CALENDAR OVERLAYS

• US 20100122190A1
• Filed: 01/12/2010
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: LU, LARRY L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,880,977 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Implementing an electronic calendar can include accessing a first electronic calendar owned by a first party, accessing a second electronic calendar owned by a second party, and presenting a view that combines at least one existing entry from within each of the first and second electronic calendars. Source information for each of the first and second electronic calendars may be electronically maintained. The combined view may be updated electronically to reflect a change to at least one of the existing entries from within at least one of the first and second electronic calendars. Electronic calendars may be accessed and overlaid without importing events, thus enabling simple updating. Event information may be imported and source or other attributes may be associated with imported information to enable updating and other sorting functions.

Claims

1. A method of implementing an electronic calendar, the method comprising:

identifying a user associated with a personal electronic calendar that is maintained by the user and that includes personal events added by the user;

presenting, to the user, multiple published electronic calendars that are each published on a network by an entity other than the user and that are available to be imported into personal electronic calendars of multiple users;

receiving, from the user, a selection of a subset of the multiple published electronic calendars to import into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user; and

based on receiving the selection of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars to import into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user, importing the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user by;

adding one or more published events from each of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user;

distinguishing, in an interface displaying a representation of the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user, between the added published events and the personal events added by the user; and

storing, in electronic storage and for the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars, reference information that enables the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user to be automatically updated based on changes made to the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining electronic source information for the personal electronic calendar that is maintained by the user and the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein maintaining electronic source information comprises maintaining a first source attribute for the personal electronic calendar that is maintained by the user and one or more source attributes identifying a source for each of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising presenting at least part of the source information in the interface displaying the representation of the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein presenting at least part of the source information in the interface displaying the representation of the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user comprises providing an indication of a source for each event included in the interface displaying the representation of the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein importing the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user further comprises overlaying the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars onto a calendar view generated for the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the calendar view includes event information hosted by each of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars for a specific time period.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the reference information comprises an update schedule for calendar information for each of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing an electronic reminder for a published event added, from one of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars, into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the reminder is included in the one of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars and published by an entity other than the user.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein an original reminder for the published event is included in the one of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars, and the method further comprises modifying, by the user, content from the original reminder to generate the reminder that is provided for the published event.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the reminder is set by the user.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the reminder is set by an electronic calendar system using a default setting associated with the user.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving, from the user, a selection of a subset of the multiple published electronic calendars to import into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user comprises receiving, from the user, a selection of a second electronic calendar published by a second entity that is different than the user and a selection of a third electronic calendar published by a third entity that is different than the user and the second entity.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising receiving, from the user, a selection of a subset of calendar entries included in the third electronic calendar, wherein:

adding one or more published events from each of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user comprises adding all published events from the second electronic calendar into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user and adding only the subset of calendar entries from the third electronic calendar into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein storing, in electronic storage and for the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars, reference information that enables the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user to be automatically updated based on changes made to the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars comprises storing a first address for accessing the second electronic calendar over a network and storing a second address for accessing the third electronic calendar over the network.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein:

the second electronic calendar is made available, by the second entity, over the Internet to any user able to access content over the Internet; and

storing the first address for accessing the second electronic calendar over the network comprises storing a website address for accessing the second electronic calendar over the Internet.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising updating the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user by:

automatically, without human intervention, identifying an event included in one of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars that has been modified;

automatically, without human intervention, modifying the event in the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user in a manner corresponding to the modification of the event in the one of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars; and

automatically, without human intervention, visually distinguishing the modified event in the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user from events in the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user that have not been modified.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein visually distinguishing the modified event in the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user comprises identifying the modified event in a manner that alerts the user to the modification of the event.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

comparing a digital signature of stored event information for one of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars that has been imported into the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user to a digital signature of modified event information for the one of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars that is being made available, over the network, by an entity other than the user;

determining that it is necessary to update the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user based on the comparison; and

in response to the determination that it is necessary to update the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user, updating the personal electronic calendar maintained by the user based on the modified event information for the one of the subset of the multiple published electronic calendars.