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:
Jul. 23, 2019
Filed:
Nov. 06, 2014
Applicant:
Time Warner Cable Enterprises Llc, St. Louis, MO (US);
Inventor:
Michael Detty, Broomfield, CO (US);
Assignee:
Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC, St. Louis, MO (US);
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N 21/44 (2011.01); H04N 21/81 (2011.01); H04N 21/438 (2011.01); H04N 21/442 (2011.01); H04N 21/472 (2011.01); H04N 21/482 (2011.01); H04N 21/488 (2011.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N 21/812 (2013.01); H04N 21/4383 (2013.01); H04N 21/44008 (2013.01); H04N 21/44222 (2013.01); H04N 21/472 (2013.01); H04N 21/482 (2013.01); H04N 21/4882 (2013.01);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for detecting whether a commercial is ongoing on a program channel and indicating commercial status of a program channel in a program guide are described. Also described are channel surfing methods and apparatus where a user is allowed to automatically skip channels with ongoing commercials and is provided with an indicator of the commercial status on one or more previous program channels while viewing content of program channel to which the user switched.