Patents Examined by Benjamin S Fields
  • Patent number: 8370240
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for chart pattern recognition and analysis. In one embodiment, a graphical interface is provided to enable a trader to select a portion of a chart to be used in the chart pattern analysis. The pattern of the selected portion of the chart could then be used to find one or more similar chart patterns in a user-defined timeframe, such as any future time period or a time period in the past. When a reoccurring chart pattern is found in any future time period, an alert signal can be generated to alert a user of a possibility of the chart pattern reoccurrence. Alternatively, chart pattern matches can be found in a time period in the past, and a set of studies can be applied to the found matches to generate a set of reoccurring indicator values. The reoccurring indicator values can be used in combination with the chart pattern to detect any similar chart patterns in the future.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Trading Technologies International, Inc.
    Inventors: Charles Monroe, Alvin F. Tanpoco
  • Patent number: 8364586
    Abstract: A person stores funds in a lower interest checking account and a higher interest savings account of a banking institution. For each of a plurality of cycles, funds are received at the beginning of the cycle from an amount of income (‘INC’) of the person. An amount at least equal to a total amount of regularly recurring bills of the person that have a generally fixed amount (‘FIX’) is deposited into a bills account of the person, and at least a portion of a remainder of INC is deposited into the checking account. During the cycle, the person pays the regularly recurring bills from the bills account and other bills from the checking account. At the end of the cycle, a final amount left in the checking account above a floor value (‘FLO’) is transferred to the savings account. Thus, excess funds are not allowed to accumulate in the checking account.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
    Inventor: Reynaldo Medina, III
  • Patent number: 8364510
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for determining discounts that optimize revenue for customers or customer subsets. Transaction records that are associated with a customer and a merchant are obtained. Each transaction record identifies a corresponding purchase of a quantity of one of multiple items by the customer from the merchant at a corresponding unit purchase price. A normalized unit purchase price is generated for each transaction record by normalizing the respective unit purchase price relative to a respective unit retail price at the time of purchase. A demand curve is generated for the customer for the items based at least in part on the transaction records and the normalized unit purchase prices. The demand curve identifies a quantity of units that the customer is predicted to purchase at a range of normalized unit purchase prices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Vuelogic, LLC
    Inventors: Ronnie J. Garmon, Jim J. Deffenbaugh
  • Patent number: 8364565
    Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for managing bundle pricing of services. In one implementation, a system comprises a database for storing master contracts and billing customizing tables. The master contracts refer to the data of the billing customizing tables by means of result and condition attributes. This has the advantage that a modification of the billing customizing data, such as for the purpose of changing the bundle pricing scheme for the master contracts, does not require storage of the updated data in the database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventors: Burkhard Weiss, Dirk Becker
  • Patent number: 8355939
    Abstract: Among other disclosed subject matter, a method for managing supply and demand for a ware includes obtaining requirement information for a ware, the requirement information representing a forecasted demand for the ware at a specified time. The method includes generating supply information for the ware, generating pegging information, obtaining order information for the ware, modifying the requirement information and updating the pegging information. Any remainder of the forecasted demand of the requirement information that is not consumed by the order remains associated with the supply information in the pegging information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventor: Fabrice Laur
  • Patent number: 8355982
    Abstract: Systems and methods for monitoring token access transactions are provided. In one embodiment, the invention provides receiving transaction records for a plurality of bank card transactions, wherein the transaction records include transaction information and infrastructure information; determining whether a reportable event has occurred based on the transaction information with the transaction records; and providing an alert representing the reportable event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: VeriFone, Inc.
    Inventors: Patrick Hazel, Scott Yale, Clay von Mueller, Paul Elbridge Catinella, Blake Joseph Wood
  • Patent number: 8352344
    Abstract: A network device coalesces data received from an exchange, and provides a user with the opportunity to receive fewer, but up-to-date, data updates from an exchange when duplicate prices become available or a large volume of prices becomes available suddenly. Accordingly, the trader can be assured of receiving non-duplicated prices that are fed at a rate that is cohesive with that trader's connection speed. The present invention is designed to conserve on bandwidth thereby increasing the likelihood that bandwidth will be available to receive desirable market information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Trading Technologies International, Inc.
    Inventors: Jens-Uwe Schluetter, Stephen A. Schwartz
  • Patent number: 8352299
    Abstract: Systems and methods use behavioral data to assess listings for items. The behavior data may relate to information regarding user actions in connection with listings for the items. The listings may be collections of information about the items. Behavioral data in connection with a collection of listings is used to assess how changing listings affects one or more performance measures and/or to score listing quality. The assessment may be used for various purposes, such as identifying listings that may be changed to achieve one or more improved performance measures for corresponding items and for other applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: A9.com, Inc.
    Inventors: Mukund Seshadri, Deepak Jain, Tevye Rachelson Krynski
  • Patent number: 8352300
    Abstract: A system, computer program product and method for implementing and managing a value chain network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: One Network Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventors: Ranjit Notani, Greg Brady, Sivakoumar Arumugam
  • Patent number: 8346657
    Abstract: A method, system and computer-readable medium for providing a reverse mortgage instrument for use in an existing mortgage are disclosed. In certain circumstances, a reverse mortgage is beneficial to military personnel being deployed, or other customers experiencing financial hardship. The present reverse mortgage allows a customer to either apply for the reverse mortgage, or pre-designate the mortgage to have a reversal upon the occurrence of a predetermined event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
    Inventor: John Chandler Hopkins, III
  • Patent number: 8346584
    Abstract: An engineering simulation tool uses boundary regions of proposed design modifications to a finite design element to assess the impact of those proposed design modifications. This tool allows a designer to incorporate a new design feature into a proposed model and generate simulated performance results for the proposed design without re-execution of finite element method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
    Inventors: Krishnan Suresh, Sankara Hari Gopalakrishnan
  • Patent number: 8346637
    Abstract: A method for a consumer to protect against loss associated with specified forms of check fraud. Upon purchasing checks, a consumer can subscribe to a check fraud protection program, for an additional fee. The subscription will enable the consumer to obtain reimbursement from the check printer for the consumer's losses due to specified causes. The consumer reciprocally assigns any right of recovery from the consumer's bank or financial institution to the check printer, which can then seek reimbursement from the bank, or financial institution and institute proceedings against the fraud perpetrator. Protection may be obtained for forged signatures, forged endorsements and altered check. A symbol to indicate such protection is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Ezshield, Inc.
    Inventors: John Browning, Ken Illingworth, Brian Briggs
  • Patent number: 8341056
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for communicating and processing market data. The market data may comprise quotes, orders, trades and/or statistics. A messaging structure allows for adding, re-ordering and/or expanding data, within the printable character set of any language. One or more delimiters are defined and used to delimit data elements within the message structure. The data is interpreted based on templates which may be disseminated prior to the sending of messages and used as an abstraction so that the meaning of data need not be conveyed in the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.
    Inventors: Ron Newell, Vijay Menon, Fred Malabre, Joe Lobraco, Jim Northey
  • Patent number: 8340998
    Abstract: In some embodiments, a market assessment system comprises a market opportunity engine, a market capture engine, a comparison engine, and an attainability engine. The market opportunity engine is operable to provide an opportunity measurement for each market of a plurality of markets. The market capture engine operable to provide an actual capture measurement for each market of the plurality of markets. The actual capture measurement indicates an amount of the product actually provided by the enterprise within each market. The comparison engine operable to compare a first market of the plurality of markets to one or more different markets of the plurality of markets to determine one or more comparable markets. The attainability engine operable to calculate an attainable opportunity measurement for the first market based on the actual capture measurement and the opportunity measurement for each of the one or more comparable markets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2012
    Assignee: Bank of America Corporation
    Inventors: Todd R. Henry, James P. Ragnone, Scott T. Russell, Timothy P. Quinn
  • Patent number: 8335703
    Abstract: A business method associates provisioning costs with a usage history indicative of user computing demand, and coalesces the cost data to identify an appropriate provisioning level balancing the provisioning cost and the usage demand cost. Conventional computing environments suffer from the shortcoming of being prone to overprovisioning or underprovisioning a user. Such misprovisioning is inefficient because it denotes underutilized computing resources or ineffective and/or disgruntled users. Costs increase either due to the excessive hardware bestowed on the overprovisioned user, or in support costs addressing the underprovisioned user. Configurations herein substantially overcome such shortcomings by defining a policy indicative of overprovisioning and underprovisioning indicators (misprovisioning flags), and defining rules to specify a triggering event indicating the need to reassess the provisioning of a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: Desktone, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Pulier, Clinton B. Battersby, Paul J. Gaffney
  • Patent number: 8332292
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing a tradable (e.g., exchange-listed) instrument by securitizing foreign currency using a foreign currency trust or other special-purpose vehicle that is established to hold one or more particular foreign currency and to issue foreign currency trust shares and/or receipts corresponding to the value of the foreign currency(s) held by the Trust. The foreign currency trust shares may represent a proportional interest in the Trust and/or the foreign currency held by the trust. The Trust may include one or more Trust accounts to receive and store the foreign currency deposited with the Trust. The Trust can operate to receive an investment amount in a first currency and provide shares or Trust receipts having a value in a second currency. The shares or receipts of the trust can be listed, quoted, and traded on a trading system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation
    Inventors: Jonathan S Spirgel, Laura S Melman
  • Patent number: 8326661
    Abstract: Providing data statistics includes receiving property information of selected products input by users, searching and locating a Standard Property Union (SPU) corresponding to the property information in a database, the SPU comprising a set of one or more products sharing a set of one or more properties, generating behavior data, including by summarizing a cumulative number of behavioral instances associated with each product in the set of products included in the SPU, and outputting the behavior data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Limited
    Inventors: Qing Zhang, Hai Wang, Yi Ding
  • Patent number: 8326720
    Abstract: A system and method for providing a tradable (e.g., exchange-listed) instrument by securitizing a commodity using a commodity trust or other special-purpose vehicle that is established to hold one or more physical commodities and to issue commodity trust shares and/or receipts corresponding to the value of the physical commodity held by the Trust. The commodity trust shares may represent a proportional interest in the Trust and/or the physical commodity held by the trust, e.g., precious metals such as gold, or base metals such as copper. The Trust may include one or more Trust accounts to receive and store the physical commodity deposited with the Trust. The shares or receipts of the trust can be listed, quoted, and traded on a trading system, e.g., an Electronics Communication Network (ECN), and may be traded as Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) shares on a securities exchange.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: The Bank of New York Mellon
    Inventors: Jonathan S. Spirgel, Laura S. Melman
  • Patent number: 8326663
    Abstract: A system is described for optimizing lead close rates. The system may create a seller scoring model that may be “trained” by a sales lead data over a period of time. The scoring model may be used to measure the performance of sellers in terms of handling and closing sales leads. The scoring model may be used to predict the sellers' close rates for future leads. The system may normalize the sellers based on lead volume to increase the confidence level in the scoring model. The system may utilize the scoring model to determine lead specific handling instructions for future leads to optimize sellers' close rates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Leapfrog Online Customer Acquisition, LLC
    Inventors: Tzaras R. Christon, Lewis Eric Wagner, Richard T. Schneider, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8326662
    Abstract: Example embodiments provide program products, systems, and associated methods of presenting a seller with a graphical representation of demand for a potential product listing so that the seller can intelligently price and position the product. A website server associated with a website of product listings captures in a database product preference criteria for a consumer, including, for example, price information. The website server aggregates the captured product preference criteria for a plurality of consumers and determines an imputed consumer demand for a potential product listing. The website server displays on a display device associated with a computer of a seller a multi-dimensional graph of demand for the potential product listing so that the seller can gauge market demand prior to listing a product for sale. Embodiments further include two-dimensional graphs plotting demand versus price, contour lines for the demand imposed on pricing graphs, and color-coded demand heat maps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Overstock.com, Inc.
    Inventors: Patrick Michael Byrne, Geoffrey Russell Atkinson