Patents Examined by Thomas Dixon
  • Patent number: 8015107
    Abstract: A system and method is provided to allow a consumer to interactively explore his credit score by submitting hypothetical values based on his actual credit data. The system uses the consumer's real credit data and the submitted hypothetical values to calculate a simulated credit score based on a simulator scorecard. The consumer may then observe the changes in the resultant scores. The system and the scorecard may utilize fewer data elements than a complete credit-worthiness scorecard and may instead focus on the key elements affecting a consumer's credit score. The system may be implemented in part on a web server or as a stand-alone application. The system may also update the score dynamically as the consumer adjusts the hypothetical values or may require the consumer to affirmatively submit the new hypothetical data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Adam T. Kornegay, Joseph L. Greenwald, Constance A. Elliott
  • Patent number: 8015086
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for calculating employee expenses is disclosed herein. One embodiment of the method may include transferring first data from a first computer to a second computer. The first data causes the second computer to display text, wherein a portion of the text is a first inquiry related to at least one expense item of the employee. Second data is transferred from the second computer to the first computer, wherein the second data is representative of a response to the first inquiry and wherein the second data is smaller than the first data. A second inquiry related to the at least one expense item based on the response to the first inquiry is then determined. Third data representative of the second inquiry is transmitted from the first computer to the second computer. A portion of the text is modified upon receipt of the third data by the second computer, wherein the modified portion of the text is related to the second inquiry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Mark Greer, Gregory Thomas, James R. Bennett, Lyn Y. Chu, Stephanie L. Sharples
  • Patent number: 8010432
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and products auction search terms in a search engine. Orders from customers are received, and a search term associated with the orders is determined. When an auction for the search term is conducted, an amount of a bid for the search term is determined and submitted to the auction for a position on a search result list for the search engine. A minimum level of traffic is then delivered to a customer website.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L. P.
    Inventors: Charles Stubbs, Laurie Scholl, Derek Talbot, Matthew Mulqueen, Bill Lott, W. Braxton Caswell, Jr., Neil Salvage
  • Patent number: 8010433
    Abstract: A system for and method of administering payouts under an individual annuity contract is provided. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a computer system is provided which includes a memory for storing individual annuity contract data relating to a individual annuity contract which provides the contract owner with the option to withdraw principal from the annuity during the payout phase, and a processor programmed to process and issue principal payouts as selected by the annuitant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
    Inventor: Charles Gordon Fisher, III
  • Patent number: 7996256
    Abstract: Mathematical models for predicting shopper traffic at a shopper region useful for developing inter alia a metric for measuring impressions to in-store advertising.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2011
    Assignee: The Procter & Gamble Company
    Inventors: Jayaraman Anand, Kathryn Byrd Young, Ranjit Kumar Choudhary, Dina R. Howell
  • Patent number: 7991641
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for evaluating and compensating employees based on performance. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided. According to the method, objectives are received for an employee. The objectives are core requirements set as goals for an employee for a time period. Further, organization and unit indicators applicable to the employee's position are received from a database. Ratings are received from an evaluator for the core requirements and the organization indicators. The method further computes an overall rating that is a weighted average of the rated core requirements and the rated organization and unit indicators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: United States Postal Service
    Inventors: Anthony J. Vegliante, Susan M. LaChance, B. Lynn Malcolm, Laurie A. Hayden, Robin L. McLarney
  • Patent number: 7979300
    Abstract: Address books, activity logs, or similar data that are normally prepared by people for purposes other than rating businesses can be parsed and processed to rate businesses without requiring users to complete reviews. As a result, a large amount of rating data is available and may provide business ratings and rankings that are more complete and statistically accurate. A local search site can provide users with lists of businesses with rankings or ratings based on community preferences as reflected in user data and activity logs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2011
    Inventor: Bobby A. Chandra
  • Patent number: 7974871
    Abstract: The system and method of the present invention allows a Chair to a meeting to pre-define an agenda in the meeting invitation and to send the meeting invitation to the Invitees/Attendees. The Invitees/Attendees receive the meeting notice to determine whether they can attend the meeting during the time/date specified. In the event that the Invitees/Attendees can only attend a portion of the meeting, the Invitees/Attendees are given an option to request reordering of agenda items. After receiving enough receipts, the Meeting Chair can decide to reorder the agenda items and send an update to Invitees/Attendees prior to the meeting or not to reorder and the original agenda stands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Tolga Oral, Sergei R. Landar
  • Patent number: 7974869
    Abstract: The present invention is a method and system for forecasting the behavioral characterization of customers to help customize programming contents on each means for playing output of each site of a plurality of sites in a media network through automatically measuring, characterizing, and forecasting the behavioral information of customers that appear in the vicinity of each means for playing output. The analysis of behavioral information of customers is performed automatically based on the visual information of the customers, using a plurality of means for capturing images and a plurality of computer vision technologies on the visual information. The measurement of the behavioral information is performed in each measured node, where the node is defined as means for playing output. Extrapolation of the measurement characterizes the behavioral information per each node of a plurality of nodes in a site of a plurality of sites of a media network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: VideoMining Corporation
    Inventors: Rajeev Sharma, Satish Mummareddy, Jeff Hershey, Namsoon Jung
  • Patent number: 7970643
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for a software tool that interfaces with a Field Operations software tool and incorporates Voter Score, Voter Scorecard, Post-Election Voter History, Household Visualization, Voter Support Visualization, Household Mailing Labels, E-Mail Voter Footer, and Voter List of Friends and Family.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: Lincoln Voters, Inc.
    Inventor: Scott Jeffrey
  • Patent number: 7966206
    Abstract: An improved method for certifying that a manufacturing facility is capable of producing quality products of a particular type is disclosed. The improved method may comprise auditing the manufacturing facility against a process standard and issuing a certification to the process standard if the manufacturing facility passes the audit. This improved method is particularly suited to manufacturing facilities producing printed circuit assemblies and/or printed circuit boards. The method may further comprise auditing the manufacturing facility against an environmental compliance standard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Inventor: Philip M. Zarrow
  • Patent number: 7966205
    Abstract: A user interface for a fare summary tool is described. The user interface is for display on a monitor and includes a fare evaluation result table that displays fare rule summaries for fares in slices of an itinerary. A method for producing a rule summary is also described. The method retrieves fares and fare rules for a city pair over a specified time period and evaluates the retrieved fares against the retrieve rules to return a status corresponding to pass, fail defer. The method produces a summary of the results of evaluating the rules that indicates the status of the rules for each category of rules and displays the summary on a user output device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: ITA Software, Inc.
    Inventor: Rodney Daughtrey
  • Patent number: 7962390
    Abstract: A data mining device, method, and apparatus configured to associate customer exclusive data from a payment card or device after a financial transaction. A financial transaction processing system comprises a report distribution management system, a data relationship manager, and a customer exclusive data association database. The report distribution management system receives financial transaction data. The data relationship manager determines an issuer associated with the financial transaction data, queries a subscription database for subscription data associated with the issuer and a core database for the issuer processing parameters. The processing parameters are applied to the financial transaction data and the subscription data. A customer exclusive data association database is updated with the financial transaction data once the processing parameters are applied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2011
    Assignee: Visa USA Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Maw, Ayman Hammad
  • Patent number: 7957997
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for processing a product order which is directed from a customer to a first supplier. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided that includes receiving a product order from a customer. Based on the received product order, the method determines products to be procured by a supplier that is external with respect to the first supplier. The method further determines at least one external supplier which is able to provide the products and transmits a purchase order for the available products to the external supplier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignee: SAP AG
    Inventors: Hans-Ulrich von Helmolt, Guenther Deeg, Patricia Luz
  • Patent number: 7953620
    Abstract: A method of risk management across a mission support network is provided, including identifying a mission of the mission support network, and identifying, by a computer processor, assets of the mission support network. The assets include a mission asset to support the mission and a support asset to provide support to the mission asset. Each of the assets is characterized by a criticality index value to measure how important the asset is to a performance of the mission, and a vulnerability index value to measure a vulnerability of the asset to a threat.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventor: Joseph F. Scates
  • Patent number: 7949554
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products for calendar-based coverage monitoring are disclosed. According to one aspect, a method includes receiving a coverage rule defining multiple covering entities for performing an activity for a covered entity and at least one period of time during which the multiple covering entities is to perform the activity. Individual calendars for the multiple covering entities are monitored and a change in one of the calendars is detected. It is then determined whether the change causes the coverage rule to be violated, and in response to determining that the change causes the coverage rule to be violated, a notification indicating violation of the coverage rule is generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Scenera Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Robert J. Sundstrom
  • Patent number: 7937324
    Abstract: A system and method for using derived account identifiers. The derived account identifiers are associated with a single permanent account identifier. Each derived account identifier is associated with a communication channel or portable consumer device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2011
    Assignee: Visa U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventor: Barbara Patterson
  • Patent number: 7921052
    Abstract: Online auction-style listing and transaction system provides new features including for example allowing sellers to issue offers to sell before auction-style listing completion to encourage direct negotiation between seller and buyer for an out-of channel transaction; postponing auction-style end upon receipt of a last-minute bid to prevent sniping; allowing sellers to contact buyers registering adverse ratings before the ratings are published; allowing sellers to terminate listings before end of auction-style listing and/or to move the listing to a classified ad from an auction-style listing; and other features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2011
    Assignee: Autotrader.com, Inc.
    Inventors: Esther Dabney, Greg Easterly, Brad Mohs, Michael Mullis, Mike Winn
  • Patent number: 7921025
    Abstract: A trend of attributes associated with plural market participants is determined. A representation of the trend is computed, and market models for the market participants are built according to the representation of the trend.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2011
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventor: Jerry Z. Shan
  • Patent number: 7917385
    Abstract: Methods and computer systems for forecasting demand and availability of resources of a geographic region are provided. Physical, operational, traffic and construction data for a geographic region for a specified time period is utilized to compare the operational needs for at least one resource for a geographic region to the available resources to forecast demands and availability of the at least one resource for the geographic region over the specified time period and determine whether the demand for the at least one resource exceeds the availability of the at least one resource. The forecasted demand and availability of the at least one resource for the geographic region for the specified time period is stored and presented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: HNTB Holdings Ltd
    Inventors: Scott Keith Fehnel, Nathan Lee Otto