Automated screening of content based on intellectual property rights

• US 7,870,605 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, ELLEN C
• Application Number:
  US11/094,793
• Publication Number:
  US 20060230457A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,112 Days
• Field of Search: 726/20, 705/14, 707/5
• US Class Current: 726/20
• 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 method, performed by one or more server devices, the method comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, an advertisement that is to be provided to users;

classifying, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, the advertisement based on at least one of a product or a service being advertised;

scanning, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, text, which is to be displayed as part of the advertisement, for trademarked terms;

determining, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices and based on a result of the scanning, whether the classification of the advertisement is within a scope of one or more trademarked terms found in the advertisement; and

selecting, by the one or more processors of the one or more server devices, whether to allow the advertisement to be provided based on a result of the scanning and the determining.

2. The method of claim 1, where the scanning the text comprises:

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

3. The method of claim 2, where the list is determined based on trademarked terms submitted by complaining trademark owners.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

5. The method of claim 4, where the list is determined based on trademarked terms submitted by complaining trademark owners.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

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

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, when the selection is to not allow the advertisement to be provided:

performing additional automated investigation of the advertisement.

8. The method of claim 7, where the advertisement is 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 advertisement is permitted when the selection is to not allow the advertisement to be provided.

9. The method of claim 1, where selecting whether to allow the advertisement includes:

classifying the advertisement as suspect when the result of the scanning indicates that one or more trademarked terms are included in the text, and

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

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the advertisement on a web page when the advertisement is allowed to be provided based on the result of the scanning and the determining.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a search query from a user;

locating one or more search results for the search query; and

providing the advertisement with the one or more search results to the user when the advertisement is allowed to be provided based on the result of the scanning and the determining.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining whether the advertisement is relevant to the search query,

where the advertisement is provided with the one or more search results when the advertisement is determined to be relevant to the search query.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining whether the advertisement is relevant to at least one of the search results,

where the advertisement is provided with the one or more search results when the advertisement is determined to be relevant to the at least one of the search results.

14. A device comprising:

a memory storing a set of instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to implement;

means for receiving, from a third party, an advertisement that is to be served to users;

means for classifying the advertisement based on at least one of products or services being advertised;

means for scanning text, which is to be displayed as part of the advertisement, for trademarked terms;

means for determining, as a result of the scanning, whether the classification of the advertisement is within a scope of one or more trademarked terms found in the advertisement; and

means for selecting to allow the advertisement to be served or to queue the advertisement for further review based on a result of the scanning and the determining.

15. The device of claim 14, where the means for selecting to allow the advertisement or to queue the advertisement for further review based on the scanning includes:

means for submitting the advertisement for manual review by an operator when the result of the scanning indicates that the text includes trademarked terms.

16. The device of claim 14, where the means for selecting to allow the advertisement or to queue the advertisement for further review based on the result of the scanning includes:

means for sending an automated message to the advertiser providing the advertiser with an opportunity to represent that the advertisement is permitted when the result of the scanning indicates that the text includes trademarked terms.

17. A method performed by a server device, the method comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors of the server device and from an advertiser, an advertisement that is to be provided to end-users;

identifying, by the one or more processors of the server device, a classification of the advertisement;

scanning, by the one or more processors of the server device, text that is to be displayed for the advertisement for terms or phrases in a list;

determining, by the one or more processors of the server device and as a result of the scanning, whether the classification of the advertisement is within a scope of at least one term or phrase found in the list and in the advertisement; and

identifying, by the one or more processors of the server device, the advertisement for possible rejection when a result of the scanning indicates that the at least one term or phrase in the list appears in the text and when a result of the determining indicates that the classification of the advertisement is within the scope of the at least one term or phrase.

18. The method of claim 17, where the list includes trademarks.

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

20. The method of claim 17, where the received advertisement includes the text that is to be displayed for the advertisement and trigger text to determine when to provide the advertisement to the end-users.

21. The method of claim 17, where the scanning the text includes:

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

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

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

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

submitting the advertisement for further review by an operator when the advertisement is identified for possible rejection.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising, when the advertisement is identified for possible rejection, performing additional automated investigation of the advertisement.

25. The method of claim 24, where the additional automated investigation includes:

automatically providing the advertiser with an opportunity to represent that the advertisement is permitted.

26. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

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 identified for possible rejection.

27. A computer-readable memory device containing instructions for execution by a processor, the computer-readable memory device comprising:

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

instructions for classifying the advertisement based on at least one of a product or a service being advertised;

instructions for scanning text, that is to be displayed for the advertisement, for terms or phrases in a watchlist;

instructions for determining, based on the classifying, whether the advertisement is within a scope of one or more trademarked terms found in the advertisement as a result of the scanning; and

instructions for marking the advertisement as suspect when a result of the scanning indicates that the text includes at least one term or phrase in the watchlist and when a result of the determining indicates that the advertisement is within a scope of one or trademarks found in the advertisement, the suspect marking indicating that the advertisement should not be automatically accepted.

28. The computer-readable memory device of claim 27, where the terms or phrases include trademarks.

29. The computer-readable memory device of claim 27, further comprising:

instructions for accepting the advertisement when the result of the scanning indicates that the text does not includes at least one term or phrase in the watchlist.

30. A system comprising:

a memory storing a set of instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to implement;

logic to receive, from an advertiser, an advertisement for at least one of a product or service;

logic to classify the advertisement based on the at least one of a product or service;

logic to screen the advertisement, received from the 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, where the logic to screen the advertisement includes logic to;

determine whether the classification of the advertisement is within a scope of one or more trademarked terms or phrases; and

logic to transmit the advertisement to end-users based on the advertisement not including violations and when the classification of the advertisement is not within a scope of one or more trademarked terms or phrases.

31. The system of claim 30, 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.

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

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

33. The system of claim 30, where 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.

34. A method, performed by one or more server devices, for screening content for potential intellectual property rights violations, the method comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, an advertisement that is to be served to end-users;

automatically scanning, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, text, which is to be displayed for the received advertisement, for trademarked terms contained in a watchlist generated based on prior complaints received from trademark owners;

automatically accepting, one or more processors of the one or more server devices, the received advertisement when a result of the scanning does not indicate that the text contains a trademarked term in the watchlist; and

storing, by one or more processors of the one or more server devices, the received advertisement in a queue for manual review when the result of the scanning indicates that the text contains a trademarked term in the watchlist.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

sending an automated message to the advertiser providing the advertiser with an opportunity to represent that the advertisement is permitted when the result of the scanning indicates that the text includes a trademarked term.

36. The method of claim 34, where the scanning the text for trademarked terms takes into account whether a trademarked term that is in the text is outside a scope of the trademark.