Business card and contact management system

• US 8,108,240 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2005
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Robert L Gropper
• Inventors: Gropper, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Application Number:
  US11/109,974
• Publication Number:
  US 20050251448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,478 Days
• Field of Search: 705/9, 705/7.18
• US Class Current: 705/7.18
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

An Internet (or World-Wide-Web or other such public or private network) based business card and contact management system capable of conveying and managing advertising as well as traditional and other non-traditional business contact information. The invention is a system that: (1) accepts a Universal Contact Locator (UCL) as encoded on a business card in man and/or machine readable format and, when the Universal Contact Locator (UCL) is entered into a client program running on a client computer, (2) causes a web browser (or like program) and associated communications software to establish a communications session with a remote server computer which (3) accesses the stored contact and advertisement and news information of the card issuer associated with the Universal Contact Locator and (4) downloads the business contact and/or personal contact information and targeted advertisements and news items associated with the Universal Contact Locator to a client program running on a client computer which (5) loads the contact data into the Contact Management or Personal Information Management (PIM) system of the users choosing running on the users client computer and (6) stores the advertisements and news items downloaded from the server computer on the client computer'"'"'s secondary storage device (i.e. hard disk) and (7) causes the advertisements and news items stored on the client computer'"'"'s secondary storage device to be displayed to the user on a predetermined schedule in a portion of the client computer'"'"'s output device (i.e. CRT or LCD panel).

Claims

1. A computer system within a computer network comprising:

a client having an electronic circuit that communicates with the computer network and having program means configured to provide the client with access to a database of records of information that is not under common content control with a search engine that searches a plurality of content servers via the world wide web, each record having associated key words and configured to, when the client accesses on the computer network the search engine and provides to the search engine a word for a search on the plurality of content servers which is also one of the associated key words, cause the client to display information from the record associated with that key word in addition to information from the plurality of content servers provided by the search engine.

2. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the database of records is a contact information manager.

3. The computer system of claim 2 wherein the information displayed comprises information about a person or a group of people.

4. The computer system of claim 3 wherein the information displayed comprises contact information for the person or group of people.

5. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the information from the record is information sent to the client by a remote computer.

6. A method in a client computer system with an electronic circuit that communicates with a computer network, wherein the client computer has access to a database of records of information, each record having associated key words, comprising:

receiving as input a request for a search on at least one word, the search directed via the computer network to a remote search engine that searches a plurality of content servers via the world wide web;

providing the search request to the remote search engine; and

checking the associated key words in the database of records for the at least one word, wherein the database of records is not under common content control with the remote search engine, and, if the at least one word is found among the associated key words, displaying information from the record associated with that key word in addition to information from the search engine.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the database of records is a contact information manager.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the information displayed comprises information about a person or a group of people.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the information displayed comprises contact information for a person or group of people.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the information from the record is information sent to the client computer by a remote computer.

11. A method in a client computer system with an electronic circuit that communicates with a computer network wherein the client computer has access to a database of records of information of a contact information manager, each record having associated key words, the method comprising:

receiving as input from a user a request for a search on at least one word, the search directed via the network to a remote search engine that searches a plurality of content servers via the world wide web;

providing the search request to the remote search engine; and

checking the associated key words in the database of records for the at least one word, and, if the word is found, in addition to displaying information from the search engine responsive to the search request, displaying, to the user, information from a contact information manager record associated with the at least one word, which information comprises contact information for a person or a group of people that comprises a focus of all information in the record and the information that was sent to the client computer by a remote computer, wherein the contact information manager records are not under common content control with the search engine.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable memory medium containing content that, when executed by a client computer system, provides information, the client computer system having access to a database of records of information, each record having associated key words, by performing a method comprising:

receiving as input a request for a search on at least one word, the search directed via a computer network to a remote search engine that searches a plurality of content servers via the world wide web;

providing the search request to the remote search engine; and

checking the associated key words in the database of records for the at least one word, wherein the database of records is not under common content control with the remote search engine, and, if the at least one word is found in the associated key words, displaying information from the record associated with that key word in addition to information from the search engine.

13. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 12 wherein the content are instructions executed by a computer processor of the client computer system.

14. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 12 wherein the database of records is a contact information manager.

15. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 12 wherein the information displayed comprises contact information for a person or group of people.

16. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 12 wherein the information from the record is information sent to the client computer by a remote computer.

17. The computer-readable memory medium of claim 16 wherein the information displayed comprises information about a person or a group of people.