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:
Jan. 22, 2008
Filed:
Aug. 06, 2003
Joshua Hartmann, New York, NY (US);
Dewitt Clinton, New York, NY (US);
Kishore Pallamreddy, Flower Mound, TX (US);
Daniel Shtarkman, Dallas, TX (US);
Joshua Hartmann, New York, NY (US);
DeWitt Clinton, New York, NY (US);
Kishore Pallamreddy, Flower Mound, TX (US);
Daniel Shtarkman, Dallas, TX (US);
Travelocity.com LP, Fort Worth, TX (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides methods for efficiently handling product availability queries. The present invention provides a local availability cache that is prepopulated with product availability listings from various product sources. Customer product availability queries are processed using the prepopulated availability cache, as opposed to independently querying each product source. The present invention also uses methods to manage the cache, such as by limiting the length of use data records stored for each start of use day to a maximum length of use and updating of data in the query using a function that updates data for start dates of use that occur sooner in time than for start dates of use that occur later in time. The present invention also uses functions to determine availability for length of use requests that exceed the maximum length of use stored in the cache by piecing together availability information for smaller lengths of use.