Patents Examined by Alfred H Tsui
  • Patent number: 11941665
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing an advertisement marketplace where buyers and sellers can trade linear mediacast advertisement inventory programmatically at local, national, and/or worldwide levels. The marketplace system may include a seller-controlled marketplace system which connects sellers with buyers and offers revenue management tools for optimizing yields across direct and programmatic channels. The advertisement inventory is bought and sold as canonical inventory units which group similar but discrete advertisement slots together. The marketplace system may include a real-time bidding (RTB) adapter through which digital advertising buyers may place bids for such inventory units using standard protocols utilized in digital RTB systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: WideOrbit LLC
    Inventors: Tyler Wallace Box, David Bridges, Brian M. Burdick, Geoffrey P. Coco, Ian P. Ferreira, Paul Jaffe, Alfred Lawrence Shiels, Brian Thoman, Sean Trigony
  • Patent number: 11798018
    Abstract: Systems and methods provide for feature selection that combines semantic classification and generative filtering with forward selection. Features from an original feature set are divided into feature subsets corresponding to ranked semantic classes. Additionally, low quality features are removed from consideration. Features are selected for a reduced feature set by iteratively processing the feature subsets using forward selection in an order corresponding to the ranking of the semantic classes. The reduced feature set is used to generate a predictive model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: Adobe Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Zhang, Shiladitya Bose, Said Kobeissi, Scott Allen Tomko, Jeremy W King
  • Patent number: 11797875
    Abstract: To present one or more content items to users of an online system, the online system identifies a content evaluation pipeline including an order of a plurality of stages having one or more computer models for evaluating a likelihood of user interaction with a content item. The content evaluation pipeline selects a decreasing number of content items, from each stage of the order, according to the order of the stages. The online system optimizes the selection of content items selected at the plurality of stages of the content evaluation pipeline by training the computer models to predict content selection values that the subsequent model would generate for a content items in a training data set and content items that the subsequent model would select for input to the next stage of the content evaluation pipeline.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc.
    Inventors: Tianshi Gao, Wenlin Chen, Liang Xiong
  • Patent number: 11741483
    Abstract: The systems and methods described herein may be used to recommend an item to a consumer. The methods may comprise determining, based on a collaborative filtering algorithm, a consumer relevance value associated with an item, and transmitting, based on the consumer relevance value, information associated with the item to a consumer. A collaborative filtering algorithm may receive as an input at least one of: a transaction history associated with the consumer, a demographic of the consumer, a consumer profile, a type of transaction account, a transaction account associated with the consumer, a period of time that the consumer has held a transaction account, a size of wallet, a share of wallet, and/or the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Lee Chau, Terrence Fischer, Anthony Mavromatis, Andrew K. Smith, Venkat Varadachary, Henry Yuan
  • Patent number: 11734699
    Abstract: The systems and methods may be used to recommend an item to a consumer. The methods may comprise determining, based on a collaborative filtering algorithm, a consumer relevance value associated with an item, and transmitting, based on the consumer relevance value, information associated with the item to a consumer. A collaborative filtering algorithm may receive as an input a transaction history associated with the consumer, a demographic of the consumer, a consumer profile, a type of transaction account, a transaction account associated with the consumer, a period of time that the consumer has held a transaction account, a size of wallet, and/or a share of wallet. The method may further comprise generating a ranked list of items based upon consumer relevance values, transmitting a ranked list of items to a consumer, and/or re-ranking a ranked list of items based upon a merchant goal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Lee Chau, Terrence Fischer, Anthony Mavromatis, Venkat Varadachary, Michael Wang
  • Patent number: 11556950
    Abstract: An approach to facilitating identity-recognition-based promotions using virtual containers is provided. A first virtual container may be associated with a first virtual item set and identified by a first container identifier. Container instances of the first virtual container that are purchased through a store interface during a first time period may be configured to be activated by users in a game space to obtain item instances of virtual items of the first virtual item set. The first virtual container may be modified to be associated with a second virtual item set and identified by the first container identifier. Container instances of the first virtual container that are purchased during a second time period may be container instances of the modified first virtual container that are configured to be activated by the users in the game space to obtain item instances of virtual items of the second virtual item set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Kabam, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephanie K. Schultz, Michael C. Caldarone
  • Patent number: 11367086
    Abstract: The systems and methods may be used to recommend an item to a consumer. The methods may comprise determining, based on a collaborative filtering algorithm, a consumer relevance value associated with an item, and transmitting, based on the consumer relevance value, information associated with the item to a consumer. A collaborative filtering algorithm may receive as an input a transaction history associated with the consumer, a demographic of the consumer, a consumer profile, a type of transaction account, a transaction account associated with the consumer, a period of time that the consumer has held a transaction account, a size of wallet, and/or a share of wallet. The method may further comprise generating a ranked list of items based upon consumer relevance values, transmitting a ranked list of items to a consumer, and/or re-ranking a ranked list of items based upon a merchant goal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Lee Chau, Terrence Fischer, Anthony Mavromatis, Venkat Varadachary, Michael Wang
  • Patent number: 11328324
    Abstract: Systems, apparatus, and methods for providing promotions to consumers based on search queries are discussed herein. Some embodiments may include a system including circuitry configured to receive a search query from a consumer device. The circuitry may be further configured to determine a related promotion to the search query based on having received the search query from consumers in connection with promotion purchase data indicating purchase of the related promotion, such as may be indicated by historical data. Furthermore, the circuitry may provide an impression of the related promotion to the consumer device based on the search query. Consumer interactions with the system may be tracked as historical data and leveraged to provide one or more related promotions that are relevant and/or related to the search query.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Groupon, Inc.
    Inventor: Sahil Prakash Thaker
  • Patent number: 11315149
    Abstract: Mechanisms are provided to implement a brand personality inference engine. The mechanisms receive crowdsource information and extract features associated with a brand from the crowdsource information. The crowdsource information comprises natural language content submitted by a plurality of providers to a crowdsource information source. The mechanisms analyze features associated with the brand in accordance with a brand personality model configured to predict a brand personality for the brand based on the features associated with the brand. The mechanisms generate an inferred brand personality data structure, representing a perceived brand personality of providers providing the crowdsource information, and output an output indicating aspects of the perceived brand personality based on the inferred brand personality data structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Rama Kalyani T. Akkiraju, Liang Gou, Haibin Liu, Jalal U. Mahmud, Vibha S. Sinha, Anbang Xu
  • Patent number: 11232476
    Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product uses an application that allows people who have websites to track phone calls by how they got to the website. JavaScript may be loaded onto the webpage that tracks how a visitor came to the site, and then displays a phone number that is unique to that visitor. When a call comes in, the application determines which visitor called in, based on the number they dialed and other metrics. This allows the application to match the source of the visit to the phone call itself.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: Dialogtech, Inc.
    Inventors: Joshua Ezra Kugler, Khyle David Keys
  • Patent number: 11188950
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes various embodiments of methods, systems, and machine-readable mediums which may be used in conjunction with a campaign for distributing content to users of the social network. Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a number of advantages over conventional systems for content distribution, including a simplified targeting process and increased reach (i.e. distribution) for content providers among users of a social network, as well as improving the utilization of an inventory of content and higher and more efficient engagement with such content by users of the social network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Haishan Liu, David Merrill Pardoe, Kun Liu, Manoj Rameshchandra Thakur, Kancheng Cao, Chongzhe Li
  • Patent number: 11164201
    Abstract: An approach to facilitating identity-recognition-based promotions using virtual containers is provided. A first virtual container may be associated with a first virtual item set and identified by a first container identifier. Container instances of the first virtual container that are purchased through a store interface during a first time period may be configured to be activated by users in a game space to obtain item instances of virtual items of the first virtual item set. The first virtual container may be modified to be associated with a second virtual item set and identified by the first container identifier. Container instances of the first virtual container that are purchased during a second time period may be container instances of the modified first virtual container that are configured to be activated by the users in the game space to obtain item instances of virtual items of the second virtual item set.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: KABAM, INC.
    Inventors: Stephanie K. Schultz, Michael C. Caldarone
  • Patent number: 11164200
    Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for providing an in-game offer to one or more users of an online game. The offer is provided to users that have parameters and/or characteristics meeting administrator defined parameters and/or characteristics. In some implementations, the offer may be meant to incentivize purchase of the offer by providing one or more bonus items upon the offer being selected by the player. Both the offer and the bonus may be presented to the user prior to selection of the offer. The offer and the bonus item may only be available to the user for a defined period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: Kabam, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew Curtis, Kellen Christopher Smalley, Christopher Pitz, Michael C. Caldarone
  • Patent number: 11157968
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing an advertisement platform where buyers and sellers can trade advertisement inventory programmatically at local, national, and/or worldwide levels. The advertisement platform server system may include an advertiser facing interface which permits advertisers to generate a request for orders (RFO) for an advertisement campaign which spans multiple advertisement channels. The RFO may be automatically provided to numerous media content providers, which may place committed orders which are to be autonomously accepted upon satisfaction of at least one condition of the RFO, such as a minimum budget. Once the committed orders are accepted, the advertisements may be routed to a traffic management system for publishing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: WIDEORBIT LLC
    Inventors: Tyler Wallace Box, Brian M. Burdick, Geoffrey P. Coco, Ian P. Ferreira, Paul Jaffe, Alfred Lawrence Shiels, Brian Thoman, Ola Tiverman, Sean Trigony, Stacey N. Young
  • Patent number: 11087336
    Abstract: The systems and methods may be used to recommend an item to a consumer. The methods may comprise determining, based on a collaborative filtering algorithm, a consumer relevance value associated with an item, and transmitting, based on the consumer relevance value, information associated with the item to a consumer. A collaborative filtering algorithm may receive as an input a transaction history associated with the consumer, a demographic of the consumer, a consumer profile, a type of transaction account, a transaction account associated with the consumer, a period of time that the consumer has held a transaction account, a size of wallet, and/or a share of wallet. The method may further comprise generating a ranked list of items based upon consumer relevance values, transmitting a ranked list of items to a consumer, and/or re-ranking a ranked list of items based upon a merchant goal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Terrence Fischer, Alex Lun
  • Patent number: 11049142
    Abstract: In some embodiments, a computing system determines, based on stored user information retrieved from a mobile user device and associated with a particular user, a location-specific affinity of the particular user for a product at a particular geographical location. The location-specific affinity indicates an interest of the particular user in the product that increases when the particular user is positioned at the particular geographical location. The computing system designs a geo-fence targeted to the particular user based on the location-specific affinity, where messages are transmitted to the mobile user device if the particular user is within a boundary of the geo-fence. The geo-fence defines a geographical area that includes the particular geographical location and that is associated with a provider of the product. The computing system causes a telecommunication server to transmit the message to the user device when the user device is positioned within the designed geo-fence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: ADOBE INC.
    Inventors: Ankur Garg, Sweta Agrawal, Shubham Agrawal, Payal Bajaj, Abhishek Kedia
  • Patent number: 11042910
    Abstract: Systems and methods for processing automated message exchanges using artificial intelligence are providing. In some embodiments, a message is generated by populating variable fields within a message template with corresponding data from a knowledge set and/or a lead data set. Lead data is the data known about the intended recipient of the message, whereas the knowledge set is contextual knowledge useful for the artificial intelligence. Once the message has been generated, the system waits for a response from the lead. Once the response is received, the AI algorithms may categorize the response and generate a corresponding confidence value for the categorization. The categorization and confidence level are utilized to determine which subsequent action the system takes. The actions consist of sending a follow-up message, a subsequent message in the series, requesting user input, or discontinuing messaging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: CONVERSICA, INC.
    Inventor: Benjamin P. Brigham
  • Patent number: 11030654
    Abstract: An approach to facilitating virtual item promotions via time-period-based virtual item benefits is provided. A store interface may present offers to users of a game space to purchase item instances of virtual items associated with in-space benefits. Item instances of a first virtual item may be configured to be activated by the users in the game space to obtain one or more first in-space benefits. A promotion that is conducted for the game space may be managed such that, during a first promotion time period, item instances of the first virtual item purchased through the store interface may be modified instances of the first virtual item. The modified instances may be configured to be activated by the users in the game space during a second promotion time period to obtain one or more second in-space benefits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: KABAM, INC.
    Inventors: Michael C. Caldarone, Stephanie K. Schultz
  • Patent number: 11030642
    Abstract: Whether video advertisements are being delivered to a human user or a machine is determined passively, i.e., without having the user to perform any explicit actions. Based on the time and frequency of ad requests generated from a user device, a daily schedule is estimated for the user. The estimated daily schedule is compared with a daily schedule pattern to determine whether the user is a human user or not.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: Verizon Media Inc.
    Inventors: Gian-Paolo Musumeci, Sharon Paisner, Dylan Sather
  • Patent number: 11023911
    Abstract: An online gaming system for valuing new virtual items introduced into an online game. The system may comprise one or more processors configured to execute computer program modules. The system may include a virtual shop module configured to present offers to sell instances of probability item bundles including a first offer to sell instances of a first probability item bundle that includes a first primary item and a first set of secondary items for a price, and a second offer to sell instances of a second probability item bundle that includes a second primary item and a second set of secondary items for the same price. The system may include a price determination module configured to determine a value for the second primary virtual item based on comparative sales of the first probability item bundle and the second probability item bundle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: KABAM, INC.
    Inventors: Stephanie Schultz, Kellen Christopher Smalley, Michael C. Caldarone