Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8176058 | Method and systems for managing playlists The present invention relates to a computerized method and systems for managing feeds so that a user's playlists may be automatically updated in accordance with a user's desired media preferences. ... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8112311 | Systems and methods for distribution of entertainment and advertising content A device for generating audiovisual display signals, including a first input terminal receiving content signals representative of an audiovisual event, the signals including insertion points indicating the output of an advertisement, a second input terminal receivin... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8006265 | Interactive television advertising method A method of providing advertising from a central database server connected to a global computer network to distributed sites via interactive television. A representative icon is presented to a subscriber on a television screen indicating an advertisement. When a the... | 08/23/2011 |
| 7958156 | Graphical/rich media ads in search results A method and system for mixing rich media content with textual listing on a webpage includes receiving a plurality of advertisement parameters associated with an advertisement from an advertiser. The advertisement parameters define the advertisement and are used for... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7941818 | System and method for utilizing EPG database for modifying advertisements A system and method for utilizing data stored in an EPG database for modifying advertisement information. In this way, a service provider and/or an advertiser can transmit a single advertisement to all the television stations regardless of their geographic location ... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7921441 | Detection and indication of premium channel availability The present invention is directed to a television schedule guide which includes a detector for determining whether a previously scrambled program is unscrambled. If a previously scrambled program is momentarily unscrambled due to promotional efforts by the program p... | 04/05/2011 |
| 7856646 | Preparation and utilization of customer profile data in a cable services network Methods and systems for preparing, updating and maintaining customer profile data that may be utilized in an interactive television system for providing tailored customer-specific interactive services, and product offerings and helpful information content. The custo... | 12/21/2010 |
| 7814511 | Systems and methods for digitizing video related to products In one embodiment, the present invention is a t-commerce platform, which is linked to the content from a video signal that the user is currently watching. At some point during the broadcast of the content, a close-up of the product is shown. Simultaneous with this, ... | 10/12/2010 |
| 7802282 | Detection of commercials in a digital broadcast A content detecting device for a digital broadcast signal receiver or a recording apparatus that records the digital broadcast signal. When information in program specific information and information in an electronic program guide information in the memory contradic... | 09/21/2010 |
| 7636928 | Image processing device and method for presenting program summaries during CM broadcasts An electronic device comprising a reception unit configured to receive a television broadcast including a television-program broadcast and a plurality of commercial-message broadcast transmitted during the television-program broadcast. A detecting unit detects wheth... | 12/22/2009 |
| 7620965 | Information processing apparatus and method, information providing apparatus and method, and program storage medium An information processing apparatus and an information processing method are disclosed. A personal computer receives a program guide and displays it. Then, the personal computer sends information for identifying a user-specified program to an iEPG site. In response,... | 11/17/2009 |
| 7552459 | Information system A system and method for displaying an electronic program schedule guide is provided. The system has areas for displaying program schedule information. In addition, the system also has areas that may be used for advertising programs, products or services. In another ... | 06/23/2009 |
| 7493640 | Advertisement and tracking in a television apparatus A system and a method is disclosed which allows both advertisement and program information to be shown on a channel banner, while user changes channel. In another embodiment, an “advertisement channel” is inserted into an active channel list (e.g., scan list), s... | 02/17/2009 |
| 7487529 | Electronic program guide system with advertising messages in pop-ups In one embodiment, informational messages about the program or channel to which a television receiver is tuned and advertising messages are displayed simultaneously with the current television program. In another embodiment, an EPG is displayed in a composite... | 02/03/2009 |
| 7478415 | Digital broadcast receiving system Provided is a digital broadcast receiving system which facilitates to extract and obtain the information necessary for program recording and reproduction. A packet filter (2) allows to pass a packet for transmitting the moving picture and voice data related t... | 01/13/2009 |
| 7434245 | Electronic program guide system using images of reduced size to identify respective programs A technique for transmitting and receiving an electronic program guide which identifies programs that are to be transmitted. Electronic program guide (EPG) data includes image data representing images of reduced, less than normal, size to identify respective program... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7421724 | Systems and methods for displaying information regions in an interactive electronic program guide A system and method for displaying an electronic program schedule guide is provided. The system has areas for displaying program schedule information. In addition, the system also has areas that may be used for advertising programs, products or services. In another ... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7409421 | Program drawing-up apparatus, program providing system, methods to be used with the same, computer programs to be used with the same and recording medium storing such computer programs A program drawing-up apparatus can provide information effectively and efficiently. The program drawing-up apparatus (2) comprises a program control device (3) and a narration synthesizer device (4). The program control device (3) has a d... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7401348 | Television tuning device screen saver advertising Television tuning device screen saver advertising is disclosed. The television tuning device that is connectable to the Internet. While the user has his or her device connected to the Internet, advertising information may be cached. When the device enters a screen s... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7400364 | Sub-program avoidance redirection for broadcast receivers A system for automatically tuning a primary broadcast receiver using a secondary broadcast receiver to receive a first broadcast signal corresponding to a source of an origin program, one or more program transition detectors to monitor first broadcast signal tuned b... | 07/15/2008 |
| 7376414 | Method and system for inserting advertisements into broadcast content The present invention is directed to providing advertisements for playing on a mobile device based on previously provided information regarding the mobile device user. Information regarding the user is provided to a server, which is also in communication with advert... | 05/20/2008 |
| 7373651 | Metadata structure for providing access to EPG features from within broadcast advertisements A data structure stored on computer readable media is presented comprising one or more data tags, each data tag used to provide information regarding a broadcast advertisement. Also provided are one or more electronic program guide action tags, each electronic progr... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369864 | Electronic short messaging and advertising method and means An electronic short messaging and advertising method and means relates to an electronic advertising method, where minimal initiative is required from the consumer. Some embodiments of the invention may also be applied to an electronic sales method. The invention may... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7370016 | Music distribution systems Music is blanket transmitted (for example, via satellite downlink transmission) to each customer's user station where selected music files are recorded. Customers preselect from a list of available music in advance using an interactive screen selector, and pay only ... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7363001 | Dynamic data delivery apparatus and method for same A system for providing enhanced radio content to a remote user is disclosed. The system includes at least one input that receives non-radio input; and, at least one output interconnected to the at least one input via a hub, wherein the at least one output receives t... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7362381 | Device interoperability utilizing bit-mapped on-screen display menus Interoperability for exchanging on-screen display menus and associated control between common consumer electronic (CE) devices is provided. This interoperability is based on the IEEE 1394 serial bus for the physical and link layers and makes use of AV/C or CAL as th... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7356547 | Methods and systems for selectively displaying advertisements A system, including a planning module, a control module and a receiver module, configured to schedule display of one or more advertising impressions of available advertising inventory. The planning module enables scheduling a requested quantity of advertising impres... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7353462 | Graphical user interface for accessing data A graphical user interface for accessing data can display hierarchical information in an efficient organized layout that users may easily navigate. In one embodiment, subject headings are contained within cells that form a column. Information related to the subject ... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7350157 | Filtering by broadcast or recording quality within an electronic program guide A memory associates a media quality indicator with each media program in a set of media programs. A filter selects from the set those media programs having at least a specified media quality. A display interface displays a list of the selected media programs in an e... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7337456 | Advertisement method, advertisement apparatus, advertisement receiver and recording medium An advertisement method considers the circumstances of individual users. This invention comprises a received advertisement database which stores advertisement data; a time obtaining section which obtains the present time; a preference obtaining section which obtains... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7337402 | Tunable information presentation appliance using an extensible markup language The Universal Plug and Play architecture contemplates devices and control points that can automatically integrate themselves into a network and provide functionality to a user. Extensions are provided that allow an information presentation appliance to identify cate... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7334251 | Management of television advertising A method for providing television advertising includes receiving user input for selecting an advertising parameter and providing a user with an advertisement corresponding to the advertising parameter. ... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7328450 | Method and system for displaying targeted advertisements in an electronic program guide The present invention is an improvement over previous Electronic Programming Guides (“EPG”) in that it provides, among other things: Improved viewer interaction capabilities with the EPG; improved viewer control of video recording of future-scheduled programming... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7327931 | Alternate method of showing commercials using personal video recorders A recording and playback system comprising a personal video recorder (“PVR”) coupled to a television monitor. The PVR records a video broadcast stream which comprises main program information as well as commercial content. The commercial content includes commerc... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7328448 | Advertisement distribution system for distributing targeted advertisements in television systems Providing refreshed advertisements to subscriber equipment 210, such as a set-top box. A “client” application runs on the subscriber equipment 210 and includes a queue 404 for storing targeted advertisements, a processor 402 for monit... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7320135 | System for serving information in relation to video information broadcasted on electric wave An information serving system includes a broadcasting station module (TV), user module (RV), and advertising agency module (AD). The broadcasting station module (TV) broadcasts pieces of broadcast information including at least video information. The user module (RV... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7320137 | Method and system for distributing personalized editions of media programs using bookmarks An editing device accesses a media program and a user of the editing device designates points of interest within the media program. Bookmarks are generated for the designated points of interest. The bookmarks are transmitted via a network from the editing device to ... | 01/15/2008 |
| 7318202 | User interface device and its display method While a design manipulation window 62 is open on the screen, in response to a user's selection of a print manipulation option bar 244b, the design manipulation window 62 is slid to change over the display to a print manipulation window | 01/08/2008 |
| 7315726 | Dynamic data delivery apparatus and method for same A system for providing enhanced radio content to a remote user is disclosed. The system includes at least one input that receives non-radio input; and, at least one output interconnected to the at least one input via a hub, wherein the at least one output receives t... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7315881 | Scheduler apparatus employing a gopher agent that sends e-mail messages for use in a television receiver In a television system in which at least program title information for programs which are to be transmitted in the future is transmitted in advance to form a channel guide listing, apparatus is provided for searching the listing for specific user-entered information... | 01/01/2008 |
