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DATA IN-DATA OUT PATENTS, 2009

January 6, 2009

Total 705 Class patents issued: 29Data In-Data Out patents: at the very least, 1

PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and Storage Medium for Importing Calendar Data from a Computer Screen into a Calendar Application; US 7,475,021 B2; January 6, 2009; Class 705/8; 30 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Text displayed on a computer screen

From an analysis of the text, calendar parameters, which are pasted into a calendar entry record, which is stored in a calendar application

Frip: If this ain’t a forbidden patenting of software, Frip don’t know what is. Incidentally, claim no. 1 for this patent just may be the longest sentence ever constructed in the English language: 801 words. Seriously.

January 13, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and Apparatus for Long-Range Planning; US 7,478,051 B2; January 13, 2009; Class 705/9; 41 claims

Agent profiles; work loads; criteria to be satisfied by long-range staffing plan

Effect of staffing, including cost per hour

Frip: Does the term “gibberish” mean anything to you?

Apparatus and Computer Program Product for Technology Comparisons; US 7,478,053 B2; January 13, 2009; Class 705/10; 8 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Suppliers’ responses to surveys (which have been sent by computer, the responses apparently being generated by computer)

Data elements

Frip: Wait, Big Blue takes the lead in the gibberish sweepstakes.

Financial Management System and Method; US 7,478,062 B2; January 13, 2009; Class 705/35; 9 claims; assigned to Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.

Budgetary data; proposed financial transaction data

Determination, which is displayed on a displaying device, as to whether the proposed financial transaction exceeds a budgetary constraint

Frip: Hey computer, can I buy these cool shoes? Not just no, but heck no!

Stock Trading Application Program; US 7,478,063 B2; January 13, 2009; Class 705/36R; 29 claims; assigned to Maquis Techtrix LLC

Subjective information concerning user rationale and logic for purchasing or selling financial instruments such as securities and options; proposed financial instrument trade

Rating of the proposed trade against the subjective information

Frip: At least this evaluation system explicitly recognizes the subjectivity of the whole business.

Method and Apparatus for Determining and Assessing Information to be Collected Based on Information-Theoretic Measures; US 7,478,071 B2; January 13, 2009; Class 705/500; 96 claims; assigned to HRL Laboratories, LLC

Set of information; process involves testing and iterative augmenting until there is no information to add or additional information would be cost-prohibitive; tests include a minimax entropy-based test, a conditional entropy-based test check, and a cost/benefit analysis

Decision

Frip: This one is so strange that they had to put it in subclass 500, a catchall for “What the heck is this?” patents.

January 20, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUT

System, Method and Program Product for Automatically Managing Contracts; US 7,480,621; January 20, 2009; Class 705/1; 6 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Contingency agreement or contract, including conditions and potential responses; milestones to determine when to check whether conditions have been satisfied

Notification to the contracting parties or whether all the contingencies have been met or whether some of them remain

Frip: Okay, Big Blue, we know you don’t like business methods patents and you are only playing the game because you have to. But really, a patent on contingency agreements? It’s so, well, mundane.

Method and System for Determining Time-Phased Product Sales Forecasts and Projected Replenishment Shipments for a Retail Store Supply Chain; US 7,480,623 B1; January 20, 2009; Class 705/10; 4 claims; assigned to Retail Pipeline Integration Group, Inc.

Product sales history data Projected sales and projected replenishment shipments; the “invention” also purports to “allow efficient processing and storage of the large data volumes typical in many retail organizations”

Frip: Hey, it’s data in, data out. That ain’t an “invention.”

Method for Allocating Financial Values Across Multiple Accounts Using Precise Values; US 7,480,630 B2; January 20, 2009; Class 705/35; 12 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany)

Values in a financial statement An n times m array of rounded allocation values, which are appropriately scaled according to share values for each account

Frip: Hey, this is just math! How’d that get a patent?

System and Method for Detecting and Processing Fraud and Credit Abuse; US 7,480,631 B1; January 20, 2009; Class 705/35; 29 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Telephone call from a caller concerning a credit account; identification of one or more potential fraud-related problems by searching the credit account data for conditions that match one or more predetermined qualifiers and quantifiers; responses from the caller to subtle questions about the potential fraud-related problems

Determination of a fraud status associated with the credit account

Frip: That’s what Frip wants when he calls his bank: an interrogation. One way to improve on this patent is to add water boarding.

Electronic Collateral Management System and Method; US 7,480,632 B2; January 20, 2009; Class 705/36R; 69 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Information concerning each of the assets in a pool of assets

Assignment of specific assets from the pool to secure a liability

Frip: That sounds simple enough. So why is Wall Street going into the crapper?

January 27, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTTotal Value Bidding; US 7,483,852 B2; January 27, 2009; Class 705/37; 19 claims; assigned to Ariba, Inc.

In an online auction, an interest rate and a period from a buyer for a lot having a predetermined value; a first bid from a first bidder and a second bid from a second bidder, each bid having a payment time and a rebate; complex formula given

Bids transformed into values that can be compared

Frip: There’s something about this auction stuff that Frip don’t get.

February 3, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod, System, and Computer Program for Determining Ranges of Potential Purchasing Amounts, Indexed According to Latest Cycle and Recency Frequency, by Combining Re-Purchasing Ratios and Purchasing Amounts; US 7,487,107 B2; February 3, 2009; Class 705/10; 13 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Purchasing data from a historical database of confirmed purchasers; definition of purchasing variables

Ranges of purchasing amounts

Frip: Co’mon Big Blue, you guys quantify entirely too much.

Method and Apparatus for Planning, Monitoring, and Illustrating Multiple Tasks Based on User Defined Criteria and Predictive Ability; US 7,487,115 B2; February 3, 2009; Class 705/26; 9 claims; assigned to Metier, Ldt.

Verbs that are designed to capture the reasons behind positive and negative predictive ability; predicted and actual dates for the completion of tasks

Verb analysis; expected predictive error

Frip: Is this a patent on verbs!?

Dynamic Security Price and Value Comparator and Indexer; US 7,487,122 B2; February 3, 2009; Class 705/36; 9 claims

Current and historical security market data; factors of interest regarding securities, the factors being selected by users

The user-selected factors expressed as index numbers relative to a single pivot security

Frip: Follow your index numbers right into the crapper.

Method and Apparatus for Solving Concisely Expressed Combinatorial Auction Problems; US 7,487,124 B2; February 3, 2009; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to CombineNet, Inc.

Bids with sub bids, “wherein each sub bid is comprised of one of one good and an associated price and a logical operator logically connecting at least two child sub bids and a price associated with the logical operator”; an objective defined for the bids; for each bid, mathematical relationships without logical operators that collectively represent the bid

The objective subject to the mathematical relationships

Frip: Wow! Frip is speechless.

February 10, 2009



Process and System for Integrating Information from Disparate Databases for Purposes of Predicting Consumer Behavior; US 7,490,052 B2; February 10, 2009; Class 705/10; 35 claims; assigned to Experian Marketing Solutions, Inc.

Two or more disparate databases containing information that includes consumer transactional information; process involves identifying at least one qualitative variable common to each database and transforming that qualitative variable into one or more quantitative variables

Integrated database that predicts consumer behavior

Frip: Converting qualitative variables to quantitative variables? Hey, that sounds cool.

February 17, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod for Valuing Intellectual Property; US 7,493,262 B2; February 17, 2009; Class 705/1; 15 claims; assigned to Syracuse University

Investment in an intellectual property asset; predicted increase in product value due to the change in competitive advantage afforded by the asset

Monetary value of an intellectual property asset, the value representing either a one-time, lump sum payment or the present value of a royalty stream

Frip: One of the nation’s foremost universities is behind this thing, so it’s gotta be good.

Business Opportunity Analytics with Dependence; US 7,493,277 B1; February 17, 2009; Class 705/36; 17 claims; assigned to MyDecide Inc.

Variables that impact the value of an opportunity; information related to the dependencies between two or more of the opportunities

Metrics representing the value of a given opportunity, including portfolio effects due to dependencies between two or more of the opportunities

Frip: The Dow is currently flirting with 7000. You can take your metrics and put them you-know-where.

Method and System for Analyzing a Capital Structure for a Company; US 7,493,278 B2; February 17, 2009; Class 705/36R; 14 claims; assigned to Goldman Sachs & Co.

Data associated with an entity including number of shares outstanding, value of earnings, and value of dividends; processing tools may include : “(1) Economic EPS, wherein Economic EPS and its volatility may capture the cost/risk trade-off of all fixed income and equity-related alternative capital structures; and (2) Capital Structure Efficient Frontier, wherein a company should strive to bring its capital structure to the efficient frontier of strategies with the highest EPS for given levels of EPS risk.” Includes formulae.

Analysis and comparison of specific restructuring transactions (including, but not limited to): new financing, share repurchase, liability management, bank capital optimization, and/or tax-driven hybrid equity issuance.

Frip: See, that’s why your investments have gone into the crapper. You just don’t understand what high finance is all about. Now, the boys and girls at Goldman, they know what’s happenin’.

February 24, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTEnterprise Asset Management System and Method; US 7,496,532 B2; February 24, 2009; Class 705/36; 39 claims; assigned to Verisae, Inc.

Information, which is stored in a database, on assets, including the cost, the cost of service, and the location

The information

Frip: Not only is this data in-data out, the same data that goes in, comes out.

Decision Table for Order Handling; US 7,496,533 B1; February 24, 2009; Class 705/37; 44 claims; assigned to Stikine Technology, LLC

Trading processes, each with a trading strategy embodied in a decision table; market processes, each with a market methodology that may employ a decision table

Actions that are to be performed when the conditions in the decision tables are met

Frip: Eliminates all need for human thought. Party on, Dude!

Methods for Trade Decision Making; US 7,496,534 B2; February 24, 2009; Class 705/37; 12 claims

Price data for an asset; current system position information; trading sub-models, each sub-model being based on a different time horizon and preferably including (1) a price collector component, (2) a price filter component, (3) a price database component, (4) a gearing calculator component, (5) a deal acceptor component, and (6) a book-keeper component

Trade recommendation

Frip: At least this is only a recommendation. But then again, Party on, Dude!

March 3, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSystem and Method for Developing Sales Content; US 7,499,870 B1; March 3, 2009; Class 705/10; 28 claims; assigned to Sales Research Institute, Inc.

Qualifiers that relate to a sales offering; value criteria for each qualifier to identify potential value of the sales offering; buying criteria developed from a competitive analysis

Sales information

Frip: Really, Frip doesn’t have a clue as to what this patent is for.

Method for Automatically Processing a Financial Loan Application and the System Thereof; US 7,499,882 B2; March 3, 2009; Class 705/37; 21 claims; assigned to Teranet Enterprises Inc.

Loan application; address of property to be used as collateral; valuation data for the property; pre-set lending policy, including a maximum allowable loan, called the LoanCap

Automatic approval or disapproval of the loan

Frip: Which is worse, having some sleazy mortgage originator approve a loan, or letting a computer do it?

Interest Calculation Tool; US 7,499,884 B2; March 3, 2009; Class 705/37; 9 claims; assigned to Sap AG (Germany)

Data about interest Interest calculations on account balances, the calculations being capable of using time intervals of less than a day and time parameters defined in terms of seconds

Frip: When Frip was in business school three decades ago, they called this a business calculator. Granted, that was before people knew what billions and trillions were.

March 10, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTAutomated Job Scheduling Based on Resource Availability; US 7,502,747 B1; March 10, 2009; Class 705/8; 10 claims; assigned to Microsoft Corporation

Tasks required to do jobs; resources required; times available or desired

Proposals as to when jobs might be scheduled

Frip: Methinks Microsoft is growing jealous of Big Blue’s incomprehensible patents

Job Matching System and Method; US 7,502,748 B1; March 10, 2009; Class 705/9; 23 claims; assigned to Careerious, Inc. (Canada)

Data on suitable personality traits for given positions; individual candidate data

Score indicative of a candidate’s suitability for an employment position.

Frip: So Patent Examiner, are you telling me there is no prior art on the matching candidates to positions?!

March 17, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and System for Managing Risk; US 7,505,918 B1; March 17, 2009; Class 705/7; 7 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank

Business risk elements; control procedures for complying with business policies associated with the business risk elements; weights for the control procedures; compliance ratings for a the control procedures

Compliance score

Frip: Frip loves these patents for calculating scores, whether it is a score for business risk compliance ratings or for a hot date.

Method and System for Monitoring Transactions; US 7,505,931 B2; March 17, 2009; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Standard Chartered (CT) PLC (UK)

Data regarding deposits and withdrawals from a financial account, including times between deposits and withdrawals

Accounts that are likely to be used for money laundering and other fraudulent activities

Frip: Does withdrawing a large sum of money to pay for an evening with a “lady of the night” amount to a “fraudulent” activity? If so, Frip be in deep do-do.

Computer Support for Valuing and Trading Securities that Produce Mostly Tax-Exempt Income; US 7,505,934 B1; March 17, 2009; Class 705/36R; 182 claims; assigned to Graff/Ross Holdings LLP

Data on property or securities that have something or other to do with wholly or partially tax-exempt property or securities

Valuations of some sort

Frip: This patent is pretty much incomprehensible, at least to Frip. And is has 182 claims! Is that a record?

Method and Apparatus for a Verifiable On Line Rejection of an Applicant for Credit; US 7,505,939 B2; March 17, 2009; Class 705/38; 20 claims; assigned to NextCard, Inc.

From a credit bureau, a factor identified as influencing a FICO score assigned to a credit application by the credit bureau; internal rejection code of the organization that received the credit application

A rejection reason corresponding to the internal rejection code of the organization that received the credit application

Frip: How about this for a reason: Hey Dummy, you got no job, income, or collateral.

March 24, 2009



Method for Forecasting House Prices Using a Dynamic Error Correction Model; US 7,509,261 B1; March 24, 2009; Class 705/1; 41 claims; assigned to Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation

Data for a housing sub-market A price index for the market, the index providing the basis, after the calculation of an error correcting function, for estimates of housing prices in another sub-market

Frip: Forget the fact that Fannie (or is it Freddie?) is gasping its last, should the U.S. Patent Office be giving patents to quasi-Government agencies?

System and Method for Asymmetric Offsets in a Risk Management System; US 7,509,275 B2; March 24, 2009; Class 705/35; 10 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.

Data enabling the calculation of the correlation between two products traded on an exchange, and of asymmetric offsets, or adjustments, to the margin requirements for the products

A combined margin requirement for the two products

Frip: Hey Baby, correlations, asymmetric offsets. We’re talking high finance here, or at least a way to less noticeably pick your pocket.

Security Analyst Estimates Performance Viewing System and Method; US 7,509,277 B1; March 24, 2009; Class 705/36R; 38 claims; assigned to Starmine Corporation

Database of historical data relating to security analyst earnings estimates and predictions; user-defined criteria and models

Performance data meeting the user-defined criteria and models

Frip: Really, PTO, this is just ho-hum stuff that is available from a number of sources. And it’s just data!

Method and System for Computing Path Dependent Probabilities of Attaining Financial Goals; US 7,509,279 B2; March 24, 2009; Class 705/36R; 1 claim; assigned to Riskmetrics Group, Inc.

Set of assets with a market value; financial goals reduced to a series of cash flows; criterion for success; simulation of market scenarios

Probability of attaining financial goals

Frip: Okay, you put some data in, you get some data—in this case probabilities—out. Say what?

March 31, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and System for Market Research Data Mining; US 7,512,542 B1; March 31, 2009; Class 705/7; 46 claims; assigned to A.C. Nielsen (US), Inc.

Data from a subset of customers regarding purchases made by the subset from a supplier of interest and other suppliers; customer data regarding purchases made by customers from the supplier of interest

Estimate of purchases from other suppliers by customers of a supplier of interest

Frip: Process involves “performing an unrotated principal component factor analysis.” Ouch.

Tools for Decision-Making in Reservoir Risk Management; US 7,512,543 B2; March 31, 2009; Class 705/7; 11 claims; assigned to Schlumberger Technology Corporation

Model that incorporates a stochastic model of one or more uncertain model parameters; goals for optimization; hydrocarbon reservoir exploitation strategies; variables, constraints, and scenarios associated with the strategies

Objective function that measures the gain in value attributable to the various hydrocarbon reservoir exploitation strategies, and a risk reward summary

Frip: Engineers should not be permitted to use the English language without supervision.

Method, Software and System for Developing Interactive Call Center Agent Personas; US 7,512,545 B2; March 31, 2009; Class 705/10; 17 claims; assigned to AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.

Key personality traits; weights for the traits; personality profiles; rating of the personality profiles regarding their ability to represent the key personality traits

Evaluation of the personality profiles to identify characteristics most capable of conveying preferred personality traits

Frip: So this is how they pick those annoying automated voices at the call center.

Tax Adjustment for Financial Processing in a Relational Database Management System; US 7,512,554 B1; March 31, 2009; Class 705/35; 9 claims; assigned to Teradata US, Inc.

Account, event, and organization attributes stored in a database; profit factors; tax adjustment attributes

Profitability and earnings calculations

Frip: Business School 101. Yawn.

System and Method for Evaluation of Simulated Hedging Relationship Assignments; US 7,512,554 B1; March 31, 2009; Class 705/35; 7 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany)

Simulated hedging relationship assignment

Effectiveness value

Frip: So now we’re providing patent protection to those financial hedgers who have marched us over a cliff?!

April 7, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and Apparatus for Insurance Risk Management; US 7,516,079 B2; April 7, 2009; Class 705/4; 16 claims

Insurance information from a user including revenue of the organization, a self-insured retention (SIR) of the organization, and a loss limit

Insurance premiums

Frip: And this is distinguishable from a simple computer program how?

Adaptive Estimation of Gain and Revenue; US 7,516,081 B2; April 7, 2009; Class 705/7; 1 claim; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Estimated cost of a subject; number of clock cycles for the subject; an initial gain function based upon a desired profit; measurement period; number of used units during a clock cycle

Actual gain

Frip: Ah, Big Blue. You may profess unhappiness with business methods patents, but that doesn’t stop you from playing the game.

Scheduling Delivery of Chemical Products Based on a Predicted Estimated Time of Exhaustion; US 7,516,082 B2; April 7, 2009; Class 705/8; 61 claims; assigned to Ecolab Inc.

Data on usage of a chemical product

Predicted time of depletion, which time is used for a resupply schedule

Frip: No more “Hey, we’re running out. Better order more.”

Method of Comparing Prorated Inventory Budgets and Simulated Future Inventory; US 7,516,083 B1; April 7, 2009; Class 705/10; 26 claims; assigned to Bluefire Systems, Inc.

Inventory budgets; demand projections; simulations of notional deliveries, sales, and inventory that capture the interaction of inventory and sales

Analytic reports that compare open-to-buy inventory values and inventory budgets

Frip: Ookay. A patent on an analytical report. So that’s where discarded homework assignments go.

Approach for Managing Forecast Data; US 7,516,084 B1; April 7, 2009; Class 705/10; 11 claims; assigned to Lawson Software, Inc.

Identity of a user in an organization; nodes in a data hierarchy; user’s relationship to nodes in a primary data hierarchy and a secondary data hierarchy

What data the user has access to

Frip: Frip has always had trouble with the concept of nodes. Are they like little buttons scattered about? Are they places where one makes decisions or chooses alternatives? Or are they how computer scientists amuse themselves at real people’s expense?

Market Determination System; US 7,516,085 B2; April 7, 2009; Class 705/10; 15 claims

Location of a business offering a product or service; calculation of travel time traces around the business; potential customers; weights for the number of potential customers

Demand for the product or service within a census unit

Frip: Playing with maps! Frip has always liked that kind of stuff.

Business Rating Placement Heuristic; US 7,516,086 B2; April 7, 2009; Class 705/14; 18 claims; assigned to Idearc Media Corp

Category-based attributes; geography-based attributes; ratings based attributes; listing-based attributes; relationship-based attributes

Distribution of information

Frip: Frip knew when he saw the word “Heuristic” in the patent’s name that he was out of his league.

Fabrication Facility Major Excursion Event Cost Forecast Model; US 7,516,096 B1; April 7, 2009; Class 705/36R; 31 claims; assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.

Monetary impact of the contributors to the occurrence of previous non-predictable events; most likely model of the preceding; scaling coefficients for each of the contributors; error function

Forecast of the future monetary impact of the occurrence of a non-predictable event

Frip: Non-predictable event, eh? Frip predicts that a non-predictable event will occur on July 24, 2013.

Index Determined from Fixed Income Securities Data; US 7,516,098 B2; April 7, 2009; Class 705/37; 42 claims; assigned to CFPH, LLC

Prices for fixed income securities traded in a fixed income securities market; changes in those priceds

A continually updated index for fixed income securities

Frip: So simple yet so unique! Or maybe not.

April 14, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTAssisted Profiling of Skills in an Enterprise Management System; US 7,519,539 B1; April 14, 2009; Class 705/1; 20 claims; assigned to Sap Aktiengesellschaft (Germany)

Status information relating to a project in a project management system; through an assisted profiling interface, updates to a skills profile

Updated skills profile

Frip: Nice idea, but is it patent-worthy? (Remember the sponge-worthy episode on Seinfeld?)

Material Browser; US 7,519,544 B1; April 14, 2009; Class 705/26; 25 claims; assigned to NCR Corporation

Data on raw material—apparently related to publishing products—stored in a data base and accessible to a customer through a browser; customer criteria

Suggested list of raw material

Frip: If this is not a patent for a computer program, what is?

Method and System for Debt Collection Optimization; US 7,519,553 B2; April 14, 2009; Class 705; 9 claims; assign to International Business Machines Corporation

Data on collection actions; business or legal rules expressed as action constraints; (process includes segmented linear regression and a constrained Markov Decision Process formulation)

Optimal sequence of collection actions to maximize a total return throughout a course of collection cases

Frip: You can always count on Big Blue (but see the next patent).

Resource Reduction Financial Impact Analysis; US 7,519,556 B2; April 14, 2009; Class 705/37; 7 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Data on resources (employees) to be severed; organization guidelines, local laws, state laws, national laws

Severance pay

Frip: Big Blue, you disappoint Frip. Using the euphemism “resource reduction” for firing people? You’re better than that, Big Blue.

Automatic Identification of Unreliable User Ratings; US 7,519,562 B1; April 14, 2009; Class 705/500; 102 claims; assigned to Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Votes or other ratings made by a user

Analysis of user’s possible bias

Frip: Really!? Some on the ratings on Amazon.com might be biased? Who would’a thunk it?

April 21, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSystem for Minimizing the Cost of Post-Treatment Follow-Up and Diagnostic Tests; US 7,523,043 B2; April 21, 2009; Class 705/2; 24 claims; assigned to MK Consulting, Inc.

Threshold on cost per relapse detected; cost associated with subsequent test dates; Probability that a relapse will be detected in a time segment; (process involves solving two equations)

Lowest cost survelliance schedule

Frip: Subject of the patent appears to be nothing more than an algorithm, and allegedly this is a no-no.

Price Optimization System; US 7,523,047 B1; April 21, 2009; Class 705/10; 16 claims; assigned to Demandtec, Inc.

Product prices; product attributes; variable costs; fixed costs

Preferred set of prices for products

Frip: Maybe optimization patents should be banned outright.

Information Processing Apparatus, Information Processing Method, and Program; US 7,523,051 B2; April 21, 2009; Class 705/27; 35 claims; assigned to Sony Corporation (Japan)

Information from information sources; evaluation data for the information; reliability threshold

Highly reliable information

Frip: No kidding, that’s what the patent abstract says is the purpose of the patent, to provide highly reliable information.

Evaluation of Securities; US 7,523,056 B2; April 21, 2009; Class 705/35; 21 claims

Historical P/E ratio for a security; predetermined P/E growth rate for the security; rating assessment

Merit rating for the security

Frip: Who searched the prior art on this one, Daffy Duck?

Online Method and System for Estimating the Manufacturing Cost of Components; US 7,523,061 B2; April 21, 2009; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Ford Global Technologies, LLC

Component model that includes quantitative drivers and cost algorithms; values for the drivers

Estimate of the manufacturing cost of the component

Frip: You put some data in, you get some data out.

April 28, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTCross Correlation Tool for Automated Portfolio Descriptive Statistics; US 7,526,442 B2; April 28, 2009; Class 705/35; 31 claims; assigned to GE Corporate Financial Services, Inc.

Portfolio of assets; descriptive attribute variables for the assets

Cross correlations among all variables of interest, the cross correlations being presented in a two dimensional matrix for easy identification of trends

Frip: Ah ha! The old make-it-a-graphic-and-get-yourself-a-patent trick.

System for Pricing Financial Instruments; US 7,526,445 B2; April 28, 2009; Class 705/36R; 10 claims; assigned to Nyse Alternext US LLC

Historical data on transactions and pricing information of a set of investable financial instruments; independent risk factors representative of market behavior estimated to be significant to the price behavior of a traded unit; third party information regarding the actual significance of the risk factors

Estimate of the market value of a traded unit of a financial instrument, the instrument being a fund of individually priced securities and the exact composition of the fund being withheld from the market

Frip: Do you realize that there are an infinite number of ways to estimate market values? Should each one be granted its own patent?

System and Methods for Valuing and Managing the Risk of Credit Instrument Portfolios; US 7,526,446 B2; April 28, 2009; Class 705/38; 16 claims; assigned to Algorithmics International (Barbados)

Credit instrument data; current market data; calibration parameters (calculated from the preceding); scenarios

Valuations of credit instruments

Frip: See comment for preceding patent.

May 5, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod for Obtaining and Allocating Investment Income Based on the Capitalization of Intellectual Property; US 7,529,684 B2; May 5, 1943; Class 705/1; 7 claims; assigned to TEQ Development

Present value of an intellectual property estate; valuation algorithm; additional information

Future value of the intellectual property estate

Frip: Yeah, okay.

Baseline Cost Savings Analysis; US 7,529,688 B2; May 5, 2009; Class 705/26; 24 claims; assigned to i2 Technologies US, Inc.

Cost savings goal; from either historical data or data input by the user, a baseline price

Calculated variation between baseline price and actual price, and comparison of cost savings with cost savings goal

Frip: Somebody’s got too much time on their hands.

Method and System for Designing a Catalog with Optimized Product Placement; US 7,529,693 B2; May 5, 2009; Class 705/27; 3 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Data on the relationship between the placement of items in a catalogue and transactions

Optimized placement of items in a catalog

Frip: Is it just Frip that thinks Big Blue is pulling the patent system’s leg?

Method and System for Artificial Neural Networks to Predict Price Movements in the Financial Markets; US 7,529,703 B2; May 5, 2009; Class 705/36R; 16 claims; assigned to Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Input variables and an output variable for a neural network model; training set of market data for the input variables

Next price movement in a financial market

Frip: Maybe if the previous Administration had relied on a neural network model, the current economic difficulties could have been avoided.

System and Method for Determining Latent Demand for at Least One of a Plurality of Commodities; US 7,529,708 B2; May 5, 2009; Class 705/37; 10 claims; assigned to Xerox Corporation

Accepted and unaccepted offers for commodities following an online auction

Latent demand for selected commodities

Frip: Huh?

Cost Management of Software Application Portfolio; US 7,529,714 B2; May 5, 2009; Class 705/400; 16 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Regression function for each software application of a group of software applications, each regression function expressing the cost of ownership in terms of parameters and coefficients; cost of ownership of a portion of the software applications

Regression calculation of the total cost of ownership, and values for control parameters that minimize the total cost

Frip: It’s just regression analysis, Big Blue. Doesn’t seem like you should be able to patent regression analysis, or even an application thereof.

Estimating Value of a Previously-Used Exhibit; US 7,529,715 B2; May 5, 2009; Class 795/400; 12 claims

Original price of the exhibit; year it was purchased; its condition; number of shows at which it was displayed

Value of the exhibit

Frip: Optimization and valuation patents should be no-nos.

May 12, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTInnovation Engines; US 7,533,035 B1; May 12, 2009; Class 705/7; 1 claim

Data; time factor; resource impact factor; serendipity factor; feasibility factor; overall worthiness factor

Potential solutions

Frip: Yes, this could work.

Methods and Systems for Forecasting Daily Product Sales; US 7,533,037 B1; May 12, 2009; Class 705/10; 7 claims; assigned to Teradata US, Inc.

Historical daily demand data for a product; calculated daily weight value; predetermined weekly demand forecast for the forthcoming week; store closure coefficients

Forecast of daily sales patterns

Frip: Put some data in, get a forecast out.

Predictive Modeling of Consumer Financial Behavior Using Supervised Segmentation and Nearest-Neighbor Matching; US 7,533,038 B2; May 12, 2009; Class 705/10; 10 claims; assigned to Fair Isaac Corporation

Consumer transaction data; predictive models associated with merchant segments, which are derived from the consumer transaction data based on co-occurrences of merchants in sequences of transactions; calculated merchant vector; calculated consumer vector

Prediction of target consumer’s response rates to a given offer

Frip: What if you go through all this to predict the response to a product offer, and the prediction is wrong? Can you sue the Patent Office for granting a doofus patent?

Fair Value Model Based System, Method, and Computer Program Product for Valuing Foreign-Based Securities in a Mutual Fund; US 7,533,048 B2; May 12, 2009; Class 705/36R; 38 claims; assigned to ITG Software Solutions, Inc.

Universe of securities of a particular international market; calculated overnight returns of each security; return factors; calculated (by regression analysis) return factor coefficients; closing prices

Fair value price of each security

Frip: Good ol’ regression analysis. When all else fails, regress something against something.

Method and System for Rating Securities, Method and System for Evaluating Price of Securities, Method for Establishing a Market Within the System; US 7,533,049 B2; May 12, 2009; Class 705/36R; 2 claims

Real-time data of a bond or fixed rate financing instrument, the data including price, face value, interest rate, credit rating, yield to maturity, tax status, and a number of other items

Rating value

Frip: Here’s a challenge: take all the patents for the valuation of securities and determine which valuation system has the best record.

Methods and Systems for Ranking and Investing in Financial Instruments; US 7,533,055 B2; May 12, 2009; Class 705/37; 17 claims

Financial data on a company associated with a financial instrument

Ranking of financial instruments based on the discount percentage for each instrument

Frip: See preceding comment.

May 19, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSelf-Balancing of Idea Ratings; US 7,536,315 B2; May 19, 2009; Class 705/10; 32 claims; assigned to SAP Aktiengesellschaft (Germany)

An idea; opinions on the idea, the opinions being converted to ratings and grades; weightings of the grades based on the experience level of the individual giving an opinion

Rating of the idea based on the weighted grades

Frip: A patent on whether an idea is good or bad? Methinks that’s a bad idea.

Methods and Device for Evaluation of Financial Derivatives Using Sparse Grids; US 7,536,327 B2; May 19, 2009; Class 705/35; 20 claims; (Germany)

Input parameters; determination of an integrand as a function of the input parameters; calculation of a multivariate integration domain; using a sparse grid method, determination of integration points and integration weights; other stuff

Value of a financial derivative

Frip: Infringing this patent won’t be easy. It defies understanding.

Method and Apparatus for an Incomplete Information Model of Credit Risk; US 7,536,329 B2; May 19, 2009; Class 705/35; 33 claims; assigned to Barra, Inc.

Default risk factors; determination of a firm’s default barrier distribution, conditional default probability, and pricing trend function

Term structure of default probabilities

Frip: These patents are getting nebulouser and nebulouser.

Real Life Implementation of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) for Financial Planning and Portfolio Management; US 7,536,332 B2; May 19, 2009; Class 705/36; 3 claims

Investment parameters; real time and historical market price; an investor’s existing portfolio

Rebalanced investor portfolio

Frip: And the investor’s portfolio still tanked.

Method for Determining the Risk Associated with Licensing or Enforcing Intellectual Property; US 7,536,331 B1; May 19, 2009; Class 705/36R; 18 clsims

Data from IP owner’s questionnaire and task report sheet; data from current litigation services; data from PTO records; data from government and private sector statistical sources

Composite score that represents a relative degree of strength associated with any undertaking to commercialize an item of intellectual property

Frip; The concept of a patent on how or why to protect a patent is fascinating.

System of Hedge Fund Rankings; US 7,536,333 B1; May 19, 2009; Class 705/36R; 18 claims

Independent hedge fund characteristics

Rating of a hedge fund, the rating being based on the overall risk, performance, and credibility of a fund

Frip: Darn, if only Frip had know before sinking 10 Grand into the Some Like It Hot Hedge Fund.

Apparatuses and Processes for Calculating Options; US 7,536,334 B1; May 19, 2009; Class 705/36R; 2 claims

Data representative of the option on an asset, the data including an option type, an exercise price for the asset, the current price of the asset; the historical price volatility of the asset, and the margin requirement of the asset

Data representative of an option premium

Frip: Is this the week that the PTO decided to clear the boards of patents on valuation models?

Systems and Methods for Providing Enhanced Volume-Weighted Average Price Trading; US 7,536,342 B2; May 19, 2009; Class 705/37; 44 claims; assigned to BGC Partners, Inc.

Market data for a financial instrument over a sampling period, the data being executed trades and unmatched orders

Recalculated value for the enhanced volume-weighted average price

Frip: This high finance stuff is making Frip’s brain hurt.

Enhancing Delinquent Debt Collection Using Statistical Models of Debt Historical Information and Account Events; US 7,536,348 B2; May 19, 2009; Class 705/38; 10 claims; assigned to Fair Isaac Corporation

Historical data of delinquent debt accounts; collection methods used to collect debts in the accounts; success of the collection methods

Predictions of amounts that will be collected on delinquent debt accounts

Frip: Is one collection method from the Soprano family?

May 26, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSystem and Method for Forecasting Workload and Resource Requirements in a Call Center/Help Desk; US 7,539,627 B2; May 26, 2009; Class 705/9; 20 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Historical workload data Workload forecast and resources needed to meet the forecasted workload

Frip: You can always depend on Big Blue to patent the obvious.

June 2, 2009



Method for Generating an Insurance Quote; US 7,542,914; June 2, 2009; Class 705/4; 24 claims

Data from a lender, at least a portion of the data being provided by the applicant for a loan.

Quote on insurance

Frip: Sounds foolproof.

System and Method for Analyzing Sales Performances; US 7,542,917; June 2, 2009; Class 705/10; 8 claims; assigned to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (Taiwan)

Sales records Various sales performances

Frip: So does this one.

Increases in Sales Rank as a Measure of Interest; US 7,542,929 B2; June 2, 2009; Class 705/27; 20 claims; assigned to Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Sale data about items available on a website

Scores for selected items

Frip: Scoring patents are becoming ubiquitous.

Systems and Methods for Multi-Objective Portfolio Optimization; US 7,542,932 B2; June 2, 2009; Class 705/35; 39 claims; assigned to General Electric Company

Portfolio data; process involves linear programming, sequential linear programming, a Pareto Sorting Evolutionary Algorithm, a Target Objectives Genetic Algorithm, Dominance Filtering, and other stuff

Augmented efficient frontier for use in investment decision-making

Frip: Get a patent for your MBA class project!

System and Method for Analyzing a Waveform to Detect Specified Patterns; US 7,542,934 B2; June 2, 2009; Class 705/35; 14 claims; assigned to Omnicharts, LLC

Price and volume data on stocks; constants relating to definitions of predetermined patterns of waveforms

Waveform pattern analysis to aid in investment decisions

Frip: Hey investors! The U.S. Patent Office has granted a patent for our method of reading waveforms for investment guidance, so it must be good!

Method and System for Displaying and Trading Spreads; US 7,542,937 B1; June 2, 2009; Class 705/37; 28 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Price and quantity information for tradeable objects

Displays of direct and indirect price and quantity information for spreads

Frip: Have any patent examiners, any at all, read Bilski?

Modeling Financial Instruments Using Bid and Ask Prices; US 7,542,939 B2; June 2, 2009; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Pension Worldwide, Inc.

Historical bid or ask prices for a financial instrument; a financial model having at least one variable parameter

Prediction of at least one investment significant parameter of the financial instrument

Frip: Must be financial model week at the PTO.

System and Method for Estimating a Spread Value; US 7,542,940 B2; June 2, 2009; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Dynamic market data Estimation of a spread value between two tradeable objects

Frip: Isn’t this the same thing as two patents above (7,542,937)? Or if not, shouldn’t they be considered identical in the eyes of patent law?

Method and System for Displaying and Trading Spreads; US 7,542,941 B1; June 2, 2009; Class 705/37; 8 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Price and quantity information for tradeable objects

Displays of direct and indirect price and quantity information for spreads

Frip: Hey, this is the same thing as 7,542,937!

June 9, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTDynamic Resource Allocation Using Projected Future Benefits; US 7,546,247 B2; June 9, 2009; Class 705/8; 15 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Forecasted demands; projected revenues

Resource allocation to yield a benefit

Frip: One thing you can say about Big Blue’s patents, they defy understanding by ordinary folk.

System, Method and Computer Readable Medium Containing Instructions for Evaluating and Disseminating Securities Analyst Performance Information; US 7,546,263 B2; June 9, 2009; Class 705/36R; 44 claims; assigned to Thomson Holdings LLC

Data on past opinions issued by a securities analysis including the performance of a security after the issuance of an opinion

Performance score for the analyst relative to other analysts

Frip: Finally, a way to rank securities analysts!

Method for Selecting Investments in Book-Valued Collective Investment Funds; US 7,546,264 B2; June 9, 2009; Class 705/36R; 13 claims; assigned to Water Street Advisers, Inc.

Past investment performance of funds, past performance being measured in a “mean-variance” analysis

Rankings

Frip: With all these scores and rankings of investment opportunities, how can an investor go wrong?

Method and System for Estimating Economic Risk Associated with a Group of Loans; US 7,546,270 B1; June 9, 2009; Class 705/38; 23 claims; assigned to Fannie Mae

Data on loans; determination of a statistical dependency structure based on a Gaussian copula function

Estimate of economic risk

Frip: With this baby in its bag of tools, how did Fannie get into trouble?

June 16, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSimulation of Business Transformation Outsourcing; US 7,548,871 B2; June 16, 2009; Class 705/8; 7 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Inputs for a business transformation outsourcing service, the inputs being benefits, process, information technology, and value

A measure of economic value for the business transformation outsourcing service

Frip: Ah, Big Blue, always pushing the outside of the envelop.

Simulation of Business Transformation Outsourcing of Sourcing, Procurement and Payables; US 7,548,872 B2; June 16, 2009; Class 705/8; 13 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Inputs for a business transformation outsourcing service, the inputs being spending, process, and information technology

A measure of economic value for the business transformation outsourcing service

Frip: I don’t mean to quibble, but ain’t this practically the same as the one above?

Convenience Store Effectiveness Model (CSEM); US 7,548,979 B2; June 16, 2009; Class 705/35; 23 claims; assigned to NCR Corporation

Parameter values describing alternative convenience store and alternative financial services center operations wherein the operations represent complex interactions between customers, staff, and convenience store service points

Simulated performance results

Frip: Do we really need patents on simulations?

System and Method for Determining Implied Market Information; US 7,548,882 B1; June 16, 2009; Class 705/37; 12 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Market information from related markets; process involves “exhaustively computing one or more combinations of related markets”

Implied market information, including prices and quantities

Frip: “Exhaustively computing” sounds a little beyond what the Bilski machine-or-transformation test envisions.

June 23, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod for Determining Compatibility; US 7,552,060 B2; June 23, 2009; Class 705/1; 27 claims; assigned to HDVE, LLC

User’s personal characteristics and psychological traits; user’s preferences concerning potential partners; target profiles; empirical research on relationships

Ranking of target profiles relative to the user based on their respective compatibility indexes

Frip: Maybe ol’ Frip will finally find a soul mate.

System for Evaluating Price Risk of Financial Product or Its Financial Derivative, Dealing System and Recorded; US 7,552,076 B1; June 23, 2009; Class 705/36; 18 claims; assigned to Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Japan)

Prices, price change rates, and price change directions for a financial product or its derivatives; process involves Boltzmann models, Monte Carlo methods, Leptokurcity, and Fat-tails

Price distribution, risk distribution, and risk value

Frip: Who would’a thunk it.

Enterprise Portfolio Analysis Using Finite State Markov Decision Process; US 7,552,078 B2; June 23, 2009; Class 705/36R; 3 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Inventory data on computer resources available to an enterprise; enterprise strategic goals for transitioning the enterprise portfolio of computer resources; future computer resource requirements; initial transition plan

Optimized transition plan

Frip: Instead of giving raises, Big Blue keeps its engineers happy by letting them patent all sorts of weird things—“I’m a Big Blue super geek with 15 patents to my name. How ya’ like them apples?”

Computer-Implemented Apparatus for Automating and Executing Investment Planning for a Client; US 7,552,079 B2; June 23, 2009; Class 705/36R; 12 claims; assigned to The Vanguard Group, Inc.

Client’s current asset portfolio, including the taxable status of each asset; client’s desired asset portfolio; client’s preferred domain

Financial transaction recommendations (that can be implemented by a trade execution computer)

Frip: Hey, Vanguard has some of Frip’s goodies! Maybe time to check out other options.

June 30, 2009

PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTComputerized Medical Modeling of Group Life Insurance Using Medical Claims Data; US 7,555,438 B2; June 30, 2009; Class 705/4; 6 claims; assigned to TruRisk, LLC

Medical claims data for a group to be underwritten; morbidity categories; software configured to implement a death probability model

Expected group death exposure; premium amount for insurance coverage

Frip: Doesn’t it make you feel a little uneasy, a patent on the probability of dying?

Estimating Business Targets; US 7,555,442 B1; June 30, 2009; Class 705/10; 16 claims; assigned to Verizon Laboratories, Inc.

Variables associated with entities, each of the entities having a corresponding observed value representing a performance level

Under Marketed Entities for Target Upselling

Frip: That’s the problem with Verizon, when it talks, you wonder what it said.

Cash Flow Forecasting; US 7,555,451 B2; June 30, 2009; Class 705/36R; 43 claims; assigned to Microsoft Corporation

Prior transactions for a budget item

Cash flow forecast

Frip: Ho hum, MBA 101.

Method Based on Multiple Share Combinations for Optimizing the Return of an Investment Portfolio; US 7,555,452 B2; June 30, 2009; Class 705/36R; 31 claims

Stocks with inter-related price fluctuations

“[A] diversified portfolio with correctly priced, good value stocks”

Frip: Hey, Patent Office, is that a guarantee? Then here’s all my money, Honey.

Reallocation; US 7,555,453 B2; June 30, 2009; Class 705/36R; 30 claims; assigned to RBC Capital Markets Corporation

Hedge fund data; calculations of projected hedge fund weights

Adjustments to weights of hedge funds in an index

Frip: Fer cryin’ out loud! Has anyone at the Patent Office read the Bilski decision, anyone?

Deriving a Probability Distribution of a Value of an Asset at a Future Time; June 30, 2009; Class 705/36R; 6 claims; assigned to Athena Capital Advisors, Inc.

Current prices of options on an asset

Estimate of the probability distribution of the asset price at a future time

Frip: Another MBA 101 deal. Moral of the story, Boys and Girls, save your class projects.

July 7, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTTechnology Evaluation System and Method; US 7,558,749 B2; July 7, 2009; Class 705/35; 8 claims; assigned to Iptec Inc.

Set of stock prices of each company of a group of reference companies; set of net asset values corresponding to the set of stock prices; cost of a technology; process involves formulas, standard normal distribution functions, and other stuff

Predicted value of a technology

Frip: Oh, these quants! Really, they need to be constrained.

Method of Constructing a Stock Index; US 7,558,751 B2; July 7, 2009; Class 705/36R; 13 claims; assigned to Vanguard Group, Inc.

Stock size range having an upper and lower limit; band around at least one of the limits, the band being a range of values; time horizon; periodic addition and deletion of stocks

A dynamic stock index

Frip: Headline: Patent Office Continues To Ignore Bilski Decision.

System and Method for Processing and Displaying Quantity Information During User-Configurable Time Periods; US 7,558,754 B1; July 7, 2009; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Time period; quantity information for different price levels

Display of quantity related information associated with a tradable object in an electronic trading environment

Frip: At a basic level, wasn’t such stuff readily foreseeable when the first graphic appeared on a computer screen?

Methods and Systems for Valuing Investments, Budgets and Decisions; US 7,558,755 B2; July 7, 2009; Class 705/37; 12 claims

Potential investment with cash flow; process involves creating magnitude and timing probability distributions

Two-dimensional net present value probability distribution

Frip: Another patent on computer graphics. This just ain’t right.

Method and System for Evaluating Loan Workout Scenarios; US 7,558,756 B1; July 7, 2009; Class 705/38; 18 claims; assigned to Fannie Mae

Information relating to a loan; workout options; predetermined values obtained from evaluations of empirical data; predefined rules to assess risks

A recommendation or recommendations for each workout option

Frip: Talk about a timely patent!

July 14, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSystem and Method for Group Positioning of Market Information in a Graphical User Interface; US 7,562,038 B1; July 14, 2009; Class 705/35; 34 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Market information relating to commodities, the information being quantities, prices, and other items of interest

Graphical displays of the information

Frip: Fails the Bilski test, Guys: the purported transformation of information is just a display of prices, quantities, and other stuff.

Method and Computer System for Computing and Displaying a Phase Space; US 7,562,039 B2; July 14, 2009; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to Mevis Technology Gmbh (Germany)

Data samples pertaining to stocks, bonds, exchange rates, macroeconomic values, or similar stuff

Display of volatility between a successive sequence of samples

Frip: What is this imperative to patent graphical computer displays?

Method, System and Computer Program for Auditing Financial Plans; US 7,562,040 B2; July 14, 2009; Class 705/36R; 26 claims

Investment values, asset allocations, contributions, withdrawals, age, retirement age

Changes in investment values

Frip: Another MBA 101 patent.

Data Processor for Implementing Forecasting Algorithms; US 7,562,042 B2; July 14, 2009; Class 705/37; 5 claims; assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Historical price data on asset prices; process using kernel regression

Future price movements

Frip: Hey, if MIT’s involved you know this is serious stuff.

July 21, 2009

PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTBusiness Processes Based on a Predictive Model; US 7,565,304 B2; July 21, 2009; Class 705/7; 26 claims; assigned to Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Business process execution data; predictive model that includes rules for scoring business process outcomes at different stages of the process

Resources that are to be invoked to execute the process

Frip: HP says Big Blue isn’t the only one who can throw around the incomprehensible jargon.

System and Method for Displaying Market Information and Order Placement in an Electronic Trading Environment; US 7,565,317 B1; July 21, 2009; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Market data, mainly real-time order book information including last traded prices and bid and ask prices

Dynamic screen display centered around a dynamic price axis

Frip: Patents for computer displays, even dynamic ones, just don’t seem right.

System and Method for Calculating and Displaying Volume to Identify Buying and Selling in an Electronic Trading Environment; US 7,565,318 B2; July 21, 2009; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Trading volume associated with a tradeable object having an inside market with a highest bid price and a lowest ask price

Screen display centered around a value axis

Frip: Frip is gonna patent a display of the results of his increasing encounters with the medical profession.

Index for Fixed Income Securities Market; US 7,565,320 B2; July 21, 2009; Class 705/37; 43 claims; assigned to CFPH, L.L.C.

Price information on current activity involving one or more securities

A dynamic market index on the securities

Frip: If the PTO doesn’t get a grip, it might become a casualty of the Information Age.

July 28, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and System for Researching Sales Effects for Advertising Using Association Analysis; US 7,567,918 B2; July 28, 2009; Class 705/10; 6 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Sales data; advertising/promotion data

Conclusions about marketing research data

Frip: Sounds simple, but do not fear. Big Blue complexes it up nicely.

Method and System for Generating a Normalized Configuration Model; US 7,567,922 B1; July 28, 2009; Class 705/26; 29 claims; assigned to Versata Development Group, Inc.

Product configuration models that include non-normalized feature references; mapping file that includes a map of specific product feature references to normalized feature references

Normalized configuration model

Frip: Can any one of us claim to be really normal?

Method for Managing Risk in Markets Related to Commodities Delivered over a Network; US 7,567,926 B2; July 28, 2009; Class 705/35; 2 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.

Estimates of distribution factors indicating effects on congestible lines in a network due to transfers of a commodity at respective locations in the network

Evaluation of price risk instruments in a market related to a commodity delivered over a network

Frip: Is this about anything?

Market Motion Detector; US 7,567,927 B2; July 28, 2009; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Ameritrade IP Company, Inc.

Securities data from one or more network data feeds

Stocks with the highest speed change per unit of time and acceleration, or rate of change of speed

Frip: You heard it here first: speed trading will be a major cause of the next financial crisis.

Short Trade Information System; US 7,567,935; July 28, 2009; Class 705/37; 35 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley

Short-sale information on securities, the information being filtered

Filtered short-sale information

Frip: What’s filtered is your money out of your pocket.

August 4, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSystem and Method for Handling Action Items; US 7,571,108 B1; August 4, 2009; Class 705/8; 20 claims; assigned to Microsoft Corporation

Table of available resources; set of actions; table of resources requirements

Processing the action items either automatically or by human intervention

Frip: Microsoft patents everything.

System and Method for Assessing Operational Process Risk and Quality by Calculating Operational Value at Risk; US 7,571,109 B2; August 4, 2009; Class 705/8; 17 claims

Data on event; data on a reference that represents ideal performance of the event

Quantitative comparison of the actual and ideal performance

Frip: Seriously, should a complicated idea be patentable just because it is complicated?

Computer Implemented Method for Estimating Future Grid Job Costs by Classifying Grid Jobs and Storing Results of Processing Grid Job Microcosms; US 7,571,120 B2; August 4, 2009; Class 705/26; 6 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Classification of grid jobs; results of processing grid job microcosms; history of stored costs for grid jobs

Estimation of future cost of a grid job

Frip: Nobody complicates it better than Big Blue.

Cash Flow Management System; US 7,571,125 B2; August 4, 2009; Class 705/30; 31 claims

Average income for a time interval; expenses broken down into alpha and beta categories, the alpha expenses being paid periodically in accordance with a time period not exceeding the time interval and the beta expenses being related to a longer time period

Cash flow for the time interval

Frip: Okay, so maybe nobody has come up with precisely this cash flow algorithm. The basic question is, should a cash flow algorithm be patentable?

Apparatus and Methods of Visualizing Numerical Benchmarks; US 7,571,129 B2; August 4, 2009; Class 705/36R; assigned to SAP AG (Germany)

General performance of a business in relation to its industry, the information including a business ratio value and industry lower quartile, median, and upper quartile values

Graphical display of the business’ performance in relation to its industry

Frip: Another patent on how information is displayed on a computer screen.

Hedging Exchange Traded Mutual Funds or Other Portfolio Basket Products; US 7,571,130 B2; August 4, 2009; Class 705/36R; 19 claims; assigned to NYSE Alternext US LLC

Historical returns of an actively managed exchange traded fund; analysis of risk factors

Basket of financial instruments for hedging investment risk in the fund

Frip: Hedging? How do we know that this is not a patent on hedging your way to the poorhouse?

August 11, 2009



Public Sector Value Model; US 7,574,373 B2; August 11, 2009; Class 705/11; 46 claims; assigned to Accenture Global Services GmbH (Switzerland)

Public sector value model that defines at least two outcome measures that each correspond to a non-statutory social benefit achieved by a public sector organization; weightings that correspond to the outcome measures; cost-effectiveness measures; performance measurements; other data

Relative public performance measure of the public sector organization

Frip: Really, the brief summary herein only touches the tip of this verbal iceberg.

Capital Allocation and Risk Management; US 7,574,387 B2; August 11, 2009; Class 705/35; 20 claims; assigned to Accenture Global Services GmbH (Switzerland)

Data and data relationships required for a financial institution to meet regulatory requirements

Gap reports detailing data gaps that prevent the financial institution from meeting (1) a desired level of calculation of financial information or (2) reporting requirements

Frip: And this differs from a nonpatentable software program how?

Index Rebalancing; US 7,574,393 B2; August 11, 2009; Class 705/36R; 29 claims; assigned to RBC Capital Markets Corporation

Returns on hedge funds in an index

Weights of the hedge funds in the index and adjustments necessary if a hedge fund weight exceeds the maximum hedge fund weight or is less than the minimum hedge fund weight

Frip: Hedge fund patents: sort of like patents on rattlesnakes.

Method of and Apparatus for Administering an Asset-Backed Security Using Coupled Lattice Efficiency Analysis; US 7,574,396 B2; August 11, 2009; Class 705/37; 12 claims

Specifications of aspects of assets that generate cashflows from payment by obligors of principal and interest, wherein a level of the cashflows generated from the assets changes due to prepayments; specification of the asset-backed security created from the assets; process involves coupled-lattice recursive analysis

Fair market value of the asset-backed security

Frip: Coupled-lattice efficiency (or recursive) analysis: everybody could use a little of that.

System and Method for Creating a Market Map in an Electronic Trading Environment; US 7,574,397 B1; August 11, 2009; Class 705/37; 24 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International Inc.

Market information comprising bid and ask orders for a tradable object; ditto for another tradable object

Adjustable display of the market information

Frip: Another patent for a graphical display. Hey PTO, it’s nothing more than a software patent!

Hedging Exchange Traded Mutual Funds or Other Portfolio Basket Products; US 7,574,399 B2; August 11, 2009; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to NYSE Alternext US LLC

Price movements of securities; estimation of factor sensitivities (say what?); estimation of net asset value

Basket, and price, of financial instruments for hedging investment risk in actively managed traded funds

Frip: Another hedge fund rattlesnake.

August 18, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod for Determining the Post-Launch Performance of a Product on a Market; US 7,577,578 B2; August 18, 2009; Class 705/10; 3 claims; assigned to IMS Software Services Ltd.

Collected data related to at least one key success factor associated with the market performance of a product; collected data related to unmet needs in the market; collected data related to the propensity of a decision-maker to choose the product

Future market share of the product

Frip: You heard it here: forecasting methods should not be patentable.

Method of Predicting Sales Based on Triple-Axis Mapping of Customer Value; US 7,577,579 B2; August 18, 2009; Class 705/10; 14 claims; assigned to Dentsu Tec Inc. (Japan)

Purchase-history data of customers

Sales predictions based on triple-axis mapping of customer value, the axes being a purchase-amount index, a user-type index, and a customer-purchase-relevance index

Frip: The number of ways you can forecast stuff? Infinite. The ways that don’t rely on any prior art? Ze-freaking-ro.

System for Financial Planning; US 7,577,597 B1; August 18, 2009; Class 705/35; 32 claims; assigned to T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.

Financial goal; possible financial strategies; investor financial preferences regarding attributes for the financial goal; process involves Monte Carlo simulations on the asset allocation of each financial strategy

A financial strategy

Frip: Ah, the old take-the-investor-to-lunch ploy.

Method and Interface for Consolidating Price Levels on a Trading Screen; US 7,577,602 B2; August 18, 2009; Class 705/37; 7 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International Inc.

Price and quantity information for objects traded on an exchange

Display of price levels on a trading screen

Frip: Okay, so Frip is summarizing. But is every display on a computer screen patentable?

Method and Interface for Consolidating Price Levels on a Trading Screen; US 7,577,607 B2; August 18, 2009; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International Inc.

Price and quantity levels Display of market information on a trading screen

Frip: Hey PTO, what nuances separate this “invention” from the preceding one?

System and Method for Providing a Linear Spread; US 7,577,608 B1; August 18, 2009; Class 705/37; 16 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International Inc.

Market information associated with a trading strategy, known as a spread; market volatility parameters; divide spread algorithm

Linearized spread price axis

Frip: Okay, Frip doesn’t have a clue what this is about.

August 25, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and System for Analyzing, Modeling and Valuing Elements of a Business Enterprise; US 7,580,848 B2; August 25, 2009; Class 705/7; 84 claims; assigned to Asset Trusts, Inc.

Transaction data from the databases, tables, and files of an existing computer-based organization, the data including finance, operation, sales, and human resources material; external data, particularly on the value of intangibles; algorithms

Analyses, models, and valuations of a business enterprise on a specified data

Frip: How about a patent on the First Book of Genesis?

System and Method for Estimating Daily Sales Volume; US 7,580,851 B1; August 25, 2009; Class 705/10; 14 claims; assigned to IMS Software Services Ltd.

Sales history data; sample of sales data for a particular day of interest

Estimates of sales volume for periods and subperiods

Frip: When the Moon hits yer eye like a big pizza-pie, that’s amouree.

System and Method for Modeling Non-Stationary Time Series Using a Non-Parametric Demand Profile; US 7,580,852 B2; August 25, 2009; Class 705/10; 20 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany)

Sales data for goods or services; likelihood function as a function of the sales data; base demand parameters for the goods or services; time-varying parameter for the goods or services

Non-stationary time series model

Frip: Did the patent examiner really understand this, or was it a question of “time to move this puppy along?”

Knowledge Base System for an Equipment Market; US 7,580,854 B2; August 25, 2009; Class 705/10; 14 claims; assigned to ODS-Petrodata, Inc.

All types of data relevant to business planning and executing of equipment contracts and activities

Collaborations, calculations, optimizations, and forecasts in an equipment market

Frip: “And what do you want for Christmas, Little Fella?”“I want everything, Old Man.”

Data Fusion for Automated Business Decisions; US 7,580,878 B1; August 25, 2009; Class 705/36; 19 claims; assigned to Teradata US, Inc.

Business data elements, the data types including transaction history, voice analysis, market dynamics, geospatial data, behavioral profiling, and weather patterns; business rules; process involves fusing the data sets

Business decision

Frip: That’s the problem with most methods of making business decisions—they neglect to fuse the data.

Sensitivity/Elasticity-Based Asset Evaluation and Screening; US 7,580,876 B1; August 25, 2009; Class 705/36R; 29 claims; assigned to c4ast.com, Inc.

Historical data on the value of an asset; historical data values for exogenous variables; projected data values for the exogenous variables

Estimation of the tendency of the value of the asset to change based on a change in at least one of the exogenous variables

Frip: Ah, sensitivity analysis. Brings back fond memories of MBA 101.

September 1, 2009

Total 705 Class patents issued: 50Data In-Data Out patents: at the very least, 8To see patents for the week, start clicking here, remembering to identify 705 as the pertinent class.

PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTTime Polynomial Arrow-Debreu Market Equilibrium; US 7,584,111 B2; September 1, 2009; Class 705/7; 18 claims; assigned to Microsoft Corporation

Data representative of characteristics and capabilities of assets and resources; data describing the needs of a spectrum of consumers

Allocation of assets/resources across the spectrum of consumers, the allocation being in conformance with a convex program implementation of Arrow-Debrue theory

Frip: You recall the Arrow-Debrue theorem, proven in 1954, that market equilibrium prices always exist under a very general scenario? You don’t!? Shame on you.

Method and Apparatus for Optimizing a Multivariate Allocation of Resources; US 7,584,112 B1; September 1, 2009; Class 705/8; 12 claims; assigned to Microsoft Corporation

Product demand data; component consumption data; financial information; operational information; marketing assessment; component knowledge assessment

Optimized component allocation and product plans, and risk management insights

Frip: Hey, Bill Gates! Relax.

Monitoring a Demand Forecasting Process; US 7,584,116 B2; September 1, 2009; Class 705/10; 27 claims; assigned to Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Data that are used to produce forecasts; computations of forecast variability and forecast bias

Graphic display of a measure of standard deviation of percent forecast error over periods of time

Frip: Frip can’t help himself: he cringes at patents for graphic displays

Analysis of Business Innovation Potential; US 7,584,117 B2; September 1, 2009; Class 705/10; 2 claims; assigned to Wave Global Pty Ltd (Australia)

Answers to a questionnaire, delivered over the Internet, relating to six foundation capabilities and six innovation capabilities, the answers being weighted and transformed by an algorithm into a value index

Value index that is used by management to improve innovation performance and by management and investors to forecast future growth and profitability

Frip: Wonder if the Supreme Court knows what algorithms are.

System and Method for Risk Management Using Average Expiration Times; US 7,584,130 B1; September 1, 2009; Class 705/35; 24 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Spread positions; average expirations; maximum number of outright positions

Spread margin and an outright margin, which are summed to provide a total margin requirement while trading is ongoing

Frip: Good thing they got a patent on this; otherwise, everybody would be doing it.

System for Facilitating Selection of Investments; US 7,584,132 B2; September 1, 2009; Class 705/36R; 18 claims; assigned to Strategic Capital Network, LLC

Information on investment opportunities

Graphic user interface that permits the user to compare the performance of investment opportunities over time and of pairs of investment opportunities with regard to diversity of risk

Frip: Why wasn’t this good stuff available when Frip still had some coins?

System and Method for Displaying Profit Related Information in an Electronic Trading Environment; US 7,584,143 B2; September 1, 2009; Class 705/37; 13 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Trader’s transactions and net position; current market information

Dynamic graphic display of profit and risk related indicators

Frip: Another patent on a graphic display. Grrr. . .

Method and Apparatus for Efficient Delta Pricing; US 7,584,155 B1; September 1, 2009; Class 705/400; 34 claims; assigned to Trilogy Development Group, Inc.

Multiple configurations of a product, and associated prices

Final price based on price changes between configurations

Frip: Okay, so some hardware is involved, but isn’t this just a software patent?

September 8, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and System for Constructing Prediction Interval Based on Historical Forecast Errors; US 7,587,330 B1; September 8, 2009; Class 705/10; 42 claims; assigned to Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Historical data; forecasts for each time point in the period covered by the historical data; target values; process involves comparing target values to forecast values

Forecast error confidence interval

Frip: Frip is confident there are no errors.

System and Method for Detecting Mortgage Related Fraud; US 7,587,348 B2; September 8, 2009; Class 705/35; 39 claims; assigned to Basepoint Analytics LLC

Mortgage data associated with an applicant and at least one entity related to processing of the mortgage data; historical mortgage transactions associated with the entity

Score or risk indicator indicative of fraud

Frip: Boy, talk about closing the barn door after the horse has departed.

Verification of Net Asset Values; US 7,587,354 B2; September 8, 2009; Class 795/37; 28 claims; assigned to State Street Corporation

Net asset value for a fund, received from a third party; historical net asset values for the fund, from a database

Determination as to whether, compared to historical values, the new value is within a certain variance

Frip: Why not make your own determination as to the net asset value, and not rely on a third party pronouncement?

System and Method for Optimized Funding of Electronic Transactions; US 7,587,363 B2; September 8, 2009; Class 705/40; 39 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Data regarding a payment request; decision rules

Optimized payment option for either the institution or the customer

Frip: Optimized for either the institution or the customer? Guess who 90 percent of the time.

September 15, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTGlobal Asset Risk Management Systems and Methods; US 7,590,548 B2; September 15, 2009; Class 705/1; 21 claims; assigned to iJET International, Inc.

Risk information; travel information; asset information.

Risk assessment report for countries or regions.

Frip: Maybe they could license this to the Government.

Method and Apparatus for Converting, Formatting, and Displaying Currency Values; US 7,590,575 B2; September 15, 2009; Class 705/35; 10 claims; assigned to Microsoft Corporation

Euro value or value in another currency; European Union-specified conversion rules and rounding rules.

Value of the target currency, the value being displayed on a screen with a lot of bells and whistles.

Frip: Where will it end, this patenting of graphic displays?

Visual Representation and Configuration of Trading Strategies; US 7,590,576 B1; September 15, 2009; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Market information relating to a trading strategy, the market information being bid and ask quantities; acceptable price range.

Graphical display of the information

Frip: Obviously it won’t end here.

Electronic Spread Trading Tool; US 7,590,578 B2; September 15, 2009; Class 705/35; 21 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Price and quantity data for commodities; prices and quantities related to a trading strategy.

Graphical display of the information.

Frip: Nor here.Method for Analyzing Investments Using Overlapping Periods; US 7,590,582 B2; September 15, 2009; Class 705/36R; 23 claims; assigned to Bdellium Inc.

Investment data from a database.

Investment performance for overlapping holding periods, and other stuff

Frip: We are way beyond bar charts.

Method, Software Program, and System for Ranking Relative Risk of a Plurality of Transactions; US 7,590,594 B2; September 15, 2009; Class 705/38; 81 claims; assigned to Goldman Sachs & Co.

Variables associated with transactions; assigned values of the variables.

Aggregate risk level for each transaction.

Frip: Variables and risk. They apply to both finance and romance.

September 22, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod of Constructing an Investment Portfolio and Computing an Index Thereof; US 7,593,878 B2; September 22, 2009; Class 705/35; 37 claims; assigned to Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC

Data regarding investment assets

Scores indicative of an asset’s style, such as whether it is a growth or a value stock; an index for a number of assets based upon their scores.

Frip: Good to see that someone is getting this investment stuff organized.

System and Method for Using Diversification Spreading for Risk Offset; US 7,593,879 B2; September 22, 2009; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc.

Data on portfolios Extent of correlation between products, leading to decisions about risk, margins, performance bonds, and other stuff.

Frip: Frip’s 401(k) hasn’t a chance.

Methods and Systems for Analytical-Based Multifactor Multiobjective Portfolio Risk Optimization; US 7,593,880 B2; September 22, 2009; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to General Electric Company

Stuff about portfolios; multiple, conflicting objectives; mathematical model of a relaxation of a problem; additional constraints; respective nonlinear risk functions.

An efficient frontier.

Frip: “Nonlinear risk functions.” Wow, what a pick-up line!

Report Generator for Allowing a Financial Entity to Monitor Securities Class Action Lawsuits and Potential Monetary Claims Resulting Therefrom; US 7,593,882 B2; September 22, 2009; Class 705/36R; 20 claims

Database of securities class action lawsuits.

Custom reports for clients of noteworthy lawsuits.

Frip: Frip smells lawyers.

Systems and Methods for Determining the Likelihood that a Loan Closes; US 7,593,890 B1; September 22, 2009; Class 705/38; 17 claims; assigned to Freddie Mac

Loan application information including borrower information, property information, and a first interest rate; home value information; second interest rate

Indication that the application might result in a completed transaction.

Frip: As Freddie was pursuing patents, subprime loans were gobbling up the whole darn system.

Credit Score Simulation; US 7,593,891 B2; September 22, 2009; Class 705/38; 24 claims; assigned to Experian Scorex LLC

Modification of credit data elements by a user

Effect on credit score.

Frip: Let’s see, if I put my annual income down as 300K, what will my credit score be? Wow, that good? Well, let’s do it!

Profitability Evaluation in Transaction Decision; US 7,593,895 B2; September 22, 2009; Class 705/38; 21 claims; assigned to First Data Corporation

Profitability scoring model with an algorithm that is formulated to calculate a profitability score; variables with a direct correlation to the overall profit or loss of a transaction such as per check fee charged, probability of collection, and collection fee.

Determination as to whether to approve or decline a transaction.

Frip: Algorithms. Those rascals are popping up everywhere.

September 29, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTProcess for Determining Object Level Profitability; US 7,596,521 B2; September 29, 2009; Class 705/35; 32 claims; assigned to Berkeley *IEOR

Information that is accessed electronically through a relational database management system; rules for processing the information.

One or more marginal values of profit and a fully absorbed profit adjustment value that are combined to create a measure for objective level profitability.

Frip: Whatever.Method and Apparatus for Network-Based Portfolio Management and Risk Analysis; US 7,596,523 B2; September 29, 2009; Class 705/36R; 24 claims; assigned to Barra, Inc.

Data on a user’s assets, the data being input in an N-layer framework and stored in a TSpace component.

Customized risk analyses and reports.

Frip: See, you take your N-layer, and you whack it with your TSpace component, and you’re in fat city.

Systems and Methods for Measuring Interest Rate Exposure for a Portfolio of Fixed-Income Instruments; US 7,596,524 B1; September 29, 2009; Class 705/36R; 31 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley

Data on a portfolio of fixed-income instruments; hedge instruments from the set of hedge instruments that most closely bracket an instrument to be hedged; the formula x=B-

1[MT(MMT)-1p+z]

Analysis of interest rate exposure, the analysis sometimes including hedge weights for the hedge instruments.

Frip: The last term of the formula is z. Shouldn’t it be w?

Computer-Implemented Method and Apparatus for Selecting an Investment Portfolio and Administering an Investment Company Based in Part on Socially Responsible Investing Considerations; US 7,596,525 B1; September 29, 2009; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Securities for potential inclusion in an investment portfolio; socially responsible investing (SRI) scores for the securities; an SRI algorithm that is correlated with relative ranking based on SRI scores

Recommended socially responsible portfolio.

Frip: What the hey. Couldn’t be any worse than Frip’s investment picks over the years.

October 6, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTPersonal Cost Planning; US 7,599,841 B1; October 6, 2009; Class 705/1; 10 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany)

Scenarios and scenario parameters for an enterprise, the scenarios to include a standard case and a worst cast; personnel costs, including direct costs and dependent costs.

Cost planning run; detail plan; customized results.

Frip: A planning patent: just doesn’t ring right; maybe too alliterative.

System and Methods and Risk Evaluation Using an Object-Measure Value in Strategic Planning; US 7,599,848 B2; October 6, 2009; Class 705/7; 19 claims; assigned to SAP AG (Germany)

An object; risks for the object, each risk to include threat levels and an expectation value; probability for each threat level; pre-defined rules.

Object measure-value and object risk status.

Frip: Maybe something is lost in the translation from German to English.

Systems, Methods and Computer Program Products for Determining a Learning Curve Value and Modeling Associated Profitability and Costs of a Good; US 7,599,849 B2; October 6, 2009; Class 705/10; 24 claims; assigned to The Boeing Company

Forecast of market size; model of demand in the market; models of recurring and nonrecurring costs as functions of potential learning curve values.

Learning curve value that minimizes costs.

Frip: Frip is probably missing something, but this seems like a circular process: starts with a learning curve, ends with a learning curve.

Simultaneous Optimal Auctions Using Augmented Lagrangian and Surrogate Optimization; US 7,599,866 B2; October 6, 2009; Class 705/35; 12 claims; assigned to Southern California Edison Company and The University of Connecticut

Objective function relating electricity market clearing price and constraints in terms of a nonlinear programming expression; actual purchase cost.

Market clearing price, which is found by resolving an augmented Lagrangian dual functioin using a surrogate optimization framework.

Frip: Lagrangian dual function and surrogate optimization? Must’a missed that class.

System and Method for Chart Pattern Recognition and Analysis in an Electronic Trading Environment; US 7,599,867 B1; October 6, 2009; Class 705/35; 28 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Current chart pattern; past chart patterns.

Indicator values in the current chart corresponding to values in past charts.

Frip: Love them charts!!

System and Method for Displaying Trading Data; US 7,599,868 B1; October 6, 2009; Class 705/35; 16 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Data on past filled orders for tradeable objects; user-defined effective trades.

Trading information such as traded quantities and profits or losses for the effective trades.

Frip: Computers are making things just too easy.

Pre-Trade Compliance Checking in a Portfolio Management System; US 7,599,869 B2; October 6, 2009; Class 705/36R; 22 claims; assigned to Charles Schwab & Co.

Database with interpretations and assumptions of trading rules and limits; Data on entities that are components of a mutual fund.

Status of mutual fund regarding rules and limits.

Frip: But Officer, the computer said it was OK.

System, Method and Framework for Generating Scenarios; US 7,599,870 B2; October 6, 2009; Class 705/36R; 10 claims; assigned to Glo Software LLC

Risk factors affecting a portfolio under consideration, the factors being observable economic variables.

Models and scenarios that ultimately produce a monetary value of the portfolio under consideration.

Frip: is complexity alone sufficient grounds for granting a patent?

Method and System for Non-Gaussian Pricing of Options and Other Derivatives; US 7,599,871 B1; October 6, 2009; Class 705/36R; 46 claims; assigned to Evnine & Associates, Inc.

An underlying financial instrument with a return; time interval or timescale; a value that evolves across the timescale; a formula; assumption that the dynamics of the underlying financial instrument are assumed to follow a stochastic process with anomalous nonlinear diffusion, phenomenologically modeled as a statistical feedback process within a framework of a generalized thermostatistics (uses a generalized form of the Black-Scholes equation).

Price for a derivative.

Frip: Pheno what? Thermo who? Frip is way out of his league.

Method and System for Asset Allocation; US 7,599,872 B2; October 6, 2009; Class 705/36R; 15 claims; assigned to Citibank, N.A.

Historical data for alternative asset classes; investor’s objectives; process involves unsmoothing the data, correcting for an impact of survivorship and selection biases, and computing expected returns and risks.

Identification of at least one asset class having expected return and risk substantially meeting the investor’s objectives.

Frip: This investor’s objective is to get back to where he was before the guys and gals running the financial system ruined his sorry butt.

Computer-Implemented Method of Selecting an Investment Portfolio and Administering an Investment Company Based in Part on Socially Responsible Investing Considerations; US 7,599,874 B1; October 6, 2009; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; assigned to Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Securities for potential inclusion in an investment portfolio; socially responsible investing (SRI) scores for the securities; an SRI algorithm that is correlated with relative ranking based on SRI scores.

Recommended socially responsible portfolio.

Frip: An almost identical patent was issued last week (Sept. 29) but it had the word “apparatus.” A cynic would say form has triumphed over substance.

October 13, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and System for Managing Risk; US 7,603,283 B1; October 13, 2009; Class 705/7; 13 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Information on risks and subrisks; control procedures.

Rating on compliance with control procedures and calculation of overall weighted compliance score.

Frip: Lotta patents claiming to control risk been appearing lately.

Domain Specific Return on Investment Model System and Method of Use; US 7,603,304 B2; October 13, 2009; Class 705/35; 23 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Business objectives; capabilities provided by vendor solutions; other stuff.

Solutions and their financial impacts.

Frip: Ah, Big Blue. Haven’t seen you in a few weeks. Welcome back.

System and Method for Incorporating Mortality Risk in an Investment Planning Model; US 7,603,306 B2; October 13, 2009; Class 705/35; 5 claims

Initial value of portfolio; age of investor; “data indicating one of cumulative probabilities of living to an age of death and cumulative probabilities dying at an age of death for persons of a given age group”; something to do with a random number.

Future value of the portfolio.

Frip: If you’re croaked, what do you care about the future value?

Security Analyst Estimates Performance Viewing System and Method; US 7,603,308 B2; October 13, 2009; Class 705/36R; 45 claims; assigned to StarMine Corporation

Information on the historical accuracy of analysts; information on analysts’ estimates for future events; other stuff.

Various graphical display options for analysts’ performances.

Frip: Another patent on graphical displays.

October 20, 2009



System and Method for Identifying Optimal Marketing Offers; US 7,606,727 B1; October 20, 2009; Class 705/10; 32 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Information on market offers tagged for potential inclusion in a marketing campaign to a particular household or individual prospect within a household; for each offer, predetermined criteria on a household level, a prospect level, and an offer level.

Optimal marketing offers based on net present value and net response rate.

Frip: All this just to sell something to little ol’ me?

Method and System for Displaying a Spending Comparison Report; US 7,606,750 B1; October 20, 2009; Class 705/35; 9 claims; assigned to Intuit Inc.

Current spending amounts; historical spending amounts.

Display of current spend amount, historical spending amount, and the difference.

Frip: Why didn’t Frip think of that?

Computer-Implemented Method and Apparatus for Adjusting the Cost Basis of a Security; US 7,606,753 B2; October 20, 2009; Class 705/36R; 30 claims; assigned to Networth Services, Inc.

Issuer of a security; purchase date and price; number of shares purchased; from a database, capital events (mergers, stock splits, capital distributions) that have occurred involving the security.

Cost basis of a security.

Frip: This might actually be useful. Thirty-five years ago Frip acquired a few shares of AT&T. Without selling anything, he now has a few shares of many oddities. Determining the cost basis has seemed too daunting. But here’s a patent to the rescue.

Systems and Methods to Automatically Generate a Return Target for a Potential Real Estate Deal Based on Supplemental Deal Information; US 7,606,755 B2; October 20, 2009; Class 705/36R; 14 claims; assigned to General Electric Capital Corporation

Prior deal information; supplemental deal information; collateral type.

Return target loan spread for the potential real estate deal.

Frip: Ever wonder where the world would be without jargon, such as “return target loan spread?”

Method and System for Patent Valuation; US 7,606,757 B1; October 20, 2009; Class 705/36R; 96 claims

Patent information parameters for determining annual values of a patent or portfolio of patents.

Estimated value of the patent or portfolio.

Frip: 96 claims in this patent! No wonder it took six years to wend its way through the Patent Office swamp.

Dynamic Stock Repurchase Model; US 7,606,758 B1; October 20, 2009; Class 705/36R; 16 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley

Stock repurchase needs; time frame or frames; calculated base stock repurchase amount; calculated base stock repurchase price.

Model for firm to repurchase stock.

Frip: Wonder how big a bonus Morgan Stanley’s inventor got for coming up with this?

October 27, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTRobust Forecasting Techniques with Reduced Sensitivity to Anomalous Data; US 7,610,214 B1; October 27, 2009; Class 705/10; 42 claims; assigned to Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Raw data that produces a forecast and supplemental forecasts of earlier periods.

Forecasts and anomalies.

Frip: Well, it sounded good at the time.

System and Method for Interactively Simulating a Credit-Worthiness Score; US 7,610,229 B1; October 27, 2009; Class 705/36; 10 claims; assigned to Experian Information Solutions, Inc.

Consumer’s actual credit data; hypothetical data.

Credit score based on the hypothetical data.

Frip: Now if the real credit score replaced the hypothetical credit score. . . that would be a heckuva patent.

Method and System for Evaluating the Investment Ratings of a Securities Analyst; US 7,610,230 B2; October 27, 2009; Class 705/36R; 18 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley

The forecasts of a securities analyst for a period. Actual performance of the securities.

Evaluation of analyst’s performance.

Frip: Duh.

Method and Apparatus for Rating Asset-Backed Securities; US 7,610,243 B2; October 27, 2009; Class 705/38; 30 claims; assigned to American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.

Consumer data. Model of consumer spending patterns, the modeling approach being known as the Share of Wallet approach and the result being a reduced likelihood of default, which in turn reduces the amount of credit enhancement required for an asset-backed securities rating.

Frip: Everybody is always wanting to Share Frip’s Wallet.

November 3, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTPersonalized Body Image; US 7,613,621 B2; November 3, 2009; Class 705/2; 19 claims; assigned to Health Hero Network, Inc.

Patient’s medial record; standards of care for patient’s condition; prescribed treatments; patient input.

Display of health conditions of the patient using a customized image of the patient.

Frip: Alllright, now this is real health care reform, seeing a cartoon of your deteriorating body on a screen.

Overall Risk in a System; US 7,613,625 B2; November 3, 2009; Class 705/7; 25 claims; assigned to Accenture SAS

Identified risks in an information technology system; values for each risk; coefficient factors.

Overall risk assessment for the system.

Frip: Risk seems to be the target for a lot of patents and patent applications these days.

Integrated Price Management Systems with Future-Pricing and Methods Therefor; US 7,613,626 B1; November 3, 2009; Class 705/10; 15 claims; assigned to Vendavo, Inc.

Prices of currently relevant deals (maintained in a data base); price of a proposed new deal.

Determination if proposed price is less than the current low price, and if so a computation of potential revenue impact of lowering price for qualify current deals to the proposed price.

Frip: So, a computer program is patentable after all.

November 10, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSystem and Method for Processing Gasoline Price Data in a Networked Environment; US 7,617,111 B1; November 10, 2009; Class 705/1; 24 claims; assigned to Microsoft Corporation

Gasoline price data, the data being associated with a service provider location and product identifier.

Geographic-based gasoline price statistical information.

Frip: Now, why does Microsoft want to provide gasoline price statistical information?

Using a Complexity Matrix for Estimation; US 7,617,117 B2; November 10, 2009; Class 705/7; 15 claims; assigned to International Business Machines Corporation

Project parameters; answer-automation rules; project characteristics and major services; weighting rules; complexity value calculation rules.

Computed complexity value and project complexity rating, which lead to estimation of requirements to complete the project.

Frip: Ah, Big Blue, showin’ ‘em how it’s done.

Price Optimization with Rule Relaxation; US 7,617,119 B1; November 10, 2009; Class 705/10; 16 claims; assigned to DemandTec, Inc.

Rules and ways to prioritize and manipulate them; optimization process involves Bayesian shrinkage modeling.

Preferred set of prices for products.

Frip: Speaking of shrinkage, remember that old Seinfeld episode?

Estimating Financial Valuation of Benefit Plans; US 7,617,138 B1; November 10, 2009; Class 705/30; 28 claims; assigned to Towers Perrin Forster & Crosby, Inc.

Intra-year capital market data, which is converted to intra-year client-specific data based on client assumptions; hypothetical data provided by client.

Updated financial valuation; hypothetical forecast.

Frip: bottom line, your benefit plan is toast.

Method and System to Solve Dynamic Multi-Factor Models in Finance; US 7,617,142 B2; November 10, 2009; Class 705/36R; 8 claims; assigned to Markov International Processes LLC

Data related to the return on an asset collection for multiple time intervals.

Estimating time-varying factor exposures of either an individual financial instrument or a portfolio of such instruments, through the solution of a constrained multi-criteria dynamic optimization problem, providing an estimation error function and one or more transition error functions to be minimized over a period of time.

Frip: “Constrained multi-criteria dynamic optimization” is some serious stuff.

Global Risk Demand Index; US 7,617,143 B2; November 10, 2009; Class 705/36R; 26 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley

Financial instrument data that permit the calculation of sub-indices for bonds, commodities, bonds/equities, equities, first credits, and second credits.

Risk demand index.

Frip: Nothing like a complex index to make you feel good about your investments.

November 17, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod, System and Computer Program Product for Grouping Items in a Grocery Store; US 7,620,563 B2; November 17, 2009; Class 705/10; 12 claims; assigned to PALO Associates, LLC

Store layout; categories of existing food types; new product, which is assigned a food category.

Location for new product, and updated store layout.

Frip: Now if a robot could shelve the new product, the human element would be almost completely eliminated, except perhaps for the eating.

Sales Territory Planning Tool and Method; US 7,620,564 B1; November 17, 2009; Class 705/10; 18 claims; assigned to HarvestGold

Historical sales reports and data; process involves many steps of computerized analyzing, segmenting, evaluating, and pondering.

Tactical sales action plan.

Frip: Massaging the data, that’s what it’s all about.

Financial Accounting Methods and Systems to Account for Assets and Liabilities; US 7,620,573 B2; November 17, 2009; Class 705/30; 8 claims

Credits and debits to be posted; accounts; expected rate of return.

Financial statements that serve both the “Going-concern Earning-power” and the “Asset and Liability” views of income determination.

Frip: Accounting 101?Non-Capitalization Weighted Indexing System, Method and Computer Program Product; US 7,620,577 B2; November 17, 2009; Class 705/35; 33 claims; assigned to Research Affiliates, LLC

Financial metrics; non-financial metrics; financial non-market capitalization metrics; the kitchen sink.

Index of assets.

Frip: This baby must be good-- the WSJ of Nov. 18 even mentioned it.

Financial Instrument Portfolio Credit Exposure Evaluation; US 7,620,581 B2; November 17, 2009; Class 705/36R; 18 claims; assigned to SunGuard Systems International Inc. (UK)

Deal object for each instrument in a portfolio of financial instruments, the deal object being a representation of the instrument and a valuation function for representing how the value of the instrument is related to underlying market variables; risk factor models.

The deal objects and the risk factor models produce deal parabolic functions, the coefficients of which are summed to build a portfolio parabolic function approximating the overall portfolio value for that instant; this results in an evaluation of credit exposure of the portfolio of financial instruments.

Frip: Huh?Method of Generating and Displaying Stock Index; US 7,620,582 B2; November 17, 2009; Class 705/36R; 7 claims; assigned to Masuda Economic Research Institute Ltd. (Japan)

Stock price information for a period of time, stored in a data base.

Masuda ratio (Mratio) value, the Masuda ratio being represented by the formula Mratio={(B-E)/SUM}.times.100, where SUM is a total number of stocks and B and E are something lost in the translation from Japanese to English.

Frip: Really, the PTO should have a higher language standard than barely passable English.

System and Method for Analyzing and Displaying Security Trade Transactions; US 7,620,587 B2; November 17, 2009; Class 705/37; 20 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Security exchange trading information including prices, volumes, and times of trades; market information including bids and offers.

Continuously updated real-time chart depicting the exchange auction process.

Frip: Hey, TTI, haven’t you already patented this same thing about 80 times?

System and Method for Displaying Market Data in an Electronic Trading Environment; US 7,620,588 B1; November 17, 2009; Class 705/37; 11 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Market data related to a tradeable object being traded at an electronic exchange.

Display of the data, one embodiment being in relation to a value axis, such as a price axis.

Frip: See comment in preceding patent.

Systems and Methods for Evaluating Financial Transaction Risk; US 7,620,596 B2; November 17, 2009; Class 705/38; 13 claims; assigned to The Western Union Company

Information about prior financial transactions conducted by one or more representatives on behalf of a service provider.

Evaluation of the risk of conducting financial transactions such as money transfers through a representative, the evaluation maybe including a calculated Transaction Risk Index.

Frip: Everybody wants to index stuff these days.

November 24, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTChange Management Analysis and Implementation System and Method; US 7,624,036 B2; November 24, 2009; Class 705/10; 28 claims

Responses by members of an organization to survey questions concerning planning and execution of plans, the questions covering subjects such as vision, strategy, desired results, readiness, ambition, knowledge, ability, momentum, conditioning, fear, trust, and inductivity.

Change management statistics.

Frip: What if the major problem with the organization is that it is populated by duds?

Economic Model for Measuring the Cost and Value of a Particular Health Insurance Plan; US 7,624,037 B2; November 24, 2009; class 705/11; 37 claims; assigned to NCQA

Health-related data on members of an organization; different health care plans.

Impact of different health care plans on such things as absenteeism and lost productivity.

Frip: Good luck with this.

Financial Accounting Methods and Systems to Account for Assets and Liabilities; US 7,624,049 B2; November 24, 2009; Class 705/30; 8 claims

Credits and debits; expected rate of return; ex ante equation, which is Market Income=(obtained balance for said at least one position account)*(1−[1/(1+r)]).

True ex-ante net income accounting measurement.

Frip: Really, does each variation on what’s in a financial statement warrant a patent?

Methods and Systems for Processing and Managing Corporate Action Information Including Voluntary and Mandatory Corporate Action Data; US 7,624,052 B1; November 24, 2009; Class 705/35; 42 claims; assigned to The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.

Data associated with corporate actions of entities.

Notifications and announcements concerning voluntary and mandatory corporate actions.

Frip: This is certainly about something.

Exportable Report Templates; US 7,624,053 B1; November 24, 2009; Class 705/35; 12 claims; assigned to Intuit Inc.

Financial data; report templates that include query parameters, layout information, and content field information,

Financial reports.

Frip: So, report templates are patentable? Who woulda’ thunk it?

Financial Risk Optimization Systems and Methods; US 7,624,054 B2; November 24, 2009; Class 705/35; 19 claims; assigned to SAS Institute Inc.

Data indicative of exposures; data indicative of financial risk mitigations; data indicative of relationships between financial risk mitigation and exposures.

Financial risk mitigation optimization model, which can be used in determining an allocation of financial risk mitigations with respect to exposures.

Frip: Another risk mitigation patent.

Portfolio Optimization by Means of Meta-Resampled Efficient Frontiers; US 7,624,060 B2; November 24, 2009; Class 705/36R; 24 claims; assigned to Michaud Partners LLP

Expected returns of assets; standard deviation of returns of assets; covariances with respect to other assets.

Value of portfolio weights of assets of an optimal portfolio.

Frip: Frip has always been partial to covariances.

Method and System for Dynamically Adjusting Discount Rates for a Card Transaction; US 7,624,068 B1; November 24, 2009; Class 705/38; 30 claims; assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Data on the creditworthiness of a consumer.

Finance charge for a line of credit associated with a card, and discount rate to be applied to a card transaction.

Frip: Finance charge goes up, discount rate goes up. Finance charge goes down, discount rate goes down.

Method and System for Selecting Between or Allocating Among Alternatives; US 7,624,069 B2; November 24, 2009; Class 705/39; 31 claims; assigned to Klein Decisions, Inc.

Responses to risk tolerance questions; attributes selected by the user, and their importance.

Ranking of alternatives.

Frip: Been there, done that.

December 1, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSystem and Method for Rating Plural Products; US 7,627,486 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 705/1; 39 claims; assigned to CBS Interactive, Inc.

Attributes associated with a category of products; scalar structure for each attribute, which provides a scalar value.

Competitve index, percentile rank, and percentile rank range of each scalar value; averages; rating for each product.

Frip: Indexes, ranks, ratings, it’s all good.

Method for Evaluating Flood Plain Risks; US 7,627,491 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 705/4; 15 claims; assigned to Swiss Reinsurance Company (Switzerland)

Data related to characteristics of geographical regions, which are divided into grid cells.

Probability of occurrence of a flood related event in a grid cell; insurance premium for the risk.

Frip: Hey, Noah! Should’a had this in your time.

Production and Distribution Supply Chain Optimization Software; US 7,627,493 B1; December 1, 2009; Class 705/7; 17 claims; SCA Holdings

Activities that amount to a process; drivers associated with metrics for the activities; fixed and variable cost components.

Model of the process and a predictive metric reflecting the process’ efficiency.

Frip: Metrics—something about that word is irritating.

Systems, Methods and Computer Program Products for Modeling a Monetary Measure for a Good Based upon Technology Maturity Levels; US 7,627,494 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 705/10; 30 claims; assigned to The Boeing Company

Risk values; probability distribution of risk or return for each risk value; qualitative measure of maturity for each of the probability distributions.

Model of a monetary measure for a good as a function of qualitative measures of maturity for technologies associated with the good.

Frip: Is this how Boeing builds planes?

Systems, Methods and Computer Program Products for Modeling Demand, Supply and Associated Profitability of a Good; US 7,627,495 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 705/10; 84 claims; assigned to The Boeing Company

Price sensitivity of a good; units per contract distribution; market potential distribution.

Model of demand or supply for a good; monetary or market measure of the good from the model of demand or supply.

Frip: No prior art, anywhere!?

Method and Apparatus for Calculating Credit Risk of Portfolio; US 7,627,511 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 705/35; 30 claims; assigned to Mizuho-DL Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (Japan)

Myriad financial data on companies in a portfolio.

Risk measures concerning losses associated the portfolio, the process involving the calculation of density and distribution functions by Laplace inversion.

Frip: Laplace inversion. Darn, why didn’t I think of that!

Asset and Liability Modeling Tool; US 7,627,512 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 705/36; 24 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley

Asset and liability data of a company; historic economic data; regulation data.

Graphical display of results of a financial model for forecasting financial variables relating to a company.

Frip: Everybody’s getting into the graphical display business.

Method and System for Pricing and Risk Analysis of Options; US 7,627,513 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 706/36R; 23 claims

Permissible error for determination; weight to be assigned in measuring error of determination; specification of an evolution of a stochastic variable upon which an option is dependent; time periods of interest.

Value of an option that is dependent upon a stochastic variable.

Frip: Does mention of “stochastic” make you uncomfortable?

System and Method for Calculating Optimal Rates in a Multi-Source Price Engine in Over the Counter Markets; US 7,627,520 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 705/37; 31 claims; assigned to Currenex, Inc.

Bid/offer rates from multiple liquidity sources; target spread and minimum profit.

Optimal rate.

Frip: At least no “stochastic.”

System, Apparatus and Methods for Comparing Fraud Parameters for Application during Prepaid Card Enrollment and Transactions; US 7,627,522 B2; December 1, 2009; Class 705/38; 19 claims; assigned to Visa U.S.A. Inc.

Production fraud parameters; test fraud parameters.

Optimal fraud parameter configuration.

Frip: Fraud? Who me?

December 8, 2009

Total 705 Class patents issued: 39Data In-Data Out patents: at the very least, 10To see patents for the week, start clicking here, remembering to identify 705 as the pertinent class.

PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTComputerized Method and System for Adjusting Liability Estimates in an Accident Liability Assessment Program; US 7,630,909 B2; December 8, 2009; Class 705/4; 20 claims; assigned to Computer Sciences Corporation

Roadway configuration, accident type, traffic controls, impact points; right of way; base liability; contributions of vehicle, driver, and environmental conditions.

Range of liability.

Frip: What about the relatively unique variable, like your spouse chasing you with a golf club?

System for Case-Based Insurance Underwriting Suitable for Use by an Automated System; US 7,630,910 B2; December 8, 2009; Class 705/4; 11 claims; assigned to Genworth Financial, Inc.

Pending insurance application; previous insurance applications.

Rate classification for pending application.

Frip: Uh oh. Frip smells unemployed insurance underwriters.

Systems and Methods for Improving Collaborative Filtering; US 7,630,916 B2; December 8, 2009; Class 705/10; 155 claims; assigned to Microsoft Corporation

Item set; known measures of association; process involves collaborative filtering systems and methods employing statistical smoothing to provide quickly creatable models.

Probability prediction that a user will like a similar or related item.

Frip: So, a patent on “statistical smoothing” for the Microsoft kids?

Automatic Learning for Mapping Spoken/Text Descriptions of Products onto Available Products; US 7,630,917 B2; December 8, 2009; Class 705/10; 16 claims; assigned to AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.

Requested product attribute values; available products; process involves calculation of costs of states of a state space, each state representing one or more available product attributes having attribute values; process also involves calculation of the cost of perturbation.

Value for a product attribute.

Frip: State space, perturbation. AT&T is pulling out all the stops.

Systems and Methods for Multi-Objective Portfolio Analysis and Decision-Making Using Visualization Techniques; US 7,630,928 B2; December 8, 2009; Class 705/36R; 14 claims; General Electric Company

Set of non-dominated solutions obtained via multi-objective evolutionary search or other search methods; user-specified independent constraints; process involves a sequence of tradeoffs (Pareto filters) in a user-specified order.

Final investment selection.

Frip: Pareto filters, eh? Must be good stuff.

Method and System for Portfolio Optimization from Ordering Information; US 7,630, 930 B2; December 8, 2009; Class 705/36R; 34 claims

Investment universe of assets; belief matrix based on homogeneous inequality relationships among expected returns of the assets; return vectors consistent with the belief matrix; allowable weight vectors based on constraints.

Optimal portfolio.

Frip: Give me a belief matrix and I’ll give you riches beyond your wildest dreams.

System and Method for the Valuation of Derivatives; US 7,630,931 B1; December 8, 2009; Class 705/36R; 20 claims; Finanalytical, Inc.

Historical prices of underlying assets and their derivatives; model parameters; other stuff.

Pricing of derivatives, including options and swaps.

Frip: This patent has some serious equations.

Loan Rate and Lending Information Analysis System; US 7,630,932 B2; December 8, 2009; Class 705/38; 22 claims; assigned to Transunion Interactive, Inc.

Credit history data; credit report data; interest rate data.

Facilitated analysis of expected interest rates and other conditions and circumstances associated with a variety of loan types.

Frip: Allright! Computer games!

Automated Credit Risk Management; US 7,630,934 B1; December 8, 2009; Class 705/38; 20 claims; assigned to Bank of America Corporation

Current information on marketable securities loans of a person; current information on associated collateral; current stock market information associated with the collateral.

Calculated marketable collateral distribution across the person’s marketable security loans or portfolios, and other stuff.

Frip: B of A wants You! Or at least your money.

Method and System for Processing a Financial Transaction; US 7,630,937 B1; December 8, 2009; Class 705/39; 13 claims; assigned to Intuit Inc.

Payment options for a payer executing a financial transaction; cost data and benefit data for each of the payment options.

Preferred payment option; processed financial transaction.

Frip: What if the preferred payment option is not to pay?

December 15, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTSystem for Appraising Life Insurance and Annuities; US 7,634,420 B2; December 15, 2009; Class 705/4; 24 claims; assigned to Efficient Markets Corporation

Request for a life insurance or annuity product from a party; data about the party.

Numeric rating reflecting the insurance product’s customer value proposition.

Frip: Huh?Systems and Methods for Costing Reciprocal Relationships; US 7,634,431 B2; December 15, 2009; Class 705/30; 31 claims; assigned to SAS Institute Inc.

Cost data; entity data; relationship data.

Model of costing system and allocation of costs.

Frip: Data, data, data. Put it in, get it out. As the song says, “Is that all there is?”

System and Method for Displaying Trade Data; US 7,634,437 B1; December 15, 2009; Class 705/35; 6 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Data on effective trades including prices; trading information, which can include a traded quantity and profit or loss corresponding to each effective trade; current market information.

Display of the data and information.

Frip: Another patent on graphical displays. There outta be a law…

Method for Managing Risk in Markets Related to Commodities Delivered over a Network; US 7,634,441 B2; December 15, 2009; Class 705/37; 10 claims; assigned to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.

Spot prices and future shadow prices; portfolio details; processes involves equations, partial derivatives, and transposes; concerns managing risk in electricity markets.

Current fair market value of a locational derivative contract to be settled at a later time.

Frip: So what we seem to have is one patent application involving some serious algorithms and math that the PTO split into four issued patents. This is #1. Whew!


Prices; flowgates that can congest in a spot market; flowgates that are forecast to bind at a Transmission Congestion Contract auction; matrix representing the physics of power flows in the network. concerns managing risk in electricity markets.

Fair market value of an incremental portfolio of Transmission Congestion Contracts.

Frip: #2, a fair market value computation.


Prices; modeled net trading gain; concerns managing risk in electricity markets.

Optimized position in a multi-settlement market related to a commodity delivered over a network of one or more congestible lines, the position including the taking of forward positions.

Frip: #3, an optimization calculation.


Historic spot price data; concerns managing risk in electricity markets.

“A” matrix, which represents distribution factors describing the physics of power flows in the network.

Frip: #4, a matrix estimation.

December 22, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and Apparatus for Accounting and Contracting for Clinical Trial Studies; US 7,636,668 B1; December 22, 2009; Class 705/2; 12 claims; assigned to Numoda Technologies, Inc.

Equations and business rules; entities that have contracted to provide deliverables; budget items and amounts related to deliverables; times frames.

Business intelligence information including appropriate invoice payments.

Frip: An output of business intelligence information. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Method and Computer Program Product that Determine Values of Characteristic Value Combinations for Use in the Production of Products; US 7,636,670 B2; December 22, 2009; Class 705/7; 10 claims; assigned to SAP Aktiengesellschaft (Germany)

Desired distribution of a total quantity among one or more characteristics; distribution rules for distributing the total quantity to product types; process involves some sort of rounding.

Quantity to be produced for each of two or more product types.

Frip: Methinks something got lost in the translation from German to Anglaise.

Methods and Systems for Measuring Performance of a Security Analyst; US 7,636,680 B2; December 22, 2009; Class 705/36R; 53 claims; assigned to StarMine Corporation

Securities covered by a security analyst; benchmark return for a benchmark portfolio of those securities; simulated return for a simulated portfolio based on the analyst’s recommendations.

Measurement of the performance of a security analyst.

Frip: Alllright! Bringing certainty to the measurement of the performance of a security analyst.

Methods and Systems for Generating an Investment Trust Comprising Neutralized Securities; US 7,636,681 B2; December 22, 2009; Class 705/36R; 29 claims; assigned to CFPH, LLC

Security; "filter" comprising various criteria, thresholds and tests (e.g., amount of carbon emissions); process involves applying the filter to the security.

Socially responsible investment.

Frip: Aww! Ain’t that sweet?

December 29, 2009


PATENT DATA IN DATA OUTMethod and System for Evaluating a Physician’s Economic Performance and Gainsharing of Physician Services; US 7,640,173 B2; December 29, 2009; Class 705/2; 10 claims; assigned to Applied Medical Software, Inc.

Admission charges for medical services; severity of illness data; physicians responsible of medical services.

Best practice norms; physicians’ performance; gainsharing amount based on physicians’ performance.

Frip: Do you want a cheap doc or one who knows what he or she is doing?

Method for High-Risk Member Identification; US 7,640,175 B1; December 29, 2009; Class 705/3; 2 claims; assigned to Ingenix, Inc.

Data on members of a healthcare plan, the data being from physician claims, facility claims, and pharmacy claims.

Identification of high-risk members of a healthcare plan.

Frip: Hey! There’re gonna pull plug on Granny!

User Interface and Method to Facilitate Analysis and/or Planning of Business Operation; US 7,640,179 B1; December 29, 2009; Class 705/7; 28 claims; assigned to Okraa, LLC

Data pertaining to business unit activities.

Base data that may be massaged, manipulated, and played with via user interfaces.

Frip: And the difference between this and what computers do anyway is. . . ?

Demand Planning Using Exchange Balances; US 7,640,180 B1; December 29, 2009; Class 705/10; 35 claims; assigned to i2 Technologies US, Inc.

Quantity of end product to be produced; data on intermediate products, by-products, and raw materials; data on exchanges balances, which concern agreements with other producers to exchange final and intermediate products.

Updated exchange balances and updated data on final products, intermediate products, and by products.

Frip: Head hurts. . .

Method and Computer Program Product for Dynamic Pricing; US 7,640,192 B1; December 29, 2009; Class 705/26; 17 claims; assigned to Amdocs Software Systems Limited (Ireland)

Data associated with the sale of goods or services; high and low thresholds.

New prices.

Frip: Does this have something to do with a price-sales curve?

Method of Making Capital Investment Decisions Concerning Locations for Business Operations and /or Facilities; US 7,640,196 B2; December 29, 2009; Class 705/35; 16 claims

Geographic scope; demographic data; economic data; project specifications; business scenario data.

Projected costs and net income or loss of doing business in a particular location.

Frip: Doesn’t this take the human element out of it?

System and Method for Generating and Displaying Indexed Priced Modeling Data; US 7,640,198 B1; December 29, 2009; Class 705/35; 18 claims; assigned to Vendavo, Inc.

Transaction data; price modeling data.

Display of price modeling data having at least one index.

Frip: Another graphic display patent. Is there no end?

Methods and Systems for Analytical-Based Multifactor Multiobjective Portfolio Risk Optimization; US 7,640,201 B2; December 29, 2009; Class 705/36; 10 claims; assigned to General Electric Company

Securities in a portfolio; risk measures including variance, skewness, and Value at Risk; return measures; process involves multivariate decision tree processing and a nonlinear programming optimizer.

Optimization results in a risk-return space for determination of a security allocation.

Frip: “Multivariate” and “nonlinear” makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

System and Method for Dynamically Determining Quantity for Risk Management; US 7,640,207 B1; December 29, 2009; Class 705/37; 18 claims; assigned to Trading Technologies International, Inc.

Risk parameters; desired price or price-derivative values.

Display of results.

Frip: More graphics patents. This ain’t ever gonna end.

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