Patents Examined by John Weiss
  • Patent number: 8386314
    Abstract: Metrics for online ads are captured by parsing web pages to identify ad beacons containing information identifying whether the online ads are for a particular client. These metrics are used to determine key performance indicators for auditing and competitor analysis for an online ad campaign.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2013
    Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited
    Inventors: Stephen Denis Kirkby, Peter Kellet, Matthew Figg, Jarred Holman
  • Patent number: 8386318
    Abstract: Peer to peer interactions are a popular way of social networking. Such peer to peer interactions play an important role in (a) obtaining relevant and latest information; (b) obtaining relevant experiential information; (c) obtaining of relevant opinions on, say, products; (d) collaborative problem solving, and so on. Consider a scenario of classified ads: a user visiting a portal through a mobile phone to decide on buying of a product can be well assisted by facilitating peer to peer interactions. In many situations, it is required to make the right selection of peers in order to be able to obtain the right information, and furthermore, voice is a preferred mode of interaction if mobile phones are used in peer to peer interactions. Also, in peer to peer interactions, anonymity is important in order to protect the privacy of the peers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2013
    Assignee: Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
    Inventors: Sridhar Varadarajan, Srividya Gopalan
  • Patent number: 8386317
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a full-page video interstitial advertisement. The interstitial advertisement offers advertisers a high quality, full screen video distribution opportunity for a set period of time, such as a 15 second spot, however the duration of the video may vary depending on the content of the video or the configuration of the webpage. A session manager controls the exposure of the interstitial advertisement to the user, to prevent the user from experiencing too frequent interstitial advertisements during a web session. The interstitial advertisement includes a fuse for displaying the playing progress of the video. The use of sound is preferred as part of the interstitial advertisement since it is important for the delivery of the media value of the advertisement. The interstitial advertisement spans the entire web browser screen, overlaid on top of the current web page using a transparency layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2013
    Assignee: Say Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Darrick Brown, David Ross Lerman, Troy William Young, Matthew Allen Sanchez, Nicholas Sanchez
  • Patent number: 8370198
    Abstract: A method for registering a media for configurable advertising is described herein. Advertising policies from a publisher of the media may be received at a video advertising platform. A request from the publisher to register the media for advertising may be received at a video advertising platform. The request may have media metadata. A media manifest may be generated at the video advertising platform. The media manifest may be based on the media metadata and the advertising policies. The media manifest may be configured to be received by a media player. The media player may play the media with one or more advertisements as specified by the media manifest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ashish Gupta, Mark Masterson, Brian Tschumper, Phani Vaddadi, Jr., Shankar Vaidyanathan
  • Patent number: 8355950
    Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products for generating customer-specific vehicle proposals based on ongoing vehicle finance pay-off information received from a third party entity. The embodiments of the invention herein disclosed provide for efficient identification of potential customers based on their current vehicle and the ongoing financial obligation related to the current vehicle. A replacement vehicle is identified and a vehicle proposal, such as a sales or lease proposal, is generated for one or more of the identified potential customers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: HCD Software, LLC
    Inventors: Charles Richard Colson, Rafael A. Dulac
  • Patent number: 8346606
    Abstract: Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a system for collecting and disseminating customer data and for distributing real estate marketing literature. The system includes a customer terminal, which is in communication with a data center, which, in turn, is in communication with a business terminal. The customer terminal includes a device for inputting customer data and a device for distributing relevant marketing literature. The customer data is sent to the data center, where it is stored for subsequent retrieval by a sales person using the business terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Showing Suite, Inc.
    Inventor: Rick Robert Bengson
  • Patent number: 8346605
    Abstract: A media device allows users to watch and capture portions from a media broadcast. Users may then share the captured media content items with other users, for example, by uploading the items to a community website. Before providing requested media content items to other users, the website may combine advertisements with the media content items. The website may receive advertising revenue from advertisers and may share the advertising revenue with owners of the media content items in exchange for their permission to provide the media content items. The advertisers may provide restrictions on how the advertisements are combined with the media content items, and the content owners may provide restrictions on how the media content items are provided to the users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Sling Media, Inc.
    Inventors: Jason Krikorian, Brian Meckler
  • Patent number: 8335718
    Abstract: Content item presentation slots (e.g., advertisement slots) can be grouped into a slot group so that more than one presenter (e.g., advertiser) can share a corresponding number of slots on the publisher's property over a defined time period. The presenters can be scheduled to the slots within the slot group to maximize a performance measurement (e.g., number of clicks) that each presenter realizes according to budget constraints that are defined by the presenters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Jon Feldman, Shanmugavelayutham Muthukrishnan, Martin Pal, Evdokia V. Nikolova
  • Patent number: 8335714
    Abstract: A method and system for identifying users for advertising. Users, attributes, and first web sites provided by ISPs accessed by the users are identified. First data including content of the first web sites and user time spent thereon are received from ISPs and analyzed to determine first attribute values indicative of user interest. Second data received from ISPs include content of second web sites and user time spent thereon. Second attribute values, derived from questionnaires completed by the users, indicate interest in each attribute by each user. Third attribute values are determined by combining the first and second attribute values. The third attribute values are processed to identify users to which a product or service may be advertised. The identified users are communicated to a service provider or product provider. The first, second, or third attribute values may have missing values, which are determined by correlation and linear regression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Hulikunta Prahlad Raghunandan
  • Patent number: 8332270
    Abstract: A system and method for determining the identity of a product and then calculating an offer price for the product are disclosed. The identity of the product may be determined using near-field communication in one aspect. The system and method are operable to enable retailers to provide a lowest price for the product and conduct a series of offer calculations to determine an offer for a consumer. The offer is based, in part, on costs to the consumer in executing the transaction (e.g., travel time, fuel, etc.). The offer may be higher than the lowest price as determined by each retailer, respectively, while still providing a discount to the consumer to entice a purchase of the product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Stephen A. Sprigg, Richard W. Gardner, Mahesh Moorthy, Scott Papineau, Samuel Jacob Horodezky
  • Patent number: 8321269
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of detecting fraudulent clicks in an online environment to reduce fraudulent paid clicks for online advertisers. The method includes server side and client side code which combined enables a click verification web site to identify valid and invalid clicks and in real-time prevents advertisers from getting billed for fraudulent activity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Validclick, Inc
    Inventors: John Linden, Tobias Teeter
  • Patent number: 8321274
    Abstract: A system and method provide advertisement campaign information about an advertisement campaign to an advertiser. The system includes means for organizing advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups and a web interface to receive advertiser inputs and provide system alerts about the advertisement campaign information to the advertiser. The system further includes a campaign data store configured to store advertisement campaign account data and an alerting system to produce the system alerts about performance of the advertisement campaign.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Robert J. Collins, Paul Joseph Apodaca, Adam J. Wand, Claude Jones, III
  • Patent number: 8321278
    Abstract: Targeted advertisements are provided to an advertisement consumer based on a user profile, a page profile, or a combination thereof. In embodiment where a user of a search engine is an advertisement consumer, the user utilizes a search engine to obtain search results relevant to a search query. A user profile of the user's interests is used to select advertisements for inclusion with search results. The user profile is evaluated by an advertisement server which determines which advertiser(s) offers a highest price for the user profile. Advertisements from these advertisers are then selected. In another embodiment, where the user is accessing a page on a third party website, the page may include a request for advertisements. A page profile is evaluated by an advertisement server that determines which advertiser(s) offers a highest price for the page profile. Advertisements from these advertisers are then selected, and provided to the user, where they are included in the retrieved page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Taher H. Haveliwala, Glen M. Jeh, Sepandar D. Kamvar
  • Patent number: 8321275
    Abstract: A system and method provide advertisement campaign information about an advertisement campaign to an advertiser. The system includes means for organizing advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups and a web interface to receive advertiser inputs and provide a visual report including the advertisement campaign information to the advertiser. The system further includes a campaign data store configured to store advertisement campaign account data and a reporting system to produce the visual report about performance of the advertisement campaign. The visual report is based on the organization of the advertisement campaign information into the one or more ad groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Robert J. Collins, Paul Joseph Apodaca, Adam J. Wand, Claude Jones, III
  • Patent number: 8321280
    Abstract: A computer implemented system includes a computer readable storage medium which includes historical demand data for a plurality of advertising inventories, and a processor connected to the computer readable storage medium. The processor is configured for generating a first demand forecast for a first predetermined period of time and a second demand forecast for a second predetermined period of time. The processor is configured for adjusting the first demand forecast by removing an existing demand for each of the plurality of advertising inventories, and for generating a net forecasting demand for each of the plurality of inventories for a third predetermined period of time by combining the second demand forecast and an adjusted first demand forecast. The third predetermined period of time is based on the first and second predetermined periods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: WenJing Ma, Long Ji Lin, Jian Yang
  • Patent number: 8315908
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for generating a proposed bid includes receiving an input generated by a first content provider as part of a bidding process where content providers bid for opportunities to provide content for publication. The input indicates (i) a resource for publishing first content from the first content provider and (ii) a campaign characteristic associated with the first content. The method includes determining a proposed bid for the first content provider based on the input and on historical data from the bidding process associated with the resource. The method includes presenting the proposed bid to the first content provider.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Ervin Peretz, Sasank Mudunuri
  • Patent number: 8315903
    Abstract: A method to promote use of one communication service by associating it with another service and offering incentives to use the first service in return for use of the second service. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: j2 Global Communications
    Inventor: Nehemia Zucker
  • Patent number: 8301497
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium estimate media performance on advertising space inventory. The method selects at least one media cell that shares one or more common attributes with a target media cell. The method subsequently estimates mean revenue per impression (RPI) of the selected media cell, and then defines an initial estimate of a RPI of the target media cell based on the estimated RPI of the selected cell. The method computes the RPI of the target media cell by combining the initial RPI estimate for the target media cell with performance data associated with the target media cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: AOL Advertising Inc.
    Inventors: Ali Nasiri Amini, Michael Jan Grebeck, Aaron E. Flores, Alireza Darvish, Hans Marius Holtan, Robert Alden Luenberger
  • Patent number: 8296181
    Abstract: A system and method for offsetting printing costs. Specifically, the method includes collecting user information about a user and generating a user profile based on the user information. The user profile is stored such that the user profile is used to achieve delivery of data that is targeted to the user based on the user profile without requiring a release of user information in the user profile. At least one offer for the delivery of data is presented to the user. The data is targeted to the user based on the user profile. Thereafter, the method determines that an item of the data presented to the user has been printed. An incentive is received for printing the item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2012
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Rajan Mathew Lukose, Joshua Rogers Tyler, Norman Paul Jouppi, Erwin Oertli
  • Patent number: 8290811
    Abstract: A computing system for searching for and identifying data repository deficits includes an interactive database of items, a data repository that stores a first type of information related to items, a search engine configured to identify items that do not have an amount of the first type of information that meets a first threshold, a candidate selection interface that provides functionality for the user to select an item from recommended candidate items needing the first type of information, a user interface via which the user can provide the first type of information for an item selected by the user, a game system configured to calculate for a game scores and rankings based at least in part on data stored in the data repository.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: James G. Robinson, Terrence R. Nightingale, Scott Allen Mongrain