Patents by Inventor Sameer Halai

Sameer Halai 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: 11209956
    Abstract: A media party network service manages a set of media parties and a set of users of the media party service. Managing the media parties can involve instantiating new media parties according to input from the users, allowing the users to join the media parties, and tracking which users are participating in which media parties. Managing a given one of the media parties may include maintaining a queue of media items, allowing users in the media party to provide input to add media items to the queue and to provide input to skip media items in the queue. The media party service streams the given one of the media parties to client devices of the users currently in the given media party such that all of the client devices are currently displaying substantially a same part of a media item in the corresponding queue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Flynn Joffray, Sameer Halai, Stephen Coy, Steve Ickman, Todd Newman, William Portnoy
  • Patent number: 9495711
    Abstract: Techniques for invite abuse prevention are described. In an implementation, data that describes mutual activities of the clients with one or more resources available via a service provider is obtained from multiple clients. The service provider may use this data regarding mutual activities to ascertain activity scores between clients that interact directly. The ascertained activity scores may then be used to compute a score between two subject clients to control invites and/or other interactions between the clients. Computing the score may include determining one or more connections between the two clients through clients that interact directly, calculating candidate values for the one or more connections, and selecting one of the candidate values as the computed score using various techniques. The computed score may be used in various ways to control invites and/or other interactions between the clients using the one or more resources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Arjmand M. Samuel, Sameer Halai
  • Publication number: 20160103572
    Abstract: A media party network service manages a set of media parties and a set of users of the media party service. Managing the media parties can involve instantiating new media parties according to input from the users, allowing the users to join the media parties, and tracking which users are participating in which media parties. Managing a given one of the media parties may include maintaining a queue of media items, allowing users in the media party to provide input to add media items to the queue and to provide input to skip media items in the queue. The media party service streams the given one of the media parties to client devices of the users currently in the given media party such that all of the client devices are currently displaying substantially a same part of a media item in the corresponding queue.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2015
    Publication date: April 14, 2016
    Inventors: Flynn Joffray, Sameer Halai, Stephen Coy, Steve Ickman, Todd Newman, William Portnoy
  • Patent number: 9245020
    Abstract: A media party network service manages a set of media parties and a set of users of the media party service. Managing the media parties can involve instantiating new media parties according to input from the users, allowing the users to join the media parties, and tracking which users are participating in which media parties. Managing a given one of the media parties may include maintaining a queue of media items, allowing users in the media party to provide input to add media items to the queue and to provide input to skip media items in the queue. The media party service streams the given one of the media parties to client devices of the users currently in the given media party such that all of the client devices are currently displaying substantially a same part of a media item in the corresponding queue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Flynn Joffray, Sameer Halai, Stephen Coy, Steve Ickman, Todd Newman, Will Portnoy
  • Publication number: 20130159858
    Abstract: A media party network service manages a set of media parties and a set of users of the media party service. Managing the media parties can involve instantiating new media parties according to input from the users, allowing the users to join the media parties, and tracking which users are participating in which media parties. Managing a given one of the media parties may include maintaining a queue of media items, allowing users in the media party to provide input to add media items to the queue and to provide input to skip media items in the queue. The media party service streams the given one of the media parties to client devices of the users currently in the given media party such that all of the client devices are currently displaying substantially a same part of a media item in the corresponding queue.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2011
    Publication date: June 20, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Flynn Joffray, Sameer Halai, Stephen Coy, Steve Ickman, Todd Newman, Will Portnoy
  • Publication number: 20130103447
    Abstract: A user declares an intention to perform a task in a social network. The system allows others, connected to the user within the social network, to provide social input that expresses interest in the task declared by the user and uses social mechanics to express support to the user and to assist in keeping the user motivated to perform the task. When the task is complete, the system notifies the other users (the stakeholders) and awards incentive.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2011
    Publication date: April 25, 2013
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Greg Scott Melander, Sameer Halai, Flynn Thayer Joffray, Nathanael Paul Roberton, Craig Arthur Jensen
  • Patent number: 8214301
    Abstract: Techniques for social network mapping are described. In an implementation, properties of a user's contacts with two services are analyzed to identify matching contacts. Contacts may be determined to correspond to the same user when sufficient common properties are found between the contacts. For unmatched contacts following the property analysis, additional processing may be conducted to identify contacts that the unmatched contacts have in common. A number of common contacts found through this processing may be used, alone or in combination, with information regarding common properties to determine when unmatched contacts correspond to the same user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Arjmand M. Samuel, Sameer Halai
  • Publication number: 20120131171
    Abstract: Techniques for invite abuse prevention are described. In an implementation, data that describes mutual activities of the clients with one or more resources available via a service provider is obtained from multiple clients. The service provider may use this data regarding mutual activities to ascertain activity scores between clients that interact directly. The ascertained activity scores may then be used to compute a score between two subject clients to control invites and/or other interactions between the clients. Computing the score may include determining one or more connections between the two clients through clients that interact directly, calculating candidate values for the one or more connections, and selecting one of the candidate values as the computed score using various techniques. The computed score may be used in various ways to control invites and/or other interactions between the clients using the one or more resources.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2010
    Publication date: May 24, 2012
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Arjmand M. Samuel, Sameer Halai
  • Publication number: 20110078190
    Abstract: Techniques for social network mapping are described. In an implementation, properties of a user's contacts with two services are analyzed to identify matching contacts. Contacts may be determined to correspond to the same user when sufficient common properties are found between the contacts. For unmatched contacts following the property analysis, additional processing may be conducted to identify contacts that the unmatched contacts have in common. A number of common contacts found through this processing may be used, alone or in combination, with information regarding common properties to determine when unmatched contacts correspond to the same user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2009
    Publication date: March 31, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Arjmand M. Samuel, Sameer Halai