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:
Apr. 13, 2010
Filed:
Oct. 12, 2005
Brian Pepin, Seattle, WA (US);
James Slocum Miller, Bellevue, WA (US);
Thomas Edward Quinn, Jr., Seattle, WA (US);
Jeffrey Marc Richter, Kirkland, WA (US);
Brian Pepin, Seattle, WA (US);
James Slocum Miller, Bellevue, WA (US);
Thomas Edward Quinn, Jr., Seattle, WA (US);
Jeffrey Marc Richter, Kirkland, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for discovering, qualifying, and activating software add-in components. An add-in components manager discovers one or more add-in components at the computer system are of a specified type of add-in component requested by an application. The add-in component manager qualifies at least one discovered add-in component based on the at least one discovered add-in component satisfying one or more qualification constraints. The one or more qualification constraints are representative of functionality that is to be associated with an add-in component for the add-in component to interoperate with the application in a desired manner. The add-in component manager activates a qualified add-in component in accordance with the one or more qualification constraints for use with the application.