Patents by Inventor Alan Cole

Alan Cole 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).

  • Patent number: 7925586
    Abstract: A method and system for escrow service for web-based transactions, such as multi-currency web-based transactions, is web-accessible and accepts registrations from exchanges and/or portal partners. The completion of registration and transactions is allowed to entitled users who access the system via the web. The system maintains an internal banking engine to act as a deal manager, messaging service and accounts sub-ledger and escrows funds entrusted to it. The transaction process is composed of a number of transaction statuses, and reporting of those statuses to users is accomplished online and via web query. The system provides local currency/multi-currency capability and supports several methods of payment, such as credit cards, authorized Automated Clearing House (ACH) or equivalent direct debit/credit and wire transfer payments, and all funds movements are electronic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2011
    Assignee: Citibank, N.A.
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Deborah Bennett, Hachadur Hashasian
  • Patent number: 7599877
    Abstract: The present invention provides secure, high-volume, processing methods and systems for multiple financial instruments that combine collateral matching to identify matched and unmatched financial transactions and consolidated mark to market valuations for all parties to a matched financial transaction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2009
    Assignee: Citibank, N.A.
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Jon Cassell
  • Publication number: 20090138398
    Abstract: A method and system for escrow service for web-based transactions, such as multi-currency web-based transactions, is web-accessible and accepts registrations from exchanges and/or portal partners. The completion of registration and transactions is allowed to entitled users who access the system via the web. The system maintains an internal banking engine to act as a deal manager, messaging service and accounts sub-ledger and escrows funds entrusted to it. The transaction process is composed of a number of transaction statuses, and reporting of those statuses to users is accomplished online and via web query. The system provides local currency/multi-currency capability and supports several methods of payment, such as credit cards, authorized Automated Clearing House (ACH) or equivalent direct debit/credit and wire transfer payments, and all funds movements are electronic.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2008
    Publication date: May 28, 2009
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Deborah Bennett, Hachadur Hashasian
  • Patent number: 7464057
    Abstract: A method and system for escrow service for web-based transactions is web-accessible and accepts registrations from exchanges and/or portal partners. The completion of registration and transactions is allowed to entitled users who access the system via the web. The system maintains an internal banking engine to act as a deal manager, messaging service and accounts sub-ledger and escrows funds entrusted to it. The transaction process is composed of a number of transaction statuses, and reporting of those statuses to users is accomplished online and via web query. The system supports several methods of payment, such as credit cards, authorized Automated Clearing House (ACH) or equivalent direct debit/credit and wire transfer payments, and all funds movements are electronic. The system supports transaction level detail through its banking engine accounts; funds movements from its currency accounts, and escrows funds to currency based escrow accounts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2008
    Assignee: Citibank, N.A.
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Deborah Bennett, Hachadur Hashasian
  • Publication number: 20080045240
    Abstract: Techniques are presented for identifying mobile devices within a coverage legion of a wireless station Positions for mobile devices, if any, within the coverage region are determined. It is then determined whether the positions are within one or more defined areas, called “notification areas” herein. Additionally, selected mobile devices within notification areas are sent messages. The selected mobile devices ale selected via certain criteria, including, for instance, campaign specifications and subscriber information A message can be sent to a mobile device if the subscriber corresponding to the mobile device has indicated an acceptance of a category of notifications for the message and for the publisher who is publishing the notifications. The category could be traffic conditions and the publisher could be a Department of transportation having responsibility for a particular freeway. These are two examples of multiple criteria for selecting mobile devices to which messages could be sent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2007
    Publication date: February 21, 2008
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Sastry Duri, Vineet Gupta, Jonathan Munson, David Wood
  • Publication number: 20070281701
    Abstract: It is determined whether a location of a mobile device is within a coverage region of a first information service. Communications for the first information service ate redirected to a second information service when the location of the mobile device is not within a coverage region of the first information service The second information service generally has a coverage region encompassing the location of the mobile device. Communications between a mobile device and a first information service ate redirected to another information service when properties of the new information service ale determined to meet predetermined criteria set by a user of the mobile device, by an application, or both. In yet another aspect of the invention, Replacement of information services can be “aggressive” or “non-aggressive.” Communications between a mobile device and an original information service are redirected to another information service when the original information service fails.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2007
    Publication date: December 6, 2007
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Sastry Duri, Jonathan Munson, John Murdock
  • Publication number: 20070188318
    Abstract: The invention provides an approach for automatic and dynamic mapping of zone boundaries for position-determination systems. The system of the present invention utilizes beacons (“position determining devices”) to identify the boundaries and limits of device area coverage (“zone”) for tracking objects with a position-determination system. Beacons, used both to identify zone boundaries and to tag assets to be tracked, are distributed within the zone. The beacon locations are then detected and displayed in the visualization application. Three or more beacons may be linked together, either manually or automatically, to establish a detection zone. Using beacons to establish detection zone boundaries eliminates guesswork and its associated errors, and produces a zone boundary that is actually valid.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2006
    Publication date: August 16, 2007
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Jeffrey Elliott, Holger Maier, Paul Moskowitz, Amadeus Podvratnik
  • Publication number: 20070021128
    Abstract: Techniques are presented for identifying mobile devices within a coverage region of a wireless station. Positions for mobile devices, if any, within the coverage region are determined. It is then determined whether the positions are within one or more defined areas, called “notification areas” herein. Additionally, selected mobile devices within notification areas are sent messages. The selected mobile devices are selected via certain criteria, including, for instance, campaign specifications and subscriber information. A message can be sent to a mobile device if the subscriber corresponding to the mobile device has indicated an acceptance of a category of notifications for the message and for the publisher who is publishing the notifications. The category could be traffic conditions and the publisher could be a Department of Transportation having responsibility for a particular freeway. These are two examples of multiple criteria for selecting mobile devices to which messages could be sent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2006
    Publication date: January 25, 2007
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Sastry Duri, Vineet Gupta, Jonathan Munson, David Wood
  • Publication number: 20060264222
    Abstract: It is determined whether a location of a mobile device is within a coverage region of a first information service. Communications for the first information service are redirected to a second information service when the location of the mobile device is not within a coverage region of the first information service. The second information service generally has a coverage region encompassing the location of the mobile device. Communications between a mobile device and a first information service are redirected to another information service when properties of the new information service are determined to meet predetermined criteria set by a user of the mobile device, by an application, or both. In yet another aspect of the invention, Replacement of information services can be “aggressive” or “non-aggressive.” Communications between a mobile device and an original information service are redirected to another information service when the original information service fails.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2006
    Publication date: November 23, 2006
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Sastry Duri, Jonathan Munson, John Murdock
  • Publication number: 20060061476
    Abstract: A method for determining attributes of entities within a physical space. More specifically, the location of the entities in the physical space are determined using this invention. A reader automatically moves throughout the space and takes measurements of the attributes of corresponding entities when it detects the presence of these entities in the physical space. The attributes of the entities could be the location, temperature and so forth. The reader could be an RF detection device for reading signals from the tags attached to the entities.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2004
    Publication date: March 23, 2006
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Abhishek Patil, Alan Cole, Paul Moskowitz, Jonathan Munson, David Wood, Han Chen
  • Publication number: 20050216583
    Abstract: Spatial rules involve locations of entities, such as wireless devices, from a mobile population. When evaluating rules in a communication network, attributes of an entity are determined, where one of the attributes comprises location of the entity. Rules are evaluated to produce one or more results, each of the rules operating on the attributes of the entity. Specified actions for the rules are performed, based on the evaluation of the rules. At least one of the specified actions comprises communicating a result to an application. The communication network may have a portion that is wireless. An attribute of the entity can include subscriber information and an entity generally corresponds to a particular subscriber in the communication network, but the entity may also correspond to multiple subscribers. An entity may be a wireless device, which can subscribe to a network. Rules can apply to particular geographical regions, to particular subscribers, to both, or to additional criteria.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2004
    Publication date: September 29, 2005
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Sastry Duri, Jonathan Munson, David Wood
  • Publication number: 20020161707
    Abstract: A method and system for escrow service for web-based transactions is web-accessible and accepts registrations from exchanges and/or portal partners. The completion of registration and transactions is allowed to entitled users who access the system via the web. The system maintains an internal banking engine to act as a deal manager, messaging service and accounts sub-ledger and escrows funds entrusted to it. The transaction process is composed of a number of transaction statuses, and reporting of those statuses to users is accomplished online and via web query. The system supports several methods of payment, such as credit cards, authorized Automated Clearing House (ACH) or equivalent direct debit/credit and wire transfer payments, and all funds movements are electronic. The system supports transaction level detail through its banking engine accounts; funds movements from its currency accounts, and escrows funds to currency based escrow accounts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2002
    Publication date: October 31, 2002
    Inventors: Alan Cole, Deborah Bennett, Hachadur Hashasian