Patents by Inventor Thomas Edward Quinn, Jr.

Thomas Edward Quinn, Jr. 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).

  • Discovery, qualification, and activation of software add-in components
    Patent number: 7698685
    Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for discovering, qualifying, and activating software add-in components. An add-in components manager discovers one or more add-in components at the computer system are of a specified type of add-in component requested by an application. The add-in component manager qualifies at least one discovered add-in component based on the at least one discovered add-in component satisfying one or more qualification constraints. The one or more qualification constraints are representative of functionality that is to be associated with an add-in component for the add-in component to interoperate with the application in a desired manner. The add-in component manager activates a qualified add-in component in accordance with the one or more qualification constraints for use with the application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Pepin, James Slocum Miller, Thomas Edward Quinn, Jr., Jeffrey Marc Richter