# US 12,120,401 B2 · Systems and methods for customizing delivery of advertisements

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- Number: US 12,120,401 B2
- Document ID: US12120401B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 18/196,984
- Filed: 2023-05-12
- Published: 2023-11-16
- Granted: 2024-10-15
- Earliest claimed: 2018-02-15
- Assignees: Rovi Guides, Inc.
- Applicants: Rovi Guides, Inc.
- Inventors: Parasuraman Ramakrishnan; Michael A. Montalto; Pok-Ching Lee; Wendy Cheang
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12120401B2

## CPC

- H04N 21/812: {involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02)}
- G06F 16/43: Querying
- G06F 16/438: Presentation of query results
- G06F 16/487: using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
- G06Q 10/40: Business processes related to social networking or social networking services
- G06Q 30/0277: {Online advertisement}
- H04N 21/23106: {involving caching operations (prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568)}
- H04N 21/23424: {involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement}
- H04N 21/25891: {being end-user preferences (retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18)}
- H04N 21/278: Content descriptor database or directory service for end-user access {(details of content or meta data based information retrieval of video data in video databases G06F16/739)}
- H04N 21/44226: {on social networks}
- H04N 21/458: Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules {; time-related management operations (arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10)}
- H04N 21/4788: communicating with other users, e.g. chatting {(arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104)}
- H04N 21/4821: {using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time}
- H04N 21/84: Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors {(systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73)}
- H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

When a viewer is determined to be interested in an advertisement, a media guidance application may identify a second related advertisement to display to the viewer. The second advertisement may be displayed following the first interesting advertisement. To avoid timing issues, media content following the advertisements may be buffered so that the viewer can catch up on the media content without missing anything.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method comprising:
determining that a first user on a first device is interested in a first advertisement;
retrieving metadata associated with the first advertisement to identify a characteristic;
identifying from a database of advertisements a second advertisement having the characteristic;
searching a social network profile of the first user for a second user, wherein a viewing history of the second user indicates that the second user has not watched the second advertisement;
generating for display on the first device an option to share the second advertisement to the second user on a second device;
in response to receiving a user selection on the first device of the option to share the second advertisement to the second user, generating for display the second advertisement to the second user.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
identifying the second device associated with the second user; and
wherein the generating for display the second advertisement to the second user further comprises generating for display the second advertisement on the second device.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1,
wherein the metadata associated with the first advertisement comprises a plurality of characteristics; and
wherein determining that the first user on the first device is interested in the first advertisement further comprises receiving, at a third device, user input from the first user selecting a content, wherein content metadata for the content comprises at least one of the plurality of characteristics.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the searching of the social network profile of the first user for the second user comprises:
retrieving first user metadata of the first user, wherein the first user metadata comprises a plurality of users associated with the social network profile of the first user;
identifying a first user preference for a product from the first user metadata, wherein the product is from the first advertisement; and
identifying the second user from the plurality of users, wherein a corresponding second user metadata of the second user indicates a second user preference similar to the first user preference.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the searching the social network profile of the first user for the second user comprises:
retrieving first user metadata of the first user, wherein the first user metadata comprises a plurality of users in the social network of the first user;
retrieving a plurality of user metadata items from the plurality of users in the social network profile of the first user, wherein each user metadata item in the plurality of user metadata items indicates a number of sharing interactions;
determining a subset of the plurality of user metadata items corresponding to a subset of the plurality of users, wherein the number of sharing interactions for each of the first user metadata in the subset of the plurality of user metadata items is above a threshold number of sharing interactions; and
identifying the second user from the subset of the plurality of users.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the generating for display on the first device the option to share the second advertisement to the second user on the second device comprises overlaying the option to share the second advertisement over the first advertisement.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first user on the first device is interested in the first advertisement comprises detecting whether the first user is watching the first advertisement.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the detecting whether the first user is watching the first advertisement comprises monitoring the first user's interaction with the first device during playback of the first advertisement.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, further comprising:
determining a type of the first user's interaction; and
selecting the second advertisement, based in part, on the type of the first user's interaction.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
retrieving a plurality of advertisements from the database of advertisements;
determining, for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements and based on metadata associated with each of the plurality of advertisements, a popularity metric; and
selecting, as the second advertisement, one of the plurality of advertisements having a highest popularity metric among the respective popularity metrics for each of the plurality of advertisements.

### Claim 11

A system comprising:
memory; and
control circuitry configured to:
determine that a first user on a first device is interested in a first advertisement;
retrieve, from the memory, metadata associated with the first advertisement to identify a characteristic;
identify from a database of advertisements a second advertisement having the characteristic;
search a social network profile of the first user for a second user, wherein a viewing history of the second user indicates that the second user has not watched the second advertisement;
generate for display on the first device an option to share the second advertisement to the second user on a second device;
in response to receiving a user selection on the first device of the option to share the second advertisement to the second user, generate for display the second advertisement to the second user.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:
identify the second device associated with the second user,
wherein the control circuitry configured to generate for display the second advertisement to the second user is further configured to generate for display the second advertisement on the second device.

### Claim 13 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the metadata associated with the first advertisement comprises a plurality of characteristics; and
wherein determining that the first user on the first device is interested in the first advertisement further comprises receiving, at a third device, user input from the first user selecting a content, wherein content metadata for the content comprises at least one of the plurality of characteristics.

### Claim 14 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry configured to search the social network profile of the first user for the second user is further configured to:
retrieve, from the memory, first user metadata of the first user, wherein the first user metadata comprises a plurality of users associated with the social network profile of the first user;
identify a first user preference for a product from the first user metadata, wherein the product is from the first advertisement; and
identify the second user from the plurality of users, wherein a corresponding second user metadata of the second user indicates a second user preference similar to the first user preference.

### Claim 15 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry configured to search the social network profile of the first user for the second user is further configured to:
retrieve, from the memory, first user metadata of the first user, wherein the first user metadata comprises a plurality of users in the social network profile of the first user;
retrieve, from the memory, a plurality of user metadata items from the plurality of users in the social network profile of the first user, wherein each user metadata items in the plurality of user metadata items indicates a number of sharing interactions;
determine a subset of the plurality of user metadata items corresponding to a subset of the plurality of users, wherein the number of sharing interactions for each of the first user metadata in the subset of the plurality of user metadata items is above a threshold number of sharing interactions; and
identify the second user from the subset of the plurality of users.

### Claim 16 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry configured to generate for display on the first device the option to share the second advertisement to the second user on the second device is further configured to overlay the option to share the second advertisement over the first advertisement.

### Claim 17 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry configured to determine that the first user on the first device is interested in the first advertisement is further configured to detect whether the first user is watching the first advertisement.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein the control circuitry configured to detect whether the first user is watching the first advertisement is further configured to monitor the first user's interaction with the first device during playback of the first advertisement.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The system of claim 18, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:
determine a type of the first user's interaction; and
select the second advertisement, based in part, on the type of the first user's interaction.

### Claim 20 (depends on 11)

The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:
retrieve, from the memory, a plurality of advertisements from the database of advertisements;
determine, for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements and based on metadata associated with each of the plurality of advertisements, a popularity metric; and
select as the second advertisement one of the plurality of advertisements having a highest popularity metric among the respective popularity metrics for each of the plurality of advertisements.