Patents Examined by Michael Stibley
  • Patent number: 8417571
    Abstract: It is an object to increase advertising effectiveness by a synergetic effect between communication using a mobile phone or the like, and an electronic money system. The present embodiment is configured such that an advertisement is transmitted to a user's mobile phone via e-mail, and if the user purchases an article in values based on the advertisement, cashback is performed through the user's mobile phone in values. Thus, giving a feeling of value to the user makes it possible not only to increase advertising effectiveness but also to confirm the advertising effectiveness. If purchasing an article in values according to an advertising mail sent to a mobile phone 3, the user can receive the cashback from an electronic money server 2, thus allowing the user to obtain a feeling of value. Moreover, the electronic money server 2 can know whether or not the user has conducted purchasing activities in accordance with the advertising mail, allowing the advertising effectiveness to be measured and confirmed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2013
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Norihiko Fujita, Shigeyuki Kawai, Makoto Yamada, Mikihisa Suzuki
  • 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 8265995
    Abstract: A method, system, and medium are provided for targeting advertisements to users of mobile devices based on geo-temporal models. Time-stamped location information is collected for a mobile device and a dynamic geo-temporal model is constructed and updated when new data is collected according to a sample design. Using the geo-temporal model, device location and instances of user interaction with the device can be predicted, and advertisements can be provided based on the predicted location. Advertisements can be cached on the mobile device for later presentation, and the sample design can be updated to improve efficiency and accuracy in the modeling system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Darrell Blegen
  • Patent number: 8234170
    Abstract: A machine-controlled method can include estimating expected conversion rates for ads by applying an estimated conversion rate statistical model to each ad, estimating an expected AOV for each ad by applying an estimated AOV statistical model to each ad, applying an inference algorithm, and determining auction bids based on the estimated expected conversion rate and the estimated expected AOV for the ads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Webtrends, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Kassakian, Matthew Esch
  • Patent number: 8145526
    Abstract: The computer-based method and system shares revenue with a content provider and registered users. A web page has supplied electronic content and ads with displays and hyperlinks to a corresponding advertiser designated web site. Associated sales referral fees are tracked based upon user click throughs. The content provider is incentivized because the system shares the associated sales referral fees with him based upon factors such as frequency of posting content, quality rankings by users, gross value referral fees, and page user-visitors. Registered user-visitors are incentivized by providing each with N quality ranking tokens and by sharing the referral fees with users who post tokens on content. The QA ranking formula accounts for the quantity of posted tokens, the sequential order of posting, the number of user-visitors, and the referral fee to the content provider. The fees are paid to debit card, credit card, or cell phone account payment processors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2012
    Inventor: Daniel Redlich
  • Patent number: 8073736
    Abstract: Among other things, the present invention provides systems and methods for fulfilling reward redemptions. In some cases, the systems and methods receive redemption requests associated with an account. The redemption request can be satisfied from a reward associated with the account, or by accessing a reward associated with another account. Redeeming a reward from another account can involve transferring value from one account to another, or grouping the related accounts and allowing members of the group to perform the settlement function. Various of the systems and method further provide for performing automatic reward redemptions, either by an entity maintaining the account to which the reward is associated, or through use of a fulfillment entity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: First Data Corporation
    Inventors: Lynn Holm Blagg, Carol A. Lindsay
  • Patent number: 8060406
    Abstract: A method, system, and medium are provided for targeting advertisements to users of mobile devices based on geo-temporal models. Time-stamped location information is collected for a mobile device and a dynamic geo-temporal model is constructed and updated when new data is collected according to a sample design. Using the geo-temporal model, device location and instances of user interaction with the device can be predicted, and advertisements can be provided based on the predicted location. Advertisements can be cached on the mobile device for later presentation, and the sample design can be updated to improve efficiency and accuracy in the modeling system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Darrell Blegen
  • Patent number: 7949563
    Abstract: A system comprises users disposed in various locations within a region, each user associated with an advertisement of an associated web property, each advertisement for enabling visitors to navigate to the associated web property; pods distributed within the region, each user being associated with at least one pod located more proximate to the user than another pod and that stores account information on the advertisement associated with the user; an advertisement channel for receiving a content request from a visitor, for obtaining an advertisement of a web property based on the content request, and for presenting the advertisement to the visitor in response to the content request; and a tag-based tracking mechanism for collecting visitor events if the visitor navigates to the web property and for forwarding visitor data based on the visitor events to the pod associated with the user that is associated with the advertisement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventor: Robert J. Collins
  • Patent number: 7949562
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for the optimized selection and delivery of one or more advertisements from among one or more advertising campaigns. The method of the present invention comprises generating one or more media plans identifying execution parameters for the optimized selection and delivery of one or more advertisements. One or more advertisements organized according to one or more advertisement campaigns are retrieved. Additionally, advertiser specified constraint and target values associated with the one or more advertisements are retrieved. A forecast for the performance of the one or more advertisements is generated. A media plan is generated for the one or more advertisements according to the constraint and target values, as well as the forecast data. The one or more advertisements are distributed according to the execution parameters identified by the media plan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventor: Robert J. Collins
  • Patent number: 7685019
    Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for the optimized delivery of one or more advertisements from a group of advertisements. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a request for one or more advertisements and retrieving advertisements responsive to the request received. Click through data associated with the one or more advertisements is retrieved and is normalized using a normalization algorithm. The normalized click through data is used to assign weights to the one or more advertisements. Tracking codes are generated for the one or more advertisements to track user interactions with a given advertisement. Advertisements are distributed according to the one or more advertisements' associated weights with associated tracking codes in one or more formats to one or more locations through which advertising may be conducted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventor: Robert J. Collins