Communicating and storing information associated with media broadcasts

US8938217B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Apple Inc. · US

Inventors

• Jesse Dorogusker · Palo Alto, US
• Emily Clark Schubert · San Jose, US
• Donald J. Novotney · San Jose, US
• Anthony M. Fadell · Portola Valley, US
• Michael B. Hailey · Campbell, US
• Chris Bell · Pacifica, US
• Steve S. Gedikian · Redwood City, US
• Robert E. Borchers · Hildesheim, DE
• Jay S. Laefer · Sunnyvale, US
• Gregory T. Lydon · Santa Cruz, US
• Lawrence G. Bolton · Fremont, US
• Eric Oliver · Cupertino, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 20, 2007
• Grant date: Jan 20, 2015
• Expiry date: Nov 12, 2031

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04H60/73
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

An accessory communicates with a portable media device (“PMD”) to store tags associated with broadcasts in a file maintained in a storage medium of the accessory, where the tags contain information descriptive of a subset of the broadcast content. In one embodiment, the accessory sends commands to the PMD to create or open a tag file that resides on the PMD, write one or more tags to the file, and close the file. Stored tags can be used to access (e.g., purchase) tagged content by communicating with a media asset delivery service either via a host computer or directly from the PMD.