Patents by Inventor Alan Back

Alan Back has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20070220507
    Abstract: A system manages version information for a group of software components by maintaining a version repository containing version information for all of the components. The system determines a baseline for the components, modifies data in the repository in connection with updating software components, and accesses the data in the repository to determine version information for the components. The system described herein also determines if a group of software components correspond to a particular baseline by maintaining baseline information in the version repository. The system obtains the particular baseline for the group of components, compares the version information for each of the components with a corresponding minimum version provided in connection with the baseline, and determines whether a group of software components correspond to the particular baseline.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2006
    Publication date: September 20, 2007
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Alan Back, James Holmes, Manoj Nayar, Sridhar Chandrashekar
  • Publication number: 20060167844
    Abstract: An information portal for aiding support professionals, such as computer support professionals, in diagnosing and correcting problems is disclosed. A plurality of high quality information resources in a plurality of formats are organized by topics and subtopics familiar to the professionals to reduce the amount of searching required to access the information resources. Requests for new information resources are supported by the portal as are requests for collaboration with the subject expert. New information resources are submitted to the portal through a software assisted quality control process to ensure the quality, reliability, and timeliness of the resource information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2005
    Publication date: July 27, 2006
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Nelamangala Srinivas, Alan Back, Reid Lowery