Patent Grant
8175908
In today's commerce, there is a wide variety of information available from the numerous transactions that people effect each day. As can be appreciated, the nature of transactions vary widely and include debit card transactions, credit card transactions, person-to-merchant transactions, and Internet transactions, for example, only to name a few.
However, known methods and techniques fail to effectively use information relating to the transactions, which are effected by persons, to the benefit of merchants that live and die in the highly competitive arena of today's commerce.
In contrast to known methods and techniques, the invention uses information, which is collected from transactions that people effect in commerce, to the benefit of merchants.
The invention is directed to a method, which may be implemented in a computer system for storing and manipulating transaction data including transaction purchase information, customer demographics information, and merchant information, the computer system comprising a storage device for storing the transaction data and a processor for processing the transaction data. The method may comprise obtaining transaction purchase information generated from a plurality of sources; generating customer profile information based on the transaction purchase information; obtaining merchant information relating to at least one merchant; generating merchant profile information based on the merchant information and purchase transaction information; and processing the customer profile information and the merchant profile information in combination to generate business information. The business information may include merchant profit information, merchant bankruptcy information, merchant revenue, merchant profit projections, and/or merchant market share.
The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description together with the accompanying drawing, in which like reference indicators are used to designate like elements, and in which:
Hereinafter, aspects in accordance with various embodiments of the invention will be described. As used herein, any term in the singular may be interpreted to be in the plural, and alternatively, any term in the plural may be interpreted to be in the singular.
In introduction, the invention provides systems and methods to build a merchant-level database, as described below. Various features of the systems and methods of the invention are described below. Further, the invention may include various functionality, such as a web interface for report generation and analysis. As also described below, there are various potential applications of the data provided by the merchant level database in accordance with the various embodiments of the invention.
Merchant profiles (a set of pre-computed quantities aggregated at the merchant level) offer the opportunity to significantly improve performance of a wide variety of account-level models. For example, the invention may be used to calculate risk at the level of an individual merchant. Further, a variety of merchant-level variables can readily be imagined including merchant tenure (how long has the merchant been in business), probability of collusive merchants (fencing operations), and/or chargeback rates, for example. For example, the invention might be used to calculate the bankruptcy risk associated with transactions at particular merchants—even though it is common knowledge that individuals run up charges at particular types of merchants preceding bankruptcy (either behaviorally or intentionally). Although current variables based on Standard Industry Category (SIC) Codes might suffice for this purpose, such variables could undoubtedly be improved due to increasing the precision of poorly structured or overly general SIC Codes, or misclassification errors within SIC codes.
Further, the systems and methods of the invention provide opportunity for a merchant database of a company to be used in a partnership between the company, for example, and some other business entity. Besides allowing for rapid sizing and targeting analyses for cross-sell opportunities, a merchant database of the invention would facilitate detailed analysis about various information of a business partner of a bank, or other institution for example. Information might be obtained about a business partner's customers and competition, for example.
Further, the merchant database of the invention could be utilized to provide information to competitors if desired. It is of course appreciated that a bank, for example, would not be able to share specific information about its customers or particular competitors, but it should be possible to provide information in aggregate, such as customer profiles, revenue projections, or market share. Such analyses would be valuable marketing intelligence, which a bank could use as bargaining chips in contract negotiations or to deepen existing relationships. Examples of analyses are listed below. In many cases, the merchants will already have much of this information. However, it was observed in development of the invention that some business entities do indeed have gaps in their customer information database (e.g. a foreign airline could not tell us where their U.S. passengers live).
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a bank utilizing the systems and methods of the invention might tell a merchant about their credit card customers':
Further, a bank utilizing the systems and methods of the invention might tell a merchant about its competition's:
Various aspects of the systems and methods of the embodiments of the invention are described below. In the invention and the utilization of a merchant database, various quantities may be of potential interest. Quantities of potential interest that relate to a merchant business may include SIC code, type of business (service, retail, government, etc.), primary or secondary line of business, franchise/chain data, average transaction amount; standard deviation of transaction amount; sales projections; average distance from customer's residence, average and standard deviation distance from customer's residence; and customer loyalty/repeat business (total number of transactions/total number of accounts), for example.
Quantities of potential interest that relate to Customer fraud/risk might include “Point-of-Compromise” (POC) risk (for detecting counterfeit operations); fraud risk (fence operations, luxury goods, etc.); default risk of customers (average customer. chargoff/bankruptcy rate); Durable goods/auto repairs; percentage of Mail-order/Telephone-Order (MOTO); percentage of “Card Not Present” (CNP) transactions and other automated drafts; percentage of transactions read with magnetic stripe versus keyed; percent of transactions returned or charged back to the merchant (“chargebacks”); average and standard deviation of distance from customer's residence; and average and standard deviation of the transaction amount, for example.
Quantities of potential interest that relate to merchant fraud/risk might include chargeback/dispute rates (which would typically require chargeback records), merchant tenure (months in business), fraud rate which (might require historically-validated fraud transaction data), and POC risk (which might require date of first fraud at the account level), for example.
Quantities of potential interest that relate to Sales Channel might include percentage MOTO transactions; percentage of CNP transactions or automated drafts; percentage internet purchases; percent Television or Infomercial generated transactions; percent keyed transactions or recurring payments, for example.
Quantities of potential interest that relate to Customer Demographics might include average and standard deviation of customer age; gender; average number of children;
household income; homeowner v. renter; credit risk of customers (average FICO score of customers for example) and/or information about demographic clusters, for example.
In accordance with embodiments of the invention data processing is performed at the merchant-level. A transaction record between a merchant and a customer typically contains a data field to identify both the customer and the merchant (usually an account number or customer's name and address), the transaction amount, and the date and time of the transaction. In addition, credit card transactions also include store location (country, city, state and ZIP code), a text description of the merchant, the “Standard Industry Classification” (SIC) code of the merchant, and various transaction details (such as point-of-sale device characteristics) and sometimes even item-level information, i.e., such as travel reservation confirmation codes, etc.
Hereinafter, further aspects of the systems and methods of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The augmented transaction data 140 is then sorted and aggregated in step 145 by a unique merchant/store identifier, i.e., unique to that particular merchant/store. At this point in the processing, detailed further in
Predictive models typically require training using historical outcomes (192, 194) under the assumption that patterns of behavior that lead to these events are stable over time. To explain,
In particular for large businesses, such as franchise operations with multiple store locations and large enterprises with multiple lines of business, the store level profiles 150 are aggregated, i.e., “rolled-up”, as shown in step 170 and output to an “enterprise-level” database 180. Enterprise-level profiles can also be used for enterprise-wide analyses 164 as well as used in enterprise level predictive models 168. That is, predictive models can also be built to predict a wide variety of events at the enterprise-level, such as profit and loss, merchant defaults and bankruptcy, for example, as well as at the store level.
It is appreciated that the transaction purchase information, such as the information 210, may be generated based on one or more of credit card activity, debit card activity, checking activity, and ACH transaction activity of consumers, for example, as well as stored value card activity, interne payment activity, and wireless payment activity, for example. Further, the transaction purchase information may be generated based on activity associated with a private label card. Transaction purchase information associated with a private label card typically includes additional information, as compared to a standard credit card, e.g., VISA. For example, transaction purchase information associated with a private label card typically includes identification of a particular item that has been purchased, i.e., including stock keeping unit (SKU) information.
Customer profiles can be obtained from a plurality of sources. One common source is demographic databases and the census bureau, which typically contain basic demographic information, such as age, income, zip code, home ownership, market value of home, gender, marital status, and so on. Many merchants maintain databases on their own customers, but the data is limited to that gathered by the merchant at time of sale or through questionnaires in warranty registrations. Types of information collected depend on the type of business. For example, some retailers (such as mail-order catalog and book-of-the-month clubs) maintain detailed SKU-level data (Stock Keeping Unit-level data) on all items purchased over a year. Grocery stores collect these data through coupon-rewards programs. Airlines collect flight itineraries. Internet service providers and merchants might maintain databases containing self-reported profile information, websites visited, as well as internet purchases.
The augmentation processing of
A simple merchant profile might contain the population average of customers patronizing the merchant. However, the fact that the average customer age is higher for one merchant compared to another might not, by itself, be very significant. In general, it is more useful to calculate both the average and variance of a population. For some applications, even higher-order moments of the population distribution, or even a population distribution might be stored. As noted above, examples of potential customer demographic variables are given in the table of
As described herein, customer spending profiles 125 and/or account profile information 220 may be used in various embodiments of the systems and methods of the invention. Customer spending profiles 125 can be generated by various techniques from a plurality of data sources. Simple profiles might include customer spending in discrete categories (e.g. groceries, gasoline, auto-related, travel, and so forth). Profiles could be generated from transactions data in the separate processing system 122 of
With further reference to
Once data is linked to a unique merchant identifier, it is sorted in step 325 by that identifier, then by date and time of transaction, to simplify processing. At this point, several merchant-level variables, or quantities of interest, can be calculated or extracted. The computational requirements for calculating these quantities can vary by application. Some variables of interest are quite simple, such as the merchant's line of business, industry classification, number of retail stores, or number of years in business. The latter can be obtained from external databases, such as business listings or extracted from the oldest transaction in the database (assuming a sufficiently long transaction history resides in the transaction database). We refer to these variables as “gross merchant variables” or attributes 327. At the next level of complexity are Transaction-level variables 330, i.e., quantities calculated over all transactions at a merchant, without regard to who the customer is. Examples include the average (and standard deviation) transaction amount at a merchant. Several more examples of such transaction-level variables are given in the table of
Further, customer-level variables 340 may be calculated in the processing of
More generally, a merchant may be interested in the distribution of their repeat customers (a histogram of the number of transactions per customer at each store). Collecting these data for all merchants in the database might be computationally expensive. However, a secondary engine can be developed to “drill down” to analyze transactions only on accounts that had at least one transaction at the merchant of interest. A second round of processing could then be conducted at the account-level. More examples are given in
Various additional variables can be calculated, assuming one has access to historical outcome data 165. Examples of merchant variables of interest include the fraud rate at a merchant, the chargeback (or returned merchandise) rate, and even the rate of customer payment defaults at a merchant. Depending on application, these data may be accessed at the transaction or customer level. Chargeback data 360 for example, is typically collected at the transaction level. Fraud data 370 can be at the account-level or transaction-level. Customer defaults 380 are collected at the customer-level (which may link to more than one account). Finally, some outcome-based variables (such as merchant revenues or default information) are calculated at the merchant-level 350 or enterprise-level. The resulting variables are then stored in a store-level merchant profile 150.
In order to compare businesses competing in the same line-of-business, it is necessary to define the industry peers. As a first approximation, many businesses are conveniently classified by their Standard Industry Category (SIC) code or Merchant Category Code (MCC). These codes are quite effective for certain industries. However, they are notoriously inaccurate in identifying industry peers and competitors in many modern industries, i.e., such as telecommunications, interne, or mail-order businesses, to name a few. Hence, in addition to developing a database for unique merchant identifiers 320, a “line of business” database 435 would greatly improve competitive and market share analyses. For some industries, the elements of this database might include lists of specific merchants in competition, developed from an expert in the industry of interest. Once established, store and franchise-level data can readily be aggregated (as shown in step 430 of
Further,
At this level of aggregation of step 460 of
As reflected in
Hereinafter, examples of merchant and enterprise-level analyses are described in accordance with some embodiments of the invention.
That is,
Further analysis can be conducted on transaction data to answer specific questions, relevant to the business. For example, a major mall retailer is commonly interested in knowing what other stores in the same mall are visited by their customers. Transaction data offers the opportunity to obtain accurate and precise answers to this particular question. For example,
This type of analysis might be too specific to incorporate directly into a pre-computed merchant database; however, the analysis is greatly simplified by access to the merchant database. For example, in order to conduct a “same day purchase” analysis, one could pre-select accounts with purchases at the client store, retaining only transactions on these accounts occurring on the same day. One could then feed the selected transactions into the merchant database engine to build a same-day purchase database.
To explain further, the
In further illustration of analysis that may be performed,
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention,
As shown, the process of
Thereafter, in step 960, a comparison analysis is performed. Then, in step 970, a suitable report is output.
As shown in
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the process of
Step 1140 represents an optional step that may be implemented, i.e., depending on the interest of the user. Specifically, in step 1140, the process excludes all customers who reside within Z miles of the particular resort.
After the optional step 1140, the process passes to step 1150. In step 1150, the transaction data is input into the merchant database engine. Thereafter, two profile analyses may be performed in parallel. That is, peer category line-of-business profiles may be generated. Further, profiles of particular merchant business units may be generated. Thereafter, further comparison analyses may be performed, as is desired. Accordingly, the subprocess of
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, one aspect of the market share analysis processing of
In step 1330, the process extracts store profiles for all stores in the region of interest. Data from a store-level merchant profile database 150 is used in the processing of step 1330. This information is then used to generate a suitable data set 1340.
In parallel to the processing step 1300 of
Thereafter, in step 1340 of
In further explanation of the systems and methods of the invention, as described herein, customer profiles are utilized in various aspects of the invention. Customer profiles can be obtained from a plurality of sources. One common source is demographic databases and the census bureau, which typically contain basic demographic information, such as age, income, ZIP code, home ownership, market value of home, gender, marital status, and so on. Many merchants maintain databases on their own customers, but the data is limited to that gathered by the merchant at time of sale or through questionnaires in warranty registrations. Types of information collected depend on the type of business. For example, some retailers (such as mail-order catalog and book-of-the-month clubs) maintain detailed SKU-level data on all items purchased over a year. Grocery stores collect these data through coupon-rewards programs. Airlines collect flight itineraries. Internet service providers and merchants might maintain databases containing self-reported profile information, websites visited, as well as internet purchases. Further, customer spending profiles can be derived directly from credit card transactions data itself. U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,168 to Rothman et al. (issued Jan. 7, 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) is illustrative of the derivation of customer spending profiles.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, various possible merchant analysis and potential applications are described below with reference to
In further explanation of the invention,
As shown in
Once the merchant information is available in the merchant database 1230 and the account information is available in the account database 1220, this information is utilized in the processing of the invention. Specifically, a customer profile portion 1240 utilizes the account information in the account database 1220 to generate customer profiles, as desired. The customer profiles could of course be based on a variety of accounts of a particular customer, for example. Further, merchant profile portion 1250 utilizes merchant information in the merchant database 1230. The customer profile portion generates customer profile information based on customer information obtained. Further, the merchant profile portion 1250 generates merchant profile based on batched data obtained from merchants. As shown in
As shown in
After step 1340, the process passes to step 1350. In step 1350, the customer profile information is processed in combination to generate business information. Further details of step 1350 are described below. As indicated in box 350′, the business information may include merchant profit information, merchant bankruptcy information, revenue projections, market share and customer profiles, for example.
With further reference to
In step 1430, the process performs a scoring process to generate the business information. Specifically, the scoring process uses a transaction model output data and the merchant model output data. After step 1430, the process passes to step 1440. In step 1440, the process returns to step 1360 of
In step 1610, the process analyzes the merchant profile information from a past time period wherein the merchant profile information is based on a selected merchant. After step 1610, the process passes to step 1620. In step 1620, the process analyzes the customer profile information from the same past time period. Then, in step 1630, the process generates an interrelationship information between the analyzed merchant profile information and the customer profile information from the past time period.
Accordingly, the interrelationship information defines an interrelationship between the analyzed merchant profile information and the analyzed customer profile information. Then, in step 1640, the process performs further processing to generate the business information. That is, the process leverages the interrelationship information obtained in step 1630. Further details of step 1640 are described below in reference to
As shown in block 1646′, the pseudo merchant profile information for the subsequent time period may relate to anticipated profits of the merchant, anticipated sales volume, bankruptcy, and/or default risk, for example. As shown in
After step 1654, in step 1656, the process determines the most distinguishing attributes, i.e., of the customer profile information, that distinguish the first merchants from the second merchants. After step 1656, the process passes to step 1658. In step 1658, the process targets the further merchants for likelihood of default problems. That is, the process identifies such further merchants as being likely targets for default problems based on the most distinguishing attributes. After step 1658, the process passes to step 1659. In step 1659, the process returns to step 1660 of
As shown in
In step 1840, the process generates business information based on the identified transaction purchase information. As shown in box 1840′, the business information may relate to geographical distribution of market share, inventory expansion and/or new store locations, for example. After step 1840, the process passes to step 1850. In step 1850, the process returns to step 1360 of
In particular,
In accordance with one aspect of the invention and as otherwise described herein, it is appreciated that information about a particular merchant may be collected from a variety of sources in implementation of the systems and methods of the invention. One way that a particular merchant may be identified is using a merchant ID or key of the particular merchant. However, the merchant ID number for a particular merchant may be inconsistent. That is, the merchant ID may not be standardized across acquirers and/or there may be multiple merchant IDs for one merchant. For example, some merchants have a single ID number for the entire chain and others for each store or for each point of sale (POS) device. Accordingly, this situation might be overcome by utilizing a lookup table that associates all the known merchant IDs of a particular merchant with a single merchant. Alternatively, other schemes might be used to recognize that different indicia indeed corresponds to the same merchant. For example, the (acquirerID+merchantID) might be used, the (merchant SIC+First 6 characters of merchant description) might be used and/or the (SIC+ZIP) might be used for individual store locations.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, it is appreciated that a suitable time scale might be used. To explain, characteristics of merchants do not change rapidly, i.e., as compared to credit card account information, for example. Detection of many account-level events requires account profiles to be updated daily (e.g. risk models) or even after each transaction (fraud models). On the other hand, the most timely information we might want to track on merchants (such as Point-of-compromise) may need only to be updated on a weekly cycle, due to delays in fraud reporting. Further, for most other applications (inventory or volume analyses, channel volumes, and so on), monthly updates may well be more than sufficient.
This difference in time scales greatly simplifies the design of integrated models, i.e., models incorporating both account and merchant profiles. That is, account-level profiles can, as before, be updated in real time (with each transaction, if necessary), while variables based on merchant-level information can be updated in batch mode on a monthly cycle.
Hereinafter, further aspects of the variables that may be used in the systems and methods of the invention, as well as information obtained from those variables, will be described in further detail. In accordance with further aspects of the invention related to the above,
Further, as is also discussed above, transaction-summary variables may be used in the processing of the invention including average and standard deviation of transaction amount, average and standard deviation of transaction frequency, Total transaction amount (over a period of time), Seasonal frequency vs.-month, average and standard deviation of distance from customer's home address, percent transactions in which the card is not present including recurring payments, MOTO, Internet, e-payment. Further transaction summary variables that might be used include the percent approved/declined, and the percent keyed/swiped.
In further explanation of the above description, customer demographics may be used. To explain further, since transaction data is linked to individual account numbers, key demographics (home ZIP, age, income, credit score, home ownership, etc.) corresponding to account number can be appended to transaction data. Gross statistics on customer demographics (e.g. average and standard deviation of customer age) could then be computed in the same way as gross statistics on transaction amounts. Collectively, these statistics would then constitute a demographic “profile” of the merchant's customer base. This profile could then be used to define target populations for marketing campaigns. A list of potential customer demographics includes a variety of variables of which average, standard deviation and/or complete distribution parameters may be used. These variables may include ZIP code, customer age, income, credit risk, NPV, wealth, size, pet owner, own/rent, ages of children, occupation, recent mover, life events and/or customer spending attributes.
Further, other variables that might be utilized in the processing of the invention include outcome-based variables. These variables might include % chargebacks, customer default/bankruptcy that may require account-level flags, merchant default/bankruptcy/delinquency that may require merchant-level flags; merchant profit or revenue or credit rating which may require public records and/or Dun & Bradstreet reports.
Further, account-level or customer-level variables might be used, such as customer loyalty. A simple variable that can be calculated at the merchant-level is the average number of transactions/customer at each store. This could be calculated directly for each account in a transaction database, or as the ratio of number of transactions/time and number of unique account numbers/time.
More generally, a merchant may be interested in the distribution of their repeat customers, i.e., such as in a histogram of the number of transactions per customer at each store. Collecting these data for all merchants in the database might be computationally expensive. However, a secondary engine can be developed to “drill down” to analyze transactions only on accounts that had at least one transaction at the merchant of interest. A second round of processing could then be conducted at the account-level.
In accordance with the various embodiments of the invention described above, customer profiles may be generated and utilized, as desired. The particular method used to generate customer profile or profiles will of course vary depending on the particular situation. Further, it should be appreciated that various methods may be used to effect dimension reduction, including dimension reduction on customer profiles. For example, techniques for generating customer profiles and for performing dimension reduction may be used in the present invention as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/638,643 filed Aug. 12, 2003 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/638,648 filed Aug. 12, 2003, which are both incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
As described herein, a wide variety of information may be used in the practice of the various embodiments of the systems and methods of the invention. It is of course appreciated that the use and/or dissemination of some of such information may well be limited by confidentiality limitations. Further, there may be other limitations on the use and/or dissemination of such information. For example, agreements between partners in business or competitors may limit the use and/or dissemination of some information. Such considerations should of course be taken into account in the practice of the invention.
Hereinafter, general aspects of possible implementation of the inventive technology will be described. Various embodiments of the inventive technology are described above. In particular, various steps of embodiments of the processes of the inventive technology are set forth. Further, various illustrative operating systems are set forth. It is appreciated that the systems of the invention or portions of the systems of the invention may be in the form of a “processing machine,” such as a general-purpose computer, for example. As used herein, the term “processing machine” is to be understood to include at least one processor that uses at least one memory. The at least one memory stores a set of instructions. The instructions may be either permanently or temporarily stored in the memory or memories of the processing machine. The processor executes the instructions that are stored in the memory or memories in order to process data. The set of instructions may include various instructions that perform a particular task or tasks, such as those tasks described above in the flowcharts. Such a set of instructions for performing a particular task may be characterized as a program, software program, or simply software.
As noted above, the processing machine executes the instructions that are stored in the memory or memories to process data. This processing of data may be in response to commands by a user or users of the processing machine, in response to previous processing, in response to a request by another processing machine and/or any other input, for example.
As noted above, the processing machine used to implement the invention may be a general-purpose computer. However, the processing machine described above may also utilize any of a wide variety of other technologies including a special purpose computer, a computer system including a microcomputer, mini-computer or mainframe for example, a programmed microprocessor, a micro-controller, a peripheral integrated circuit element, a CSIC (Customer Specific Integrated Circuit) or ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) or other integrated circuit, a logic circuit, a digital signal processor, a programmable logic device such as a FPGA, PLD, PLA or PAL, or any other device or arrangement of devices that is capable of implementing the steps of the process of the invention.
It is appreciated that in order to practice the method of the invention as described above, it is not necessary that the processors and/or the memories of the processing machine be physically located in the same geographical place. That is, each of the processors and the memories used in the invention may be located in geographically distinct locations and connected so as to communicate in any suitable manner. Additionally, it is appreciated that each of the processor and/or the memory may be composed of different physical pieces of equipment. Accordingly, it is not necessary that the processor be one single piece of equipment in one location and that the memory be another single piece of equipment in another location. That is, it is contemplated that the processor may be two pieces of equipment in two different physical locations. The two distinct pieces of equipment may be connected in any suitable manner. Additionally, the memory may include two or more portions of memory in two or more physical locations.
To explain further, processing as described above is performed by various components and various memories. However, it is appreciated that the processing performed by two distinct components as described above may, in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, be performed by a single component. Further, the processing performed by one distinct component as described above may be performed by two distinct components. In a similar manner, the memory storage performed by two distinct memory portions as described above may, in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, be performed by a single memory portion. Further, the memory storage performed by one distinct memory portion as described above may be performed by two memory portions.
Further, various technologies may be used to provide communication between the various processors and/or memories, as well as to allow the processors and/or the memories of the invention to communicate with any other entity; i.e., so as to obtain further instructions or to access and use remote memory stores, for example. Such technologies used to provide such communication might include a network, the Internet, Intranet, Extranet, LAN, an Ethernet, or any client server system that provides communication, for example. Such communications technologies may use any suitable protocol such as TCP/IP, UDP, or OSI, for example.
As described above, a set of instructions is used in the processing of the invention. The set of instructions may be in the form of a program or software. The software may be in the form of system software or application software, for example. The software might also be in the form of a collection of separate programs, a program module within a larger program, or a portion of a program module, for example. The software used might also include modular programming in the form of object-oriented programming. The software tells the processing machine what to do with the data being processed.
Further, it is appreciated that the instructions or set of instructions used in the implementation and operation of the invention may be in a suitable form such that the processing machine may read the instructions. For example, the instructions that form a program may be in the form of a suitable programming language, which is converted to machine language or object code to allow the processor or processors to read the instructions. That is, written lines of programming code or source code, in a particular programming language, are converted to machine language using a compiler, assembler or interpreter. The machine language is binary coded machine instructions that are specific to a particular type of processing machine, i.e., to a particular type of computer, for example. The computer understands the machine language.
Any suitable programming language may be used in accordance with the various embodiments of the invention. Illustratively, the programming language used may include assembly language, Ada, APL, Basic, C, C++, COBOL, dBase, Forth, Fortran, Java, Modula-2, Pascal, Prolog, REXX, Visual Basic, and/or JavaScript, for example. Further, it is not necessary that a single type of instructions or single programming language be utilized in conjunction with the operation of the system and method of the invention. Rather, any number of different programming languages may be utilized as is necessary or desirable.
Also, the instructions and/or data used in the practice of the invention may utilize any compression or encryption technique or algorithm, as may be desired. An encryption module might be used to encrypt data. Further, files or other data may be decrypted using a suitable decryption module, for example.
As described above, the invention may illustratively be embodied in the form of a processing machine, including a computer or computer system, for example, that includes at least one memory. It is to be appreciated that the set of instructions, i.e., the software for example, that enables the computer operating system to perform the operations described above may be contained on any of a wide variety of media or medium, as desired. Further, the data that is processed by the set of instructions might also be contained on any of a wide variety of media or medium. That is, the particular medium, i.e., the memory in the processing machine, utilized to hold the set of instructions and/or the data used in the invention may take on any of a variety of physical forms or transmissions, for example. Illustratively, the medium may be in the form of paper, paper transparencies, a compact disk, a DVD, an integrated circuit, a hard disk, a floppy disk, an optical disk, a magnetic tape, a RAM, a ROM, a PROM, a EPROM, a wire, a cable, a fiber, communications channel, a satellite transmissions or other remote transmission, as well as any other medium or source of data that may be read by the processors of the invention.
Further, the memory or memories used in the processing machine that implements the invention may be in any of a wide variety of forms to allow the memory to hold instructions, data, or other information, as is desired. Thus, the memory might be in the form of a database to hold data. The database might use any desired arrangement of files such as a flat file arrangement or a relational database arrangement, for example.
In the system and method of the invention, a variety of “user interfaces” may be utilized to allow a user to interface with the processing machine or machines that are used to implement the invention. As used herein, a user interface includes any hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software used by the processing machine that allows a user to interact with the processing machine. A user interface may be in the form of a dialogue screen for example. A user interface may also include any of a mouse, touch screen, keyboard, voice reader, voice recognizer, dialogue screen, menu box, list, checkbox, toggle switch, a pushbutton or any other device that allows a user to receive information regarding the operation of the processing machine as it processes a set of instructions and/or provide the processing machine with information. Accordingly, the user interface is any device that provides communication between a user and a processing machine. The information provided by the user to the processing machine through the user interface may be in the form of a command, a selection of data, or some other input, for example.
As discussed above, a user interface is utilized by the processing machine that performs a set of instructions such that the processing machine processes data for a user. The user interface is typically used by the processing machine for interacting with a user either to convey information or receive information from the user. However, it should be appreciated that in accordance with some embodiments of the system and method of the invention, it is not necessary that a human user actually interact with a user interface used by the processing machine of the invention. Rather, it is contemplated that the user interface of the invention might interact, i.e., convey and receive information, with another processing machine, rather than a human user. Accordingly, the other processing machine might be characterized as a user. Further, it is contemplated that a user interface utilized in the system and method of the invention may interact partially with another processing machine or processing machines, while also interacting partially with a human user.
It will be readily understood by those persons skilled in the art that the present invention is susceptible to broad utility and application. Many embodiments and adaptations of the present invention other than those herein described, as well as many variations, modifications and equivalent arrangements, will be apparent from or reasonably suggested by the present invention and foregoing description thereof, without departing from the substance or scope of the invention.
Accordingly, while the present invention has been described here in detail in relation to its exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that this disclosure is only illustrative and exemplary of the present invention and is made to provide an enabling disclosure of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing disclosure is not intended to be construed or to limit the present invention or otherwise to exclude any other such embodiments, adaptations, variations, modifications and equivalent arrangements.
This application claims priority to provisional patent application U.S. Application Ser. No. 60/499,728 filed on Sep. 4, 2003, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1245531 | Tinsley | Nov 1917 | A |
| 2152079 | Mott | Mar 1939 | A |
| 2986144 | Shepard | May 1961 | A |
| 4223403 | Konheim et al. | Sep 1980 | A |
| 4254474 | Cooper et al. | Mar 1981 | A |
| 4319336 | Anderson et al. | Mar 1982 | A |
| 4355372 | Goldberg | Oct 1982 | A |
| 4396985 | Ohara | Aug 1983 | A |
| 4567359 | Lockwood | Jan 1986 | A |
| 4605820 | Campbell, Jr. | Aug 1986 | A |
| 4641239 | Takesako | Feb 1987 | A |
| 4661658 | Matyas | Apr 1987 | A |
| 4713760 | Yamada et al. | Dec 1987 | A |
| 4723212 | O'Brien | Feb 1988 | A |
| 4745468 | Von Kohorn | May 1988 | A |
| 4750036 | Martinez | Jun 1988 | A |
| 4750119 | Robertson | Jun 1988 | A |
| 4752676 | Leonard et al. | Jun 1988 | A |
| 4760604 | Cooper | Jul 1988 | A |
| 4877947 | Masu et al. | Oct 1989 | A |
| 4882675 | Nichtberger et al. | Nov 1989 | A |
| 4891503 | Jewell | Jan 1990 | A |
| 4897811 | Scofield | Jan 1990 | A |
| 4906826 | Spencer | Mar 1990 | A |
| 4908761 | Tai | Mar 1990 | A |
| 4910672 | Off | Mar 1990 | A |
| 4926255 | Von Kohorn | May 1990 | A |
| 4958375 | Reilly | Sep 1990 | A |
| 4972504 | Daniel, Jr. | Nov 1990 | A |
| 4992940 | Dworkin | Feb 1991 | A |
| 4999617 | Uemura | Mar 1991 | A |
| 5023782 | Lutz et al. | Jun 1991 | A |
| 5025372 | Burton et al. | Jun 1991 | A |
| 5041972 | Frost | Aug 1991 | A |
| 5047614 | Bianco | Sep 1991 | A |
| 5056019 | Schultz et al. | Oct 1991 | A |
| 5117355 | McCarthy | May 1992 | A |
| 5122950 | Mee | Jun 1992 | A |
| 5128752 | Von Kohorn | Jul 1992 | A |
| 5173589 | Diehl et al. | Dec 1992 | A |
| 5173851 | Off | Dec 1992 | A |
| 5175682 | Higashiyama | Dec 1992 | A |
| 5201010 | Gabriel | Apr 1993 | A |
| 5202826 | McCarthy | Apr 1993 | A |
| 5220501 | Lawlor | Jun 1993 | A |
| 5231569 | Myatt et al. | Jul 1993 | A |
| 5233514 | Ayyoubi | Aug 1993 | A |
| 5233654 | Harvey et al. | Aug 1993 | A |
| 5237620 | Deaton | Aug 1993 | A |
| 5249044 | Von Kohorn | Sep 1993 | A |
| 5250789 | Johnsen | Oct 1993 | A |
| 5253066 | Vogel | Oct 1993 | A |
| 5259018 | Grimmett et al. | Nov 1993 | A |
| 5260778 | Kauffman | Nov 1993 | A |
| 5262860 | Fitzpatrick | Nov 1993 | A |
| 5265008 | Benton et al. | Nov 1993 | A |
| 5278751 | Adiano | Jan 1994 | A |
| 5285278 | Holman | Feb 1994 | A |
| 5287181 | Holman | Feb 1994 | A |
| 5287268 | McCarthy | Feb 1994 | A |
| 5297026 | Hoffman | Mar 1994 | A |
| 5305196 | Deaton et al. | Apr 1994 | A |
| 5311594 | Penzias | May 1994 | A |
| 5327508 | Deaton et al. | Jul 1994 | A |
| 5331544 | Zhang | Jul 1994 | A |
| 5343239 | Lappington | Aug 1994 | A |
| 5351186 | Bullock | Sep 1994 | A |
| 5380991 | Valencia | Jan 1995 | A |
| 5396417 | Burks | Mar 1995 | A |
| RE34915 | Nichtberger et al. | Apr 1995 | E |
| 5428684 | Akiyama et al. | Jun 1995 | A |
| 5430644 | Deaton et al. | Jul 1995 | A |
| 5442567 | Small | Aug 1995 | A |
| 5444844 | Inoue | Aug 1995 | A |
| 5448471 | Deaton et al. | Sep 1995 | A |
| 5475743 | Nixon et al. | Dec 1995 | A |
| 5483444 | Heintzeman et al. | Jan 1996 | A |
| 5488423 | Walkingshaw | Jan 1996 | A |
| 5488571 | Jacobs | Jan 1996 | A |
| 5490060 | Malec | Feb 1996 | A |
| 5491838 | Takahisa | Feb 1996 | A |
| 5500514 | Veeneman et al. | Mar 1996 | A |
| 5500681 | Jones | Mar 1996 | A |
| 5500890 | Rogge et al. | Mar 1996 | A |
| 5504519 | Remillard | Apr 1996 | A |
| 5508731 | Kohorn | Apr 1996 | A |
| 5513102 | Auriemma | Apr 1996 | A |
| 5513117 | Small | Apr 1996 | A |
| 5521363 | Tannenbaum | May 1996 | A |
| 5523794 | Mankovitz | Jun 1996 | A |
| 5537314 | Kanter | Jul 1996 | A |
| 5539825 | Akiyama et al. | Jul 1996 | A |
| 5550734 | Tarter | Aug 1996 | A |
| 5551021 | Harada | Aug 1996 | A |
| 5559313 | Claus et al. | Sep 1996 | A |
| 5563933 | August | Oct 1996 | A |
| 5564073 | Takahisa | Oct 1996 | A |
| 5570295 | Isenberg | Oct 1996 | A |
| 5576951 | Lockwood | Nov 1996 | A |
| 5581064 | Riley et al. | Dec 1996 | A |
| 5594493 | Nemirofsky | Jan 1997 | A |
| 5603025 | Tabb | Feb 1997 | A |
| 5604542 | Dedrick | Feb 1997 | A |
| 5606496 | D'Agostino | Feb 1997 | A |
| 5612868 | Off | Mar 1997 | A |
| 5621812 | Deaton et al. | Apr 1997 | A |
| 5634101 | Blau | May 1997 | A |
| 5638457 | Deaton et al. | Jun 1997 | A |
| 5640587 | Davis et al. | Jun 1997 | A |
| 5642279 | Stone | Jun 1997 | A |
| 5642485 | Deaton et al. | Jun 1997 | A |
| 5644723 | Deaton et al. | Jul 1997 | A |
| 5649114 | Deaton et al. | Jul 1997 | A |
| 5652602 | Fishman | Jul 1997 | A |
| 5652786 | Rogers | Jul 1997 | A |
| 5659469 | Deaton et al. | Aug 1997 | A |
| 5664115 | Fraser | Sep 1997 | A |
| 5665953 | Mazzamuto | Sep 1997 | A |
| 5671267 | August | Sep 1997 | A |
| 5671409 | Fatseas | Sep 1997 | A |
| 5682524 | Freund | Oct 1997 | A |
| 5687322 | Deaton et al. | Nov 1997 | A |
| 5689100 | Carrithers et al. | Nov 1997 | A |
| 5704044 | Tarter et al. | Dec 1997 | A |
| 5710886 | Christensen et al. | Jan 1998 | A |
| 5710889 | Clark et al. | Jan 1998 | A |
| 5715298 | Rogers | Feb 1998 | A |
| 5715402 | Popolo | Feb 1998 | A |
| 5721831 | Waits | Feb 1998 | A |
| 5724424 | Gifford | Mar 1998 | A |
| 5727163 | Bezos | Mar 1998 | A |
| 5734838 | Robinson et al. | Mar 1998 | A |
| 5749178 | Garmong | May 1998 | A |
| 5758328 | Giovannoli | May 1998 | A |
| 5761647 | Boushy | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5761661 | Coussenns | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5765142 | Allred et al. | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5765143 | Sheldon | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5767896 | Nemirofsky | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5787403 | Randle | Jul 1998 | A |
| 5794178 | Caid | Aug 1998 | A |
| 5794207 | Walker | Aug 1998 | A |
| 5796395 | De Hond | Aug 1998 | A |
| 5806044 | Powell | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5806045 | Biorge | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5815127 | Jacobs | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5819092 | Ferguson | Oct 1998 | A |
| 5819285 | Damico | Oct 1998 | A |
| 5822410 | McCausland et al. | Oct 1998 | A |
| 5832457 | O'Brien | Nov 1998 | A |
| 5835087 | Herz | Nov 1998 | A |
| 5842178 | Giovannoli | Nov 1998 | A |
| 5845259 | West et al. | Dec 1998 | A |
| 5852811 | Atkins | Dec 1998 | A |
| 5855008 | Goldhaber et al. | Dec 1998 | A |
| 5857175 | Day | Jan 1999 | A |
| 5861906 | Dunn et al. | Jan 1999 | A |
| 5862223 | Walker | Jan 1999 | A |
| 5870456 | Rogers | Feb 1999 | A |
| 5870721 | Norris | Feb 1999 | A |
| 5870724 | Lawlor | Feb 1999 | A |
| 5873096 | Lim | Feb 1999 | A |
| 5884278 | Powell | Mar 1999 | A |
| 5887271 | Powell | Mar 1999 | A |
| 5890135 | Powell | Mar 1999 | A |
| 5899982 | Randle | May 1999 | A |
| 5918214 | Perkowski | Jun 1999 | A |
| 5930217 | Kayanuma | Jul 1999 | A |
| 5930764 | Melchione | Jul 1999 | A |
| 5933812 | Meyer et al. | Aug 1999 | A |
| 5940811 | Norris | Aug 1999 | A |
| 5940815 | Maeda et al. | Aug 1999 | A |
| 5949044 | Walker et al. | Sep 1999 | A |
| 5950173 | Perkowski | Sep 1999 | A |
| 5964839 | Johnson et al. | Oct 1999 | A |
| 5970467 | Alavi | Oct 1999 | A |
| 5970469 | Scroggie et al. | Oct 1999 | A |
| 5970480 | Kalina | Oct 1999 | A |
| 5974396 | Anderson et al. | Oct 1999 | A |
| 5987434 | Libman | Nov 1999 | A |
| 5991736 | Ferguson et al. | Nov 1999 | A |
| 5995942 | Smith et al. | Nov 1999 | A |
| 6006205 | Loeb et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
| 6009239 | Morita et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
| 6009411 | Kepecs | Dec 1999 | A |
| 6009415 | Shurling et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
| 6012049 | Kawan | Jan 2000 | A |
| 6014634 | Scroggie et al. | Jan 2000 | A |
| 6014645 | Cunningham | Jan 2000 | A |
| 6014647 | Nizzari et al. | Jan 2000 | A |
| 6018718 | Walker et al. | Jan 2000 | A |
| 6026370 | Jermyn | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6029139 | Cunningham et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6029153 | Bauchner et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6029195 | Herz | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6032125 | Ando | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6032136 | Brake, Jr. et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6055510 | Henrick | Apr 2000 | A |
| 6055513 | Katz et al. | Apr 2000 | A |
| 6061658 | Chou et al. | May 2000 | A |
| 6070147 | Harms et al. | May 2000 | A |
| 6073105 | Sutcliffe et al. | Jun 2000 | A |
| 6076072 | Libman | Jun 2000 | A |
| 6078891 | Riordan et al. | Jun 2000 | A |
| 6078892 | Anderson et al. | Jun 2000 | A |
| 6105007 | Norris | Aug 2000 | A |
| 6108642 | Findley | Aug 2000 | A |
| 6119933 | Wong et al. | Sep 2000 | A |
| 6128599 | Walker et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6133914 | Rogers et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6134532 | Lazarus et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6141666 | Tobin | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6161128 | Smyk | Dec 2000 | A |
| 6169974 | Baumgartner et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
| 6178408 | Copple et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
| 6182059 | Angotti et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
| 6185541 | Scroggie et al. | Feb 2001 | B1 |
| 6189787 | Dorf | Feb 2001 | B1 |
| 6195644 | Bowie | Feb 2001 | B1 |
| 6216129 | Eldering | Apr 2001 | B1 |
| 6222914 | McMullin | Apr 2001 | B1 |
| 6236978 | Tuzhilin | May 2001 | B1 |
| 6243688 | Kalina | Jun 2001 | B1 |
| 6243689 | Norton | Jun 2001 | B1 |
| 6267292 | Walker et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6278996 | Richardson et al. | Aug 2001 | B1 |
| 6282516 | Giuliani | Aug 2001 | B1 |
| 6289324 | Kawan | Sep 2001 | B1 |
| 6292786 | Deaton et al. | Sep 2001 | B1 |
| 6298348 | Eldering | Oct 2001 | B1 |
| 6324524 | Lent et al. | Nov 2001 | B1 |
| 6327573 | Walker et al. | Dec 2001 | B1 |
| 6327574 | Kramer et al. | Dec 2001 | B1 |
| 6330543 | Kepecs | Dec 2001 | B1 |
| 6332126 | Peirce et al. | Dec 2001 | B1 |
| 6334108 | Deaton et al. | Dec 2001 | B1 |
| 6334131 | Chakrabarti et al. | Dec 2001 | B2 |
| 6344108 | Von Medvey et al. | Feb 2002 | B1 |
| 6349290 | Horowitz et al. | Feb 2002 | B1 |
| 6351735 | Deaton et al. | Feb 2002 | B1 |
| 6356881 | Milch et al. | Mar 2002 | B1 |
| 6360209 | Loeb et al. | Mar 2002 | B1 |
| 6377935 | Deaton et al. | Apr 2002 | B1 |
| 6377936 | Henrick et al. | Apr 2002 | B1 |
| 6404866 | Hopper et al. | Jun 2002 | B1 |
| 6405175 | Ng | Jun 2002 | B1 |
| 6405181 | Lent et al. | Jun 2002 | B2 |
| 6409080 | Kawagishi | Jun 2002 | B2 |
| 6411947 | Rice et al. | Jun 2002 | B1 |
| 6424947 | Tsuria et al. | Jul 2002 | B1 |
| 6424949 | Deaton et al. | Jul 2002 | B1 |
| 6424951 | Shurling et al. | Jul 2002 | B1 |
| 6430539 | Lazarus et al. | Aug 2002 | B1 |
| 6434534 | Walker et al. | Aug 2002 | B1 |
| 6473740 | Cockrill et al. | Oct 2002 | B2 |
| 6476830 | Farmer et al. | Nov 2002 | B1 |
| 6477509 | Hammons et al. | Nov 2002 | B1 |
| 6484146 | Day et al. | Nov 2002 | B2 |
| 6487539 | Aggarwal et al. | Nov 2002 | B1 |
| 6505168 | Rothman et al. | Jan 2003 | B1 |
| 6513019 | Lewis | Jan 2003 | B2 |
| 6516302 | Deaton et al. | Feb 2003 | B1 |
| 6519572 | Riordan et al. | Feb 2003 | B1 |
| 6535855 | Cahill et al. | Mar 2003 | B1 |
| 6564189 | Nycz | May 2003 | B1 |
| 6567791 | Lent et al. | May 2003 | B2 |
| 6571216 | Garg et al. | May 2003 | B1 |
| 6578012 | Storey | Jun 2003 | B1 |
| 6587835 | Treyz et al. | Jul 2003 | B1 |
| 6594640 | Postrel | Jul 2003 | B1 |
| 6609104 | Deaton et al. | Aug 2003 | B1 |
| 6611811 | Deaton et al. | Aug 2003 | B1 |
| 6611819 | Oneda | Aug 2003 | B1 |
| 6647376 | Farrar et al. | Nov 2003 | B1 |
| 6662215 | Moskowitz et al. | Dec 2003 | B1 |
| 6684195 | Deaton et al. | Jan 2004 | B1 |
| 6714919 | Findley | Mar 2004 | B1 |
| 6718313 | Lent et al. | Apr 2004 | B1 |
| 6721743 | Sakakibara | Apr 2004 | B1 |
| 6735778 | Khoo et al. | May 2004 | B2 |
| 6754640 | Bozeman | Jun 2004 | B2 |
| 6795809 | O'Brien et al. | Sep 2004 | B2 |
| 6795812 | Lent et al. | Sep 2004 | B1 |
| 6804786 | Chamley et al. | Oct 2004 | B1 |
| 6817008 | Leford et al. | Nov 2004 | B2 |
| 6819748 | Matada | Nov 2004 | B2 |
| 6820061 | Postrel | Nov 2004 | B2 |
| 6829586 | Postrel | Dec 2004 | B2 |
| 6842739 | Postrel | Jan 2005 | B2 |
| 6865547 | Brake, Jr. et al. | Mar 2005 | B1 |
| 6874139 | Krueger et al. | Mar 2005 | B2 |
| 6885994 | Scroggie et al. | Apr 2005 | B1 |
| 6886046 | Stutz et al. | Apr 2005 | B2 |
| 6889198 | Kawan | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6892187 | Phillips et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6901375 | Fernandez | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6901406 | Nabe et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6915271 | Meyer et al. | Jul 2005 | B1 |
| 6920611 | Spaeth et al. | Jul 2005 | B1 |
| 6938156 | Wheeler et al. | Aug 2005 | B2 |
| RE38801 | Rogers | Sep 2005 | E |
| 6945453 | Schwarz Jr. | Sep 2005 | B1 |
| 6947898 | Postrel | Sep 2005 | B2 |
| 6950940 | Wheeler et al. | Sep 2005 | B2 |
| 6963857 | Johnson | Nov 2005 | B1 |
| 6970830 | Samra et al. | Nov 2005 | B1 |
| 6985879 | Walker et al. | Jan 2006 | B2 |
| 6996572 | Chakrabarti et al. | Feb 2006 | B1 |
| 6999938 | Libman | Feb 2006 | B1 |
| 7003476 | Samra et al. | Feb 2006 | B1 |
| 7006979 | Samra et al. | Feb 2006 | B1 |
| 7010495 | Samra et al. | Mar 2006 | B1 |
| 7024374 | Day et al. | Apr 2006 | B1 |
| 7072864 | Brake, Jr. et al. | Jul 2006 | B2 |
| 7090138 | Rettenmyer et al. | Aug 2006 | B2 |
| 7092905 | Behrenbrinker et al. | Aug 2006 | B2 |
| 7121471 | Beenau et al. | Oct 2006 | B2 |
| 7143063 | Lent et al. | Nov 2006 | B2 |
| 7155402 | Dvorak | Dec 2006 | B1 |
| 7249097 | Hutchison et al. | Jul 2007 | B2 |
| 7249099 | Ling | Jul 2007 | B2 |
| 7266835 | Halbert | Sep 2007 | B2 |
| 7313802 | Tomsen | Dec 2007 | B1 |
| 7315826 | Guheen et al. | Jan 2008 | B1 |
| 7333948 | Bell et al. | Feb 2008 | B2 |
| 7349866 | Schwarz, Jr. | Mar 2008 | B2 |
| 7356516 | Richey et al. | Apr 2008 | B2 |
| 7376618 | Anderson et al. | May 2008 | B1 |
| 7467096 | Antonucci et al. | Dec 2008 | B2 |
| 7493636 | Kitsukawa et al. | Feb 2009 | B2 |
| 7523385 | Nguyen et al. | Apr 2009 | B2 |
| 7580857 | VanFleet et al. | Aug 2009 | B2 |
| 7587363 | Cataline et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
| 7613629 | Antonucci et al. | Nov 2009 | B2 |
| 7630935 | Loeger et al. | Dec 2009 | B2 |
| 7640205 | Michelassi et al. | Dec 2009 | B2 |
| 7644102 | Gaussier et al. | Jan 2010 | B2 |
| 7689504 | Warren et al. | Mar 2010 | B2 |
| 7707111 | Brake, Jr. et al. | Apr 2010 | B2 |
| 7729925 | Maritzen et al. | Jun 2010 | B2 |
| 7729980 | Mittenzwei et al. | Jun 2010 | B2 |
| 20010014868 | Herz et al. | Aug 2001 | A1 |
| 20010023407 | Liyanearachchi et al. | Sep 2001 | A1 |
| 20010025253 | Heintz et al. | Sep 2001 | A1 |
| 20010029490 | Inamochi | Oct 2001 | A1 |
| 20010034651 | Marks et al. | Oct 2001 | A1 |
| 20010034663 | Teveler et al. | Oct 2001 | A1 |
| 20010034718 | Shaked et al. | Oct 2001 | A1 |
| 20010037243 | Rouston et al. | Nov 2001 | A1 |
| 20010037299 | Nichols et al. | Nov 2001 | A1 |
| 20010039511 | Duckworth et al. | Nov 2001 | A1 |
| 20010044764 | Arnold | Nov 2001 | A1 |
| 20010047342 | Cuervo | Nov 2001 | A1 |
| 20010049628 | Icho | Dec 2001 | A1 |
| 20010054003 | Chien et al. | Dec 2001 | A1 |
| 20020002495 | Ullman | Jan 2002 | A1 |
| 20020004742 | Willcocks et al. | Jan 2002 | A1 |
| 20020007313 | Mai et al. | Jan 2002 | A1 |
| 20020010621 | Bell et al. | Jan 2002 | A1 |
| 20020011517 | Namekawa et al. | Jan 2002 | A1 |
| 20020013728 | Wilkman | Jan 2002 | A1 |
| 20020023051 | Kunzle et al. | Feb 2002 | A1 |
| 20020026365 | Natanzon | Feb 2002 | A1 |
| 20020026394 | Savage et al. | Feb 2002 | A1 |
| 20020032622 | Petit et al. | Mar 2002 | A1 |
| 20020040344 | Preiser et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020042742 | Glover et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020042774 | Ortiz et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020046110 | Gallagher | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020046116 | Hohle et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020049605 | Hagi | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020049626 | Mathias et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020052778 | Murphy et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
| 20020052782 | Landesmann | May 2002 | A1 |
| 20020055874 | Cohen | May 2002 | A1 |
| 20020059103 | Anderson et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
| 20020062253 | Dosh et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
| 20020062257 | Minamishin et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
| 20020065735 | Hatakama et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
| 20020069104 | Beach et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020069109 | Wendkos | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020069158 | Larkin et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020070270 | Narita et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020072931 | Card | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020072974 | Pugliese et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020073019 | Deaton | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020077890 | LaPointe et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020077895 | Howell | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020077904 | Ali | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020077966 | Harycki et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020082920 | Austin et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020082962 | Farris et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020087349 | Wong | Jul 2002 | A1 |
| 20020091567 | Royston | Jul 2002 | A1 |
| 20020099601 | Farrell | Jul 2002 | A1 |
| 20020099649 | Lee et al. | Jul 2002 | A1 |
| 20020107731 | Teng | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020111859 | Sheldon et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020111860 | Jones | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020111861 | Sakamoto et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020111891 | Hoffman et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020116266 | Marshall | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020116331 | Cataline et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020120497 | King | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020120571 | Maung et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020120846 | Stewart et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020123926 | Bushold et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20020123946 | Haworth et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20020123955 | Andreski et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20020128916 | Beinecke | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20020133401 | Mount et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20020143614 | MacLean et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020143621 | Donnelly et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020143626 | Voltmer et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020147633 | Rafizadeh | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020147691 | Davis et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020152116 | Yan et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020152118 | Hadjigeorgis | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020152123 | Giordano et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020152179 | Racov | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020161630 | Kern et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020161641 | Quinlan et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020165808 | Zamsky et al. | Nov 2002 | A1 |
| 20020169671 | Junger | Nov 2002 | A1 |
| 20020174011 | Sanchez et al. | Nov 2002 | A1 |
| 20020178056 | Lim | Nov 2002 | A1 |
| 20020178112 | Goeller et al. | Nov 2002 | A1 |
| 20020188478 | Breeland et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20020188509 | Ariff et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20020188511 | Johnson et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20020188565 | Nakamura et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20020194071 | Yoshizaki et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20020194119 | Wright et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20020198803 | Rowe | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20020198807 | Kobayashi et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20030004794 | Hamilton | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030004803 | Glover et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030004809 | Palcic et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030005288 | Moskowitz et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030009374 | Moodie et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030009379 | Narasimhan et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030009393 | Norris | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030018523 | Rappaport et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030018550 | Rotman et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030020744 | Ellis et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030023492 | Riordan et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030023557 | Moore | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030033252 | Buttridge et al. | Feb 2003 | A1 |
| 20030036952 | Panttaja et al. | Feb 2003 | A1 |
| 20030040964 | Lacek | Feb 2003 | A1 |
| 20030046173 | Benjier et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030048888 | Hopper et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030050831 | Klayh | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030061093 | Todd | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030061097 | Walker et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030061098 | Meyer | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030065618 | VanDeboe, Jr. | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| 20030069808 | Cardno | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| 20030083933 | McAlear | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030088460 | Riordan et al. | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030088462 | Carrither et al. | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030088470 | Cuervo | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030097298 | Klimpl et al. | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030101454 | Ozer et al. | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030105688 | Brown et al. | Jun 2003 | A1 |
| 20030105689 | Chandak et al. | Jun 2003 | A1 |
| 20030115100 | Teicher | Jun 2003 | A1 |
| 20030120544 | Gritzbach et al. | Jun 2003 | A1 |
| 20030125969 | Kizer et al. | Jul 2003 | A1 |
| 20030126011 | Bryman et al. | Jul 2003 | A1 |
| 20030131357 | Kim | Jul 2003 | A1 |
| 20030144902 | Bowie | Jul 2003 | A1 |
| 20030149629 | Claridge et al. | Aug 2003 | A1 |
| 20030158776 | Landesmann | Aug 2003 | A1 |
| 20030158782 | Thomson et al. | Aug 2003 | A1 |
| 20030158818 | George et al. | Aug 2003 | A1 |
| 20030171992 | Blagg et al. | Sep 2003 | A1 |
| 20030182194 | Choey et al. | Sep 2003 | A1 |
| 20030195805 | Storey | Oct 2003 | A1 |
| 20030200141 | Robison | Oct 2003 | A1 |
| 20030200142 | Hicks et al. | Oct 2003 | A1 |
| 20030205617 | Allen et al. | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030208323 | Hao et al. | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030208400 | Kuo et al. | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030208439 | Rast | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030212630 | Kahr | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030216964 | MacLean et al. | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030216965 | Libman | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030216967 | Williams | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030216998 | Chang et al. | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030217003 | Weinflash et al. | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030220834 | Leung et al. | Nov 2003 | A1 |
| 20030225618 | Hessburg et al. | Dec 2003 | A1 |
| 20030225619 | Dokken et al. | Dec 2003 | A1 |
| 20030229590 | Byrne et al. | Dec 2003 | A1 |
| 20030233255 | Dirienzo | Dec 2003 | A1 |
| 20030233278 | Marshall | Dec 2003 | A1 |
| 20030233339 | Downs | Dec 2003 | A1 |
| 20030236712 | Antonucci et al. | Dec 2003 | A1 |
| 20040002916 | Timmerman et al. | Jan 2004 | A1 |
| 20040006487 | Tari | Jan 2004 | A1 |
| 20040010447 | Asayama | Jan 2004 | A1 |
| 20040010462 | Moon et al. | Jan 2004 | A1 |
| 20040015394 | Mok et al. | Jan 2004 | A1 |
| 20040030626 | Libman | Feb 2004 | A1 |
| 20040030667 | Xu et al. | Feb 2004 | A1 |
| 20040039588 | Libman | Feb 2004 | A1 |
| 20040039686 | Klebanoff | Feb 2004 | A1 |
| 20040044606 | Buttridge et al. | Mar 2004 | A1 |
| 20040064401 | Palaghita et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
| 20040078324 | Lonnberg et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
| 20040078328 | Talbert et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
| 20040078332 | Ferguson et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
| 20040107125 | Guheen et al. | Jun 2004 | A1 |
| 20040111363 | Trench et al. | Jun 2004 | A1 |
| 20040111371 | Friedman | Jun 2004 | A1 |
| 20040128248 | Fujihara et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
| 20040138991 | Song et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
| 20040143526 | Monasterio et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
| 20040172358 | Lent et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20040177036 | Nutahara et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20040181441 | Fung et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20040186773 | George et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20040193540 | Brown et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20040199406 | Owens et al. | Oct 2004 | A1 |
| 20040210498 | Freund | Oct 2004 | A1 |
| 20040210531 | Barron et al. | Oct 2004 | A1 |
| 20040215507 | Levitt et al. | Oct 2004 | A1 |
| 20040236688 | Bozeman | Nov 2004 | A1 |
| 20040243468 | Cohagan et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20040243506 | Das | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20040249689 | Naraki et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20040249710 | Smith et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20040249712 | Brown et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20040249764 | Delizt et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20050004839 | Bakker et al. | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| 20050004864 | Lent et al. | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| 20050006286 | Fery et al. | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| 20050021363 | Stimson et al. | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| 20050021405 | Agarwal | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| 20050021457 | Johnson et al. | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| 20050023346 | Bakker et al. | Feb 2005 | A1 |
| 20050033637 | Underwood | Feb 2005 | A1 |
| 20050049965 | Jen | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050055270 | Broe | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050065877 | Cleary et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050071225 | Bortolin et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050071226 | Nguyen et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050071227 | Hammad et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050075889 | Gomes et al. | Apr 2005 | A1 |
| 20050080672 | Courtion et al. | Apr 2005 | A1 |
| 20050086103 | Agura et al. | Apr 2005 | A1 |
| 20050086166 | Monk et al. | Apr 2005 | A1 |
| 20050091104 | Abraham | Apr 2005 | A1 |
| 20050091138 | Awatsu | Apr 2005 | A1 |
| 20050096976 | Nelms | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050097033 | Pretell et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050102178 | Phillips et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050108090 | Takeda et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050108102 | York | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050108151 | York | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050119938 | Smith et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125292 | Kassab et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125295 | Tidwell et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125296 | Tidwell et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125315 | Munoz et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125337 | Tidwell et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125338 | Tidwell et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125339 | Tidwell et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125350 | Tidwell et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125351 | Tidwell et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050125360 | Tidwell et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050131761 | Trika et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050131792 | Rowe | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050137982 | Michelassi et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050144071 | Monahan et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050144074 | Fredregill et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050144105 | Czyzewski | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050144143 | Freiberg | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050149386 | Agura et al. | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050149393 | Leof | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050149440 | Michelassi et al. | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050154664 | Guy et al. | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050159986 | Breeland et al. | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050160003 | Berardi et al. | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050160051 | Johnson | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050167342 | Vullriede et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050171839 | Corriere | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050171842 | Tien et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050171901 | Rosenblatt et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050177503 | Thomas | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050177523 | Weiss et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050182654 | Abolfathi et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050182735 | Zager et al. | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050187820 | Mohan | Aug 2005 | A1 |
| 20050192862 | Modi | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050197904 | Baron et al. | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050199708 | Friedman | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050203824 | Freud et al. | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050203857 | Friedman | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050205666 | Ward et al. | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050209917 | Anderson et al. | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050216346 | Kusumoto et al. | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050222906 | Chen | Oct 2005 | A1 |
| 20050234769 | Jain et al. | Oct 2005 | A1 |
| 20050234773 | Hirst et al. | Oct 2005 | A1 |
| 20050234789 | Czyzewski et al. | Oct 2005 | A1 |
| 20050240474 | Li | Oct 2005 | A1 |
| 20050240477 | Friday et al. | Oct 2005 | A1 |
| 20050242179 | Warwick | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050246289 | Alexander et al. | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050246627 | Sayed | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050251446 | Jiang et al. | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050251470 | Sullivan | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050256759 | Acharya et al. | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050256794 | Colby | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050256802 | Ammermann et al. | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050261916 | McCall et al. | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050261995 | Phelan | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050267800 | Tietzen et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050273386 | Weidner | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050273387 | Previdi | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050273425 | Yamazaki | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050278215 | Seele, Jr | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050283429 | Bates et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050288998 | Verma et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050289003 | Thompson et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20060004629 | Neemann et al. | Jan 2006 | A1 |
| 20060010033 | Thomas | Jan 2006 | A1 |
| 20060010034 | Sparks | Jan 2006 | A1 |
| 20060011719 | Lehtonen et al. | Jan 2006 | A1 |
| 20060015463 | Gupta et al. | Jan 2006 | A1 |
| 20060020507 | Sagey | Jan 2006 | A1 |
| 20060026073 | Kenny et al. | Feb 2006 | A1 |
| 20060031718 | Thornhill et al. | Feb 2006 | A1 |
| 20060036553 | Gupta et al. | Feb 2006 | A1 |
| 20060064329 | Abolfathi et al. | Mar 2006 | A1 |
| 20060080230 | Freiberg | Apr 2006 | A1 |
| 20060080243 | Kemper et al. | Apr 2006 | A1 |
| 20060080254 | Chigira et al. | Apr 2006 | A1 |
| 20060095350 | Hall et al. | May 2006 | A1 |
| 20060136306 | Rothman et al. | Jun 2006 | A1 |
| 20060143077 | Prorock | Jun 2006 | A1 |
| 20060143117 | Chigira et al. | Jun 2006 | A1 |
| 20060149671 | Nix et al. | Jul 2006 | A1 |
| 20070156521 | Yates | Jul 2007 | A1 |
| 20070186252 | Maggio | Aug 2007 | A1 |
| 20070260521 | Van Der Riet | Nov 2007 | A1 |
| 20080184315 | Ellis et al. | Jul 2008 | A1 |
| 20080255986 | Scarborough et al. | Oct 2008 | A1 |
| 20090132347 | Anderson et al. | May 2009 | A1 |
| 20090150937 | Ellis et al. | Jun 2009 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 0559313 | Jun 1997 | EP |
| WO 0111532 | Feb 2001 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60499728 | Sep 2003 | US |
