Patents Examined by Jack M Choules
  • Patent number: 6370544
    Abstract: The invention is directed to an enterprise management integration tool for providing a centralized repository for storage and processing of information related to the execution of the enterprise management functions. This is accomplished through the use of a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) and specific database schema that model the enterprise components and services being managed. The interface with this database will be in one of two preferred forms: (1) software bridges to specific management applications; (2) standardized Structured Query Language (SQL) to applications that support the use of SQL. The database-centric approach provides a framework for integration of myriad applications (software programs) based on the needs of the enterprise management personnel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2002
    Assignee: ITT Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc.
    Inventors: Lawrence W. Krebs, Wayne R. Fuller, Edwin J. Zakrzewski
  • Patent number: 6327588
    Abstract: A process for identifying a single item from a family of items presents a user with a feature screen having a series of groupings. Each grouping represents a feature having a set of alternatives from which to select. Selected alternatives are used as a selection criteria in a search operation. Results of the search operation is a revised feature screen indicating alternatives that remain available to the user for further selection and searching. The feature screen and search process, therefore, presents the user with a guided nonhierarchical parametric search to identify matching items based upon user specified criteria and priorities. Also disclosed is an adaptation of the claimed method and system appropriate in an Internet environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2001
    Assignee: Saqqara Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Mohamed Sherif Danish, Kris Walter Kimbrough
  • Patent number: 6311185
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for modifying an information page transmitted in a communications network, such as the Internet. A request to display an information page is received from a client computer. Information page data, such as hypertext markup language data, is obtained for the requested information page. Additional data, such as an advertisement, is selected and the information page data is modified to include the additional data based on attributes of the requested information page. The modified information page data is then sent to the client computer for display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2001
    Assignee: AT&T Corp.
    Inventors: Robert Edward Markowitz, Joseph Thomas O'Neil
  • Patent number: 6263335
    Abstract: An information extraction system that allows users to ask questions about documents in a database, and responds to queries by returning possibly relevant information which is extracted from the documents. The system is domain-independent, and automatically builds its own subject knowledge base. It can be applied to any new corpus of text with quick results, and no requirement for lengthy manual input. For this reason, it is also a dynamic system which can acquire new knowledge and add it to the knowledge base immediately by automatically identifying new names, events, or concepts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2001
    Assignee: Textwise LLC
    Inventors: Woojin Paik, Elizabeth D. Liddy, Jennifer Heverin Liddy, Ian Harcourt Niles, Eileen E. Allen
  • Patent number: 6233578
    Abstract: The method and system for retrieving information allow the user to retrieve desired information from database systems by simply specifying retrieval content and retrieval conditions using languages familiar to the user, without having to know the names for the relevant database systems or their structures or without having to interact with the platform of the meta-information, i.e., information concerning the use of database systems and accessing method. The present method allows retrieval of information from different database systems connected to a communication network, by using reference information stored beforehand to access different database systems; consulting the reference information to determine database systems which contains data to satisfy the information retrieval request by converting requested items to equivalent related words that the system can recognize.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2001
    Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroki Machihara, Gengo Suzuki, Eiji Okada, Naoya Kanou
  • Patent number: 6192165
    Abstract: According to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, an apparatus and method for a digital filing system is disclosed. In this context, digital filing refers to the efficient management of paper-based information from its receipt at the desktop through an indexing, scanning, image storage and image retrieval process. The preferred embodiments of the present invention provide for easy and effective indexing, imaging, storing, retrieving and managing of paper-based documents, transforming them into electronic documents using a system which incorporates many existing office resources. The proposed system and method implements a desktop solution for digital filing, which can be made available to each worker. In one embodiment of the present invention, an individual has complete control over the electronic storage and retrieval of their documents from a standard desktop computer, using a standard web browser application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 1997
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2001
    Assignee: ImageTag, Inc.
    Inventor: Steven W. Irons
  • Patent number: 6188387
    Abstract: Data is transmitted from a mouse to a host computer in accordance with a 3-byte packet protocol. The first byte includes bits indicating the status of first and second buttons on the mouse. The first bit of each byte serves as a sync bit. The sync bit has a value of “1” in the first byte and a value of “0” in each of the second and third bytes. Data representing movement of the mouse in two dimensions is encoded as two 8-bit twos-complement integers which are transmitted as part of the three-byte packet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2001
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: John C. Hall
  • Patent number: 6185556
    Abstract: A method and apparatus accepts a query to update or delete rows in a temporal table of a database. The query may describe which rows are to be updated, a calculation for the value to be used to update each row of the table, and a period of validity, during which the changes are to take place. The method and apparatus creates a sequence of queries and SQL program elements that together can make up an SQL program that will execute the query received. The SQL program can split any row of the table to be updated into multiple rows so that each of the multiple rows of the table to be changed have an effective period during which no changes occur in the table to be changed or any other tables referenced in the query received and no effective periods span the beginning or the end of the period of validity. The specified change may then be made to the resulting rows, and rows that are adjacent in time with identical values may be collapsed into a single row.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2001
    Assignee: Amazon.com, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard T Snodgrass, John Bair
  • Patent number: 6182068
    Abstract: A method of organizing information in which the search activity of previous users is monitored and such activity is used to organize articles for future users. Personal data about future users can be used to provide different article rankings depending on the search activity and personal data of the previous users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2001
    Assignee: Ask Jeeves, Inc.
    Inventor: Gary Culliss
  • Patent number: 6182084
    Abstract: A method and apparatus of data comparison for statistical information content creation which will process and store raw data, compare the processed raw data with historical data and retrieve processed new content aggregated data with the raw data including a plurality of elements on real time statistical information about a sporting event. The invention includes a common computer network and a plurality of client devices connected to the common network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2001
    Assignee: Williams Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Cockrell, Jamie Buckley, James Davis
  • Patent number: 6154744
    Abstract: A system and method for the optimized storage and retrieval of video data at distributed sites calls for the deployment of "Smart Mirror" sites throughout a network, each of which maintains a copy of certain data managed by the system. Every user is assigned to a specific delivery site based on an analysis of network performance with respect to each of the available delivery sites. Generalized network performance data is collected and stored to facilitate the selection of additional delivery sites and to ensure the preservation of improved performance in comparison to traditional networks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2000
    Assignee: Intervu, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Kenner, Arnold Karush
  • Patent number: 6141657
    Abstract: This invention provides methods by which biologically derived DNA sequences in a mixed sample or in an arrayed single sequence clone can be determined and classified without sequencing. The methods make use of information on the presence of carefully chosen target subsequences, typically of length from 4 to 8 base pairs, and preferably the length between target subsequences in a sample DNA sequence together with DNA sequence databases containing lists of sequences likely to be present in the sample to determine a sample sequence. The preferred method uses restriction endonucleases to recognize target subsequences and cut the sample sequence. Then carefully chosen recognition moieties are ligated to the cut fragments, the fragments amplified, and the experimental observation made. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the preferred method of amplification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2000
    Assignee: Curagen Corporation
    Inventors: Jonathan Marc Rothberg, Michael W. Deem, John W. Simpson
  • Patent number: 6134551
    Abstract: A method of updating a locally cached revocation list of digital certificates in a client computer with a current data base of revoked certificates stored in a host computer. Upon receipt of a digital certificate submitted to the client computer for verification, the client computer checks the submitted digital certificate against the locally cached revocation list. If the submitted digital certificate is not on the locally cached revocation list, the client computer confirms the validity of the submitted digital certificate and the transaction is consummated. If however, the submitted digital certificate is on the revocation list, the client computer establishes a communication link with the host computer and determines if the submitted digital certificate is in the data base of revoked certificates on the host computer. Without breaking the communication link, the client may request that an updated revocation list to be downloaded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2000
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: David W. Aucsmith
  • Patent number: 6128772
    Abstract: The invention disclosed is an object-oriented apparatus and method in a computer system that offers important advantages over current programming practice in representing and managing ownership relationships of objects. An object can be owned as a single object or within a list, and it can change owners over time and change from being owned as a single object to being owned in a list or the other way around. An ownable object provides an operation to replace itself with a different ownable object. Ownable objects provide operations telling whether they are owned and whether they are owned in a list. Referential integrity is automatically maintained while giving the high performance of using memory pointers stored directly within the related objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2000
    Assignee: Unisys Corp.
    Inventor: Donald Edward Baisley
  • Patent number: 6128624
    Abstract: A system integrates data elements from an operational database of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and Commerce Service Provider (CSP) into a predetermined format for supporting collection of the Internet and/or electronic commerce data. The system includes a database storing the electronic commerce data for interrogation by the ISP/CSP, a user station, and a design database. The design database includes a logical data model providing a description of the database facilitating the integration of the Internet and/or electronic commerce data and facilitating query and report access of the database. The design database also includes a formatted file library providing classifications including at least one of process characterizations, customer descriptions, preference determinations, and behavior patterns, the classifications being reusable for at least one of different technical processes and different customer problems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2000
    Assignee: NCR Corporation
    Inventors: Karen A. Papierniak, James E. Thaisz, Luo-Jen Chiang
  • Patent number: 6125371
    Abstract: For use with a database of data records stored in a memory, a system and method for increasing a memory capacity and a memory database employing the system or the method. The system includes: (1) a time stamping controller that assigns a time stamp to transactions to be performed on the database, the time stamp operates to preserve an order of the transactions, (2) a versioning controller that creates multiple versions of ones of the data records affected by the transactions that are update transactions and (3) an aging controller, which is associated with each of the time stamping and versioning controllers, that monitors a measurable characteristic of the memory and deletes ones of the multiple versions of the ones of the data records in response to the time stamp and the measurable characteristic thereby to increase memory capacity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2000
    Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Philip L. Bohannon, Dennis W. Leinbaugh, Rajeev Rastogi, Srinivasan Seshadri, Abraham Silberschatz, Sundararajarao Sudarshan
  • Patent number: 6115706
    Abstract: In a novel approach for retrieving information a set of sub-documents first is established based upon a set of documents. A query is processed which operates on the set of sub-documents, causing a score to be generated for each sub-document. The score for each sub-document is indicative of the relevance of the corresponding sub-document to the query. The scores are reviewed and the best sub-document is retrieved. According to one aspect of the invention, the best sub-document has a score that indicates the highest relevance between the sub-document and the query. According to another aspect of the invention, in response to a user selection, the next best sub-document is identified and retrieved. The sub-documents are also presented to the user in an order based upon the scores. According to another aspect of the invention, the document containing the sub-document having the best score is displayed and automatically scrolled to the location of the sub-document having the best score.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2000
    Assignee: Claritech Corporation
    Inventor: David A. Evans
  • Patent number: 6115543
    Abstract: A data communication apparatus having a generator for generating an image data of an irregular size; a converter for converting the irregular size of the image data into a regular recording size; and a transmitter for transmitting the image data converted by the converter; wherein the converter converts the image data of the irregular size into the regular recording size through column/line exchange.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 1994
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2000
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yukio Murata
  • Patent number: 6115722
    Abstract: A recover or reload utility determines if a check utility is to be executed. If a check utility is to be executed, the recover or reload utility records the dependent tablespace names to virtual storage allocated to a job step instead of to virtual storage allocated to a subtask. After the recover or reload utility performs its function, if a check utility is next, the database operating system will not freemain the virtual storage (e.g, data area) into which the recover or reload utility has recorded the names of the dependent tablespaces when the subtask ends. Upon termination of the recover or reload utility, the persistent data area is available for the check utility to use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2000
    Assignee: Computer Associates Think, Inc.
    Inventors: Amando B. Isip, Jr., Christopher F. Parker, Stephen J. Weaver
  • Patent number: RE37496
    Abstract: A job processing method is provided for use in an information processing system including three or more information processing devices connected to a common transmission line: (a) first of all, in case the occurrence of a job is detected at one of the three or more processing devices, it is broadcast to the remaining plural processing device; (b) next, that job execution for that job is started at a first processing device which is one of the plural processing devices receiving the job occurrence broadcast or the processing device having broadcast the job occurrence; (c) then, the first processing device having started that job execution is monitored at the others of the plural processing devices which are not presently involved in that job execution but have been informed of that job occurrence; and (d) the job is executed irrespective of the presence of an abnormal processing device in case a second processing device, which is one of the plural monitoring processing devices, detects an abnormality of th
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 1996
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2002
    Assignee: Hitachi, LTD
    Inventors: Kinji Mori, Hirokazu Ihara