The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 16, 2018
Filed:
Mar. 30, 2016
Linkedin Corporation, Mountain View, CA (US);
Damien Albert Louis Coullon, Mountain View, CA (US);
Brad C. Ciraulo, Redwood City, CA (US);
Joonhyung Lim, San Jose, CA (US);
Bhavana Chowdary Challa, San Jose, CA (US);
Da Huo, Mountain View, CA (US);
Yang Zhou, San Jose, CA (US);
Xin Fu, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Barry P. Huang, San Jose, CA (US);
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
In order to invite individuals to join a social network, telephone contact information of a user of the social network is extracted, with the user's permission, from a phonebook associated with a telephone application on the user's portable electronic device. Then, the extracted telephone contact information is shared across different platforms to the user's desktop computer, and telephone numbers in the extracted telephone contact information are identified. These telephone numbers are associated with other portable electronic devices, and with individuals that are not currently members of the social network. After receiving confirmation of a telephone number from the user (e.g., via the desktop computer), the location of the associated portable electronic device is determined. Based on the telephone number and the location, an invitation to join the social network is conditionally provided to the portable electronic device, via a Short Message Service (SMS) message.