Patents by Inventor Christopher E. Smoak

Christopher E. Smoak 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: 9805315
    Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks, such as by an intermediary electronic marketplace or other task fulfillment facilitator system. In some situations, support is provided in various ways for using multiple human languages when supplying and performing tasks. For example, some tasks may have associated languages, and some tasks may further have multiple task variants that each have a distinct associated language. A user may then request information about tasks in a particular language, and receive information about tasks and/or task variants associated with that language. Furthermore, some tasks and task variants may further be associated with locales that include particular languages and/or various other factors, including geographical areas, and such locales may similarly be used to identify appropriate corresponding users that match the various locale factors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Peter D. Cohen, Luis Felipe Cabrera, Christopher E. Smoak
  • Patent number: 9697486
    Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating performance of tasks by human users. A task exchange server system acts an intermediary to facilitate performance by human task performer users of tasks provided by other task requesters, such as by providing information about tasks via an electronically accessible site. The task exchange server may further cause information about tasks to be provided to at least some users as they interact with third-party sites not provided by the task exchange server, such as third-party sites operated by entities unrelated to the task exchange server's operator. The third-party sites may include information about tasks along with other information that the third-party sites provide to users, or instead a separate client-side program executing on computing devices of certain users may obtain and present information about tasks to the users, such as in conjunction with information provided by unaffiliated third-party sites.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2017
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter D. Cohen, Christopher E. Smoak
  • Patent number: 8392235
    Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks, such as for use by an electronic marketplace for the tasks. In some situations, the electronic marketplace automatically determines prices to be paid for performance of tasks, such as in accordance with pricing-related criteria specified by task requesters who submit groups of numerous related tasks to be performed. Such pricing-related criteria may include various types of information about a desired pace of task performance for tasks of a group, and if so the electronic marketplace performs the automated price determination in such a manner as to accommodate the desired pace, such as by dynamically modifying prices when monitoring of an ongoing actual pace of performance of tasks differs sufficiently from a desired pace of performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2013
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter D. Cohen, Christopher E. Smoak
  • Patent number: 8046250
    Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks, such as by an intermediary electronic marketplace or other task fulfillment facilitator system. In some situations, support is provided in various ways for using multiple human languages when supplying and performing tasks. For example, some tasks may have associated languages, and some tasks may further have multiple task variants that each have a distinct associated language. A user may then request information about tasks in a particular language, and receive information about tasks and/or task variants associated with that language. Furthermore, some tasks and task variants may further be associated with locales that include particular languages and/or various other factors, including geographical areas, and such locales may similarly be used to identify appropriate corresponding users that match the various locale factors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter D. Cohen, Luis Felipe Cabrera, Christopher E. Smoak
  • Patent number: 8005697
    Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks, such as for use by an electronic marketplace for the tasks. In some situations, the electronic marketplace automatically determines prices to be paid for performance of tasks, such as in accordance with pricing-related criteria specified by task requesters who submit groups of numerous related tasks to be performed. Such pricing-related criteria may include various types of information about a desired pace of task performance for tasks of a group, and if so the electronic marketplace performs the automated price determination in such a manner as to accommodate the desired pace, such as by dynamically modifying prices when monitoring of an ongoing actual pace of performance of tasks differs sufficiently from a desired pace of performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter D. Cohen, Christopher E. Smoak
  • Publication number: 20080082542
    Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating performance of tasks by human users. A task exchange server system acts an intermediary to facilitate performance by human task performer users of tasks provided by other task requesters, such as by providing information about tasks via an electronically accessible site. The task exchange server may further cause information about tasks to be provided to at least some users as they interact with third-party sites not provided by the task exchange server, such as third-party sites operated by entities unrelated to the task exchange server's operator. The third-party sites may include information about tasks along with other information that the third-party sites provide to users, or instead a separate client-side program executing on computing devices of certain users may obtain and present information about tasks to the users, such as in conjunction with information provided by unaffiliated third-party sites.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2006
    Publication date: April 3, 2008
    Inventors: Peter D. Cohen, Christopher E. Smoak