Patents Examined by Thomas Dixon
  • Patent number: 8543440
    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 at least one covering entity 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 at least one covering entity are monitored and a change in one of the calendars is detected. It is then determined whether the change causes a threshold criteria to be met, and in response to determining that the change causes the coverage rule to be violated, a coverage warning notification indicating a potential for violation of the coverage rule is automatically generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2013
    Assignee: Scenera Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Robert J. Sundstrom
  • Patent number: 8543444
    Abstract: A system and method for assessing compliance risk of a regulated institution. Data on a plurality of regulated institutions is extracted from publicly available sources and stored in an extracted information database. A client questionnaire is created and separated into a plurality of role categories. A list of employees and their area of responsibility is obtained from a client regulated institution. The client questionnaire is distributed to the employees, each employee receiving questions from a role category based on their area of responsibility. Answers are stored in a client questionnaire database. Data on the client regulated institution is located in the extracted information database. Then, based on the questionnaire answers and extracted data, the risk that the client regulated institution will not be compliant with a set of regulations is assessed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2013
    Assignee: Neighborbench LLC
    Inventors: Kenneth Price Agle, Robert Patrick Ryan, Ken Wolff
  • Patent number: 8538792
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a total cost of ownership method and system for technology components, applications or business units. The system provides financial reporting costs in information technology terms in order to build a bridge between technology and finance organizations. The method and system utilize data from systems of record for assets and charges, extract this data and deliver output reports and visualizations on the data processing and analysis in order to drive a Total Cost of Ownership for technology components, applications or business units. The method includes bringing data from disparate sources into the computer processor accessing at least one storage medium, validating the data by a Data Quality Engine, processing the data by matching the at least one charge to the at least one asset and performing data analytics and reporting on the Total Cost of Ownership.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
    Inventor: Derek Kane
  • Patent number: 8538866
    Abstract: A method is disclosed. The method includes sending bankruptcy notification messages to a plurality of creditors. The bankruptcy notification messages notify the creditors that various debtors have filed for bankruptcy. Requests are received from the plurality of creditors to file proofs of claims for debts owed by the debtors to the creditors with bankruptcy organizations. The requests are aggregated from the plurality of creditors, and the proofs of claims are filed with the bankruptcy organizations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: Visa U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventors: Melyssa Barrett, Eric Christopher Lundquist
  • Patent number: 8538790
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for measuring and reporting business intelligence based on comments collected from web page users using software associated with accessed web pages includes: using a computer system, accessing a plurality of user comments collected from users of one or more web pages using feedback collection software that provides users who access a particular web page a viewable element through which to provide their comments regarding one or more aspects of a business associated with the particular web page; using a computer system, associating each of the plurality of collected user comments with one or more of a plurality of predefined business-related categories; and using a computer system, generating a report identifying, for each of the plurality of predefined business-related categories, one or more quantitative values derived from the collected user comments associated with that business-related category.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: OpinionLab, Inc.
    Inventors: Rand B. Nickerson, Mark A. Treschl
  • Patent number: 8533012
    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: June 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Rodney Daughtrey
  • Patent number: 8533073
    Abstract: An electronic method of auditing floorplan loans is provided. The floorplan loans are provided by a lending source to a plurality of vehicle dealers. The method includes, for each of the plurality of vehicle dealers, an entity other than the lending source or a dealer (i) retrieving the lending source's records corresponding to the dealer's floorplan loan; (ii) retrieving the dealer's internal financial records used by the dealer for tracking sales; (iii) comparing the lending source's records with the dealer's internal financial management records to determine a variance between the lending source's records and the dealer's records; and (iv) reporting the variance to the lending source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: DealerTrack Data Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Cameron Eldred
  • Patent number: 8527307
    Abstract: A method, system and program product for providing distribution of customer feedback pertaining to an aspect of a retail environment. The method includes creating either a text, an audio or visual tag for inputting into a tool, feedback from customers using a plurality of devices, the tag including either a product-related or a location-related tag that can be used to extrapolate on the feedback. The method further includes identifying respective locations of customers, collecting in real-time the feedback inputted by the customers and providing a user, a customer that has provided feedback or not, access to the feedback collected based on either an inquiry submitted to the tool by the user or based on a current location of the user identified by the tool. The method further includes retrieving in real-time a subset of the feedback collected based on either the inquiry submitted or the current location of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Rick A. Hamilton, II, William J. Huie, Jenny S. Li, Clifford A. Pickover
  • Patent number: 8527310
    Abstract: A customer experience management capability is disclosed. The customer experience management is configured to create a prioritized improvement action plan with regard to the customer experience of a customer of a service provider across all or part of the lifecycle of the relationship of the customer with the service provider.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: Alcatel Lucent
    Inventors: Jon J. Capetz, Ann Marie Vega, John Brame, Steven Blackshaw
  • Patent number: 8527400
    Abstract: A computerized system and method for structuring risk management and assist a financial institution quantify financial, legal, regulatory and reputational risk associated with opening accounts related to management of financial assets and investments and facilitate analysis and quantification of risk. An automated account opening risk management system receives information quantifying factors relating to financial, legal, regulatory and/or reputational risk. The information is utilized to generate a risk quotient or other rating based upon a weighting algorithm applied to the criteria. The risk quotient is indicative of risk associated with an account. The quotient can be monitored on account opening, periodically or during a transaction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: Goldman, Sachs & Co.
    Inventor: David Lawrence
  • Patent number: 8521628
    Abstract: A financial assessment tool provides a user with specific, actionable advice personalized to the user, based on known and provided user data. In addition to the specific advice, a rationale is provided for the specific advice. Also, resources for additional educational material are provided to help the user understand the context for the advice. The financial assessment tool is available online and uses previously stored data pertaining to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: United Services Automobile Association (USAA)
    Inventors: David Brian Gowen, Jeffrey R. Hunt
  • Patent number: 8521573
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for supporting the selection of a component or chemical substance for countermeasure in compliance with a restriction or the like to limit a content rate or content amount of a chemical substance of a product coming in or going out from each enterprise.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masataka Tanaka, Noriyasu Ninagawa, Yasuhiro Hamatsuka, Yuzo Hiroshige
  • Patent number: 8521571
    Abstract: In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for managing multiple business hours in an on-demand service. These mechanisms and methods for managing multiple business hours in an on-demand service can enable embodiments to provide access to a stored set of business hours for a user to track, at a user level. The ability of embodiments to provide this access may allow users of such on-demand services better insight as to how much time their agents are spending on cases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: salesforce.com, inc.
    Inventors: Mark A. Fischer, Marco Salvatore Casalaina, Benjamin Tsai
  • Patent number: 8521577
    Abstract: A method and system for paratransit run-cutting is provided. A target number of paratransit vehicles is determined for each of a set of time intervals. A target number of trips corresponding to the target number of paratransit vehicles is generated for each time interval, each of said mock trips being defined such that a vehicle performing one of said mock trips in one of said time intervals is able to perform any of said mock trips in an immediately subsequent one of said time intervals. The target number of mock trips for each of the time intervals is entered into a fixed-route transit run-cutting application. Paratransit runs are created using fixed-route transit runs generated by said fixed-route transit run-cutting application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Trapeze Software, Inc.
    Inventors: Keith W. Forstall, Jan Bednarz
  • Patent number: 8515795
    Abstract: For creating a data governance assessment, a response module receives responses to an automated questionnaire. A scoring module computes a data governance assessment comprising a maturity level describing organizational adoption of data governance, a data governance model describing a data centralization level, and a framework describing a tier of data governance by calculating the maturity level, the data governance model, and the framework from the responses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Carl M. Marrelli, Ram S. Narayanan, Martin Oberhofer, Solmaz Rashidi
  • Patent number: 8510142
    Abstract: An expert system for providing optimized recommendations regarding a construction project is configured to generate conflicting optimization recommendations. Multiple expert system engines are implemented, where each engine provides one or more recommendations optimized in accordance with the priorities of a functional discipline. A conflict engine will identify conflicts between optimized recommendations and will package the conflicts into conflict objects that are presented to a conflict user interface for resolution. The user could resolve the conflicts him/herself, or could configure a cross-functional conflict object to resolve such conflicts based upon specified resolution criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Fluor Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Ivo Willems, Michael Pye
  • Patent number: 8510144
    Abstract: A method for workforce scheduling by a computer system is provided. The method includes receiving a first workforce schedule describing initial assignments of a plurality of workers to a plurality of shifts, each shift comprising one or more work activities, each work activity comprising an activity and a time interval, and storing the first workforce schedule in a memory. The method also includes receiving a cell size associated with each activity, and determining a quantity of workers in each work activity associated with each activity in the first workforce schedule. The method further includes determining cell size violations by dividing the quantity of workers assigned to each work activity by the cell size for the activity associated with the work activity. The method also includes modifying the first workforce schedule to minimize cell size violations, resulting in a second workforce schedule, and storing the second workforce schedule in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Verint Americas Inc.
    Inventor: Edward Hamilton
  • Patent number: 8510150
    Abstract: An exemplary method includes a fiber to the premises (“FTTP”) network modeling system assigning a cost factor to each of a plurality of street segments within a geospatial polyline map of a fiber optic network service area, receiving input representative of a geospatial location of each of a plurality of FTTP demand sites, automatically determining a least cost path along one or more of the street segments for each of the FTTP demand sites to a central office included in the FTTP network in accordance with the assigned cost factors, automatically determining a demand associated with each street segment included in the plurality of street segments; and automatically determining a geospatial location and a size of a plurality of fiber distribution hubs to be included in the FTTP network. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Verizon North LLC
    Inventors: Michael R. Blasius, Jonathan Allen
  • Patent number: 8504472
    Abstract: A method for providing electronic access to an electronic payment system includes receiving, in conjunction with a purchase by an accountholder at a merchant, information for identifying a payment account of the accountholder based upon entry into a POS terminal of the merchant of an identifier that enables identification of the accountholder and a mobile communications device of the accountholder. The method further includes providing electronic access to an electronic payment system that further enables using a telephone number of a payee to initiate an electronic communication with an electronic device associated with the payee without requiring a communications link to be established directly between a mobile communications device of the accountholder and the electronic device of the payee in order to complete a payment from the accountholder to the payee. Methods further include providing an additional service account with which a payment account of the accountholder is associated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Assignee: GoFigure Payments, LLC
    Inventor: Devon A. Rolf
  • Patent number: 8504404
    Abstract: A method and a system for providing scheduling assistance are described. A computer-implemented method includes extracting from a request for scheduling a meeting a meeting location and a meeting start time in response to the request from a requester. The method includes retrieving, from an event database, event information for a preceding event occurring before the meeting. The event information includes an event location and an event end time. Travel time from the event location to the meeting location is determined, and a potential travel time scheduling conflict is identified when the travel time exceeds a time difference between the event end time and the meeting start time. Notification of the potential travel time scheduling conflict is provided to the requester.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventor: Kenneth S. Norton