| t byfield on Sat, 6 Feb 1999 22:48:09 +0100 (CET) |
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| <nettime> US5819032: |
[courtesy of slashdot. there's been no talk on nettime of
the lunacy of the US patent system lately, for example,
rulings that 'business model' patents are legitimate
and thus enforceable. which is totally brilliant: i can
think of no better way to discredit rubbish about 'free
markets' than to let them descend into a war zone where
companies litigate each other to death over the right to
exclude all competition through monopolistic patents--
with a little help from the selfsame governments they're
forever condemning as evil, invasive regulatory monsters.
anyway, here's microsoft's patent 5819032 for an...]
Electronic magazine which is distributed electronically
from a publisher to multiple subscribers
Inventor(s): de Vries; Pierre , Kirkland, WA
Kronby; Miles , New York, NY Woolf; Suze , Seattle, WA
Applicant(s): Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
Issued/Filed Dates: Oct. 6, 1998 / May. 15, 1996
Application Number: US1996000644967
IPC Class: G06F 013/00; G06F 003/00;
Class: 395/200.8; 395/200.47; 345/326; 345/348;
345/349;
Field of Search: 395/200.8,200.3,200.47
345/326,329,333,334,347,348,349,350,351,352
Abstract: An electronic magazine is distributed
electronically over a network (e.g., Internet) from a
publisher to multiple subscribers. In an initial timeline
navigation screen depicted on the subscriber's computer
display, articles are graphically represented in a graphical
user interface as article boxes overlaid on a background. A
marker is added to the article boxes to indicate that
comments to the underlying article have been published as
part of the magazine. To view the various comments for a
particular article, the subscriber activates the article box
to launch a second screen which includes the selected
article box positioned prominently, and one or more
graphical comment boxes indicative of the commentaries
surrounding the article box. This second screen thereby
provides a message thread of articles and related
commentaries. An alternative approach to building a message
thread is to launch a pop-up graphical list window from
activation of the selected article which lists related
commentaries. To submit a commentary on an article, the
subscriber locates a file containing a previously drafted
comment and drags a file icon representing the comment file
to a submission target on the magazine's graphical user
interface. The subscriber drops the file icon on the
submission target which causes the computer to automatically
send the comment file, along with identification of the
article to which the comment relates, over the network to
the publisher. The publisher can then review the commentary
and at their discretion, add the commentary to the magazine
or discard it. A time line showing the temporal relationship
of when articles and commentaries are published within a
publishing period is also provided as part of the graphical
user interface. As an indicator is moved along the time
line, the graphical article boxes are added to or removed
>from the screen to demonstrate which articles were published
at which times within the publishing period. Attorney,
Agent, or Firm: Lee & Hayes, PLLC;
Primary/Assistant Examiners: Trammell; James P.; Assovad;
Patrick
U.S. References: (No patents reference this one)
Patent Inventor Issued Title
US5422993 Fleming 6 /1995 Method and
system for performing direct manipulation operations in a
computer system
US5490244 Isensee et al. 2 /1996 System and method for
transmitting a computer object
US5497422 Tysen et al. 3 /1996 Message
protection mechanism and graphical user interface therefor
US5506902 Kubota 4 /1996 Data
broadcasting system
US5524193 Covington et al. 6 /1996
Interactive multimedia annotation method and
apparatus
US5539735 Moskowitz 7 /1996 Digital
information commodities exchange
US5551030 Linden et al. 8 /1996 Method
and apparatus for integrating applications in a graphical
user interface environment with a rules database
US5608860 Fitzpatrick et al. 3 /1997
Method and apparatus for multiple source and target
object direct manipulation techniques
US5630103 Smith et al. 5 /1997 Radio
transmission system for distribution of newspaper copy in
computer format to personal computers for viewing
US5638443 Stefik et al. 6 /1997 System
for controlling the distribution and use of composite
digital works
CLAIMS:
[Hide claims]: We claim:
1. In an electronic magazine that is distributed
electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method
for submitting a comment relating to an article which
appears in the electronic magazine, the article being
represented as part of a graphical user interface that is
presented to the subscriber on a display, the method
comprising the following steps:
* locating a file containing the comment, the file having
an associated file icon;
* dragging the file icon to a submission target on
the graphical user interface, the submission target being
associated with the article;
* dropping the file icon on the submission target;
* sending the file corresponding to the dropped file
icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the
publisher without user intervention; and
* sending identification of the article to which the
comment in the file relates along with the file to the
publisher.
2. In an electronic magazine that is distributed
electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method
for submitting a comment relating to an article which
appears in the electronic magazine, the article being
presented as a graphical article box in the graphical user
interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display,
the method comprising the following steps:
* locating a file containing the comment, the file having
an associated file icon;
* dragging the file icon to the article box;
* dropping the file icon on the article box; and
* sending the file corresponding to the dropped file
icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the
publisher without user intervention.
3. In an electronic magazine that is distributed
electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method
for submitting a comment relating to an article which
appears in the electronic magazine, the article being
presented as a graphical article box in the graphical user
interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display,
the method the following steps:
* locating a file containing the comment, the file having
an associated file icon;
* activating a portion of the article box to launch a
pop-up list window listing any comment files that contain
comments related to the article, the pop-up list window
containing a submission target;
* dragging the file icon to the submission target on
the list window;
* dropping the file icon on the submission target;
and
* sending the file corresponding to the dropped file
icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the
publisher without user intervention.
4. In an electronic magazine that is distributed
electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method
for submitting a comment relating to an article which
appears in the electronic magazine, the article being
represented as part of a graphical user interface that is
presented to the subscriber on a display, the graphical user
interface being supplied as part of an application
supporting the electronic magazine, the method comprising
the following steps:
* preparing a file containing the comment using an
authoring tool unrelated to and separate from the electronic
magazine application, the file having an associated file
icon;
* dragging the file icon to a submission target on
the graphical user interface, the submission target being
associated with the article;
* dropping the file icon on the submission target;
and
* sending the file corresponding to the dropped file
icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the
publisher without user intervention.
5. In an electronic magazine that is distributed
electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method
for presenting a message thread of articles which appear in
the electronic magazine and comments related to the
articles, the method comprising the following steps:
* graphically presenting an article box indicative of
a magazine article as part of a graphical user interface
that is presented to the subscriber on a display; and
* activating the article box to launch a pop-up graphical
list window containing a list of comments related to the
magazine article.
6. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising
the step of depicting a marker on the article box to
indicate that the magazine article represented by the
article box has at least one related comment. 7. A
method as recited in claim 5 wherein the magazine is
distributed electronically from the publisher to the
subscriber, and further comprising the step of submitting an
additional comment to the article by performing the
following steps:
* locating a file icon representing a file containing
the comment;
* dragging the file icon to a submission target on
the list window;
* dropping the file icon on the submission target;
and
* sending the file corresponding to the dropped file
icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the
publisher.
8. A computer having a display and being programmed to
execute an electronic magazine program in which an
electronic magazine is distributed electronically from a
publisher to the computer, the computer being directed by
the electronic magazine program to perform the following
steps:
* graphically presenting on the display an article
box indicative of a magazine article as part of a graphical
user interface; and
* activating the article box to launch a pop-up graphical
list window containing a list of comments related to the
magazine article.
9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable
instructions for supporting an electronic magazine and
enabling submission of a comment relating to an article that
appears in the electronic magazine, the computer-executable
instructions comprising:
* computer-executable instructions for graphically
presenting on a display an article box indicative of the
magazine article as part of a graphical user interface; and
* computer-executable instructions for activating the
article box to launch a pop-up graphical list window
containing a list of comments related to the magazine
article.
10. In an electronic magazine that is distributed
electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method
for presenting a message thread of articles which appear in
the electronic magazine and comments related to the
articles, the method comprising the following steps:
* graphically presenting an article box indicative of
a magazine article as part of a first screen to a graphical
user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a
display;
* activating the article box to launch a second screen in
the graphical user interface; and
* graphically presenting the article box and at least
one comment box indicative of a comment related to the
magazine article in the second screen.
11. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising
the step of locating the article box prominently in the
second screen and the comment box about the article box.
12. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising
the step of depicting a marker on the article box in the
first screen to indicate that the magazine article
represented by the article box has at least one related
comment.
13. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the magazine
is distributed electronically from the publisher to the
subscriber, and further comprising the step of submitting an
additional comment to the article by performing the
following steps:
* locating a file icon representing a file containing
the comment;
* dragging the file icon to a submission target on
the article box;
* dropping the file icon on the submission target;
and
* sending the file corresponding to the dropped file
icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the
publisher.
14. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein multiple
comment boxes are presented with the article box, and
further comprising the following steps:
* presenting a time line on the second screen, the
time line representing a publishing period for the magazine;
and
* sliding an indicator along the time line to add and
remove ones of the comment boxes from the screen to
demonstrate which comments were published at which times
within the publishing period.
15. A computer having a display and being programmed to
execute an electronic magazine program in which an
electronic magazine is distributed electronically from a
publisher to the computer, the computer being directed by
the electronic magazine program to perform the following
steps:
* graphically presenting an article box indicative of
a magazine article as part of a first screen to a graphical
user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a
display;
* activating the article box to launch a second screen in
the graphical user interface; and
* graphically presenting the article box and at least
one comment box indicative of a comment related to the
magazine article in the second screen.
16. A computer-readable medium having
computer-executable instructions for supporting an
electronic magazine and enabling submission of a comment
relating to an article that appears in the electronic
magazine, the computer-executable instructions comprising:
* computer-executable instructions for graphically
presenting an article box indicative of a magazine article
as part of a first screen to a graphical user interface that
is presented to the subscriber on a display;
* computer-executable instructions for activating the
article box to launch a second screen in the graphical user
interface; and
* computer-executable instructions for graphically
presenting the article box and at least one comment box
indicative of a comment related to the magazine article in
the second screen.
17. In an electronic magazine that is distributed
electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method
comprising the following steps:
* graphically presenting one or more article boxes
indicative of magazine articles in a screen of a graphical
user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a
display, the magazine articles being published at different
times throughout a publishing period; and
* relating time within the publishing period to the
article boxes so that when the user manipulates the
graphical user interface to selectively identify different
times within the publishing period, ones of the article
boxes are added and removed from the screen to demonstrate
which articles were published at which times within the
publishing period.
18. In an electronic magazine that is distributed
electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method
comprising the following steps:
* graphically presenting one or more article boxes
indicative of magazine articles in a screen of a graphical
user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a
display, the magazine articles being published at different
times throughout a publishing period;
* presenting a time line as part of the screen of the
graphical user interface, the time line encompassing the
publishing period;
* presenting an indicator which the subscriber can
slide along the time line to identify different times within
the publishing period; and
* adding and removing ones of the article boxes from
the screen as the indicator is slid along the time line to
demonstrate which articles were published at which times
within the publishing period.
19. A method as recited in claim 18, further comprising
the following steps:
* sliding the indicator in a direction which corresponds
to moving from a beginning of the publishing period toward
an end of the publishing period; and
* adding article boxes to the screen as the indicator
is slid.
20. A method as recited in claim 18, further comprising
the following steps:
* sliding the indicator in a direction which corresponds
to moving from an end of the publishing period toward a
beginning of the publishing period; and
* removing article boxes from the screen as the indicator
is slid.
21. A computer having a display and being programmed to
execute an electronic magazine program in which an
electronic magazine is distributed electronically from a
publisher to the computer, the computer being directed by
the electronic magazine program to perform the following
steps:
* graphically presenting one or more article boxes
indicative of magazine articles in a screen of a graphical
user interface that is presented to the subscriber on the
display, the magazine articles being published at different
times throughout a publishing period;
* presenting a time line as part of the screen of the
graphical user interface, the time line encompassing the
publishing period;
* presenting an indicator which the subscriber can
slide along the time line to identify different times within
the publishing period; and
* adding and removing ones of the article boxes from
the screen as the indicator is slid along the time line to
demonstrate which articles were published at which times
within the publishing period.
22. A computer-readable medium having
computer-executable instructions for supporting an
electronic magazine, the computer-executable instructions
comprising:
* computer-executable instructions for graphically
presenting one or more article boxes indicative of magazine
articles in a screen of a graphical user interface that is
presented to the subscriber on the display, the magazine
articles being published at different times throughout a
publishing period;
* computer-executable instructions for presenting a
time line as part of the screen of the graphical user
interface, the time line encompassing the publishing period;
* computer-executable instructions for presenting an
indicator which the subscriber can slide along the time line
to identify different times within the publishing period;
and
* computer-executable instructions for adding and
removing ones of the article boxes from the screen as the
indicator is slid along the time line to demonstrate which
articles were published at which times within the publishing
period.
23. A subscriber system for use with an electronic
magazine that is distributed from a publisher to a
subscriber, the subscriber system comprising:
* a computer having a communications port coupled to
a back channel to the publisher, a processor, and a display;
* a graphical user interface executing on the processor
to present a magazine screen on the display, the magazine
screen containing at least one article box indicative of a
magazine article; and
* the graphical user interface being configured to enable
the subscriber to submit a comment file relating to the
magazine article by dragging and dropping a file icon
representing the comment file onto a submission target
associated with the article to initiate sending both the
comment file and identification of the article to which the
comment file relates over the back channel to the publisher.
24. A subscriber system for use with an electronic
magazine that is distributed from a publisher to a
subscriber, the subscriber system comprising:
* a computer having a communications port coupled to
a back channel to the publisher, a processor, and a display;
* a graphical user interface executing on the processor
to present a magazine screen on the display, the magazine
screen containing at least one article box indicative of a
magazine article; and
* the graphical user interface being configured to depict
a time line on the display which corresponds to a publishing
period for the magazine and a slidable indicator which the
subscriber can move along the time line to identify
different times within publishing period so that movement of
the indicator along the time line causes addition and
removal of ones of the article boxes from the display to
thereby visually demonstrate which articles were published
at which times within the publishing period.
25. A subscriber system for use with an electronic
magazine that is distributed from a publisher to a
subscriber, the subscriber system comprising:
* a computer having a communications port coupled to
a back channel to the publisher, a processor, and a display;
* a graphical user interface executing on the processor
to present a magazine screen on the display, the magazine
screen containing at least one article box indicative of a
magazine article; and
* the graphical user interface being configured to relate
time within a publishing period for the magazine to the
article boxes so that when a user manipulates the graphical
user interface to selectively identify different times
within the publishing period, ones of the article boxes are
added and removed from the screen to demonstrate which
articles were published at which times within the publishing
period.
Foreign References: none (No patents reference this one)
---
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