Patents Assigned to eBay
  • Patent number: 7428505
    Abstract: A method of displaying a user interface to harvest feedback information pertaining to transactions facilitated by a computerized transaction facility includes the display of multiple feedback windows, or other distinct areas, within a user interface displayed on a display device. Each feedback window includes transaction identifier information that identifies a respective transaction. Each feedback window also includes a feedback input that receives feedback information, pertaining to an associated transaction identified by the transaction information. The feedback input is displayed, within each feedback window, to indicate an association with the respective transaction information. Accordingly, feedback input for multiple transactions may conveniently be inputted through a single user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2008
    Assignee: eBay, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniele V. Levy, Steve Grove, Dheeraj Mohnia, Alex Poon
  • Publication number: 20080228637
    Abstract: Embodiments describe a method and a system to link a secondary account to a primary account with an account management module associated with the primary account and to control access to funds in the secondary account with respect to a secondary account holder through the account management module. The secondary account includes a spending account and a savings account.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2007
    Publication date: September 18, 2008
    Applicant: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: German Scipioni, Donald James Fotsch, Joseph Edward Black, Amy Poling, Alp Tiritoglu
  • Publication number: 20080228638
    Abstract: Embodiments describe a method and a system to link a secondary account to a primary account and to control transfer of funds from an outside source to the secondary account. In an additional embodiment, the secondary account includes an dependent source portion controlled by an account management module and an independent source portion controlled only by a secondary account holder management module. In another additional embodiment, the account management module includes an account suspension feature to enable suspension of the secondary account.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2007
    Publication date: September 18, 2008
    Applicant: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: German Scipioni, Donald James Fotsch, Joseph Edward Black, Amy Poling
  • Publication number: 20080221987
    Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method for keyword extraction and contextual advertisement generation based on user demographic profile are disclosed. The system in an example embodiment includes a category extraction service to associate product or service category information in an item group related to a host site, and a user demographic profile generator to obtain user interaction information related to a host site, to generate a user demographic profile for each item group, and to identify at least one other item group to which a particular user demographic profile relates.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 25, 2007
    Publication date: September 11, 2008
    Applicant: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: Neelakantan Sundaresan, Sunil Mohan
  • Patent number: 7421482
    Abstract: The invention presented here is a method and system for providing rich media content over a computer network. In accordance with the invention, a server on a physical or wireless computer network polls the software, hardware, or appliance of an end user on the network, for the availability of software and/or hardware necessary for the display of rich media content. This polling is transparent to the end user and requires no action on the part of the end user. Based on the client's response, the server sends an appropriately formatted version of the rich media file. The user is not necessarily aware that this transfer is taking place, as it is taking place in the background, while the user is performing other tasks or viewing content other than that which is being transferred. Once the rich media has been transferred in its entirety and stored, or cached, in the local memory of the client, the rich media content is displayed automatically in a designated display area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2008
    Assignee: eBay, Inc.
    Inventors: Brooke Allysoun Armstrong, John Robert Behrens, Abie Hadjitarkhani, Alexander Blair Ireland, Stephen John Muller, Nancy Kiyoko Narimatsu
  • Publication number: 20080209223
    Abstract: A method and a system generate a transactional visual challenge image to be presented to a user thereby to verify that the user is human. For example, an image module generates a visual challenge to be presented to a user as part of a challenge-response to verify that the user is human. A transactional background image module identifies a transactional background that is associated with a specific transaction and a combiner image module combines the visual challenge and the transactional background into an image which is to be presented to the user during transaction authorization, the transactional background associating the visual challenge with the particular transaction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2007
    Publication date: August 28, 2008
    Applicant: EBAY INC.
    Inventors: Palash Nandy, Daniel E. Walling
  • Patent number: 7418657
    Abstract: A methodology through which a host site may automatically insert relevant links into a set of text. In this methodology, the contents of the text are compared against a database containing character strings, and the character strings from the database contained in the text are identified. Each of the character strings in the database has an associated link that connects to other webpages on the same website or other websites. For each character string of the database found in the contents of the text, the associated link is inserted into the text. In this way, only relevant links are inserted into the text.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2008
    Assignee: Ebay, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard B. Gorelick, Steven G. Madere, Michael D. McCartney, Matthew W. Mengerink, David J. Wilson
  • Patent number: 7418483
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, from a user, publication data to be published and location data identifying a storage location at which an image to be associated with the publication data is stored. The image to be included in the publication data is retrieved from the storage location identified by the location data. A reduced-size image is generated using the retrieved image and the reduced-size image is aggregated with further reduced-size images for presentation at a remote site.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2008
    Assignee: Ebay, Inc.
    Inventors: Martin L. Hess, Michael K. Wilson
  • Publication number: 20080183489
    Abstract: A method for using a telephone to list a seller's good for sale on a website including the steps of receiving good-identifying information from a seller via a telephone and presenting the good for sale on a website. The good-identifying information may be received as a series of tones generated by depression of keys of a telephone. The tones may optionally be used to navigate through a voice prompt system or to provide information about the good, such as the good's UPC code, ISBN number and/or characteristics of the good. The seller's provision of a standard identification code allows the marketeer to retrieve information relating to the good from a database and to use such information to present the good for sale. Such information, and/or the characteristics provided by the seller that are specific to the good may optionally be used to set or recommend a price for the good.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2008
    Publication date: July 31, 2008
    Applicant: eBay
    Inventors: Joshua M. Kopelman, Srinivas Balijepalli, Christopher D. Fralic
  • Patent number: 7406464
    Abstract: Methods and systems are presented for custom caching. Application threads define caches. The caches may be accessed through multiple index keys, which are mapped to multiple application thread-defined keys. Methods provide for the each index key and each application thread-defined key to be symmetrical. The index keys are used for loading data from one or more data sources into the cache stores on behalf of the application threads. Application threads access the data from the cache store by providing references to the caches and the application-supplied keys. Some data associated with some caches may be shared from the cache store by multiple application threads. Additionally, some caches are exclusively accessed by specific application threads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2008
    Assignee: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher J. Kasten, Greg Seitz
  • Patent number: 7401039
    Abstract: A system and method for providing analytical tools for a community of investors having investment portfolios. A first tool provides an indication of a user's selection effectiveness regarding the user's choice of investments relative to those sectors in which the investment resides, and relative to a broader market. A second tool allows the user to evaluate the effectiveness of community stimuli on the user's portfolio. A third tool provides the user the capability to view relationships among a plurality of preferred analysts. With a fourth tool, a user may view a plurality of other analysts the user referred to the community.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2008
    Assignee: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Lin, Lisa R. Pozzi, Brian N. Sawyer, Gordon K. Gustafson, Akber N. Zaidi
  • Publication number: 20080168543
    Abstract: A method including generating a first and second One Time Password (OTP) token from a shared clock, receiving a third OTP token, and comparing the second and the third OTP tokens. A system including a number generator residing on a first server to generate first and second One Time Password (OTP) tokens from a shared clock, a transmitter residing on the first server to transmit the first and the second OTP tokens, a receiver residing on a second server to receive the first, the second, and a third OTP tokens, and a comparator residing on the second server to compare the second and the third OTP tokens to authenticate an identity of a party who generates the third OTP token.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2007
    Publication date: July 10, 2008
    Applicant: eBay Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Jurgen von Krogh
  • Publication number: 20080168544
    Abstract: A system is illustrated as including a One-Time Password (OTP) device operatively coupled to a computer system to receive data, and a server operatively coupled to the computer system via a network connection. A method is illustrated as including initiating a transmission control protocol (TCP) and internet protocol (IP) connection, requesting a current time, receiving the current time, and updating a clock to reflect the current time. An apparatus including one or more processors to generate two or more clock values, pass these two or more clock values through a hashing function to generate two or more One Time Password (OTP) tokens, display these two or more OTP tokens on a screen, transmit data through a Universal Serial Bus (USB), and receive data through a Universal Serial Bus (USB).
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2007
    Publication date: July 10, 2008
    Applicant: eBay Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Jurgen von Krogh
  • Publication number: 20080162343
    Abstract: Embodiments of a method and system for user payment account management in a networked system are disclosed. User information regarding a user, an account identifier, and a server location may be received from a merchant application. The account identifier may identify the user to the merchant application. An underwriting process may be initiated using the user information to determine whether to establish a user payment account for the user. The user payment account may enable the user to perform at least one of making a payment and receiving a payment in a networked system. The user payment account may be established for the user in response to a result of the underwriting process. Establishment information may be provided regarding the user payment account and the account identifier at the server location designated by the merchant application. The establishment information may include information regarding functionality available through use of the user payment account.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2006
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Applicant: eBay Inc.
    Inventor: Osama Mostafa Bedier
  • Publication number: 20080162533
    Abstract: A method and a system to organize a data set into groups of data subsets in multiple passes using different parameters and to automatically name the groups is disclosed. For example, a data set is retrieved in accordance with a search query submitted by a user. The data set is organized into clusters based on a statistic(s) of the data set. The data set is then organized into groups of data subsets based on an attribute(s) indicated by the data set. Each of the groups are automatically named based on a property shared by data units of the group. The name(s) of a group may be mined from the data units of the group, retrieved from a structure that maps to attribute values indicated by the data units of the group, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Applicant: EBAY INC.
    Inventors: John A. Mount, Badrul M. Sarwar
  • Publication number: 20080162520
    Abstract: A method and a system to automatically segment text based on header tokens is described. A relevance value and an irrelevance value are determined for each token in a description, assuming no tokens are left out of computations. The irrelevance value is based on occurrences of a token in a sample set of descriptions. The relevance value is an estimated probability of relevance based on the header of the description being segmented.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Applicant: EBAY INC.
    Inventors: Badrul M. Sarwar, John A. Mount
  • Publication number: 20080162647
    Abstract: Illustrated is a system and method to record video mail using a peer to peer network. In some embodiments, a first computer system is operatively coupled to a second computer system, wherein the first and second computer systems are in a peer-to-peer configuration, a receiver resides on the second computer system to receive a video mail message, and a storage device resides on the second computer system to store the video mail message. In some embodiments, also illustrated is a method including configuring a first computer system and a second computer system into a peer-to-peer configuration, receiving a video mail message at the second computer system, and storing the video mail message on the second computer system. The method may further include receiving an audio signal on the first computer system, receiving a video signal on the first computer system, and transmitting the video signal using the first computer system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2006
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Applicant: eBay Inc.
    Inventor: Sonya Rongsheng Liang
  • Publication number: 20080162679
    Abstract: A method and a system, wherein the system comprises a first server operatively coupled to a router, to receive a copy of network traffic processed by the router, a database operatively coupled to the first server, wherein the server records parsed network traffic information onto the database, and a device operatively coupled to the first server to receive alerts regarding possible denial-of-service attacks, the alerts based upon network traffic falling outside a standard deviation range. A method that comprises receiving a data packet from a network, parsing the data packet, storing data in the fields of the data packet into a database, comparing observed data set values with a historical data set values, sending an alert to a device based upon network traffic falling outside a standard deviation range, and updating the historical data set values by averaging the observed data set values with an old historical data set values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2006
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Applicant: EBAY INC.
    Inventors: Kevin Edward Maher, Andrew Millard Brown
  • Patent number: 7395257
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for calculating the surface distance between two geographical locations are described. According to one aspect of the present invention, values are stored in a square look-up table for determining the square of a value. Also, values are stored in a linear to surface distance look-up table for determining the surface distance of a linear value. Cartesian co-ordinates of the two geographic locations and the square look-up table are then used to calculate the square of the linear distance between the two geographical locations and the linear to surface distance look-up table is used to convert the calculated square of the linear distance to a surface distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2008
    Assignee: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: Raghav Gupta, Richard D. Henderson
  • Publication number: 20080154896
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to examine a quantity of language-based communication to determine a plurality of topics associated with the quantity, and to determine whether a number of the plurality of topics converge to a selected degree. Responsive to determining convergence to the selected degree, ranking selected topics in the plurality of topics according to relevance may occur. Additional apparatus, system, and methods are disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2007
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Applicant: eBay Inc.
    Inventors: Yathish Sarathy, Ralph Jacob Cressman