Patents Examined by Thomas Dixon
  • Patent number: 8600870
    Abstract: A data transaction is associated with a plurality of remote data sources so that a score may be generated that characterizes the transaction. The remote data sources are polled to obtain partial scores which can be used by a decisioning system to score the transaction. In some implementations, different scoring models may be used so that the data source is notified which scoring model to use when generating the partial score. Related techniques, apparatus, systems, and articles are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Fair Isaac Corporation
    Inventor: Joseph Philip Milana
  • Patent number: 8595109
    Abstract: A method for creating trust shares in a physical commodity, the trust shares being tradable over an electronic communications network, includes receiving a creation order comprising a request to create the trust shares, confirming delivery into a trust account of an amount of physical commodity associated with the trust shares being requested, and releasing the requested trust shares based upon the amount of physical commodity delivered into the account. A method for redeeming trust shares associated with a physical commodity, the trust shares being tradable over an electronic communications network, includes receiving a redemption order comprising a request to redeem an amount of trust shares associated with an amount of the physical commodity held in a trust account, receiving the amount of the trust shares, and releasing from the trust account the amount of the physical commodity associated with the amount of the trust shares received.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: The Bank of New York Mellon
    Inventors: Jonathan S. Spirgel, Laura S. Melman
  • Patent number: 8589235
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for facilitating online conversation. In one aspect, a method includes determining that a user has submitted a question to be viewed by trusted participants of an online conversation, wherein the trusted participants include the user, one or more advertisers and one or more social network friends of the user, obtaining a reply to the question from one of the trusted participants, and providing the reply to the trusted participants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Emily K. Moxley, Josh T. Wills, Daniel Dulitz
  • Patent number: 8589209
    Abstract: Systems and methods for assessing viability and marketability of an asset are provided. In exemplary embodiments, an asset assessment system receives disclosure information for the asset. The disclosure information comprises information indicating at least one taxonomy segment associated with the asset. An attribute grade may then determined based on the disclosure information, while a market grade may be determined based on market data for the at least one taxonomy segment. A final grade based on the attribute grade and the market grade is then calculated. This final grade provides an indication of the viability and marketability of the asset. The final grade may then be output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Fluid Innovation Group, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher W. McKinzie, Andrew W. Allemann
  • Patent number: 8583462
    Abstract: A method for managing the application of penalties to employees of a company. The method comprises executing software encoded on a machine readable storage medium by a CPU to implement a job assignment monitoring function, the job assignment monitoring function monitoring events occurring in the course of a job assignment procedure during which a server arrangement communicates with a remote client over a data network to present an employee at the remote client with a job proposal, detecting among the monitored events a penalty triggering event and in response to the detecting, determining a penalty to be applied to the employee on the basis of the penalty triggering event. The method further comprises recording in an employee record stored in a database, data derived from the determining to register the penalty applied to the employee.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: Canadian National Railway Company
    Inventors: Leonard John Podgurny, Alan Bruce Randall, Matthew Oren Owens, Michael Anthony Moroz
  • Patent number: 8583500
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for providing computing device counts are disclosed. Exemplary methods include providing a count of computing devices corresponding to an organization, the count of computing devices being responsive to data corresponding to the computing devices, providing a time period for which the count is valid, and providing information on how the computing device count was determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Michael Hardy, John DeCastra
  • Patent number: 8583463
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing fuel consumption for vehicles. A set of inconsistencies is identified on a number of vehicles in a plurality of vehicles. The set of inconsistencies has an effect on the fuel consumption by the number of vehicles. A predicted fuel consumption is identified for the number of vehicles based on the set of inconsistencies. A determination is made as whether to perform rework on the set of inconsistencies on the number of vehicles based on the predicted fuel consumption for the number of vehicles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Robert D. Kalinowski, Shankar Sundaram
  • Patent number: 8577704
    Abstract: An output formula is automatically generated from an input formula using one of multiple methods determined by types of one or more parameters associated with the input formula and a dimensional operation associated with a dimension of at least a first parameter. The automatically generated output formula is stored, or a representation based on the automatically generated output formula is presented using a user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignee: Modelsheet Software, LLC
    Inventors: Howard I. Cannon, Richard J. Petti
  • Patent number: 8577703
    Abstract: System and method for monitoring and mentoring driver behavior and vehicle operation and for categorizing or grading a driver's performance. The driver's classification or grade is used to determine or adjust insurance rates, premiums or coverages for the driver. The driver may receive discounted insurance rates for using monitoring and/or mentoring equipment in the vehicle. Insurance companies may use the driver classifications or grades to bid for coverage of groups of drivers having similar classifications or grades.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignee: inthinc Technology Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Scott McClellan, Todd Follmer
  • Patent number: 8577705
    Abstract: The present invention is a method and system for measuring a set of shopper behavior metrics that represent the strength of a product category or a group of categories in the performance of a store area. A set of rating parameters are defined in order to provide a unified and standardized rating system. The rating system represents the effectiveness of the product category in a store area. The metrics are defined in a manner that is normalized so that they can be used across different types of product categories. The datasets are measured per category or group of categories over time to identify how the strength has varied over time, and to monitor trends in the category performance. The measured datasets are further analyzed based on various demographic groups and behavior segments. The analysis facilitates a better understanding of the strength of the category for different shopper segments, which in turn can be applied for developing better store area optimization strategies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2013
    Assignee: VideoMining Corporation
    Inventors: Priya Baboo, Rajeev Sharma, Varij Saurabh, Namsoon Jung
  • Patent number: 8571957
    Abstract: A method of managing all personal financial accounts is accomplished by providing an electronically accessible repository containing financial asset and liability account information. The repository may be electronically accessed by various access channels for reviewing the status of any account in the repository, transferring an external account into the repository, creating a new account in the repository, transferring account adjustments into and out of the repository, making account adjustments within the repository, closing or deleting an account within the repository, presenting a bill to the repository, and paying a bill from one or more accounts in the repository.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
    Inventor: Jeff Dennes
  • Patent number: 8571959
    Abstract: A network device coalesces data received from an exchange, and provides a user with the opportunity to receive fewer, but up-to-date, data updates from an exchange when duplicate prices become available or a large volume of prices becomes available suddenly. Accordingly, the trader can be assured of receiving non-duplicated prices that are fed at a rate that is cohesive with that trader's connection speed. The present invention is designed to conserve on bandwidth thereby increasing the likelihood that bandwidth will be available to receive desirable market information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Trading Technologies International, Inc.
    Inventors: Jens-Uwe Schluetter, Stephen A. Schwarz
  • Patent number: 8571910
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for finding and retrieving information within an enterprise that is relevant to enterprise problems, enterprise opportunities, and unexpected or interesting events. The method includes scanning content related to a process conducted by an enterprise, where the process includes one or more process steps; identifying a problem, opportunity or event associated with a process step (an enterprise stress point); indexing the scanned content with respect to the enterprise stress point; determining whether the scanned content is information relevant to the problem, opportunity or event; and providing relevant information to a user. The relevant information includes a description or discussion of a contemporaneous or previous experience of the enterprise regarding the problem, opportunity or event.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Inventor: Dimitris Lyras
  • Patent number: 8571906
    Abstract: A system for monitoring a flow of related tasks by supervisors of an organization stores information that defines a hierarchy within an enterprise, the hierarchy including a tree structure where each of a plurality of supervisors is placed in a supervisory position over one or more subordinates and each supervisor is sub ordinate to at most one other supervisor. The system also assigns a task for each of the plurality of supervisors to perform, wherein performing the task by a first supervisor depends in part on completion of the task by each of the one or more respective subordinates. The system also determines if one or more subordinates are causing a delay in the progress towards completion of the task within the hierarchy. The system further generates a report identifying the subordinates, if any, who are causing a delay in the task completion progress.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventors: Anadi Upadhyaya, Ty Hayden
  • Patent number: 8572002
    Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods, and computer-program products for determining shipping incentives. In general, various embodiments of the invention involve applying a shipping incentive for a customer receiving inbound shipments from a plurality of parties based on increased inbound shipments received from such parties. While other embodiments of the invention involve applying a shipping incentive to at least one customer based on increased shipments shipped to and/or received in a locale for a particular time period using a common carrier. In particular embodiments, the incentive may be a discount on a cost of shipping for the customer. While in other embodiments, the incentive may be something else such as a preferred shipping service for the customer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: United Parcel Service of America, Inc.
    Inventor: Nagesh Kadaba
  • Patent number: 8566133
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for identifying activity outliers from amongst employees/associates within a predetermined peer group of employees. The inventive concepts herein disclosed require establishing consistent peer groupings of employees/associates. In specific embodiments, the peer groupings may be defined by combining one or more and, typically two, line of business hierarchies and job title. Once the peer grouping is established, monitoring of pre-determined activities within designated applications is performed to determine the number of occurrence of the predetermined activities over a designated period of time. Activity outliers are subsequently determined based on the number of occurrence of the predetermined activities over the designated period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Bank of America Corporation
    Inventors: Rangarajan Umamaheswaran, Brett A. Nielson
  • Patent number: 8566142
    Abstract: The inventive subject matter is generally directed to matching a party with another party based on profiling of the parties, and optionally an industry category, for parameters that are relevant to making a match. In certain embodiments, the inventive subject matter facilitates matches between searchers and service providers based on assignment of searchers and service providers to predefined Buyer Types or Service Provider Types based on questionnaires, surveys, and other input and feedback mechanisms. In a further aspect, the inventive subject matter is directed to a system for valuing and monetizing a set of leads to offer to a party. In some embodiments, the inventive subject matter is directed to mobile applications for matching searchers with providers based on awareness of the locations of the parties.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Quotify Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Paul McCarney, Andrew Jessup
  • Patent number: 8560360
    Abstract: The invention relates to a system and a method for analysing with a temporal resolution below 160 milliseconds at least one response of a test person to at least one input stimulus. At least one input stimulus is provided to the test person and data representing the test person's response to this provided at least one input stimulus is obtained. From these data, at least one induced response pattern is determined in an automatic manner and at least one induced response pattern is identified. Optionally, the response pattern is interpreted and at least one induced response indicator is identified. The identified at least one induced response pattern and/or and at least one induced response indicator are synchronized to the presented at least one input stimulus. The synchronized at least one input stimulus and the determined at least one response pattern and/or at least one response indicator are presented in the same display and/or stored on the same means for storing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Mindmetric Ltd.
    Inventors: Birger Jan Olsen, Jens Nicolai Krarup, Mads Olsen
  • Patent number: 8560443
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for communicating and processing market data. The market data may comprise quotes, orders, trades and/or statistics. A messaging structure allows for adding, re-ordering and/or expanding data, within the printable character set of any language. One or more delimiters are defined and used to delimit data elements within the message structure. The data is interpreted based on templates which may be disseminated prior to the sending of messages and used as an abstraction so that the meaning of data need not be conveyed in the message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.
    Inventors: Ron Newell, Vijay Menon, Fred Malabre, Joe Lobraco, Jim Northey
  • Patent number: 8548834
    Abstract: An information capture, processing and retrieval (“ICPR”) system shared by multiple buyers, suppliers and workers concurrently and a method of operating the same. In one embodiment, the ICPR system includes an order documentation subsystem configured to document orders for the suppliers and the buyers with respect to the workers. Each of the orders specifies a different method of time capture for the workers assigned thereto. The ICPR system also includes a time capture subsystem configured to receive the different methods of time capture from the workers positioned in one of anchored and untethered locations assigned to the orders. In a related embodiment, the ICPR system further includes a time approval and buyer tagging subsystem configured to allow the buyers to label time worked by the workers corresponding to the buyers with one or more tags, thereby translating approved time of the workers into custom, internal terminology of the buyers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2013
    Assignee: Xtraprise, L.P.
    Inventors: Tony S. Harvey, John C. O'Neill