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Patent No. 6205950

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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Thomas, Joseph


Primary examiner statistics: 283 patents; average approval time: 288 days
Assistant examiner statistics: 98 patents; average approval time: 100 days

Patents as Assistant Examiner


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NumberTitleIssue Date
7788110Medical care support system
The present invention intends to provide various medical-related service by connecting the Medical Application Service Provider (MASP), which is a new institution providing medical care support service, and multiple medical institutions through private lines or gene...
08/31/2010
6038539Job scheduling system for designating procedure start times
A computer-implemented scheduling system and method designates start times of a plurality of procedures processed by a plurality of resource devices. The computer-implemented scheduling system includes an initial restriction violating condition set device...
03/14/2000
5963456Method and apparatus for displaying capillary electrophoresis data
A method and apparatus for displaying capillary electrophoresis data wherein absorbance with respect to time is related to graphic values within a graphic range or scale of values and selected graphic values are displayed with respect to time. The selecte...
10/05/1999
5911131Computer aided calculation, appraisal and valuation of works of art
A computer aided method for calculating, valuating and appraising the value of artworks. The basic steps of the appraisal method include providing an appraisal structure of a multiplicity of "value-affecting" factors, where each factor is further divided ...
06/08/1999
5854997Electronic interpreter utilizing linked sets of sentences
An electronic interpreter for interpreting sentences between a first person and a second person. The electronic interpreter includes a memory for storing sentence data in a data structure having a plurality of sets of sentences including translations of t...
12/29/1998
5826220Translation word learning scheme for machine translation
A translation word learning scheme for a machine translation capable of learning translation words for each lexical rule separately and easily. In this scheme, a translation word for each original word is obtained by a machine translation using a translat...
10/20/1998
5819228Health care payment system utilizing an intensity adjustment factor applied to provider episodes of care
A method for providing a payment mechanism for out-patient diagnostic imaging services based upon an episode of care payment methodology. An episode of care is selected as a given time period during which all imaging studies performed for a given patient ...
10/06/1998
5812983Computed medical file and chart system
A method for integrating and displaying medical data in which a computer program links a flow sheet of a medical record to medical charts. The flow sheet has a standardized time scale in the rows and a group of data items in the columns. The program deter...
09/22/1998
5809477Method, apparatus and medium for allocating beds in a pediatric intensive care unit and for evaluating quality of care
Computer implemented processes are disclosed for quantifying the severity of condition of patients of a pediatric hospital or pediatric intensive care unit. The measure of severity of condition can be used to calculate a probability of death during hospit...
09/15/1998
5809480Automated, secure inter authority settlement method and system for electronic toll collection
Electronic toll collection will eventually become standardized on the nation's toll roads making possible non-stop toll payments to many different toll Authorities from a single in-vehicle-device. Such a development should go hand-in-hand with electronic ...
09/15/1998
5805888Identifier dictionary-generating device
There is provided an identifier dictionary-generating device for use in a system for reversely producing specifications expressed in a vernacular language from a high-level language program. The identifier dictionary-generating device extracts alphabetic ...
09/08/1998
5802496Business transaction data accumulating system
A business transaction data accumulating system having a plurality of POS terminals and an accumulating device. Each POS terminal includes a failure detecting device for detecting a communication line failure and a recording device for recording business ...
09/01/1998
5802500System and method for computing a financial projection of a prefunding program for other postretirement employee benefits under FASB statement 106
A computer system, and a method for using the system, for computing financial data, the computer system including a digital computer connected to receive information representing a description of a taxable trust and a description of life insurance contrac...
09/01/1998
5802495Phrasing structure for the narrative display of findings
A method for generating sentences of text for selected medical findings in an electronic medical diagnostic system is disclosed. First, a descriptive phrase for each medical finding is created. Each descriptive phrase is then analyzed to determine possibl...
09/01/1998
5797843Enhancement of organ wall motion discrimination via use of superimposed organ images
Subtle changes in heart wall motion which may be symptomatic of coronary disease states are more easily discerned by acquiring a real time sequence of ultrasonic diagnostic images. An image acquired at a predetermined point in the cardiac cycle, such as t...
08/25/1998
5797130Method for testing proficiency in screening images of biological slides
An automatic screening apparatus that screens all pap smear slides called normal by cytotechnologist. These normal pap smears will contain the mistakes, false negatives, which must be recovered as a measure of the cytotechnologist's performance. Additiona...
08/18/1998
5794177Method and apparatus for morphological analysis and generation of natural language text
This invention improves information retrieval and the precision of language processing by providing an apparatus and method for organizing, utilizing, analyzing, and generating morphological data. The apparatus and method involve locating a stored lexical...
08/11/1998
5794178Visualization of information using graphical representations of context vector based relationships and attributes
A system and method for generating context vectors for use in storage and retrieval of documents and other information items. Context vectors represent conceptual relationships among information items by quantitative means. A neural network operates on a ...
08/11/1998
5787386Compact encoding of multi-lingual translation dictionaries
A computerized multilingual translation dictionary includes a set of word and phrases for each of the languages it contains, plus a mapping that indicates for each word or phrase in one language what the corresponding translations in the other languages a...
07/28/1998
5778348Remote activation of rating capabilities in a computerized parcel manifest system
A method is provided for activating a rating capability in a microprocessor-based parcel manifest system. The method includes storing in the system's memory a number of rate tables, each containing data for calculating parcel shipment charges, and disabli...
07/07/1998
5778397Automatic method of generating feature probabilities for automatic extracting summarization
A method of automatically generating feature probabilities that allow later automatic generation of document extracts. The computer system generates the probabilities by analyzing each document a document at a time. First, the computer system designates o...
07/07/1998
5774867Meeting conflict resolution for electronic calendars
A method and apparatus are provided for camping on an electronic calendar. In one embodiment, the invention determines, in response to an input of a date, a time and a duration of a proposed meeting between a meeting requester and a target, that a conflic...
06/30/1998
5774834System and method for correcting a string of characters by skipping to pseudo-syllable borders in a dictionary
A retrieving unit retrieves an entry of a dictionary which corresponds to an input character string while comparing input characters, one by one, with entries of TRIE tables stored in a dictionary storing unit. When a character of the input character stri...
06/30/1998
5774872Automated taxable transaction reporting/collection system
An automated transaction tax reporting/collection system. The system includes individual point of sale terminals disposed at each remote vendor location. The point of sale terminals are networked to a central computer, preferably via a plurality of interm...
06/30/1998
5771378Associative text search and retrieval system having a table indicating word position in phrases
An associative text search and retrieval system uses one or more front end processors to interacting with a network having one or more user terminals connected thereto to allow a user to provide information to the system and receive information from the s...
06/23/1998
5768603Method and system for natural language translation
The present invention is a system for translating text from a first source language into a second target language. The system assigns probabilities or scores to various target-language translations and then displays or makes otherwise available the highes...
06/16/1998
5765141Computerized merchandising system
A computerized merchandising system useable by a corporation associated with a group of stores selling goods, the system acting not only to induce a consumer to purchase these goods, but also to induce this consumer to buy shares of stock issued by the co...
06/09/1998
5761497Associative text search and retrieval system that calculates ranking scores and window scores
An associative text search and retrieval system uses one or more front end processors to interacting with a network having one or more user terminals connected thereto to allow a user to provide information to the system and receive information from the s...
06/02/1998
5758095Interactive medication ordering system
A system and method for ordering and prescribing drugs for a patient. This system includes an improved process for facilitating and automating the process of drug order entry. The user may interact with the system in a variety of ways such as keyboard, mo...
05/26/1998
5748767Computer-aided surgery apparatus
To aid a medical practitioner in positioning a surgical instrument or implant when performing surgery on or examining portions of a patient, patient data is developed which identifies the position and orientation of the portion to which surgical procedure...
05/05/1998
5745878Business requirement handling apparatus
A business requirement handling apparatus is adapted to a data processing system which includes a central processing unit, a display unit and an input unit. The business requirement handling apparatus is provided with a business requirement database accum...
04/28/1998
5745882Electronic classified advertising interface method and instructions with continuous search notification
An interface for an electronic classified advertising system. The interface includes the capability for the user to enter search criteria for an item of interest, to save the search criteria and to be notified by the system when an item matching the searc...
04/28/1998
5737539Prescription creation system
An electronic prescription creation system for use by professional prescribers at the point of care has a prescription division subsystem permitting creation of a single prescription to be automatically divided into two components for fulfilment of one po...
04/07/1998
5734916Method and apparatus for identifying, predicting, and reporting object relationships
A method and apparatus for identifying, predicting and reporting relationships. The present invention uses a quad structure to describe relationships between dramatic units. Story elements, characters and appreciations are mapped onto the quad structure t...
03/31/1998
5721831Method and apparatus for recording results of marketing activity in a database of a bank, and for searching the recorded results
The invention concerns a graphical user interface for a bank's customer database. The interface allows a user to choose from several pre-defined operations upon the database, and eliminates the need for the user to use a command-line format to execute the...
02/24/1998
5721939Method and apparatus for tokenizing text
An efficient method and apparatus for tokenizing natural language text minimizes required data storage and produces guaranteed incremental output. Id (text) is composed with a tokenizer to create a finite state machine representing tokenization paths. The...
02/24/1998
5715469Method and apparatus for detecting error strings in a text
A system for checking the spelling of words and character strings without the need for a stored dictionary of words and the memory required thereby. The system selects an error-free string and modifies it according to one or more rules which change the er...
02/03/1998
5712987Interface and associated bank customer database
The invention concerns a graphical user interface for a bank's customer database. The interface allows a user to choose from several pre-defined operations upon the database, and eliminates the need for the user to use a command-line format to execute the...
01/27/1998
5706441Method and apparatus for objectively monitoring and assessing the performance of health-care providers
A method and apparatus for objectively assessing the complexity of health-care services delivered by each health-care provider within a group of health-care providers to patients serviced by the group of health-care providers. In-patient data records repr...
01/06/1998
5701419Telecommunications service creation apparatus and method
A standalone, off network, station or terminal having a video screen and audio output to describe a telephone service to a prospective customer, demonstrate the service, and enable the customer to create a new service or service modification in an unassis...
12/23/1997
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