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. 08, 2014
Filed:
Sep. 09, 2011
Matthew Leacock, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
David Van Wie, Eugene, OR (US);
Paul J. Brody, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Matthew Leacock, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
David Van Wie, Eugene, OR (US);
Paul J. Brody, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Social Communications Company, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Other communicants in a network communications environment who have relationship ties with a user that satisfy a particular relationship predicate and who are present in a zone of a respective other virtual area that is assigned to the other communicant are determined. Indications of presence of the determined other communicants in the zones of the other virtual areas is transmitted to the user. Each virtual area is associated with a respective communicant who is present in the virtual area and has a relationship tie with the user that satisfies a relationship predicate. Responsive to user input referencing a selected virtual area, a request to establish a presence for the user in the selected virtual area is transmitted. Responsive to user input referencing a particular communicant, a request to establish a network communications link between the respective network nodes operated by the user and the particular communicant is transmitted.