Automated screening of content based on intellectual property rights

• US 20060230457A1
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Published: 10/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hagan, Rose Anne, Rana, Kulpreet Singh
• Granted Patent: US 7,870,605 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Systems and methods automatically scan content, such as advertisements, for a list of terms and/or phrases that may not be allowed in the content. In one implementation, the terms and/or phrases include trademarks. In this implementation, incoming advertisements may be automatically scanned for the presence of trademarks.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method comprising:

receiving content that is to be provided to users;

scanning the content for trademarked terms; and

determining whether to allow the content to be provided based on the scanning.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content includes an advertisement.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein scanning the content comprises:

comparing text that is to be displayed as part of the advertisement to a predetermined list of trademarked terms and phrases.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the list is determined based on trademarked terms and phrases submitted by complaining trademark owners.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein scanning the content comprises:

comparing trigger text associated with the advertisement to the predetermined list of trademarked terms and phrases.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the list is determined based on trademarked terms and phrases submitted by complaining trademark owners.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein scanning the content comprises:

comparing trigger text associated with the advertisement and text that is to be displayed as part of the advertisement to a predetermined list of trademarked terms and phrases.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the list is determined based on trademarked terms and phrases submitted by complaining trademark owners.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

submitting the content for manual review by an operator when the determination is to not allow the content to be provided.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when the determination is to not allow the content to be provided:

performing additional automated investigation of the content.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the content includes advertisements received from an advertiser, the additional automated investigation including:

sending an automated message to the advertiser providing the advertiser with an opportunity to represent that the content is permitted when the determination is to not allow the content to be provided.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to allow the content includes:

classifying the content as suspect when the scanning indicates that one or more trademarked terms are included in the content, and

providing a party associated with the content with an option to modify the content or submit the content for further review when the content is classified as suspect.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein scanning the content for trademarked terms takes into account whether a trademarked term that is in the content is outside a scope of the trademark.

14. A device comprising:

means for receiving content from a third party that is to be served to users;

means for scanning the content for trademarked terms; and

means for determining whether to allow the content or to queue the content for further review based on the scanning.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the content includes advertisements.

16. A machine-implemented method comprising:

receiving an advertisement from an advertiser that is to be provided to end-users;

scanning the advertisement for terms or phrases in a list; and

determining whether to accept the advertisement based on the scanning.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the list includes trademarks.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the trademarks in the list include a plurality of trademarks that were submitted by complaining trademark owners.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the received advertisement includes text that is to be displayed with the advertisement and trigger text that is to be used to determine when to provide the advertisement to the end-users.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein scanning the advertisement includes:

comparing the text that is to be displayed to the terms or phrases in the list.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein scanning the advertisement further includes:

comparing the trigger text to the terms or phrases in the list.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

submitting the advertisement for further review by an operator when the determination is to not accept the advertisement.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising, when the determination is to not accept the advertisement, additional automated investigation of the advertisement.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the additional automated investigation includes:

automatically providing the advertiser with an opportunity to represent that the advertisement is permitted when the determination is to not accept the advertisement.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein determining whether to accept the advertisement includes:

classifying the advertisement as suspect when the scanning indicates that one or more of the terms or phrases in the list are included in the advertisement, and

providing a party associated with the advertisement with an option to modify the advertisement or submit the advertisement for manual review when the advertisement is classified as suspect.

26. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for execution by a processor, the computer-readable medium comprising:

instructions for receiving an advertisement from an advertiser that is to be served to end-users;

instructions for scanning the advertisement for terms or phrases in a watchlist; and

instructions for determining whether to accept the advertisement based on the scanning.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the terms or phrases include trademarks.

28. A system comprising:

logic to screen an advertisement received from an advertiser for violations by screening for trademarked terms or phrases occurring in text of the advertisement that the advertiser designates as the text that is to be displayed to end-users; and

logic to transmit the advertisement to end-users based on the advertisement not including violations.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

logic to provide search results to the end-users, the search results including a plurality of advertisements that are determined to not include violations.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the logic to screen an advertisement further includes:

a watchlist that includes the trademarked terms or phrases and that is based on previous complaints from trademark owners.

31. The system of claim 28, wherein the logic to screen an advertisement additionally screens trigger terms provided by the advertiser that relate to when the advertiser would like the advertisement provided to the end-users.

32. A method for screening content for intellectual property rights violations, the method comprising:

receiving an advertisement that is to be served to end-users;

automatically scanning the received advertisement for trademarked terms contained in a watchlist generated based on prior complaints received from trademark owners;

automatically determining to accept the received advertisement when the scanning does not indicate that the received advertisement contains a trademarked term; and

queuing the received advertisement for manual review when the scanning indicates that the received advertisement contains a trademarked term.