Interactive customer support for computer programs using network connection of user machine
US6434532B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 12, 1998 |
| Grant date | Aug 13, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 12, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY02W90/00
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Broad-based, systematic, individualized, interactive customer software support is provided through a two-way, voluntary automated exchange of information between a software agent installed on a customer's machine and a server machine via a wide area computer network, e.g., the Internet. Communication between the agent and the server is optimized to be unobtrusive or transparent, e.g. using spare bandwidth of intermittent Internet connections. The agent is software non-specific and may be instructed to operate with respect to any arbitrary software program, and may further be instructed at various different times to operate with respect to various different software programs, including multiple different software programs on a single machine. The agent, with the user's informed consent, gathers activity information about the operations of the software program(s) and uploads this information to a particular server machine within a distributed server machine architecture, where it is stored in a database on a per-software-copy basis. A rules engine may cause instructions carrying a message targeted specifically toward the customer to be downloaded to the agent. Based on these instruct…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.