System and method for maintaining on a handheld electronic device information that is substantially current and is readily available to a user

• US 9,143,577 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2004
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Knowles, Michael, Paas, Julian, Tyneski, Frank, Griffin, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): HOANG, HIEU T
• Application Number:
  US10/930,739
• Publication Number:
  US 20060047744A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,039 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 707/758
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

An improved system and method for managing data on a handheld electronic device includes a server that periodically pushes data to a particular handheld electronic device, with the data being stored on the handheld electronic device by way of a routine running in the background whereby such reception and storage is generally transparent to a user. The data can be any type of data and may be data that is desired by the user or that fits a profile or preference of the user. The profile can, for instance, be predetermined and/or can be customized by the user and/or can reflect a preference of the user. The data pushed to the handheld electronic device can also be related in some fashion to a geographic disposition of the handheld electronic device. Such pushing of data and storage is managed by a routine running in the background of the handheld electronic device. The routine enables current data to be maintained on the handheld electronic device for ready access by a user.

Claims

1. A method of enabling an interaction between a first electronic device comprising a first client and a second electronic device comprising a second client, the first electronic device being in communication with a first server, the second electronic device being in communication with one of the first server and another server that is capable of communication with the first server, the method comprising:

making available to the first server a first profile associated with the first client;

making available to the first server a second profile associated with the second client;

determining with the first server that a similarity exists between the first profile and the second profile;

inviting both the first client and the second client to communicate with one another through the first server, said first server performing said inviting;

determining the similarity to be a given aspect of the first profile being the same as a corresponding aspect of the second profile;

identifying a set of clients having a profile with a corresponding aspect that is the same as the given aspect of the first profile;

pushing to the first electronic device a first signal that is at least partially representative of the set of clients;

determining that the set of clients has changed to become an updated set of clients; and

, in response,

pushing to the first electronic device a second signal that is at least partially representative of the updated set of clients.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a first geographic disposition of the first electronic device, determining a second geographic disposition of the second electronic device, and determining that the first geographic disposition and the second geographic disposition are within a predetermined proximity.

3. A method of enabling an interaction between a first electronic device comprising a first client and a second electronic device comprising a second client, the first electronic device being in communication with a first server, the second electronic device being in communication with one of the first server and another server that is capable of communication with the first server, the method comprising:

making available to the first server a first profile associated with the first client;

making available to the first server a second profile associated with the second client;

determining with the first server that a similarity exists between the first profile and the second profile;

inviting both the first client and the second client to communicate with one another through the first server, said first server performing said inviting;

determining the similarity to be a given aspect of the first profile being the same as a corresponding aspect of the second profile;

identifying a set of clients having a profile with a corresponding aspect that is the same as the given aspect of the first profile;

determining a first geographic disposition of the first electronic device, determining an additional geographic disposition of one or more electronic devices that each comprise a client of at least a portion of the clients in the set, and determining that the first geographic disposition of the first electronic device and the additional geographic disposition of the electronic device of each of a subset of the clients of the set are within a predetermined proximity;

determining that the subset of clients has changed to become an updated subset of clients; and

, in response,

pushing to the first electronic device a second signal that is at least partially representative of the updated subset of clients.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining the similarity to be a complementary relationship between the first profile and the second profile.