Bizarre Patents
Pet Toilet-Like Water Disk and Food Storage
One pet-friendly inventor patented "a device for watering pets, e.g., a dog or cat." The device, he helpfully noted, "has the general shape of a toilet."
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7769645 | Tax return outsourcing and systems for protecting data A financial services outsourcing method or system facilitates a direct service provider's ability to outsource financial services to numerous ultimate clients. The financial services are outsourced to an outsourcing group abroad. Ultimate client specific financial f... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7747584 | System and method for enabling de-duplication in a storage system architecture A system and method enables de-duplication in a storage system architecture comprising one or more volumes distributed across a plurality of nodes interconnected as a cluster. De-duplication is enabled through the use of file offset indexing in combination with data... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7745025 | Fuel cell based rechargable power pack system and associated methods for controlling same A power pack system for charging a set of isolated batteries is provided. In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, a single fuel cell, a single DC-DC converter and a single system controller device comprises the power-generation side of the power pack. A set ... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7743210 | System and method for implementing atomic cross-stripe write operations in a striped volume set A system and method performs cross stripe write operations to a striped volume set (SVS) comprising of a plurality of volumes. A cross stripe write operation is directed to a first volume striping module (VSM) serving a first data volume where the entire write data ... | 06/22/2010 |
| 7739543 | System and method for transport-level failover for loosely coupled iSCSI target devices A system and method for clustered failover of storage appliances is provided. In the event of a failover of one storage appliance to a surviving storage appliance, the surviving storage appliance assumes the identity of the failed storage appliance. This assumption ... | 06/15/2010 |
| 7734951 | System and method for data protection management in a logical namespace of a storage system environment A system and method for data protection in a logical namespace of a storage system environment is provided. An integrated management framework implements a data protection technique that monitors failures in the logical namespace at a managed data object granularity... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7734947 | System and method for virtual interface failover within a cluster A cluster-wide published configuration system and method is provided for assigning host nodes to virtual interfaces (VIFs) in a cluster of data storage systems. A coordinating VIF manager publishes a set of failover rules using a replication database. The coordinati... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7734603 | Content addressable storage array element A content addressable storage array element (CASAE) of a storage system is configured to eliminate duplicate data stored on its storage resources. The CASAE independently determines whether data associated with a write operation has already been written to a locatio... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7734597 | System and method performing an on-line check of a file system A system and method for performing an on-line check of a file system modifies various function calls within a file system layer of a storage operating system so that each time the particular inode is retrieved using the modified function calls, a check is performed ... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7730327 | Managing the encryption of data Embodiments of methods, devices and/or systems for managing the encryption of data are described. ... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7730153 | Efficient use of NVRAM during takeover in a node cluster A server storage system operating in a cluster mode, and a method for operating the server system that provides additional memory for use by a non-failed server to store log records while taking over the operations of a failed server. ... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7673289 | Ignoring output arguments of functions in programming environments Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for ignoring one or more output arguments of a function in a programming environment. Users or programmers may designate one or more output arguments that are not desired by the users. The called function d... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7660254 | Optimization of distributed tunnel rerouting in a computer network with coordinated head-end node path computation In one embodiment, head-end nodes receive a list of tunnels to be rerouted from a particular link of an intermediate node. If a head-end node is unable to reroute a tunnel for which it is the head-end node using conventional distributed routing, each head-end node e... | 02/09/2010 |
| 7636754 | Rich multi-media format for use in a collaborative computing system A system, method, and article of manufacture that allow a document containing custom objects to be shared in a distributed collaborative computer system. This is accomplished by allowing custom objects to be embedded in a document. When the document is to be shared,... | 12/22/2009 |
| 7636302 | Avoiding unnecessary RSVP-based preemptions A technique avoids unnecessary preemption of resource reservations along a requested flow between nodes in a computer network. A node receives priority-based resource reservation requests and determines conditions of reservation eligibility by comparing the requeste... | 12/22/2009 |
| 7630392 | Multi-homing using controlled route leakage at a backup service provider A technique for implementing route aggregation in a computer network containing a multi-homed customer site connected to primary and second networks, which in turn are both connected to a common “backbone” network. According to the technique, the primary network... | 12/08/2009 |
| 7616574 | Dynamic retrieval of routing information for inter-AS TE-LSPs A technique dynamically triggers an exchange of reachability information between a tail-end (remote) domain target node (e.g., a tail-end node) of a traffic engineering (TE) label switched path (LSP) and a local domain head-end node of the TE-LSP in a computer netwo... | 11/10/2009 |
| 7609689 | System and method for mapping an index into an IPv6 address A system and method maps Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) designations to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) site identifiers (IDs), and embeds site IDs into scoped internet addresses in such a way as to facilitate processing by primarily hardware-oriented forwardi... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7606939 | Scaling private virtual local area networks (VLANs) across large metropolitan area networks (MANs). A system and method scales private Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) to a large computer network, such as a very large Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), so that the VLAN designations can be re-used across the network. In the illustrative embodiment, the MAN include... | 10/20/2009 |
| 7606177 | Value-added features for the spanning tree protocol A method and apparatus facilitates and enhances the operation of the spanning tree protocol in bridged computer networks. An intermediate network device in accordance with the present invention includes an enhanced spanning tree engine that is configured to perform ... | 10/20/2009 |
| 7602781 | System and method for deriving IPv6 scope indentifiers and for mapping the identifiers into IPv6 addresses A system and method are employed for forwarding multicast packets among a plurality of interfaces. A multicast packet having a scope value and a multicast group identifier (ID) value is received on an inbound interface. A VLAN designation associated with the inbound... | 10/13/2009 |
| 7599302 | Dynamic enforcement of MPLS-TE inter-domain policy and QoS A technique dynamically enforces inter-domain policy and quality of service (QoS) for Traffic Engineering (TE) Label Switched Paths (LSPs) between a local domain and a remote domain in a computer network. According to the enforcement technique, a Path Computation El... | 10/06/2009 |
| 7599284 | Restartable spanning tree for high availability network systems A method and apparatus for continuing the operation of a spanning tree protocol at a network device despite crashes or failures at that device is disclosed. The network device includes a plurality of line cards having ports for receiving and forwarding messages and ... | 10/06/2009 |
| 7593839 | Method for optimizing design and rehabilitation of water distribution systems A method and system for optimal design of a water distribution network is provided. Three levels of optimization are available as options for selection by the user and these include least cost optimization, maximum benefit optimization and cost-benefit tradeoff opti... | 09/22/2009 |
| 7593321 | Method and system for a local and fast non-disruptive path switching in high speed packet switching networks A method for operating a node in a computer network is disclosed, where the network is made up of nodes connected by links. The method has the steps: determining an alternate path for one or more links; reserving resources for the alternate path; and rerouting traff... | 09/22/2009 |
| 7590152 | Router-based monitoring of EF-on-EF jitter A system for monitoring EF-on-EF jitter in a network node having an EP output queue into which EF packets are entered comprises a first counter that counts the packets entering the queue and also a second counter that counts the packets entering the queue when the q... | 09/15/2009 |
| 7587635 | Method of debugging “active” unit using “non-intrusive source-level debugger” on “standby” unit of high availability system A method of debugging an active unit in a computer system having an active unit for routing computer connections and a standby unit configured to route computer connections in the event the active unit fails. The method comprises the standby unit receiving synchroni... | 09/08/2009 |
| 7586915 | Technique for coupling entities via virtual ports A technique transfers data between geographically dispersed entities belonging to a virtual-local-area network (VLAN). According to the technique, geographically dispersed entities communicate via software-defined virtual ports that “appear” as physical ports to... | 09/08/2009 |
| 7586841 | System and method for protecting against failure of a TE-LSP tail-end node A technique protects against failure of a tail-end node of a Traffic Engineering (TE) Label Switched Path (LSP) in a computer network. According to the protection technique, a node along the TE-LSP that is immediately upstream to the protected tail-end node and that... | 09/08/2009 |
| 7577142 | Derived VLAN mapping technique A method of operating a switch for frames in a computer network uses one or more indicia of frame type designation found in the received frame to derive a virtual local area network (derived VLAN) value. Also, an indicia of the receiving port may be used in construc... | 08/18/2009 |
| 7574662 | Remote document sharing An apparatus, method, and computer program product for instant remote document serving. In one implementation, referred to as “remote document serving,” a remote file is converted to a “served document” which is distributed to a member of a data conference f... | 08/11/2009 |
| 7565519 | System and method for automatically upgrading/reverting configurations across a plurality of product release lines A system and method for automatically upgrading/reverting of the software configurations in a storage system environment among a plurality of product release lines. A configuration upgrade/revert module of a storage system management module identifies a shortest pat... | 07/21/2009 |
| 7558878 | Optimal sync for rapid spanning tree protocol In one embodiment, a rapid spanning tree protocol (RSTP) is executed on an intermediate network device. The RSTP may designate a first port of the device to a Root Port Role and designate one or more second ports of the device to Designated Port Roles, and place the... | 07/07/2009 |
| 7558276 | System and method for retrieving computed paths from a path computation element using a path key A technique retrieves computed path segments across one or more domains of a computer network in accordance with a stateful (“semi-stateful”) path computation element (PCE) model. The stateful PCE model includes a data structure configured to store one or more p... | 07/07/2009 |
| 7558214 | Mechanism to improve concurrency in execution of routing computation and routing information dissemination A technique enables an intermediate network node to efficiently process link-state packets using a single running context (i.e., process or thread). The intermediate network node floods received link-state packets (LSP) before performing shortest path first (SPF) ca... | 07/07/2009 |
| 7554996 | Controlled distribution of inter-area routing information A technique controls distribution of reachability information for a tail-end node of a traffic engineering (TE) label switched path (LSP) to a head-end node of the TE-LSP in a computer network. The TE-LSP preferably spans multiple domains of the network such that th... | 06/30/2009 |
| 7542090 | System and method for high-resolution with a small-format focal-plane array using spatial modulation This invention provides a system and method for balanced-demodulation procedures that remove image clutter even in the presence of scene motion. A system that employs balanced demodulation moves a chopping reticle located in the intermediate focal plane where front ... | 06/02/2009 |
| 7529851 | Method and apparatus for MAC address assignment A method and apparatus for automatically assigning a locally administered MAC address to at least one client in a local area network (“LAN”) system, and a method and apparatus for detecting duplicate locally administered MAC addresses, where the LAN system compr... | 05/05/2009 |
| 7523286 | System and method for real-time balancing of user workload across multiple storage systems with shared back end storage A system and method for real-time load balancing of user workload across a plurality of physical storage systems with shared back-end storage is provided. A load balancing process tracks usage metrics and determines a source and destination physical storage system a... | 04/21/2009 |
| 7523216 | System and method for using an endian-neutral data packet to define subsequent data packet byte-order A system and method for defining data packet byte order is provided, which utilizes the exchange of endian-neutral data packets between computers or network devices connected to each other via a network connection. After opening the network connection, the client co... | 04/21/2009 |
