Jeffrey A Stevens

US Patent:

55329209, Jul 2, 1996

Filed:

Dec 28, 1994

Appl. No.:

8/365980

Inventors:

Thomas V. Hartrick - Gaithersburg MD
Jeffrey N. Stevens - Gaithersburg MD
Nicholas J. Sabia - Silver Spring MD

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 314
G06F 1721
G09C 300
G09C 500

US Classification:

3644191

Abstract:

A publisher of a softcopy book includes royalty payment information either within the structured document text of the book or in a royalty payment information file which accompanies the book. To read the book from the storage disk, the user applies a special softcopy book reading program at his workstation. If the user enters a command to copy the book onto a writable storage medium such as a magnetic disk or to print a hardcopy of the book with a printer or to transmit a copy of the book over a modem, a royalty payment program intercepts the copying command and suspends the copying operations. Instead, the royalty payment program presents the user with a display of the royalty payment information stored in the book text or in a file accompanying the book. The user must select the option of paying a royalty to the publisher before the royalty payment program permits a copy of the book to be made.

US Patent:

49492780, Aug 14, 1990

Filed:

Dec 29, 1988

Appl. No.:

7/291796

Inventors:

Kenneth E. Davies - Hants, GB
Walter C. Geddes - Rockville MD
Mark J. Kline - Arlington VA
Alexander T. Maluta - Redondo Beach CA
Bruce E. Naylor - San Jose CA
Harrison Scofield - Morgan Hill CA
Jeffrey N. Stevens - Gaithersburg MD

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1518

US Classification:

364513

Abstract:

An expert system is provided which can be accessed by other application programs operating within any of the available operating environments in a general purpose computer system. In this architecture, an expert system consultation subsystem provides the means for performing expert consultations. Included within the expert system subsystem is a task manager which initiates and manages a plurality of concurrent consultations. Interface programming provides the capability for the expert system consultation subsystem to communicate and pass data and commands between it and other application programs operating within the computer system. Further, means are provided to allow the expert system subsystem to access data stored on database management systems.

US Patent:

53676211, Nov 22, 1994

Filed:

Sep 6, 1991

Appl. No.:

7/755709

Inventors:

Amy S. C. Cohen - Silver Spring MD
Christopher F. Gleason - Gaithersburg MD
Donald R. Hyatt - Silver Spring MD
Michael E. Moran - Woodstock NY
Jeffrey N. Stevens - Gaithersburg MD
Alan J. Wecker - Haifa, IL

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 1562

US Classification:

395154

Abstract:

A generalized link is provided in a data processing system to enable referencing from a point within an organized hierarchy of an on-line softcopy text, to an arbitrary multimedia object. The multimedia object may be represented by data which is also contained within the softcopy book or alternately which may be separate from the book as a separate file or a separate data base. This enables an author at the time of writing the softcopy book, to specify specific multimedia hardware and software support for the display of multimedia presentations accompanying the text in the book. Provision is made for the author to specify alternate forms of multimedia presentation, where a particular specified multimedia apparatus or supporting software is not present at a workstation. An improved method for dynamically updating a softcopy book to a new edition is also disclosed.