Patents by Inventor Tom Laird-McConnell
Tom Laird-McConnell 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).
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Publication number: 20200021550Abstract: Communication services enable users to communicate electronically using various modes of communication. Conversations between groups of users are common, where emails, other communications, and data are exchanged repeatedly over a period of time. Provision of tags in communication environments may enable the users to organize, search for, and share content of the conversations more efficiently, improving communication and collaboration among the users. For example, a tag module of a communication service may associate a communication with one or more tags such that the tags are persisted with the communication as the communication is exchanged, and transmit the communication to participants of the conversation. The tag module may also provide automatic classification, suggestion, and/or completion of the tags.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 24, 2019Publication date: January 16, 2020Inventors: Giselli Panontini DESOUZA SANA, Amit GUPTA, Sangya SINGH, Naresh SUNDARAM, Tom LAIRD-MCCONNELL, Johannes GEHRKE
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Patent number: 10462087Abstract: Communication services enable users to communicate electronically using various modes of communication. Conversations between groups of users, are common, where emails, other communications, and data are exchanged repeatedly over a period of time. Provision of tags in communication environments may enable the users to organize, search for, and share content of the conversations more efficiently, improving communication and collaboration among the users. For example, a tag module of a communication service may associate a communication with one or more tags such that the tags are persisted with the communication as the communication is exchanged, and transmit the communication to participants of the conversation. The tag module may also provide automatic classification, suggestion, and/or completion of the tags.Type: GrantFiled: November 6, 2017Date of Patent: October 29, 2019Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: Giselli Panontini Desouza Sana, Amit Gupta, Sangya Singh, Naresh Sundaram, Tom Laird-McConnell, Johannes Gehrke
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Publication number: 20180077101Abstract: Communication services enable users to communicate electronically using various modes of communication. Conversations between groups of users, are common, where emails, other communications, and data are exchanged repeatedly over a period of time. Provision of tags in communication environments may enable the users to organize, search for, and share content of the conversations more efficiently, improving communication and collaboration among the users. For example, a tag module of a communication service may associate a communication with one or more tags such that the tags are persisted with the communication as the communication is exchanged, and transmit the communication to participants of the conversation. The tag module may also provide automatic classification, suggestion, and/or completion of the tags.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 6, 2017Publication date: March 15, 2018Applicant: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLCInventors: Giselli Panontini DESOUZA SANA, Amit GUPTA, Sangya SINGH, Naresh SUNDARAM, Tom LAIRD-MCCONNELL, Johannes GEHRKE
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Patent number: 9838347Abstract: Communication services enable users to communicate electronically using various modes of communication. Conversations between groups of users are common, where emails, other communications, and data are exchanged repeatedly over a period of time. Provision of tags in communication environments may enable the users to organize, search for, and share content of the conversations more efficiently, improving communication and collaboration among the users. For example, a tag module of a communication service may associate a communication with one or more tags such that the tags are persisted with the communication as the communication is exchanged, and transmit the communication to participants of the conversation. The tag module may also provide automatic classification, suggestion, and/or completion of the tags.Type: GrantFiled: June 12, 2015Date of Patent: December 5, 2017Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: Giselli Panontini DeSouza Sana, Amit Gupta, Sangya Singh, Naresh Sundaram, Tom Laird-McConnell, Johannes Gehrke
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Publication number: 20170169037Abstract: Organization and discovery of a communication is provided based on crowd sourcing. A communication application initiates operations to categorize a communication in response to a detected input to categorize the communication with a hashtag. Hashtag suggestions based on the input are generated and presented. The communication is categorized based on the hashtag selected from one of the hashtag suggestions or a new hashtag. The hashtag is presented in association with the communication.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 11, 2015Publication date: June 15, 2017Inventors: Shan Qu, Tom Laird-McConnell, Naresh Sundaram, Amit Gupta, Nithya Ramkumar, Johannes Gehrke
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Publication number: 20170083211Abstract: Focused attention elements are provided as a mechanism to explicitly call a user's attention to a specific part of a communication or a document. The fact that a user was mentioned in a conversation or a collaborated document may be used as a signal the conversation or a document section is more relevant to them. If a user whose attention is drawn through a focused attention element is not among the recipient list of the communication or collaborator list for the document, they may be added automatically to the list. Selected portions of a conversation or document to which the attention of one or more users is drawn through the focused attention element may be emphasized, highlighted, or shown differently from a remainder of the conversation or document.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 23, 2016Publication date: March 23, 2017Applicant: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLCInventors: NITHYA RAMKUMAR, TOM LAIRD-MCCONNELL, SHAN QU, SANGYA SINGH
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Patent number: 9569292Abstract: A “Remotable Contract Implementation”, as described herein, provides various techniques for implementing static type checking of remoted contracts across iframes using scripts such as TypeScript, JavaScript, AJAX, etc., thereby enabling structured data and rich patterns of control flow across iframe boundaries. The Remotable Contract Implementation enables the static type-checking over the limited browser postMessage channel of communication across iframes, by generating statically type-checked proxies at runtime based on dynamic reflection, and allowing for full fidelity of JavaScript control flow interactions (e.g. methods, events, asynchronous communications, etc.) over that channel.Type: GrantFiled: February 25, 2013Date of Patent: February 14, 2017Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: Will Portnoy, Steve Ickman, Tom Laird-McConnell
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Patent number: 9552342Abstract: Various technologies pertaining to generation of a client collage are described herein. A creator can construct a computer-implemented collage by selecting a plurality of computer-implemented objects from a respective plurality of network-accessible storage locations, and arranging the computer-implemented objects in a desired manner. Responsive to receiving an indication that the computer-implemented collage is suitable for publication, a server can render the collage and capture a backdrop image of the rendered collage. The server can further generate metadata that are packaged with the backdrop image as a client collage. When a client computing device requests the collage, the client collage is provided to the client computing device, which renders the backdrop image and processes the metadata. The metadata causes a click overlay to be placed upon the backdrop image, wherein functionality of the click overlay is defined by the metadata.Type: GrantFiled: January 9, 2014Date of Patent: January 24, 2017Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: Will Portnoy, Craig Jensen, Tom Laird-McConnell, James H. Lewallen
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Publication number: 20160269334Abstract: Communication services enable users to communicate electronically using various modes of communication. Conversations between groups of users are common, where emails, other communications, and data are exchanged repeatedly over a period of time. Provision of tags in communication environments may enable the users to organize, search for, and share content of the conversations more efficiently, improving communication and collaboration among the users. For example, a tag module of a communication service may associate a communication with one or more tags such that the tags are persisted with the communication as the communication is exchanged, and transmit the communication to participants of the conversation. The tag module may also provide automatic classification, suggestion, and/or completion of the tags.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 12, 2015Publication date: September 15, 2016Inventors: Giselli Panontini DeSouza Sana, Amit Gupta, Sangya Singh, Naresh Sundaram, Tom Laird-McConnell, Johannes Gehrke
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Patent number: 9195757Abstract: A dynamic digital montage system assists a user in creating and publishing a montage about one or more specified topics. The system receives an identification of one or more topics of interest from the user, and based on the subject information, collects data from dynamic and static data sources for display in dedicated sections of a montage. The data is presented in one of a number of predefined but editable layouts for presentation to a user. In one implementation, at least one of the montage components is associated with a dynamic data source and is updated when new data is provided by the dynamic data source. In another implementation, the data sources attached to the montage components are analyzed on a periodic basis, and based on the analysis, data source assignments and/or the montage layout is revised.Type: GrantFiled: May 2, 2011Date of Patent: November 24, 2015Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLCInventors: William Portnoy, Richard Zaragoza, Matthew Bret MacLaurin, Craig Jensen, Richard Daniel Marshall, Bradley Gibson, Tom Laird-McConnell, Steve Ickman, David Raskino, Lili Cheng
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Publication number: 20150193409Abstract: Various technologies pertaining to generation of a client collage are described herein. A creator can construct a computer-implemented collage by selecting a plurality of computer-implemented objects from a respective plurality of network-accessible storage locations, and arranging the computer-implemented objects in a desired manner. Responsive to receiving an indication that the computer-implemented collage is suitable for publication, a server can render the collage and capture a backdrop image of the rendered collage. The server can further generate metadata that are packaged with the backdrop image as a client collage. When a client computing device requests the collage, the client collage is provided to the client computing device, which renders the backdrop image and processes the metadata. The metadata causes a click overlay to be placed upon the backdrop image, wherein functionality of the click overlay is defined by the metadata.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 9, 2014Publication date: July 9, 2015Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Will Portnoy, Craig Jensen, Tom Laird-McConnell, James H. Lewallen
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Publication number: 20140245134Abstract: A “Remotable Contract Implementation”, as described herein, provides various techniques for implementing static type checking of remoted contracts across iframes using scripts such as TypeScript, JavaScript, AJAX, etc., thereby enabling structured data and rich patterns of control flow across iframe boundaries. The Remotable Contract Implementation enables the static type-checking over the limited browser postMessage channel of communication across iframes, by generating statically type-checked proxies at runtime based on dynamic reflection, and allowing for full fidelity of JavaScript control flow interactions (e.g. methods, events, asynchronous communications, etc.) over that channel.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 25, 2013Publication date: August 28, 2014Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Will Portnoy, Steve Ickman, Tom Laird-McConnell
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Publication number: 20130283187Abstract: A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a computing event with respect to a file stored in a data repository of a personal computing device. An assignor component automatically assigns a uniform resource identifier to the file responsive to the receiver component receiving the computing event with respect to the file, wherein at least a portion of content of the file is reviewable by way of a web browser through utilization of the uniform resource identifier.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 13, 2013Publication date: October 24, 2013Inventors: Tom Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, Cezary Marcjan, Matthew B. MacLaurin, Steven W. Ickman
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Patent number: 8463740Abstract: A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a computing event with respect to a file stored in a data repository of a personal computing device. An assignor component automatically assigns a uniform resource identifier to the file responsive to the receiver component receiving the computing event with respect to the file, wherein at least a portion of content of the file is reviewable by way of a web browser through utilization of the uniform resource identifier.Type: GrantFiled: August 5, 2009Date of Patent: June 11, 2013Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Tom Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, Cezary Marcjan, Matthew B. MacLaurin, Steven W. Ickman
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Publication number: 20120284245Abstract: A dynamic digital montage system assists a user in creating and publishing a montage about one or more specified topics. The system receives an identification of one or more topics of interest from the user, and based on the subject information, collects data from dynamic and static data sources for display in dedicated sections of a montage. The data is presented in one of a number of predefined but editable layouts for presentation to a user. In one implementation, at least one of the montage components is associated with a dynamic data source and is updated when new data is provided by the dynamic data source. In another implementation, the data sources attached to the montage components are analyzed on a periodic basis, and based on the analysis, data source assignments and/or the montage layout is revised.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 2, 2011Publication date: November 8, 2012Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: William Portnoy, Richard Zaragoza, Matthew Bret MacLaurin, Craig Jensen, Richard Daniel Marshall, Bradley Gibson, Tom Laird-McConnell, Steve Ickman, David Raskino, Lili Cheng
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Patent number: 8028032Abstract: The described implementations relate to email messages. One technique detects a link to a web-site in an email message. The technique causes content from the web-site to be visualized on a common display area with the email message for a recipient of the email message.Type: GrantFiled: September 4, 2008Date of Patent: September 27, 2011Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventor: Tom Laird-McConnell
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Patent number: 7949658Abstract: Computer-readable media, systems, and methods for enabling a rich client search experience. In embodiments, a description is received from a data store. The description includes fields of information existing on the data store that are capable of being searched. A user interface is built based on the description and the user interface provides a user with a mechanism for searching the data store. And the user interface is presented to the user. The description is definable by the data store using a data-driven extension, allowing the data store to express schema and query capability information to a client and allowing the client to dynamically customize the user interface based upon the schema and query capability information expressed by the data store.Type: GrantFiled: March 7, 2008Date of Patent: May 24, 2011Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Tom Laird-McConnell, Steve Ickman, Brandon Paddock
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Publication number: 20110035421Abstract: A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a computing event with respect to a file stored in a data repository of a personal computing device. An assignor component automatically assigns a uniform resource identifier to the file responsive to the receiver component receiving the computing event with respect to the file, wherein at least a portion of content of the file is reviewable by way of a web browser through utilization of the uniform resource identifier.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 5, 2009Publication date: February 10, 2011Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Tom Laird-McConnell, Lili Cheng, Cezary Marcjan, Matthew B. MacLaurin, Steven W. Ickman
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Publication number: 20100057864Abstract: The described implementations relate to email messages. One technique detects a link to a web-site in an email message. The technique causes content from the web-site to be visualized on a common display area with the email message for a recipient of the email message.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 4, 2008Publication date: March 4, 2010Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventor: Tom Laird-McConnell
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Patent number: 7627557Abstract: Computer assistance content related to a plurality of software entities is combined into a single assistance content corpus. The corpus may be organized hierarchically. The hierarchical organization can be done using content sets that relate assistance content with associated metadata. Content sets can be related to each other in parent-child relationships. The relationship definitions can be separate from the content set definitions. Scope and bias information can be used to constrain assistance content searching over the corpus and to bias search results based on one or more state variables of the user's computer. A remote assistance server can be used to provide updated or newer assistance content to the user. When the remote assistance server is used, an assistance request from the user is supplemented with scope information.Type: GrantFiled: June 27, 2005Date of Patent: December 1, 2009Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: J. Shane McRoberts, Amit Rai, Christopher McConnell, Dale Rogerson, Kipper York, Scott Whalley, Tom Laird-McConnell, Wenlong Dong