Patents Examined by Sun Li
  • Patent number: 8751302
    Abstract: Presented are embodiments of methods and systems that provide for Internet advertisement pricing and placement to be variably based on the advertisement's performance within a given category of Internet media, while at the same time achieving predictable delivery and pricing for both advertisers and publishers. Techniques are presented where an advertiser's online campaign will be pre-empted only for underperformance on its own merits, and not for its relative performance or price versus other advertisers. Further, techniques are presented for allowing publishers of advertisements to realize increased revenue from their high value media while using tag passbacks to secure a minimum reserve pricing of their choice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: Pulsepoint, Inc.
    Inventors: Anand Subramanian, Shanthi Sarkar, Jeremy Sterns
  • Patent number: 8738444
    Abstract: A method of managing the delivery of offers from suppliers to members via a spatial marketplace system involves registering potential customers as members of the spatial marketplace system by recording their names and contact details in a database. A spatial identifier is assigned to each database record, the spatial identifier being sourced from the contact details supplied during a registration process. Each member nominates one or more attributes corresponding to a commodity in relation to which the member is interested in receiving offers. Each supplier defines a geographic region in which the supplier wishes to do business and nominates one or more attributes corresponding to commodities, which the supplier wishes to sell. A spatial identifier location algorithm is used to identify the database records with spatial identifiers located within the geographical region defined by the supplier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Super Internet Site System Pty Ltd.
    Inventor: John Knorr
  • Patent number: 8738733
    Abstract: Requests for content are received, for example, an HTTP request for a web page is received. Each request has a landing context, which may include information about the user sending the request, the request itself, the referrer, or another subject. This information can be found in the requests or external to the requests. The information of the landing context is compared to appropriate triggering criteria. For requests that satisfy the appropriate triggering criteria, a destination is provided based on one or more weighted treatments. The request is directed to the provided destination. The results of the requests are subsequently analyzed and used to adjust the treatments in an automated fashion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Kenfield Walters, Michael R. Brauwerman, Avram Finkel, Stephan G. Betz
  • Patent number: 8732092
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes a fund raising method and system wherein a provider produces discount cards containing information such as the manufacturer ID, the family code, and the value code. The information may appear on the card in the form of a bar code, a magnetic strip or by any other commonly recognized means. Representatives of an organization sell the discount cards to interested parties. When those parties present the discount cards at an enrolled retailer at the time of check-out, the card is read by the reader which is in communication with the retailer's payment system. The holder is then credited a pre-specified percentage of the sale at the time of sale and a percentage of the sale is set aside by the retailer. On a periodic basis, the amount set aside by the retailer is paid to the provider whereupon the provider pays a pre-specified portion of that amount to the organization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Inventor: Leo J Rourke
  • Patent number: 8719096
    Abstract: An improved system and method for generating a maximum utility slate of advertisements for online advertisement auctions is provided. Various utility factors for each advertisement that may be a candidate in a slate of advertisements may be applied within a framework in order to generate a maximum utility slate of advertisements. Either backward or forward dynamic programming may be applied to recursively evaluate the utility of subslates of advertisements in order to generate a maximum utility slate of advertisements. In an embodiment, a network with directed edges and associated costs may be defined, and the longest path may be found in the directed network for constructing a maximum utility slate of advertisements. Various utility factors may be applied for different objectives of an auctioneer and the framework presented may be extended for revenue ordering, exclusion of bidders, ordering slates according to first and second price utilities, and so forth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Sathiya Keerthi Selvaraj, John Anthony Tomlin
  • Patent number: 8700470
    Abstract: Merchants create ecommerce-enabled ad units advertising items offered by the merchants. The ad units contain functionality enabling customers to purchase the items by interacting with the ad units. The ad units have associated bid prices that the merchants agree to pay for sales through the ad units. The merchants provide the ad units to a broker. The broker publishes the ad units on web pages provided by publishers as comparison shop ad units that contain multiple ad units and functionality for navigating among them. A customer receiving a web page interacts with an ad unit to purchase the item. During the interactions, the broker dynamically updates the ad unit to conduct the transaction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: David Chung, Rajas Moonka, Gokul Rajaram
  • Patent number: 8700469
    Abstract: A method for generating an advertisement impression which moves a selected instance of advertisement content in conjunction with a mouse pointer on a client rendering system includes defining, in a placement database, a plurality of instances of advertisement content. Each instance of advertisement content is associated with an advertisement category, a financial parameter, and response data. A selected instance of advertisement content is selected from the placement database. The selected instance of advertisement content is one of the plurality of instances of advertisement content that is associated with an advertisement category meeting selection criteria and a financial parameter meeting selection criteria. The selected instance of advertisement content is combined with pointer tracking instructions to generate the advertisement impression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Craig A. Pisaris-Henderson, Anthony A. Garcia
  • Patent number: 8700463
    Abstract: Methods, apparatuses, and articles of manufacture for generating advertisements using an algorithmic system, such as a combinatoric system, and determining effectiveness metrics or predictions for the advertisements are described herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated
    Inventor: Zachary Mason
  • Patent number: 8694373
    Abstract: A cost-per-second (CPS) based technology for Internet advertising is introduced. In one embodiment, the systems and methods described herein improve efficiency and efficacy of Internet based advertisements. Efficiency is improved by making advertisements relevant to the user; decreasing loss or waste in advertisement space and opportunity for the publisher; and displaying advertisements only for an appropriate duration and being charged according to actual duration for the advertiser. In embodiments, the cost for a certain branding effect can be measured and used with higher accuracy. In embodiments where multiple advertisements are shown simultaneously or at various timings, the technology introduced here provides unique bidding models to allow an advertiser to bid for advertising space, of an advertisement display. The bidding models incorporate bidding based on CPS, a function of CPS and cost-plus-click, effective CPS, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: Dennoo Inc.
    Inventor: Shigeto Umeda
  • Patent number: 8688590
    Abstract: A system and method is provided for an on-demand advertising information vault so that advertisers may establish accounts for distributing advertisements on-line to potential subscribers. The on-demand information vault also provides for consumers to subscribe to advertisements from advertisers based on the consumer's preferences of categories of products or services. An advertiser may also establish rewards for viewing their advertisements for inducing consumers to subscribe to their advertising service. In this way, a consumer may agree to receive only certain types of advertisements and receive remuneration for viewing the advertisements. The vault mechanisms may also provide for protecting the identities of the consumer and advertiser and avoids misusing personal data by others by employing security measures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Clifton Grim, III, Christopher I. Schmidt, John D. Wilson
  • Patent number: 8688521
    Abstract: A system and method to facilitate matching of content to advertising information in a network are described. A request for advertising information is received over a network, the advertising information to be displayed for a user entity in association with content information within a web page requested by the user entity. Advertising information related to one or more themes of the content information on the web page is further determined, the themes representing subject matter contextually related to the content information. Advertisements are further selected from the advertising information based on keywords and metadata stored within the web page and based on a set of predetermined parameters stored within the data storage module. The selected advertisements are further ranked to obtain a ranked list of advertisements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Andrei Zary Broder, Marcus Felipe Fontoura, Vanja Josifovski, Lance Alan Riedel
  • Patent number: 8676925
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for capturing and sharing of visual information on a peer-to-peer basis are disclosed. Examples of visual information captured and shared from one peer to another include real-world events, people, and/or landscapes. In one embodiment of the invention, an incentive plan motivates a peer subject to capture and share desired visual information with other peers. In a preferred embodiment, a peer subject can use an image-capturing device to create visual information associated with specific metadata. In another embodiment of the invention, a peer subject can create an incentive plan for a specific set of desired metadata for visual information to motivate other peer subjects to provide visual information that satisfies the specific set of desired metadata. In one example, a metadata set can include information related to geographical location, time stamp, focal length, aperture value, shutter speed, exposure compensation, lens angle, and/or lens orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Inventors: Jiawei Liu, Shuhan Jin
  • Patent number: 8666819
    Abstract: A system and method to facilitate classification and storage of events in a network are described. An event and associated content information are received from an entity over a network. The content information is further analyzed to determine one or more themes representing subject matter related to the content information. The event is further classified according to the themes into one or more corresponding categories. Finally, the event is stored into one or more corresponding databases of a data storage module according to the one or more corresponding categories.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2014
    Assignee: Yahoo! Overture
    Inventors: Andrei Zary Broder, Marcus Felipe Fontoura, Vanja Josifovski, Lance Alan Riedel
  • Patent number: 8661464
    Abstract: Techniques for presenting a content item with a media item are described. The techniques include receiving user input indicating a placement preference for a content item to be presented with a media item. The placement preference indicates a presentation preference of the content item relative to presentation of the media item. The placement preference is used to influence selection of a media item with which the content item is to be presented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Poorva Arankalle, Brienne M. Finger, Lin Liao, Manish Gupta, Rajas Moonka, Reuven Lax, Jill A. Huchital
  • Patent number: 8626594
    Abstract: Merchants create ecommerce-enabled ad units advertising items offered by the merchants. The ad units contain functionality enabling customers to purchase the items by interacting with the ad units. The ad units have associated bid prices that the merchants agree to pay for sales through the ad units. The merchants provide the ad units to a broker. The broker publishes the ad units on web pages provided by publishers. A customer receiving a web page interacts with the ad unit to purchase the item. During the interactions, the broker dynamically updates the ad unit to carry out the transaction. The broker collects the bid price from the merchant and shares it with the publisher that published the page on which the ad unit appeared.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: David Chung, Rajas Moonka, Gokul Rajaram
  • Patent number: 8626586
    Abstract: Wearable advertising display systems that integrate wireless communications technologies with wearable, dynamic displays for advertising purposes. Advertising content may be dynamically selected and communicated to the wearable advertising display systems from a remote device. In some embodiments, multiple wearable advertising display system may work together to provide a coordinated advertising message. A determination may be made that multiple wearable advertising display systems are within proximity of each other. Coordinated advertising content may be selected. At least a portion of the coordinated advertising content is communicated to each of the wearable advertising display systems, which present the coordinated advertising content in conjunction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Devon Leon Biere, Michael Arthur Gailloux
  • Patent number: 8620734
    Abstract: A method of providing coupons for shopping includes storing a shopping list in an electronic device including items for purchase via a merchant, storing electronic representations of coupons in the electronic device and associating the electronic representations of coupons with items included in the shopping list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventor: Robert S. McIntosh
  • Patent number: 8620746
    Abstract: A software and/or hardware facility for scoring the quality of traffic to a site accessible via the Internet or other network. The facility may evaluate traffic based on multiple agent actions in order to detect bogus agent actions. The agent actions may be generic agent actions that are applicable to substantially all network sites. The facility may characterize the quality of an agent's interaction with the network site based on whether one or more of the multiple agent actions occurred during the agent's interaction. The facility may generate non-binary generic and custom scores, classifying traffic as fraudulent if its custom score is substantially higher than its generic score. The facility may characterize the quality of traffic to a network site based on dual algorithms. A first algorithm may be applied to traffic that is statistically significant, while a second algorithm may be applied to traffic that is not statistically significant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2013
    Assignee: Elan Branch, LLC
    Inventor: Vincent Granville
  • Patent number: 8615436
    Abstract: A simultaneous ascending price auction (“SAA”) can be used to allocate advertising inventory to bidders. The advertising inventory can be, for example, radio or television advertisement spots (“spots”). The bidders can be advertisers that can provide advertisements for presentation in the spots. Two or more contiguous spots can define an advertising block. Spots or advertising blocks can be allocated to advertisers by the SAA mechanism based on bid criteria. The SAA can perform simultaneous advertisement scheduling and pricing. The auction allocation can be optimized to facilitate efficient allocation of advertisements to spots or blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2013
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Steve Stukenborg, Daniel J. Zigmond, Jason Bayer, Danny Tom, Kaustuv Kaustuv, Jagpreet S. Duggal, Robert D. Gardner, Deepak Chandra, Neil C. Rhodes, Noam Nisan, Tal Franji, Misha Seltzer, Hal R. Varian, Yossi Matias
  • Patent number: 8583280
    Abstract: A method for using a vending machine nutritional information display system using standard inventory control system components. A vending machine nutritional information display system using standard inventory control system components. An apparatus for implementing a vending machine nutritional information display system using standard inventory control system components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: VendScreen, Inc.
    Inventor: Paresh K. Patel