New Search Related Patents
Keeping up with newly issued patents for search-related technology can help you spot emerging trends and potentially new competitors to the existing major web search players.
Keeping up with newly issued patents for search-related technology can help you spot emerging trends and potentially new competitors to the existing major web search players.
Keeping up with newly issued patents for search-related technology can help you spot emerging trends and potentially new competitors to the existing major web search players.
Here’s a selected list of recently awarded search-related patents and recently published patent applications from the U.S. Patent Office. I’ve been putting lists like this together for over a year on ResourceShelfEXTRA and I’m happy to now provide this service to SearchDay readers.
The list below represents a wide range of technologies, ranging from patents from familiar players such as Ask Jeeves, Yahoo and Overture, as well as new methods from IBM, HP and other companies that play in the search space. There’s also a new one from Stanford University that lists Google co-founder Larry Page as inventor.
This compilation looks at patents awarded since early August, 2004. It’s not intended to be a comprehensive listing; rather it’s a selective look at some of the new technologies that might be interesting to SearchDay readers.
Want to keep up with search patents on your own? Check out the SearchDay article Keeping Up with Search Engine Patents for a brief overview of some useful tools. Or visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Search Menu. From this page, you can search for patent applications and grants using quick search, advanced search, or search by application or patent number.
You can also search most of the world’s patent granting organizations via links on this handy page maintained by the European Patent Office.
Personalized search methods including combining index entries for categories of personal data
Assignee: Ask Jeeves, Inc.
Awarded: November 9, 2004
System and method for mobile electronic messaging
Assignee: Yahoo
Awarded: November 2, 2004
Method and computer program product for color coding search results
Assignee: IBM
Awarded: October 26, 2004
Method and apparatus for query-specific book marking and data collection
Assignee: HP
Awarded: October 26, 2004
NOTE: Krishna Bharat, now a Google employee (and a principal architect of Google News), is listed as inventor.
Method and apparatus for finding information on the internet
Assignee: IBM
Awarded: October 5, 2004
System for creation of visual representation of data
Assignee: Plumb Design
Awarded: October 5, 2004
NOTE: Plum Design, now known as Thinkmap, offers VisualThesaurus.com
Method for scoring documents in a linked database
Assignee: Stanford University
Awarded: September 28, 2004
Note: Google co-founder Larry Page is listed as the inventor. This is a continuation of this patent, awarded in 2001.
Metasearch technique that ranks documents obtained from multiple collections
Assignee: NextPage
Awarded: September 21, 20034
Automatically initiating an internet-based search from within a displayed document
Assignee: IBM
Awarded: August 31, 2004
System and method for rapid completion of data processing tasks distributed on a network
Assignee: Overture Services
Awarded: August 10, 2004
Method and apparatus to restrict free hyperlinking by internet content distributors to web sites of original content producers
Assignee: IBM
Awarded: August 3, 2004
NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication’s search facility, which most have, and search for the headline.