Patents by Inventor Patrick Gan

Patrick Gan 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: 10721279
    Abstract: To manage complexity related to messages and comments about collaboratively edited electronic documents, an electronic document has associated activity data and comment data, where a type of activity data includes messages among users. Message data is stored in a stream of activity data in a format that is accessible both to communication applications outside of the electronic document, and to end user applications for editing the electronic document. The message data can include a document identifier, a user identifier for a sender and/or a receiver, and content of the message. A communication application, given a user identifier, can access document messages for that user, from a single electronic document or over multiple electronic documents. Further, the communication application can be notified when new document messages related to a user identifier are added to one or more electronic documents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Benjamin Wilde, Patrick Gan, Samantha N. Powers, Aleksandr Polyakov, Sudarshan Sundar, Graham Baker, Douglas Milvaney, Joan Weaver, Nikhil Nathwani
  • Publication number: 20190158550
    Abstract: To manage complexity related to messages and comments about collaboratively edited electronic documents, an electronic document has associated activity data and comment data, where a type of activity data includes messages among users. Message data is stored in a stream of activity data in a format that is accessible both to communication applications outside of the electronic document, and to end user applications for editing the electronic document. The message data can include a document identifier, a user identifier for a sender and/or a receiver, and content of the message. A communication application, given a user identifier, can access document messages for that user, from a single electronic document or over multiple electronic documents. Further, the communication application can be notified when new document messages related to a user identifier are added to one or more electronic documents.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2019
    Publication date: May 23, 2019
    Inventors: Benjamin Wilde, Patrick Gan, Samantha N. Powers, Aleksandr Polyakov, Sudarshan Sundar, Graham Baker, Douglas Milvaney, Joan Weaver, Nikhil Nathwani
  • Patent number: 10225291
    Abstract: To manage complexity related to messages and comments about collaboratively edited electronic documents, an electronic document has associated activity data and comment data, where a type of activity data includes messages among users. Message data is stored in a stream of activity data in a format that is accessible both to communication applications outside of the electronic document, and to end user applications for editing the electronic document. The message data can include a document identifier, a user identifier for a sender and/or a receiver, and content of the message. A communication application, given a user identifier, can access document messages for that user, from a single electronic document or over multiple electronic documents. Further, the communication application can be notified when new document messages related to a user identifier are added to one or more electronic documents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Benjamin Wilde, Patrick Gan, Samantha N. Powers, Aleksandr Polyakov, Sudarshan Sundar, Graham Baker, Douglas Milvaney, Joan Weaver, Nikhil Nathwani
  • Patent number: 10019427
    Abstract: An end user application running on a local client computer stores activity data and comment data for an electronic document. Activity data includes data indicative of actions taken by users and associated with the electronic document, such as actions with respect to the electronic document itself, and actions with respect to comments, such as adding a comment and marking a comment as resolved. A displayed comment or comment thread can be marked as resolved in response to a user action. A corresponding action is stored in the activity data. Activity data can be displayed while the electronic document is open in the end user application. An action of resolving a comment can be accessed in the displayed activity data. In response to receiving an input associated with a displayed action of resolving a comment, the comment can be marked as unresolved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Benjamin Wilde, Erin O'Connell, Patrick Gan, Douglas Milvaney, Joan Weaver
  • Patent number: 9965475
    Abstract: An end user application running on a local client computer is configured to store a collection of comment data for the electronic document. The comment data includes data representing a plurality of comment threads. Displays of comment data also include hints providing information about the content and context of previous and next comments outside of the currently viewed context of the document. When hints are used in combination with filtering of the comment data, a user can more quickly review comments based on a variety of filtering criteria. A comment map also can be provided as a spatial representation of the distribution of comments within a document. Such a comment map can be provided as a navigational aid for viewing the electronic document and reviewing comments. The comment map provides an additional way for a reviewer to quickly identify areas of a document which may require more review.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Patrick Gan, Erin O'Connell, Benjamin Wilde, Joan Weaver
  • Publication number: 20170286416
    Abstract: An end user application running on a local client computer is configured to store a collection of comment data for the electronic document. The comment data includes data representing a plurality of comment threads. Displays of comment data also include hints providing information about the content and context of previous and next comments outside of the currently viewed context of the document. When hints are used in combination with filtering of the comment data, a user can more quickly review comments based on a variety of filtering criteria. A comment map also can be provided as a spatial representation of the distribution of comments within a document. Such a comment map can be provided as a navigational aid for viewing the electronic document and reviewing comments. The comment map provides an additional way for a reviewer to quickly identify areas of a document which may require more review.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 31, 2016
    Publication date: October 5, 2017
    Inventors: Patrick Gan, Erin O'Connell, Benjamin Wilde, Joan Weaver
  • Publication number: 20170257406
    Abstract: To manage complexity related to messages and comments about collaboratively edited electronic documents, an electronic document has associated activity data and comment data, where a type of activity data includes messages among users. Message data is stored in a stream of activity data in a format that is accessible both to communication applications outside of the electronic document, and to end user applications for editing the electronic document. The message data can include a document identifier, a user identifier for a sender and/or a receiver, and content of the message. A communication application, given a user identifier, can access document messages for that user, from a single electronic document or over multiple electronic documents. Further, the communication application can be notified when new document messages related to a user identifier are added to one or more electronic documents.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2016
    Publication date: September 7, 2017
    Inventors: Benjamin Wilde, Patrick Gan, Samantha N. Powers, Aleksandr Polyakov, Sudarshan Sundar, Graham Baker, Douglas Milvaney, Joan Weaver, Nikhil Nathwani
  • Publication number: 20170255604
    Abstract: An end user application running on a local client computer stores activity data and comment data for an electronic document. Activity data includes data indicative of actions taken by users and associated with the electronic document, such as actions with respect to the electronic document itself, and actions with respect to comments, such as adding a comment and marking a comment as resolved. A displayed comment or comment thread can be marked as resolved in response to a user action. A corresponding action is stored in the activity data. Activity data can be displayed while the electronic document is open in the end user application. An action of resolving a comment can be accessed in the displayed activity data. In response to receiving an input associated with a displayed action of resolving a comment, the comment can be marked as unresolved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2016
    Publication date: September 7, 2017
    Inventors: Benjamin Wilde, Erin O'Connell, Patrick Gan, Douglas Milvaney, Joan Weaver
  • Publication number: 20160371258
    Abstract: Systems and methods for creating a unified list of relevant documents are provided. More specifically, the systems and methods are able to access every known client account and pull documents from each of these accounts even if the accounts include more than one file hosting server and/or more than one account on a single file hosting server to create a unified document list. Further, the systems and methods are able to pull the most relevant documents from each of the client's accounts. Further, the systems and methods allow the unified document list to be sorted into multiple views via a sort option and/or to search for at least one document using received text from a search option.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2015
    Publication date: December 22, 2016
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Patrick Gan, Manoj Sharma