Patents by Inventor Brian Holtz

Brian Holtz 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: 10894214
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating multigame currencies in multiple online games and security therewith is disclosed. The multigame currencies may be “spent” and/or “earned” by the players in the individual ones of the multiple online games. A request to use the multigame currencies in a given player account in a given online game may be authenticated through a third party identity that has been associated with the given player for the given online game. In situations where such an association does not exist, a third party identity associated with the given player for any other online game may be used to authenticate the request. In situations where no third party identity is associated with the given player for any one of the online games, an association of a third party identity and the given player for the given online game may be facilitated for subsequent authentication of requests.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: ELECTRONIC ARTS INC.
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Deniz Ipek, Dale Cook, Miikka Skaffari, Katherine Wiemelt
  • Patent number: 10284547
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication are disclosed. A string sequence may be presented to a user for prompting the user to input credential characters sequentially but not continuously. The string sequence may comprise a set of prompt strings containing a prompt character sequence associated with the user and a set of noise strings that do not contain the prompt character sequence. The individual prompt strings in the set of prompt strings may be composed by obfuscating the prompt sequence among noise characters. A user credential response may be received and a user provided credential may be extracted from the received user credential for user authentication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: ELECTRONIC ARTS INC.
    Inventor: Brian Holtz
  • Publication number: 20180126280
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating multigame currencies in multiple online games and security therewith is disclosed. The multigame currencies may be “spent” and/or “earned” by the players in the individual ones of the multiple online games. A request to use the multigame currencies in a given player account in a given online game may be authenticated through a third party identity that has been associated with the given player for the given online game. In situations where such an association does not exist, a third party identity associated with the given player for any other online game may be used to authenticate the request. In situations where no third party identity is associated with the given player for any one of the online games, an association of a third party identity and the given player for the given online game may be facilitated for subsequent authentication of requests.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 5, 2018
    Publication date: May 10, 2018
    Inventors: Brian HOLTZ, Deniz IPEK, Dale COOK, Miikka SKAFFARI, Katherine WIEMELT
  • Publication number: 20180124036
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication are disclosed. A string sequence may be presented to a user for prompting the user to input credential characters sequentially but not continuously. The string sequence may comprise a set of prompt strings containing a prompt character sequence associated with the user and a set of noise strings that do not contain the prompt character sequence. The individual prompt strings in the set of prompt strings may be composed by obfuscating the prompt sequence among noise characters. A user credential response may be received and a user provided credential may be extracted from the received user credential for user authentication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2017
    Publication date: May 3, 2018
    Inventor: Brian Holtz
  • Patent number: 9895613
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating multigame currencies in multiple online games and security therewith is disclosed. The multigame currencies may be “spent” and/or “earned” by the players in the individual ones of the multiple online games. A request to use the multigame currencies in a given player account in a given online game may be authenticated through a third party identity that has been associated with the given player for the given online game. In situations where such an association does not exist, a third party identity associated with the given player for any other online game may be used to authenticate the request. In situations where no third party identity is associated with the given player for any one of the online games, an association of a third party identity and the given player for the given online game may be facilitated for subsequent authentication of requests.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignee: Aftershock Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Deniz Ipek, Dale Cook, Miikka Skaffari, Katherine Wiemelt
  • Patent number: 9876782
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication are disclosed. A string sequence may be presented to a user for prompting the user to input credential characters sequentially but not continuously. The string sequence may comprise a set of prompt strings containing a prompt character sequence associated with the user and a set of noise strings that do not contain the prompt character sequence. The individual prompt strings in the set of prompt strings may be composed by obfuscating the prompt sequence among noise characters. A user credential response may be received and a user provided credential may be extracted from the received user credential for user authentication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2018
    Assignee: Aftershock Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Brian Holtz
  • Publication number: 20160044020
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication are disclosed. A string sequence may be presented to a user for prompting the user to input credential characters sequentially but not continuously. The string sequence may comprise a set of prompt strings containing a prompt character sequence associated with the user and a set of noise strings that do not contain the prompt character sequence. The individual prompt strings in the set of prompt strings may be composed by obfuscating the prompt sequence among noise characters. A user credential response may be received and a user provided credential may be extracted from the received user credential for user authentication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2015
    Publication date: February 11, 2016
    Applicant: KABAM, INC.
    Inventor: Brian Holtz
  • Patent number: 9172697
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication are disclosed. A string sequence may be presented to a user for prompting the user to input credential characters sequentially but not continuously. The string sequence may comprise a set of prompt strings containing a prompt character sequence associated with the user and a set of noise strings that do not contain the prompt character sequence. The individual prompt strings in the set of prompt strings may be composed by obfuscating the prompt sequence among noise characters. A user credential response may be received and a user provided credential may be extracted from the received user credential for user authentication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2015
    Assignee: Kabam, Inc.
    Inventor: Brian Holtz
  • Patent number: 8353008
    Abstract: A device, system, and method are directed towards facilitating a registration of a user for a network service. In one embodiment, a server receives, from a user at a client device, user information including at least one text block. The server analyzes the text block to determine an authenticity value of the user information. The analysis may be based on the length of a lexicon of the text block, the size of a word such as the longest word in the text block, or the number of clauses in the text block. The analysis may be further based on expected values determined by such values in authentic text blocks of a similar nature. Based on the authenticity value, the system may allow the user to access the network service, disallow access to the network, allow conditional access, queue the registration application for further review, or take other actions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Kevin Brown
  • Patent number: 7702641
    Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a method for comparing file tree descriptions and generating a sequenced log of changes that transform an old file tree to a new file tree. According to one embodiment, the inputs to this comparator are two tree-structured descriptions called file tree indices, and the outputs are a sequence of file tree operations that can transform the old tree to the current tree. According to another embodiment, the comparator has two top level steps, where at step one it recursively goes through the old file tree index and compares each folder along with its children with that of the corresponding file tree generating a raw operation log, and at step two after the recursion is done, the comparator processes the raw operation log and optimizes certain sets of operations by transforming them into single operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Oracle America, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Vijay Balasubramanian, Nidheesh Dubey, Aseem Sharma, Vivek Pandey
  • Publication number: 20090288142
    Abstract: A device, system, and method are directed towards facilitating a registration of a user for a network service. In one embodiment, a server receives, from a user at a client device, user information including at least one text block. The server analyzes the text block to determine an authenticity value of the user information. The analysis may be based on the length of a lexicon of the text block, the size of a word such as the longest word in the text block, or the number of clauses in the text block. The analysis may be further based on expected values determined by such values in authentic text blocks of a similar nature. Based on the authenticity value, the system may allow the user to access the network service, disallow access to the network, allow conditional access, queue the registration application for further review, or take other actions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2008
    Publication date: November 19, 2009
    Applicant: Yahoo! Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Kevin Brown
  • Patent number: 7165248
    Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a method for resolving conflicting changes encountered when reconciling parallel user changes to two synchronized trees of folders and files. According to one embodiment, these conflicts are presented to the user as an interface that requires an indication from the user to the winner of the conflict. According to another embodiment, since certain conflicts cannot be resolved independently, they have to be combined and presented to the user as a single conflict. According to yet another embodiment, after the user has indicated which operations are the winners of all or some of the conflicts, the winning operations are applied to the file tree with which they are in conflict.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2007
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Vijay Balasubramanian, Nidheesh Dubey, Aseem Sharma, Vivek Pandey
  • Patent number: 7085779
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for reconciling any changes that have occurred in two file trees since they were last synchronized. A reconciler takes as input two logs of the changes made in the respective file trees. The first log resides on a client computing device, and the second log resides on a server computing device. The reconciler outputs two sets of changes that need to be applied to the respective file trees in order to synchronize them. The reconciler detects and outputs a list of changes that conflict with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2006
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Vijay Balasubramanian, Nidheesh Dubey, Aseem Sharma, Vivek Pandey
  • Publication number: 20040015456
    Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a method for resolving conflicting changes encountered when reconciling parallel user changes to two synchronized trees of folders and files. According to one embodiment, these conflicts are presented to the user as an interface that requires an indication from the user to the winner of the conflict. According to another embodiment, since certain conflicts cannot be resolved independently, they have to be combined and presented to the user as a single conflict. According to yet another embodiment, after the user has indicated which operations are the winners of all or some of the conflicts, the winning operations are applied to the file tree with which they are in conflict.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2001
    Publication date: January 22, 2004
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Vijay Balasubramanian, Nidheesh Dubey, Aseem Sharma, Vivek Pandey
  • Publication number: 20030040758
    Abstract: A robotic medical system that provides a visual indication of the force exerted by an end effector of the system. The end effector is coupled to a robotic arm that is controlled by a handle. The end effector is inserted through an incision of a patient to perform a minimally invasive procedure. The surgeon can view the procedure on a screen that is coupled to an endoscope also inserted into the patient. The visual indicator may be a bar graph displayed on the screen. The bar graph has individual bar segments that are illuminated in accordance with the amplitude of the force exerted by the end effector. The visual force indicator provides a high resolution force feedback system for the instrument end effector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2001
    Publication date: February 27, 2003
    Inventors: Yulun Wang, Brian Holtz, Brian Miller, Steve Belinski
  • Publication number: 20020184252
    Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention provide a method for comparing file tree descriptions and generating a sequenced log of changes that transform an old file tree to a new file tree. According to one embodiment, the inputs to this comparator are two tree-structured descriptions called file tree indices, and the outputs are a sequence of file tree operations that can transform the old tree to the current tree. According to another embodiment, the comparator has two top level steps, where at step one it recursively goes through the old file tree index and compares each folder along with its children with that of the corresponding file tree generating a raw operation log, and at step two after the recursion is done, the comparator processes the raw operation log and optimizes certain sets of operations by transforming them into single operations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2001
    Publication date: December 5, 2002
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Vijay Balasubramanian, Nidheesh Dubey, Aseem Sharma, Vivek Pandey
  • Publication number: 20020184242
    Abstract: The embodiments of the present invention are a method of reconciling any changes that have occurred in two file trees since they were last synchronized. According to one embodiment, the reconciler takes as input two logs of said changes made in the respective file trees. In another embodiment, the first log resides on a client computing device, and the second log resides on a server computing device. According to another embodiment, the reconciler outputs two sets of changes that need to be applied to the respective file trees in order to synchronize them. According to another embodiment, the reconciler detects and outputs a list of changes that conflict with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2001
    Publication date: December 5, 2002
    Inventors: Brian Holtz, Vijay Balasubramanian, Nidheesh Dubey, Aseem Sharma, Vivek Pandey
  • Publication number: 20020116500
    Abstract: The present invention provides a protocol for the transfer of files to and from electronic devices, especially wireless devices. In one embodiment, the present invention is used by these devices connected by any means to the source of the file. These means can be wireless, modem dial-up, or conduit of a PDA. Since the present invention is used by wireless devices which operate on limited and expensive wireless bandwidth, it is not verbose and “chatty” unlike prior art protocols based on clear-text HTML, XML, or HotSync. The present invention uses HTTP or HTTPS to connect two devices communicating with each other. HTTP is used since it is a protocol that is usually allowed to traverse virtual private network firewalls. The invention allows the server to maintain multiple sessions with different clients. These sessions will end automatically if no data is transferred after a certain length of time has elapsed. These different clients can connect and perform operations concurrently with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2001
    Publication date: August 22, 2002
    Inventors: Akhil K. Arora, Brian Holtz, Aseem Sharma, Herbert T. Ong, Mingchi Stephen Mak, David J. Proulx
  • Patent number: 6433800
    Abstract: Apparatus, and an associated method, provides iconic representations of actions available to be performed upon an object of a particular datatype. The iconic representations are displayed, for instance, as part of a toolbar on a computer display. A representation of an object upon which an action is to be performed is dragged-and-dropped upon the iconic representation of the selected action to invoke that action upon both the dropped object and the object of a particular datatype.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2002
    Assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Inventor: Brian Holtz
  • Publication number: 20020057292
    Abstract: Apparatus, and an associated method, provides iconic representations of actions available to be performed upon an object of a particular datatype. The iconic representations are displayed, for instance, as part of a toolbar on a computer display. A representation of an object upon which an action is to be performed is dragged-and-dropped upon the iconic representation of the selected action to invoke that action upon both the dropped object and the object of a particular datatype.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 1998
    Publication date: May 16, 2002
    Inventor: BRIAN HOLTZ