Patents by Inventor William C. Royal

William C. Royal 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).

  • Publication number: 20010018627
    Abstract: The invention relates to an interactive fuel dispenser system having a plurality of fuel dispensers operating in conjunction with a local server. Each dispenser generally has two fueling positions, each with a graphical user interface through which a customer interacts. In contrast with the recent trend in turning fuel dispensers into super computers, applicants' provide a dispenser architecture that need only be sufficient to establish interactivity with a server to create multimedia applications and carry out POS functions with a browser interface. Each fueling position acts as a client of a local server at the fuel station store. In the preferred embodiment, each fueling position client also may access remote servers connected to the same network in which the fueling position clients and the local server are connected. Preferably, this network is or is connected to the Worldwide Web of the Internet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2001
    Publication date: August 30, 2001
    Inventors: Russel D. Leatherman, William C. Royal
  • Patent number: 6275746
    Abstract: The invention relates to an interactive fuel dispenser system having a plurality of fuel dispensers operating in conjunction with a local server. Each dispenser generally has two fueling positions, each with a graphical user interface through which a customer interacts. In contrast with the recent trend in turning fuel dispensers into super computers, applicants' provide a dispenser architecture that need only be sufficient to establish interactivity with a server to create multimedia applications and carry out POS functions with a browser interface. Each fueling position acts as a client of a local server at the fuel station store. In the preferred embodiment, each fueling position client also may access remote servers connected to the same network in which the fueling position clients and the local server are connected. Preferably, this network is or is connected to the Worldwide Web of the Internet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2001
    Assignee: Marconi Commerce Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Russel D. Leatherman, William C. Royal, Jr.
  • Publication number: 20010000614
    Abstract: A fuel dispenser having a server is disclosed. The fuel dispenser server is adapted to dynamically or periodically create electronic documents reflecting fuel dispenser data for viewing remote to the fuel dispenser. A network connection provides connectivity of the server to remote clients. The fuel dispenser with a server is relatively inexpensive to produce and is ideally suited for remote troubleshooting and for interaction with a dispenser customer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2000
    Publication date: May 3, 2001
    Inventors: William C. Royal, Randall O. Watkins
  • Patent number: 6176421
    Abstract: A fuel dispenser having a server is disclosed. The fuel dispenser server is adapted to dynamically or periodically create electronic documents reflecting fuel dispenser data for viewing remote to the fuel dispenser. A network connection provides connectivity of the server to remote clients. The fuel dispenser with a server is relatively inexpensive to produce and is ideally suited for remote troubleshooting and for interaction with a dispenser customer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2001
    Assignee: Marconi Commerce Systems Inc.
    Inventors: William C. Royal, Jr., Randall O. Watkins
  • Patent number: 6052629
    Abstract: The invention relates to an interactive fuel dispenser system having a plurality of fuel dispensers operating in conjunction with a local server. Each dispenser generally has two fueling positions, each with a graphical user interface through which a customer interacts. In contrast with efforts to turn fuel dispensers into super computers, applicants' provide a dispenser architecture that need only be sufficient to establish interactivity with a server to create multimedia applications and carry out POS functions with a browser interface. Each fueling position acts as a client of a local server at the fuel station store. In the preferred embodiment, each fueling position client also may access remote servers connected to the same network in which the fueling position clients and the local server are connected. Preferably, this network is connected to the Worldwide Web of the Internet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2000
    Assignee: Gilbarco Inc.
    Inventors: Russel D. Leatherman, William C. Royal, Jr.
  • Patent number: 5980090
    Abstract: The present invention provides communication servers at each device in a fueling environment and connecting the servers to a common network. The network may be a local network or a largely remote network, such as the Internet. Preferably, in either embodiment, primary communications between these devices and any devices accessible via the Internet use the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and hypertext markup language (HTML). In particular, each device server is adapted to facilitate real-time access between the device server and the remote device upon access of a particular page, script or function. In particular, the present invention relates to embedding executable content onto an HTML page so that when the page is loaded into an HTML browser after being accessed, the executable content starts running automatically.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1999
    Assignee: Gilbarco., Inc.
    Inventors: William C. Royal, Jr., Randall O. Watkins