Patents by Inventor Alan Engel

Alan Engel 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: 20120173263
    Abstract: Methods and systems for implementation of therapy programs are described. In one embodiment, it is determined that a member is enrolled in a drug benefit program. It is determined that a decision deadline has occurred for continuing an aspect of a benefit of the drug benefit program. It is determined that a decision response has not been received from the member. A suspension of the aspect of the benefit of the drug benefit program is generated based on the determination that the decision response has not been received from the member. Other methods and systems are described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 27, 2011
    Publication date: July 5, 2012
    Inventors: ROBERT F. NEASE, JR., Katherine Harini Sundararaman, Mark Alan Engel, Kevin C. Cohan
  • Patent number: 7522971
    Abstract: A method and system is provided for collecting relatively small batches of mail that, alone, would not qualify for mailing at a pre-sorted postage rate and pooling them together with others for pre-sorting into a qualified batch of pre-sorted mail. The inventive method involves transporting mail in a traceable container to a holding facility where it is pooled with others for pickup and processing by a mail pre-sorting business. The mail may be metered at a reduced program rate. The system creates a cooperative of participating mail senders working together to earn a lower effective postage rate. The method further provides a solution to the technical problem of postal sorting equipment that is overburdened by medium-sized batches of unsorted mail. The solution identifies and diverts such batches for processing at a separate facility before the batch is tendered to the postal service.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignee: United Parcel Service of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Scott Brehm, Stanley Alan Engel, Michael Todd McAlpin, Sandy Lee Pittman, Joseph Clay Teate
  • Publication number: 20060242118
    Abstract: Problem: Document classification systems are valuable tools for searching and retrieving classified documents but can be prohibitively complex and cumbersome for users. Problem: A system for the indexing and retrieval of classified documents inserts keywords, titles or definitions of previously applied classifications into the document record and provides the resulting record to a search engine. Searchers are able to retrieve documents by searching on keywords from the classification system without looking up class coding.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 8, 2004
    Publication date: October 26, 2006
    Inventor: Alan Engel
  • Patent number: 6490548
    Abstract: A multilingual electronic transfer dictionary provides for automatic topic disambiguation by including one or more topic codes in definitions contained the dictionary. Automatic topic disambiguation is accomplished by determining the frequencies of topic codes within a block of text. Dictionary entries having more frequently occurring topic codes are preferentially selected over those having less frequently occurring topic codes. When the topic codes are members of a hierarchical topical coding system, such as the International Patent Classification system, an iterative method can be used with starts with a coarser level of the coding system and is repeated at finer levels until an ambiguity is resolved. The dictionary is advantageously used for machine translation, e.g. between Japanese and English.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2002
    Assignee: Paterra, Inc.
    Inventor: Alan Engel
  • Publication number: 20020053533
    Abstract: A method and system is provided for collecting relatively small batches of mail that, alone, would not qualify for mailing at a pre-sorted postage rate and pooling them together with others for pre-sorting into a qualified batch of pre-sorted mail. The inventive method involves transporting mail in a traceable container to a holding facility where it is pooled with others for pickup and processing by a mail pre-sorting business. The mail may be metered at a reduced program rate. The system creates a cooperative of participating mail senders working together to earn a lower effective postage rate. The method further provides a solution to the technical problem of postal sorting equipment that is overburdened by medium-sized batches of unsorted mail. The solution identifies and diverts such batches for processing at a separate facility before the batch is tendered to the postal service.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2001
    Publication date: May 9, 2002
    Inventors: Christopher Scott Brehm, Stanley Alan Engel, Michael Todd McAlpin, Sandy Lee Pittman, Joseph Clay Teate