Patents by Inventor Ian Harcourt Niles

Ian Harcourt Niles 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: 10643027
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media are provided for generating a taxonomic view from a standard taxonomy and generating audience segments for targeting using a formal grammar. A manually-tagged subset of categories of the standard taxonomy is provided to a server. Each category in the subset of categories is tagged based on an entity's own legacy taxonomy. A taxonomy slicer is applied to the subset of manually-tagged categories to determine parent/child relationships for each category in the subset, and to assemble the categories into the taxonomic view. The taxonomic view maintains interoperability with the standard taxonomy, and with other entities using views of the standard taxonomy. Further, a formal grammar is defined for specifying online behaviors for targeting, and is applied to extracted categories of the standard taxonomy and/or taxonomic view. The formal grammar may be programmatically applied during behavioral targeting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventor: Ian Harcourt Niles
  • Publication number: 20140280171
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media are provided for generating a taxonomic view from a standard taxonomy and generating audience segments for targeting using a formal grammar. A manually-tagged subset of categories of the standard taxonomy is provided to a server. Each category in the subset of categories is tagged based on an entity's own legacy taxonomy. A taxonomy slicer is applied to the subset of manually-tagged categories to determine parent/child relationships for each category in the subset, and to assemble the categories into the taxonomic view. The taxonomic view maintains interoperability with the standard taxonomy, and with other entities using views of the standard taxonomy. Further, a formal grammar is defined for specifying online behaviors for targeting, and is applied to extracted categories of the standard taxonomy and/or taxonomic view. The formal grammar may be programmatically applied during behavioral targeting.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventor: Ian Harcourt Niles
  • Patent number: 8725572
    Abstract: Performing an operation is disclosed. A first keyword is received. For the first keyword an associated semantic group of one or more keywords associated by a semantic relationship is identified. An electronic advertising operation is performed using a second keyword associated with the identified semantic group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Local Corporation
    Inventors: Ian Harcourt Niles, Heath B. Clarke
  • Patent number: 6263335
    Abstract: An information extraction system that allows users to ask questions about documents in a database, and responds to queries by returning possibly relevant information which is extracted from the documents. The system is domain-independent, and automatically builds its own subject knowledge base. It can be applied to any new corpus of text with quick results, and no requirement for lengthy manual input. For this reason, it is also a dynamic system which can acquire new knowledge and add it to the knowledge base immediately by automatically identifying new names, events, or concepts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2001
    Assignee: Textwise LLC
    Inventors: Woojin Paik, Elizabeth D. Liddy, Jennifer Heverin Liddy, Ian Harcourt Niles, Eileen E. Allen
  • Patent number: 6076088
    Abstract: An information extraction system that allows users to ask questions about documents in a database, and responds to queries by returning possibly relevant information which is extracted from the documents. The system is domain-independent, and automatically builds its own subject knowledge base. It can be applied to any new corpus of text with quick results, and no requirement for lengthy manual input. For this reason, it is also a dynamic system which can acquire new knowledge and add it to the knowledge base immediately by automatically identifying new names, events, or concepts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2000
    Inventors: Woojin Paik, Elizabeth D. Liddy, Jennifer Heverin Liddy, Ian Harcourt Niles, Eileen E. Allen