Patents by Inventor Eric J. Zappa

Eric J. Zappa 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: 9525584
    Abstract: Techniques are described to establish one-way public relationships. In an implementation, a service manager module is usable to configure a webpage for output to a client over a network to provide to a user of the client an indication of others users that are part of a social network of the user and have establishes one-way public relationships, respectively, with another user corresponding to an object of a social networking service available from a service provider. In addition, a relation module is configured to establish a one-way public relationship between the user of the client and the other user corresponding to the object without establishing a mutual friend relationship between the user and the other user. In an implementation, the one-way public relationship is established in response to user selection of a control that is presented on the webpage that is output at the client in conjunction with the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Michelle M. Aleong, Paul A. Elliott, Bhupinder S. Sethi, Eric J. Zappa
  • Patent number: 9230238
    Abstract: Techniques are described to share items from a favorites list. In an implementation, a list entry for a favorites list may be associated with content from a third party source by a first user. The favorites list may be presented in a webpage to display the list entry and the associated content to another user. A control operable to share the list entry with the other user may be exposed with the list entry. Responsive to operation of the control, the content and/or related data may be obtained from the third party source and data may be stored to associate the list entry including the obtained content with the other user. In at least some embodiments, the control is operable by a single-click to cause the sharing of the list entry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Eric J. Zappa, Abdul Haadi Mohammed, Wendy Wenjing Wang, Jeffrey E. Steinbok, Joseph Andrew Bono
  • Patent number: 8380639
    Abstract: Techniques are described to establish one-way public relationships. In an implementation, a control is exposed that is operable to become a fan of an object within a social networking page. Responsive to operation of the control, data may be stored to establish a one-way public relationship between a user and the selected object. By establishing a one-way public relationship rather than a mutual friend relationship, the object and/or a corresponding owner of the object is not included in the user's social network and is not provided access to the user's profile, status, or other personal information. The one-way public relationship may be employed by a service provider to serve content related to the object to the user. The one-way public relationships may also be employed by the service provider to push status updates regarding the object to “fans” of the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2013
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Michelle M. Aleong, Paul A. Elliott, Bhupinder S. Sethi, Eric J. Zappa
  • Publication number: 20110004519
    Abstract: Techniques are described to establish one-way public relationships. In an implementation, a control is exposed that is operable to become a fan of an object within a social networking page. Responsive to operation of the control, data may be stored to establish a one-way public relationship between a user and the selected object. By establishing a one-way public relationship rather than a mutual friend relationship, the object and/or a corresponding owner of the object is not included in the user's social network and is not provided access to the user's profile, status, or other personal information. The one-way public relationship may be employed by a service provider to serve content related to the object to the user. The one-way public relationships may also be employed by the service provider to push status updates regarding the object to “fans” of the object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2009
    Publication date: January 6, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Michelle M. Aleong, Paul A. Elliott, Bhupinder S. Sethi, Eric J. Zappa
  • Publication number: 20100235788
    Abstract: Techniques are described to share items from a favorites list. In an implementation, a list entry for a favorites list may be associated with content from a third party source by a first user. The favorites list may be presented in a webpage to display the list entry and the associated content to another user. A control operable to share the list entry with the other user may be exposed with the list entry. Responsive to operation of the control, the content and/or related data may be obtained from the third party source and data may be stored to associate the list entry including the obtained content with the other user. In at least some embodiments, the control is operable by a single-click to cause the sharing of the list entry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2009
    Publication date: September 16, 2010
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Eric J. Zappa, Abdul Haadi Mohammed, Wendy Wenjing Wang, Jeffrey E. Steinbok, Joseph Andrew Bono