Patents by Inventor Thomas Whitnah

Thomas Whitnah 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).

  • Social networking groups as a platform for third party integration
    Patent number: 9699187
    Abstract: Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems receive a request from a user to access content for a group of users of a social networking system, and send the content to the user including an interface to a third party system. The interface is to enable the user to retrieve information related to a third party service from the third party system to share with the group. The user sends the information related to the third party service to share with the group to the social networking system. The social networking system sends the shared information related to the third party service to a group member based on the group member requesting access to the content. In one embodiment, the third party service stores a file or folder on a third party server and the shared information includes a link to the shared file or folder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: FACEBOOK, INC.
    Inventors: Sizhe Chen, Kenneth Lau, Thomas Whitnah, Richard Armbrust, Todd Jackson
  • SOCIAL NETWORKING GROUPS AS A PLATFORM FOR THIRD PARTY INTEGRATION
    Publication number: 20140280566
    Abstract: Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems receive a request from a user to access content for a group of users of a social networking system, and send the content to the user including an interface to a third party system. The interface is to enable the user to retrieve information related to a third party service from the third party system to share with the group. The user sends the information related to the third party service to share with the group to the social networking system. The social networking system sends the shared information related to the third party service to a group member based on the group member requesting access to the content. In one embodiment, the third party service stores a file or folder on a third party server and the shared information includes a link to the shared file or folder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Inventors: Sizhe Chen, Kenneth Lau, Thomas Whitnah, Richard Armbrust, Todd Jackson