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U.S. Patents Awarded to Inventors in California (Jan. 31)(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Targeted News Service Targeted News Service ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- The following federal patents were awarded to inventors in California. *** Palo Alto Research Center Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,629) developed by five co-inventors for a "depth-first search for target value problems." The co-inventors are Tim Schmidt, Palo Alto, Calif., Rong Zhou, Cupertino, Calif., Lukas D. Kuhn, Palo Alto, Calif., Robert Price, Palo Alto, Calif., and Johan de Kleer, Los Altos, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method for determining a target path for a model-based control system. The model-based control system includes a directed acyclic graph, where the directed acyclic graph includes a plurality of vertices interconnected by a plurality of edges. The method includes the steps of performing a depth-first search of the directed acyclic graph for the target path. The depth-first search is operative to return an explicit solution or an implicit solution, wherein the implicit solution is determined using a heuristic. The method further includes determining if the depth-first search returned an explicit solution or an implicit solution, and if the depth-first search returned an implicit solution, constructing the target path from the implicit solution. The method may further include constructing a pattern database." The patent application was filed on July 2, 2009 (12/497,326). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,629&OS=8,364,629&RS=8,364,629+ Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Apple Assigned Patent for Methods for Prefix Indexing ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Apple, Cupertino, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,684) developed by John M. Hornkvist, Cupertino, Calif., and Eric R. Koebler, Aptos, Calif., for "methods for prefix indexing." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "According to one aspect of the invention, in response to one or more terms to be indexed, each of the terms is indexed in a regular index. In addition, for each of the terms having multiple characters, at least one prefix portion of the term is indexed in a prefix index, where the regular index is used for regular searches and the prefix index is used for prefix searches without having to combine a plurality of postings lists of the regular index at the point in time." The patent application was filed on Oct. 27, 2010 (12/913,509). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,684&OS=8,364,684&RS=8,364,684 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Ellie Mae Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Ellie Mae, Pleasanton, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,579) developed by Limin Hu, Fremont, Calif., Babak Khanpour, West Hills, Calif., and Ting-Hu Wu, Fremont, Calif., for an "online system for fulfilling loan applications from loan originators." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A loan submission and processing system, methods, apparatus and computer program products. One example method includes receiving user specified input relating to a loan application, storing the user specified input in a loan application file, determining a partner system that is to receive data related to the electronic loan application including dynamically determining a format and contents required to present a service request to the partner system for processing by the partner system, dynamically formatting the user specified input and any other required content into a service request, the service request compatible with the partner system and including the user specified data and the other required content and transmitting the service request to the partner system." The patent application was filed on Oct. 27, 2008 (12/259,247). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,579&OS=8,364,579&RS=8,364,579 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Google Assigned Patent for User Interfaces for a Document Search Engine ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Google, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,668) developed by five co-inventors for "user interfaces for a document search engine." The co-inventors are Siraj Khaliq, San Francisco, Joe Sriver, Mountain View, Calif., Frederick G.M. Roeber, San Francisco, William Brougher, Menlo Park, Calif., and Adam Smith, Mountain View, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method includes receiving a search query, identifying a document based on the search query, and providing a search result based on the document. The search result includes, for example, an image associated with the document, an excerpt from the document that is associated with the search query, and links to other excerpts in the document that are associated with the search query. The method may also include providing other information associated with the document." The patent application was filed on Sept. 29, 2004 (10/952,444). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,668&OS=8,364,668&RS=8,364,668 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Amazon Technologies Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Amazon Technologies, Reno, Nev., has been assigned a patent (8,364,595) developed by Erich Ringewald, Belvedere, Calif., for a "secondary market for digital objects." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "An electronic marketplace for used digital objects is disclosed. Digital objects including e-books, audio, video, computer applications, etc., purchased from an original vendor by a user are stored in a user's personalized data store. Content in a personalized data store may be accessible to the user via transfer such as moving, streaming, or download. When the user no longer desires to retain the right to access the now-used digital content, the user may move the used digital content to another user's personalized data store when permissible and the used digital content is deleted from the originating user's personalized data store. When a digital object exceeds a threshold number of moves or downloads, the ability to move may be deemed impermissible and suspended or terminated. Additionally or alternatively, a collection of objects may be assembled from individual digital objects stored in the personalized data stores of different users, and moved to a user's personalized data store." The patent application was filed on May 5, 2009 (12/435,927). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,595&OS=8,364,595&RS=8,364,595 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Videosurf Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Videosurf, San Mateo, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,698) developed by five co-inventors for an "apparatus and software system for and method of performing a visual-relevance-rank subsequent search." The co-inventors are Lior Delgo, Saratoga, Calif., Eitan Sharon, San Mateo, Calif., Achiezer Brandt, San Mateo, Calif., Eran Borenstein, Oakland, Calif., and Asael Moshe, Sunnyvale, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method analyzes the visual content of media such as videos for collecting together visually-similar appearances in their constituent images (e.g. same scenes, same objects, faces of the same people.) As a result, the most relevant and salient (of clearest and largest presence) visual appearances depicted in the videos are presented to the user, both for the sake of summarizing the video content for the users to "see before they watch" (that is, judge by the depicted video content in a filmstrip-like summary whether they want to mouse-click on the video and actually spend time watching it), as well as for allowing to users to further refine their video search result set according to the most relevant and salient video content returned (e.g. largest screen-time faces)." The patent application was filed on July 13, 2009 (12/502,202). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,698&OS=8,364,698&RS=8,364,698 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Cadence Design Systems Assigned Patent for Method and System for Implementing Multiuser Cached Parameterized Cells ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Cadence Design Systems, San Jose, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,656) developed by four co-inventors for a "method and system for implementing multiuser cached parameterized cells." The co-inventors are Rajan Arora, Faridabad, India, Randy Bishop, Pleasanton, Calif., Arnold Ginetti, Antibes, France, and Gilles S.C. Lamant, Sunnyvale, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "An improved approach to pcell caching is disclosed that enables safe and efficient multi-user access to pcell caches. Locking structures are used in conjunction with counters to provide multi-user support for pcell caches. When a modification occurs to cached pcell data, an update is made to the appropriate counter(s). The value(s) of the counters are checked to determine whether the item of data operated upon by an entity is still valid or if another concurrent entity has made changes to the data." The patent application was filed on Oct. 31, 2008 (12/262,514). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,656&OS=8,364,656&RS=8,364,656 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Wandisco Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Wandisco, San Ramon, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,633) developed by five co-inventors for "distributed computing systems and system components thereof." The co-inventors are Yeturu Aahlad, Foster City, Calif., Rahul Bhargava, San Ramon, Calif., James Milton Campigli, San Ramon, Calif., David James Richards, San Ramon, Calif., and Mohammad Naeem Akhtar, Dublin, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "In one embodiment of the present invention, a replicated state machine comprises a proposal manager, an agreement manager, a collision/back-off timer and a storage reclaimer. The proposal manager facilitates management of proposals issued by a node of a distributed application for enabling coordinated execution of the proposals by all other nodes of the distributed application. The agreement manager facilitates agreement on the proposals. The collision/back-off timer precludes repeated pre-emptions of rounds in attempting to achieve agreement on the proposals. The storage reclaimer reclaims persistent storage utilized for storing at least one of proposal agreements and the proposals." The patent application was filed on Jan. 11, 2006 (11/329,996). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,633&OS=8,364,633&RS=8,364,633 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Visa International Service Association Assigned Patent for Track Data Mapping System for Processing of Payment Transaction Data ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Visa International Service Association, San Francisco, has been assigned a patent (8,364,591) developed by Mark Rigby, Rickmansworth, United Kingdom, and Simon Hurry, Foster City, Calif., for a "track data mapping system for processing of payment transaction data." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Systems and associated apparatuses and methods for processing payment transactions. A merchant's data processing system may provide payment transaction data in a first format (e.g., Track 1) to a payment processing network. The payment processing network may determine the issuer to which the data will be provided as part of a process for authorizing the payment transaction. It is determined if the issuer is one that is expecting or requires that the data be provided in a second format (e.g., Track 2). If the issuer is one that is expecting or requires that the transaction data be supplied in the second format, then it is determined if the issuer is enrolled in the appropriate data mapping service. If the issuer is enrolled in the data mapping service, then the inventive system performs the data mapping processes needed to provide the data in the second format to the issuer. The issuer may then use the received data to determine whether to authorize the payment transaction." The patent application was filed on Aug. 9, 2010 (12/853,010). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,591&OS=8,364,591&RS=8,364,591 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Microsoft Assigned Patent for Hardware Accelerated Shortest Path Computation ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Microsoft, Redmond, Wash., has been assigned a patent (8,364,717) developed by four co-inventors for a "hardware accelerated shortest path computation." The co-inventors are Daniel Delling, Mountain View, Calif., Andrew V. Goldberg, Redwood City, Calif., Andreas Nowatzyk, San Jose, Calif., and Renato F. Werneck, San Francisco. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The non-negative single-source shortest path (NSSP) problem is solved on a graph by using a preprocessing phase and then, in a query phase, computing the distances from a given source in the graph with a linear sweep over all the vertices. Contraction hierarchies may be used in the preprocessing phase and in the query phase. Optimizations may include reordering the vertices in advance to exploit locality, performing multiple NSSP computations simultaneously, marking vertices during initialization, and using parallelism. Techniques may be performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU). This makes applications based on all-pairs shortest-paths practical for continental-sized road networks. The applications include, for example, computing graph diameter, exact arc flags, and centrality measures such as exact reaches or betweenness." The patent application was filed on Jan. 10, 2011 (12/987,176). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,717&OS=8,364,717&RS=8,364,717 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Caterpillar Assigned Patent for Process Modeling and Optimization Method and System ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Caterpillar, Peoria, Ill., has been assigned a patent (8,364,610) developed by Anthony J. Grichnik, Peoria, Ill., and Michael Seskin, Cardiff, Calif., for a "process modeling and optimization method and system." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method is provided for model optimization. The method may include obtaining respective distribution descriptions of a plurality of input parameters to a model indicative of interrelationships between the input parameters and one or more output parameters. The method may also include specifying respective search ranges for the plurality of input parameters and simulating the model to determine a desired set of input parameters based on a zeta statistic of the model. Further, the method may include determining respective desired distributions of the input parameters based on the desired set of input parameters; determining significance levels of the input parameters in interacting with the output parameter based on the simulation and the desired distributions of the input parameters; and presenting the significance levels." The patent application was filed on July 31, 2007 (11/882,189). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,610&OS=8,364,610&RS=8,364,610 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Zeitera Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Zeitera, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,703) developed by four co-inventors for a "media fingerprinting and identification system." The co-inventors are Prashant Ramanathan, Mountain View, Calif., Jose Pio Pereira, Cupertino, Calif., Shashank Merchant, Sunnyvale, Calif., and Mihailo M. Stojancic, San Jose, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The overall architecture and details of a scalable video fingerprinting and identification system that is robust with respect to many classes of video distortions is described. In this system, a fingerprint for a piece of multimedia content is composed of a number of compact signatures, along with traversal hash signatures and associated metadata. Numerical descriptors are generated for features found in a multimedia clip, signatures are generated from these descriptors, and a reference signature database is constructed from these signatures. Query signatures are also generated for a query multimedia clip. These query signatures are searched against the reference database using a fast similarity search procedure, to produce a candidate list of matching signatures. This candidate list is further analyzed to find the most likely reference matches. Signature correlation is performed between the likely reference matches and the query clip to improve detection accuracy." The patent application was filed on May 3, 2012 (13/463,137). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,703&OS=8,364,703&RS=8,364,703 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Google Assigned Patent for Document Near-duplicate Detection ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Google, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,686) developed by Shioupyn Shen, Mountain View, Calif., for a document near-duplicate detection. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A near-duplicate component includes a fingerprint creation component and a similarity detection component. The fingerprint creation component receives a document of arbitrary size and generates a compact "fingerprint" that describes the contents of the document. The similarity detection component compares multiple fingerprints based on the hamming distance between the fingerprints. When the hamming distance is below a threshold, the documents can be said to be near-duplicates of one another." The patent application was filed on May 27, 2011 (13/117,543). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,686&OS=8,364,686&RS=8,364,686 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Visa USA Assigned Patent for Method and System for Conducting Transactions with Oligopolistic Entities ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Visa USA, San Francisco, has been assigned a patent (8,364,592) developed by Raghav Lal, Palo Alto, Calif., and Christopher P. Aguas, Weston, Conn., for a "method and system for conducting transactions with oligopolistic entities." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method for conducting a business transaction using a payment processing network is disclosed. The method includes sending an authorization request message including an authorization request to an issuer, where the authorization request message originates from a business consumer purchasing goods or services from an oligopolistic business entity. The issuer sends an authorization response message indicating that the authorization request is approved or not approved. Economic incentives associated with the business transaction is provided to the oligopolistic business entity or the business consumer for conducting the business transaction, wherein the incentive would not be available in a transaction between a non-oligopolistic business entity and the business consumer. A method for encouraging use of electronic payment methods is also disclosed, wherein an oligopolistic entity and a group of business consumers in an industry vertical are identified based on sales information, and an economic incentive is provided to the oligopolistic business entity after it agrees to accept electronic payment transactions for conducting business with the group of business consumers." The patent application was filed on April 7, 2010 (12/755,988). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,592&OS=8,364,592&RS=8,364,592 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Citicorp Development Center Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Citicorp Development Center, Blue Ash, Ohio, has been assigned a patent (8,364,589) developed by Carol J. Rizzo, Livingston, N.J., Phoebe Rin-Rin Hsu, Northridge, Calif., and Michael L. Sears, Torrance, Calif., for a "method and system for performing a cash transaction with a self-service financial transaction terminal." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method and system for performing a cash transaction with a self-service financial transaction terminal makes use of computer hardware and software that allows a financial institution cardholder to authorize a recipient to withdraw a specified amount of cash at an ATM of the particular financial institution. The cardholder can set up the transaction, for example, from any telephone using an interactive voice response (IVR) system, or by utilizing the application at a financial institution ATM, or by using an Internet website application. The originator can set up the recipient's ATM transaction to be either cardless or card-initiated." The patent application was filed on Sept. 6, 2011 (13/225,825). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,589&OS=8,364,589&RS=8,364,589 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Visa International Service Association Assigned Patent for Intelligent Authentication ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Visa International Service Association, San Francisco, has been assigned a patent (8,364,593) developed by five co-inventors for an intelligent authentication. The co-inventors are Greg Trifiletti, Saratoga, Calif., Olivier Brand, Walnut Creek, Calif., Mike Lindelsee, Redwood City, Calif., James Dimmick, Berkshire, United KIngdom, and Dave Wentker, San Francisco. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Systems and methods for intelligently authenticating payment transactions are disclosed. A user initiates a payment transaction to purchases goods or services from a merchant. The merchant sends a payment initiation request to a server computer in communication with a payment processing network and an issuer. The server computer queries various databases to determine one or more available communication channels that may be used as authentication channels by the issuer. The server computer also determines one or more communication channels, available for use by a mobile device of the user, that may be used as authentication channels to authenticate the payment transaction. The user is provided with a list of available/eligible authentication channels. User selects one of the authentication channels and the issuer is notified of the selection. The issuer uses the selected authentication channel to communicate with the user and authenticate the payment transaction." The patent application was filed on June 29, 2010 (12/826,157). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,593&OS=8,364,593&RS=8,364,593 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Apple Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Apple, Cupertino, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,694) developed by Christopher Volkert, San Francisco, for a "search assistant for digital media assets." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Techniques and systems for facilitating searching of digital media assets are disclosed. In one embodiment, a user can be assisted in entering search strings for searching a media repository (e.g., online media store) having a plurality of digital media assets that are available, e.g., available for purchase. As media assets are purchased from the media repository, popularity indications for such digital media assets can be adjusted. When the user enters a search character, a list of possible complete search strings corresponding to digital media assets available in the media repository can be obtained over a network and presented to the user." The patent application was filed on Oct. 26, 2007 (11/925,599). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,694&OS=8,364,694&RS=8,364,694 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Yahoo! Assigned Patent for System and Method for Precaching Information on a Mobile Device ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Yahoo!, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,611) developed by Meher Tendjoukian, Burlingame, Calif., Marc Eliot Davis, San Francisco, and Christopher William Higgins, Portland, Ore., for a "system and method for precaching information on a mobile device." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A system and method for precaching information on a mobile device. A precaching strategy is built for a mobile device The strategy defines a forecast of data types a user is predicted to request after the occurrence of one or more data refresh conditions. The precaching strategy is built by recognizing data usage patterns in data requested by the user or a group of users over a time period. The data usage pattern comprises data types and events that are correlated to the usage of the data. The events are used to define at least one refresh condition within the precaching strategy. The precaching strategy is executed. When the occurrence of the data refresh condition is detected, data is then retrieved from a data source, wherein the data is retrieved according to the precaching strategy. The retrieved data is transmitted to a user device cache." The patent application was filed on Aug. 13, 2009 (12/540,588). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,611&OS=8,364,611&RS=8,364,611 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Apple Assigned Patent for Motion Based Payment Confirmation ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Apple, Cupertino, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,590) developed by Brandon J. Casey, San Jose, Calif., Gary Wipfler, Los Altos, Calif., and Erik Cressall, San Jose, Calif., for a "motion based payment confirmation." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Methods and devices for confirming payment transactions are provided. In one embodiment, an electronic device may include a graphical user interface (GUI) with one or more graphical elements that may be moved by a user to confirm or decline a payment transaction using a selected payment instrument. For example, a user may drag the graphical element to a confirmation position via a touch screen of the electronic device. In another example, a motion sensing device, such as an accelerometer, may sense movement of the electronic device and move the graphical element in response to the motion. Upon confirmation, payment information for the payment transaction may be transmitted to a merchant or payment recipient. Various additional methods, machine-readable media, and devices for confirming payment transactions are provided." The patent application was filed on Aug. 1, 2012 (13/564,671). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,590&OS=8,364,590&RS=8,364,590 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Yahoo! Assigned Patent for Method and System for Generating a Linear Machine Learning Model for Predicting Online User Input Actions ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Yahoo!, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,627) developed by six co-inventors for a "method and system for generating a linear machine learning model for predicting online user input actions." The co-inventors are John Canny, Berkeley, Calif., Shi Zhong, Santa Clara, Calif., Scott Gaffney, San Francisco, Chad Brower, Campbell, Calif., Pavel Berkhin, Sunnyvale, Calif., and George H. John, Redwood City, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method of targeting receives several granular events and preprocesses the received granular events thereby generating preprocessed data to facilitate construction of a model based on the granular events. The method generates a predictive model by using the preprocessed data. The predictive model is for determining a likelihood of a user action. The method trains the predictive model. A system for targeting includes granular events, a preprocessor for receiving the granular events, a model generator, and a model. The preprocessor has one or more modules for at least one of pruning, aggregation, clustering, and/or filtering. The model generator is for constructing a model based on the granular events, and the model is for determining a likelihood of a user action. The system of some embodiments further includes several users, a selector for selecting a particular set of users from among the several users, a trained model, and a scoring module." The patent application was filed on Jan. 31, 2011 (13/018,303). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,627&OS=8,364,627&RS=8,364,627 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** eBay Assigned Patent for Method and System to Automate Payment for a Commerce Transaction ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- eBay, San Jose, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,556) developed by Ngan-Ha D. Nguyen, Belmont, Calif., Jeffrey A. Herman, Palo Alto, Calif., and Renee Gentry, San Jose, Calif., for a "method and system to automate payment for a commerce transaction." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method and system to automate payment for a network-based commerce transaction provide a buyer an option to enable an automatic payment service, wherein automatic payment service automatically provides payment to a seller upon a termination event of a network-based commerce transaction. Payment information of the buyer is provided to a network-based payment system upon the occurrence of the termination event." The patent application was filed on March 2, 2012 (13/411,006). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,556&OS=8,364,556&RS=8,364,556 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Network Appliance Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Network Appliance, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,644) developed by Sandeep Yadav, Santa Clara, Calif., and Subramaniam V. Periyagaram, San Jose, Calif., for an "exclusion of data from a persistent point-in-time image." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A data set on a physical storage device is associated with an active bitmap and a persistent point-in-time image (PPI) exclusion bitmap, where each bit in the bitmaps is associated with a data block in the data set. The active bitmap and the PPI exclusion bitmap are used to determine which of the data blocks in the data set are to be included in a PPI of the data set." The patent application was filed on April 22, 2009 (12/428,396). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,644&OS=8,364,644&RS=8,364,644 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Google Assigned Patent for Recursive Algorithm for in-place Search for an N:Th Element in an Unsorted Array ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Google, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,675) developed by Alexey Vorobyov, Irvine, Calif., for a "recursive algorithm for in-place search for an n:th element in an unsorted array." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for searching for an n:th array element in an unsorted array in a computer memory. The n:th array element is selected as an initial pivot element. A smaller subset of array elements, including the pivot element, is iteratively selected until the smaller subset includes a predetermined number of array elements. In each iteration, an array element corresponding to the n:th array element in the smaller subset is searched for. Array elements are iteratively added onto the subset of array elements, until the number of array elements is equal to the number of array elements in the initial unsorted array. In each iteration, the larger set of array elements is partitioned based on a pivot element located at a position corresponding to the n:th position in a smaller subset of array elements. The n:th array element in the final array is finally selected." The patent application was filed on June 30, 2010 (12/827,371). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,675&OS=8,364,675&RS=8,364,675 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Google Assigned Patent for Large Scale Machine Learning Systems and Methods ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Google, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,618) developed by five co-inventors for a "large scale machine learning systems and methods." The co-inventors are Jeremy Bem, Berkeley, Calif., Georges R. Harik, Mountain View, Calif., Joshua L. Levenberg, Redwood City, Calif., Noam Shazeer, Stanford, Calif., and Simon Tong, Mountain View, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A system for generating a model is provided. The system generates, or selects, candidate conditions and generates, or otherwise obtains, statistics regarding the candidate conditions. The system also forms rules based, at least in part, on the statistics and the candidate conditions and selectively adds the rules to the model." The patent application was filed on June 4, 2012 (13/487,873). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,618&OS=8,364,618&RS=8,364,618 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Stanford University Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,724) developed by Chris Stolte, Palo Alto, Calif., and Patrick Hanrahan, Portola Valley, Calif., for "computer systems and methods for visualizing data." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method for forming a visual plot using a hierarchical structure of a dataset. The dataset comprises a measure and a dimension. The dimension consists of a plurality of levels. The plurality of levels form a dimension hierarchy. The visual plot is constructed based on a specification. A first level from the plurality of levels is represented by a first component of the visual plot. A second level from the plurality of levels is represented by a second component of the visual plot. The dataset is queried to retrieve data in accordance with the specification. The data includes all or a portion of the dimension and all or a portion of the measure. The visual plot is populated with the retrieved data in accordance with the specification." The patent application was filed on June 22, 2010 (12/821,029). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,724&OS=8,364,724&RS=8,364,724 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Yanicklo Technology Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Yanicklo Technology, Wilmington, Del., has been assigned a patent (8,364,697) developed by six co-inventors for a "method and system for creation and dynamic updating of best data arrangement in digital data store system." The co-inventors are Yossi Matias, Tel Aviv, Israel, Guy Shaked, Beer Sheva, Israel, Vladimir Braverman, Los Angeles, Victor Belyaev, Beer Sheva, Israel, Shahar Golan, Beer Sheva, Israel, and Marina Sadetsky, Kfar Saba, Israel. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The current invention is a method and a system for analyzing templates of queries, with different levels of precision. When the system of the current invention takes a decision to arrange data, these templates are used, and a single data arrangement object (HRBlob) is designed which may serve a single template or several templates and not just a single query. This approach has an important impact on data arrangement performance and on queries performance, since this approach may help many more queries to be handled using less data arrangement objects." The patent application was filed on June 24, 2009 (12/490,981). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,697&OS=8,364,697&RS=8,364,697 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Intuit Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Intuit, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,662) developed by five co-inventors for a "system and method for improving a search engine ranking of a website." The co-inventors are Eric D. Moyer, Belmont, Calif., Ramasubramaniam Gopal, Fremont, Calif., Tapasvi Moturu, Sunnyvale, Calif., Rina Rin-Song Chang, Saratoga, Calif., and Saravanan Coimbatore, Sunnyvale, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method for managing a pre-existing website of a business includes receiving, from the business, business information comprising a business name, a location, an industry, an address, a phone number, and a business description, generating a business profile comprising the business information, obtaining, from a keyword provider, a plurality of keywords relating to the business, generating a title comprising the business name, the location, and the plurality of keywords, generating a footer comprising the industry, the address, the phone number, and the plurality of keywords, generating a website content item comprising the business description and the plurality of keywords, generating a first modified website based on the pre-existing website of the business, publishing the first modified website to a network, and inserting, into the business profile, a first hyperlink comprising a first uniform resource locator (URL) pointing to a first network location of the first modified website." The patent application was filed on Aug. 9, 2011 (13/206,425). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,662&OS=8,364,662&RS=8,364,662 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Quest Software Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Quest Software, Aliso Viejo, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,648) developed by Siew Yong Sim-Tang, Saratoga, Calif., for "recovering a database to any point-in-time in the past with guaranteed data consistency." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A data management method wherein a real-time history of a database system is stored as a logical representation and the logical representation is then used for any point-in-time recovery of the database system. More specifically, a method for capturing transaction data, binary data changes, metadata, and events, and for tracking a real-time history of a database system according to the events. The method enables tracking and storing of consistent checkpoint images of the database system, and also enables tracking of transaction activities between checkpoints. The database system may be recovered to any consistent checkpoint or to any point between two checkpoints." The patent application was filed on April 9, 2008 (12/099,837). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,648&OS=8,364,648&RS=8,364,648 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Google Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Google, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,712) developed by five co-inventors for a "variable user interface based on document access privileges." The co-inventors are Joseph O'Sullivan, San Francisco, Siraj Khaliq, San Francisco, Adam M. Smith, San Francisco, Alexander MacGillivray, San Francisco, and Joe Sriver, Mountain View, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Users may be presented with different viewing interfaces for a document based on a combination of factors relating to display rights possessed for the document and user specific information. In one implementation, the user's location is used to determine portions of the document that can be displayed to the user. More particularly, access privileges to a document for a user are determined based on geographical location information of the user and based on access rights possessed for the document. Portions of the document may then be formatted for display to the user based on the determined access privileges." The patent application was filed on Nov. 30, 2009 (12/627,834). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,712&OS=8,364,712&RS=8,364,712 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Videosurf Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Videosurf, San Mateo, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,660) developed by five co-inventors for an "apparatus and software system for and method of performing a visual-relevance-rank subsequent search." The co-inventors are Lior Delgo, Saratoga, Calif., Eitan Sharon, San Mateo, Calif., Achiezer Brandt, San Mateo, Calif., Eran Borenstein, Oakland, Calif., and Asael Moshe, Sunnyvale, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method analyzes the visual content of media such as videos for collecting together visually-similar appearances in their constituent images (e.g. same scenes, same objects, faces of the same people.) As a result, the most relevant and salient (of clearest and largest presence) visual appearances depicted in the videos are presented to the user, both for the sake of summarizing the video content for the users to "see before they watch" (that is, judge by the depicted video content in a filmstrip-like summary whether they want to mouse-click on the video and actually spend time watching it), as well as for allowing to users to further refine their video search result set according to the most relevant and salient video content returned (e.g. largest screen-time faces)." The patent application was filed on July 13, 2009 (12/502,206). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,660&OS=8,364,660&RS=8,364,660 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Infoblox Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Infoblox, Santa Clara, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,631) developed by Srinath Gutti, Fremont, Calif., and Ivan Pulleyn, Sunnyvale, Calif., for a database migration. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A technique for converting a first version of a database to a second version is disclosed. The technique includes determining available translation steps, selecting a translation path from the first version of the database to the second version, and executing the selected translation steps in the translation path. The translation path includes selected translation steps from among the available translation steps." The patent application was filed on Sept. 24, 2004 (10/950,192). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,631&OS=8,364,631&RS=8,364,631 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** NetApp Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- NetApp, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,716) developed by Shravan Gaonkar, Sunnyvale, Calif., and Sagar Dixit, Sunnyvale, Calif., for "methods and apparatus for incrementally computing similarity of data sources." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Methods and systems for efficiently determining a similarity between two or more datasets. In one embodiment, the similarity is determined based on comparing a subset of sorted frequency-weighted blocks from one dataset to a subset of sorted frequency-weighed blocks from another dataset. Data blocks of a dataset are converted into hash values that are frequency-weighted. These frequency-weighted hash values can be compared to frequency-weighted hash values of another dataset to determine a similarity of the two datasets. In another embodiment, upon a change of a block in a subset of the dataset, the similarity value is re-determined without resorting or hashing the blocks of a dataset other than the blocks of the subset, resulting in an increased performance of a similarity comparison. In another embodiment, blocks of a dataset are excluded based on a block-filtering rule to increase the accuracy of the similarity comparison." The patent application was filed on Dec. 17, 2010 (12/972,266). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,716&OS=8,364,716&RS=8,364,716 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** CA Inc. Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- CA Inc., Islandia, N.Y., has been assigned a patent (8,364,638) developed by Peter Nickolov, Laguna Niguel, Calif., Leonid Kalev, Haifa, Israel, and Eric Tessler, Aliso Viejo, Calif., for an "automated filer technique for use in virtualized appliances and applications." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Various techniques are disclosed for facilitating manipulation of virtualized storage volumes and/or file systems of one or more different types of operating systems (OSs) implemented on distributed computer systems. According to embodiments, various aspects may be directed to different embodiments of virtualized filer appliances and/or filer applications which may be used for facilitating manipulation of virtualized storage volumes and/or file systems of one or more different types of operating systems (OSs) implemented on distributed computer systems. In at least one embodiment, a filer appliance may be implemented as a virtual appliance that includes functionality for performing automated file-level and/or volume-level operations for a selected set of file systems. In one embodiment, a filer appliance may be implemented as a virtual machine which is configured or designed to handle managing of one or more volumes. In one embodiment, the filer appliance may include one or more other virtual interfaces for interfacing with one or more virtual volumes and/or one or more other virtual appliances, virtual applications, etc. Various other techniques are disclosed herein for facilitating dynamic and automated configuration of virtual appliances implemented at distributed computing systems." The patent application was filed on June 5, 2009 (13/003,863). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,638&OS=8,364,638&RS=8,364,638 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Microsoft Assigned Patent for Concept Disambiguation Via Search Engine Search Results ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Microsoft, Redmond, Wash., has been assigned a patent (8,364,672) developed by five co-inventors for a "concept disambiguation via search engine search results." The co-inventors are David Ahn, San Francisco, Michael Paul Bieniosek, Woodinville, Wash., Andrei Peter Makhanov, San Jose, Calif., Franco Salvetti, San Francisco, and Giovanni Lorenzo Thione, San Francisco. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Concept disambiguation is provided for search queries by analyzing search results in conjunction with an ontology of concepts. An ontology of concepts is identified, and at least one document is associated with each concept. The document associated with a concept is representative of the concept and used to generate a concept signature. When a search query is received, it is processed to obtain search results. The search results are used to generate a search results signature, which is compared to the concept signatures to identify one or more concepts that are relevant to the search query." The patent application was filed on May 27, 2005 (12/953,139). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,672&OS=8,364,672&RS=8,364,672 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Google Assigned Patent for Method and Arrangement for Content Prioritization ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Google, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,624) developed by Petteri Koponen, London, and Jyri Engestrom, San Francisco, for a "method and arrangement for content prioritization." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The invention concerns a method for determining priority of a data item, the data item being sent from at least one first terminal or service associable with the first terminal to a second terminal and evaluated using a set of first rules associable with the sender of a data item and a set of second rules associable with the recipient of a data item. The invention is characterized in that the data item is associated with at least one tag characterizing the data item, weight factor for the data item is maintained using the set of first rules and the value of the at least one tag, the weight factor of the data item is made adjustable by the set of second rules and the data item is rendered on the second terminal using at least the weight factor information. Also an arrangement implementing the method is disclosed." The patent application was filed on Feb. 8, 2008 (12/028,066). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,624&OS=8,364,624&RS=8,364,624 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Yahoo! Assigned Patent for System and Method for Annotation and Ranking of Reviews Personalized to Prior User Experience ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Yahoo!, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,685) developed by Sihem Amer Yahia, New York, and Andrei Z. Broder, Menlo Park, Calif., for a "system and method for annotation and ranking of reviews personalized to prior user experience." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The present invention is directed towards methods and computer readable media for annotating and ranking user reviews on social review systems with inferred analytics. A reference framework is provided by creating context according to previous activity, bias, or background information of a given reviewer. The method of the present invention comprises receiving a first query identifying a given content item, generating a collection of content items based on one or more identical objective attributes associated with the given content item, identifying one or more subjective attributes associated with a given item in the collection of items, and providing a reference framework to interpret the subjective attributes associated with each item in the collection." The patent application was filed on Dec. 27, 2007 (11/965,256). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,685&OS=8,364,685&RS=8,364,685 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Nielsen Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Nielsen, Schaumburg, Ill., has been assigned a patent (8,364,678) developed by David R. Miller, Annandale, Va., and Kenneth L. Inman, Poway, Calif., for a "household level segmentation method and system." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Methods and apparatus for household level segmentation are disclosed. An example method to classify consumers in clusters includes receiving population data indicative of a population of consumers and receiving a plurality of profiles, at least one profile to evaluate partitioning of the population of consumers. The example method also includes selecting at least one of the plurality of profiles based on a count limit value in accordance with a classification tree dimension split." The patent application was filed on Sept. 2, 2008 (12/202,805). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,678&OS=8,364,678&RS=8,364,678 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Yahoo! Assigned Patent for User Entertainment and Engagement Enhancements to Search System ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Yahoo!, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,658) developed by Reiner Kraft, Gilroy, Calif., for a "user entertainment and engagement enhancements to search system." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of actively engaging a user of a search system can include receiving from the user a search query for a search of a corpus of information and providing the user with search results for the search. The user can also be prompted to participate in a search-related activity wherein at least one aspect of the search-related activity is dependent on a context of the search. User input for performing the search-related activity can be accepted and an activity response can be provided to the user." The patent application was filed on Nov. 27, 2005 (12/272,545). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,658&OS=8,364,658&RS=8,364,658 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Experian Information Solutions Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Experian Information Solutions, Costa Mesa, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,588) developed by Christopher J. Celka, Suwanee, Ga., and Cristian R. Rojas, San Diego, for a "system and method for automated detection of never-pay data sets." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Data filters, models, and/or profiles for identifying and/or predicting the never-pay population (for example, those customers that make a request for credit and obtain the credit instrument but over the life of the account, never make a payment) can be useful to various commercial entities, such as those issuing mortgages, home equity lines of credit, consumer or business lines of credit, automobile loans, credit card accounts, or those entities providing services, such as utility services, phone services, and the like." The patent application was filed on Sept. 2, 2010 (12/875,045). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,588&OS=8,364,588&RS=8,364,588 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Google Assigned Patent for Determining Word Boundary Likelihoods in Potentially Incomplete Text ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Google, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,709) developed by Abhinandan S. Das, Sunnyvale, Calif., and Harry S. Fung, Saratoga, Calif., for "determining word boundary likelihoods in potentially incomplete text." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining word boundary likelihoods in potentially incomplete text. In one aspect, a method includes selecting query sequences from the query, each query sequence being at least a portion of a word n-gram, the word n-gram being a subsequence of up to n words selected from the second sequence of words of the query, and for each query sequence: determining one or more query sequence keys for the query sequence; determining at least one of a word boundary count and a non-word boundary count for each query sequence key, each word-boundary count and non-word boundary count being dependent on the context of the query sequence; and associating, in a data storage device, the at least one word boundary count and non-word boundary counts with each query sequence key." The patent application was filed on Nov. 22, 2010 (12/951,529). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,709&OS=8,364,709&RS=8,364,709 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Disney Enterprises Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Disney Enterprises, Burbank, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,657) developed by Arnaud Robert, Burbank, Calif., for a "system and method for providing media content." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "There is presented a system for providing a content stored on a medium, the system comprising a media presentation module including a processor. The processor is configured to retrieve a content payload including a digital content from a data structure residing on the medium, and to retrieve a content-describing metadata stored separately from the digital content, from the data structure. The content-describing metadata provide content information including media encoding information for the digital content and a media profile information for the digital content. The content-describing metadata are configured to provide the content information to the media presentation module prior to rendering the digital content. In one embodiment, the processor is further configured to configure the media presentation module based on the media encoding information and the media profile information, and to present the content on a display." The patent application was filed on March 26, 2009 (12/383,668). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,657&OS=8,364,657&RS=8,364,657 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Symantec Assigned Patent ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Symantec, Mountain View, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,705) developed by Shaun Cooley, El Segundo, Calif., and Keith Newstadt, Newton, Mass., for "methods and systems for determining a file set." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A computer-implemented method for determining a file set. The method may include identifying a file set. The method may also include identifying a first file in the file set. The first file may comprise a first value in a first property field. The method may further comprise identifying a second file in the file set. The second file may comprise a second value in the first property field. The first value may be different than the second value. The method may include transmitting a first file identifier of the first file and a second file identifier of the second file from a first computing device to a second computing device. The second computing device may identify a set of known-good-file identifiers. The second computing device may transmit the set of known-good-file identifiers to the first computing device. Corresponding systems and computer-readable media are also disclosed." The patent application was filed on Sept. 24, 2008 (12/236,661). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,364,705&OS=8,364,705&RS=8,364,705 Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi. *** Apple Assigned Patent for Computer Systems and Methods for Collecting, Associating, and/or Retrieving Data ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 31 -- Apple, Cupertino, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,364,680) developed by Brett Bilbrey, Sunnyvale, Calif., for "computer systems and methods for collecting, associating, and/or retrieving data." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Systems and methods may provide collection of data For more information about Targeted News Service products and services, please contact: Myron Struck, editor, Targeted News Service LLC, Springfield, Va., 703/304-1897; [email protected]; http://targetednews.com. -1112689 (c) 2013 Targeted News Service |