Patents by Inventor Nicholas Paul Duane

Nicholas Paul Duane 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: 7523222
    Abstract: In an electronic mail system environment, a system and method for providing message flags, providing custom forms, and providing an autoresponse feature. The e-mail system notifies a recipient when a due date is approaching or when a follow-up action is past due. A custom forms feature allows a user to create and share custom forms without requiring the form to be published or installed by other users. The custom form's attributes are transmitted to the recipient as an element of the e-mail message. An autoresponse feature allows a sender to create a message that includes voting buttons corresponding to the possible responses to a query. A recipient replies by selecting one of the voting buttons. The recipient's vote is automatically tallied in the sender's copy of the message, thus allowing the sender to view a vote tally, a list of recipients, and their response.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew G. Carlson, Nicholas Paul Duane, Scott A. Thurlow
  • Patent number: 7010616
    Abstract: In an electronic mail system environment, a system and method for automatically checking recipients' names, providing message flags, providing custom forms, and providing an autoresponse feature. Recipients' names are resolved in the background, while the user of the e-mail system is composing the message. The user easily resolves ambiguous names by using a context menu. The resolved ambiguous names are automatically used to create nicknames, which are used to resolve ambiguous names in the future. Message flags allow a sender or recipient to identify required follow-up action and a deadline. The recipient may use the message flags to quickly determine which messages require follow-up action. The e-mail system notifies a recipient when a due date is approaching or when a follow-up action is past due. A custom forms feature allows a user to create and share custom forms without requiring the form to be published or installed by other user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2006
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Andrew G. Carlson, Nicholas Paul Duane, Scott A. Thurlow
  • Publication number: 20020169841
    Abstract: In an electronic mail system environment, a system and method for automatically checking recipients' names, providing message flags, providing custom forms, and providing an autoresponse feature. Recipients' names are resolved in the background, while the user of the e-mail system is composing the message. The user easily resolves ambiguous names by using a context menu. The resolved ambiguous names are automatically used to create nicknames, which are used to resolve ambiguous names in the future. Message flags allow a sender or recipient to identify required follow-up action and a deadline. The recipient may use the message flags to quickly determine which messages require follow-up action. The e-mail system notifies a recipient when a due date is approaching or when a follow-up action is past due. A custom forms feature allows a user to create and share custom forms without requiring the form to be published or installed by other user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2002
    Publication date: November 14, 2002
    Applicant: Microsoft
    Inventors: Andrew G. Carlson, Nicholas Paul Duane, Scott A. Thurlow
  • Patent number: 6092067
    Abstract: A system for selectively recording a data structure where one or more external program modules are registered. A group of important actions is selected corresponding to both internal program modules and registered external program modules. The system determines if an action associated with one of the internal program modules or one of the registered external program modules has occurred. If so, the system determines if the action is one of the important actions. If the action is an important action, then information associated with the important action is placed into data fields of a data structure. The data structure containing the information is stored in computer memory. The data structure is maintained within a central container or folder in memory, along with previously recorded data structures. The data structure can be automatically deleted after a predetermined threshold of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2000
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Marcus Girling, Jennifer Ruth Mead, Nicholas Paul Duane, Se-Wai Lee, David John Brennan, Eric Van Doren, Michael Gene Leu