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:
Feb. 21, 2017
Filed:
Jan. 21, 2014
Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc, Redmond, WA (US);
Darren Alexander Apfel, Redmond, WA (US);
Jonathan David Friedman, Mercer Island, WA (US);
Keith Lindsey Rowe, Seattle, WA (US);
Rosanna H. Ho, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Sandra I. Vargas, Sammamish, WA (US);
Peter Andrew Bernard, Bellevue, WA (US);
Matthew Justin Von Bencke, Bellevue, WA (US);
Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
This document describes tools capable of enabling users of mobile communication devices to create communication groups quickly and easily. With such a communication group a user may call, text, or instant message all persons in the group at once by selecting the communication group rather than each person in the group. In one embodiment, the tools enable a user to build a communication group by dragging and dropping indicators for persons he or she knows from one area of a screen into another area. In another embodiment, the tools automatically collect persons from those that the user knows based on one or more criteria. The user may then easily create a communication group of those collected persons, such as by tapping on an area of a mobile device's display.