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:
Aug. 29, 2006
Filed:
Apr. 05, 2002
Jussi Petri Myllymaki, San Jose, CA (US);
Joann Ruvolo, San Jose, CA (US);
Jussi Petri Myllymaki, San Jose, CA (US);
Joann Ruvolo, San Jose, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A computer program product is provided as a system for use with the Internet to determine the physical location of IP addresses. The system of the invention includes a locator broker and various databases. The locator broker is the intermediary between the locator sources that estimate the physical location of an IP address and the online sites requesting the physical location of the IP address. The locator broker aggregates and validates the results from its location queries of the locator sources then returns to the online site the most likely location for a given IP address. The locator broker also tracks the reliability of each locator source and thus targets its location queries to those services most likely to provide an accurate result. The locator broker digests location data from multiple geolocation services and presents a coherent view of the location data to the online site. The locator broker also provides value-added localization data to the online site based on the resulting location of the IP address including useful suggestions to the online site for tailoring data to the online user based on the user's physical location. The locator broker acts on a contract from the online site, which specifies the IP address for which a location is desired. The contract allows the online site to dictate the type of location desired (e.g., city, state), the accuracy desired, and the time frame in which the request must be satisfied. The locator broker bills the online site only when it satisfies the contract for time and accuracy.