Patents by Inventor William R. Avery

William R. Avery 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: 10482429
    Abstract: Automatic sorting and grouping of electronic mail items in an electronic mail system is provided. An automatic mail grouping property may be selected for electronic mail received, sent or stored in a variety of storage folders. For a given mail location (e.g., received mail, sent mail, or a given mail storage folder), a selected automatic grouping property causes mail to be displayed to a user in one or more categories that make location of specific mail items easier and more efficient. Visible dividers with optional headings may be provided between mail categories to quickly draw a user's attention to a given mail category and to separate large numbers of mail into logical groupings that make location of specific mail items more manageable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Jesse Clay Satterfield, Jensen M. Harris, Martijn E. Van Tilburg, William R. Avery, Bruce D. Wiedemann
  • Patent number: 8762420
    Abstract: A data aggregation system is described herein for accessing and viewing information about an entity stored in multiple data stores. The data aggregation system identifies an entry in a primary data store that contains information about an entity. The system receives a request to associate an entry in a secondary data store with the identified entry in the primary data store. Then, the system identifies information in the secondary data store that identifies the entry in the secondary data store and associates the identified information with the entry in the primary data store. When a user requests to view the entry in the primary data store, the system retrieves the information about the entry in the primary data store and uses the stored entry identifier to also retrieve the information about the entry from the secondary data store. Thus, the information remains in the data store in which it originated, but the data aggregation system provides a unified view.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin L. Brown, William R. Avery, Omer Atay, Mohammad Rashid, Todd J. Abel
  • Publication number: 20130080338
    Abstract: Embodiments are provided that include creating projects based in part on a number of collaborative list items and mapping information, but are not so limited. In an embodiment, a computing environment includes a project management system and a collaboration system that are used in part to manage an ideation to project creation process based in part on mappings used to map collaboration information between the collaboration system and the project management system. A method of an embodiment includes the use of mapping information and/or settings in part to create new projects from collaborative list items, wherein a project creation process includes copying over list item values according to the mapping information, storing an identifier of a collaborative list item in each created project, and/or storing an identifier of a created project as part of a corresponding list item. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2011
    Publication date: March 28, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Daniel C. Broekman, Amy Elizabeth Glaves, Pradeep GanapathyRaj, Richard Eric Witte, William R. Avery, Yuka Sanada
  • Publication number: 20120215866
    Abstract: Automatic sorting and grouping of electronic mail items in an electronic mail system is provided. An automatic mail grouping property may be selected for electronic mail received, sent or stored in a variety of storage folders. For a given mail location (e.g., received mail, sent mail, or a given mail storage folder), a selected automatic grouping property causes mail to be displayed to a user in one or more categories that make location of specific mail items easier and more efficient. Visible dividers with optional headings may be provided between mail categories to quickly draw a user's attention to a given mail category and to separate large numbers of mail into logical groupings that make location of specific mail items more manageable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2012
    Publication date: August 23, 2012
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jesse Clay Satterfield, Jensen M. Harris, Martijn E. Van Tilburg, William R. Avery, Bruce D. Wiedemann
  • Patent number: 8150930
    Abstract: Automatic sorting and grouping of electronic mail items in an electronic mail system is provided. An automatic mail grouping property may be selected for electronic mail received, sent or stored in a variety of storage folders. For a given mail location (e.g., received mail, sent mail, or a given mail storage folder), a selected automatic grouping property causes mail to be displayed to a user in one or more categories that make location of specific mail items easier and more efficient. Visible dividers with optional headings may be provided between mail categories to quickly draw a user's attention to a given mail category and to separate large numbers of mail into logical groupings that make location of specific mail items more manageable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jesse Clay Satterfield, Jensen M. Harris, Martijn E. Van Tilburg, William R. Avery, Bruce D. Wiedemann
  • Patent number: 7849102
    Abstract: Real time availability data (free/busy data) is provided for potential meeting attendees and/or assets. An availability service is queried for availability data for one or more attendees and/or meeting assets. The availability service determines the identity of an electronic mailbox server on which is stored current real time calendaring data for the desired attendees and/or assets. The requested data is retrieved by the availability service from one or more mailbox servers having data for each attendee and/or asset. Potential attendees may set permissions on their respective availability data to restrict the amount and types of data that may be retrieved by a given data requester. Data queries and data responses may be structured according to the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and application programming interfaces (API) may be exposed for allowing requesting applications to efficiently call the availability service for availability data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Dan Murillo, Jason Mayans, Suryanarayana Murty Gorti, William R. Avery, Alvin Mok
  • Publication number: 20100211889
    Abstract: Improved conversation grouping methods and systems are provided for electronic mail records. Electronic mail messages that are unread or flagged for follow-up are automatically displayed under an associated conversation grouping heading. If a conversation grouping contains only a single unread or flagged electronic mail message, the single electronic mail message is automatically displayed under the conversation grouping heading for review by a user. For a conversation grouping having no unread or flagged electronic mail messages, the latest electronic mail message in the grouping is automatically displayed under the conversation grouping heading.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 29, 2010
    Publication date: August 19, 2010
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jose H. Durazo, Jensen M. Harris, Jesse Clay Satterfield, Martijn E. Van Tilburg, William R. Avery, Bruce D. Wiedemann
  • Publication number: 20100191818
    Abstract: Automatic sorting and grouping of electronic mail items in an electronic mail system is provided. An automatic mail grouping property may be selected for electronic mail received, sent or stored in a variety of storage folders. For a given mail location (e.g., received mail, sent mail, or a given mail storage folder), a selected automatic grouping property causes mail to be displayed to a user in one or more categories that make location of specific mail items easier and more efficient. Visible dividers with optional headings may be provided between mail categories to quickly draw a user's attention to a given mail category and to separate large numbers of mail into logical groupings that make location of specific mail items more manageable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2010
    Publication date: July 29, 2010
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Jesse Clay Satterfield, Jensen M. Harris, Martijn E. Van Tilburg, William R. Avery, Bruce D. Wiedemann
  • Publication number: 20090319548
    Abstract: A data aggregation system is described herein for accessing and viewing information about an entity stored in multiple data stores. The data aggregation system identifies an entry in a primary data store that contains information about an entity. The system receives a request to associate an entry in a secondary data store with the identified entry in the primary data store. Then, the system identifies information in the secondary data store that identifies the entry in the secondary data store and associates the identified information with the entry in the primary data store. When a user requests to view the entry in the primary data store, the system retrieves the information about the entry in the primary data store and uses the stored entry identifier to also retrieve the information about the entry from the secondary data store. Thus, the information remains in the data store in which it originated, but the data aggregation system provides a unified view.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2008
    Publication date: December 24, 2009
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kevin L. Brown, William R. Avery, Omer Atay, Mohammad Rashid, Todd J. Abel