Method for Distributing Content to a User Station

• US 20120204171A1
• Filed: 04/20/2012
• Published: 08/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/1994
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TMI Solutions LLC (Strategic Intellectual Solutions, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: REISMAN, Richard R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,272 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/172
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 8/18 Address timing or clocking circuits; Address control signal generation or management, e.g. for row address strobe [RAS] or column address strobe [CAS] signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to being executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations including upon occurrence of a scheduled time, polling an update distribution server to determine that an update for a computer executable software application is available, the computer executable software application configured to operate on the computing device and in response to determining that the update is available, obtaining the update over the Internet from the update distribution server, and selecting whether to install the update at a first time or to defer installing the update until a second time that is later than the first time.

Claims

1-115. -115. (canceled)

116. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to being executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

upon occurrence of a scheduled time, polling an update distribution server to determine that an update for a computer executable software application is available, the computer executable software application configured to operate on the computing device; and

in response to determining that the update is available, obtaining the update over the Internet from the update distribution server, and selecting whether to install the update at a first time or to defer installing the update until a second time that is later than the first time.

117. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the computer executable instructions are invoked through the computer executable software applications.

118. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the update is obtained in response to a user action.

119. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the polling is performed according to a schedule.

120. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the polling is performed according to a user-defined schedule.

121. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the polling is performed according to a schedule determined by the update distribution server.

122. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the polling is performed according to a user-modifiable schedule.

123. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the computer-executable instructions utilize an application programming interface (API) to communicate with the update distribution server.

124. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the computer-executable instructions are integrated with the computer executable software application.

125. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, the operations further comprising:

communicating with the update distribution server using a viewer that is capable of displaying HTML objects.

126. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, the operations further comprising:

selecting the update from a listing of updates supplied with the computer executable software application.

127. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 126, wherein the listing of updates is based at least in part on a computer-generated list including at least one of a file size and a date.

128. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, the selecting whether to install the update further comprises selecting the update from a computer-generated list based at least in part on an update status for the computer executable software application.

129. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 128, wherein information stored at the computing device includes a product identification for the computer executable software application, wherein the product identification is sent to the update distribution server without requiring a user to input the product identification into the computing device.

130. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 129, wherein at least a portion of the information stored at the computing device is received from the update distribution server and includes a generic listing of available updates at the update distribution server.

131. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 128, wherein the update status is determined without requiring any user input regarding the update status.

132. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, the selecting whether to install the update further comprises selecting the update from a computer-generated list displayed at the computing device and created based at least in part on an update status for the computer executable software application, the update status being determined automatically.

133. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the update is obtained at least in part based on information stored at the computing device indicating an update status for the computing device with respect to the computer executable software application.

134. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 133, wherein the information stored at the computing device includes a product identification for the computer executable software application, wherein the product identification is sent to the update distribution server without requiring the user to input the product identification into the computing device.

135. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the update is obtained at least in part based on an update status for the computing device, the update status being determined without requiring any user input regarding the update status.

136. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the update is obtained at least in part based on an update status for the computing device with respect to the computer executable software application, the update status being determined automatically.

137. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is portable.

138. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, the operations further comprising:

obtaining updates for the computer executable instructions.

139. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the update distribution server includes a plurality of update distribution servers that are configured to collectively provide an update distribution service.

140. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the update distribution server is configured to provide a gatewayed path between the computing device and a plurality of merchant servers configured to provide an update distribution service.

142. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein the selecting is based on a decision of a user to install the update.

144. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 142, the operations further comprising:

obtaining and having accessible at the computing device, a specific ID of at least one available update version for the computer executable software application.

146. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 144, the operations further comprising:

enabling the user to view the specific ID of the at least one available update version for the computer executable software application.

151. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 116, wherein at the second time an additional selection whether to install the update is made.

152. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 151, wherein the additional selection is a permanent refusal to install the update.

158. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 129, wherein the computer-generated list is generated by the update distribution server upon receiving the information from the computing device.

159. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 144, wherein the specific ID is a description of the update.

161. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 144, wherein the specific ID is a version identifier.

141. A tangible computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determining that an update for a computer executable software application is available, the computer executable software application configured to operate on the computing device;

obtaining the update for the computer executable software application over the Internet via a server-based update distribution, and selecting whether to install or defer installing the update for the computer executable software application; and

obtaining updates for the computer executable instructions.

143. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 141, wherein the selecting is based on a decision of the user to install the update for the computer executable software application.

145. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 143, the operations further comprising:

obtaining and having accessible at the computing device, a specific ID of at least one available update version for the computer executable software application.

147. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 145, the operations further comprising:

enabling the user to view the specific ID of the at least one available update version for the computer executable software application.

153. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 141, wherein after the defer installing the update for the computer executable software application, an additional selection whether to install the update for the computer executable software application is made.

154. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 153, wherein the additional selection is a permanent refusal to install the update for the computer executable software application.

160. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 145, wherein the specific ID is a description of the update for the computer executable software application.

162. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 145, wherein the specific ID is a version identifier.

148. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to being executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

upon occurrence of a scheduled time, polling an update distribution server to determine that an update for a computer executable software application is available, the computer executable software application configured to operate on the computing device; and

in response to determining that the update is available, selecting whether to obtain the update over the Internet from the update distribution server at a first time or to defer obtaining the update from the update distribution server until a second time that is later than the first time.

155. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 148, wherein the selecting is based on a decision of a user to obtain the update.

149. A tangible computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

determining that an update for a computer executable software application is available, the computer executable software application configured to operate on the computing device;

selecting whether to defer obtaining the update for the computer executable software application;

obtaining the update over the Internet via a server-based update distribution if the update is selected to be obtained; and

obtaining updates for the computer executable instructions.

156. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 149, wherein the selecting is based on a decision of a user to obtain the update for the computer executable software application.

150. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, in response to being executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

upon occurrence of a scheduled time, polling an update distribution server to determine that an update for a first computer executable software application is available and that an update for a second computer executable software application is available, wherein the first and second computer executable software applications are configured to operate on the computing device; and

in response to determining that the update for the first computer executable software application and the update for the second computer executable software application are available, obtaining the update over the Internet from the update distribution server, and selecting whether to install the update for the first computer executable software application and the update for the second computer executable software application at a first time by selecting the update for at least one of the first and second computer executable software applications from a computer-generated list based at least in part on an update status for the respective computer executable software application, the update status determined without requiring any user input regarding the update status or to defer installing the update for the first computer executable software application and the update for the second computer executable software application until a second time that is later than the first time, wherein

information stored at the computing device includes a product identification for the respective computer executable software application, wherein the product identification is sent to the update distribution server without requiring a user to input the product identification into the computing device, and wherein the computer-generated list is based on a list generated by the update distribution server upon receiving the information from the computing device.

157. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 150, wherein the selecting is based on a decision of a user to install the update.