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:
Nov. 09, 2010
Filed:
Apr. 28, 2005
Sean U. Kelly, New York, NY (US);
Lili Cheng, Bellevue, WA (US);
Ryszard K. Kott, Redmond, WA (US);
Richard L. Hughes, Monroe, WA (US);
William L. Portnoy, Seattle, WA (US);
Sean U. Kelly, New York, NY (US);
Lili Cheng, Bellevue, WA (US);
Ryszard K. Kott, Redmond, WA (US);
Richard L. Hughes, Monroe, WA (US);
William L. Portnoy, Seattle, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
The subject invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates a controlled communication environment which allows a user to participate in a plurality of privacy contexts with other people in a simultaneous manner in an online community. A user can assign or define varying levels of privacy to his/her information or content to control the visibility of such information by others. In particular, a first user can maintain one or more 'gardens' or stores of content which may be accessible to at least a subset of the online community. Access to the contents of any one garden can be based on the privacy level of the garden and the privacy level (e.g., access parameters) granted to the person. The privacy levels and arrangement of content can be hierarchal and/or non-overlapping. Thus, a user can seamlessly communicate with multiple users at the same time regardless of their context or privacy level while maintaining the privacy boundaries of each garden.