: November 28, 2013
    Applicant: eBay, Inc.
    Inventor: Lucy M. Zhao