Commercial online backup service that provides transparent extended storage to remote customers over telecommunications links
DC CAFC
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of providing on-line auxiliary storage computer services to multiple online service customers by making storage provided by a geographically remotely located online service provider available and accessible to customers'"'"' computers over telecommunications connections connecting the customers'"'"' computers with the geographically remotely located online service provider, the method comprising the following steps:
- (a) establishing a customer relationship between a customer and an online service provider providing an online auxiliary storage service, said customer having a customer'"'"'s computer associated therewith;
(b) establishing a telecommunications connection between the customer'"'"'s computer and the online service provider;
(c) validating the customer'"'"'s authority to access the online auxiliary storage service provided by the online service provider;
(d) making available, to the customer'"'"'s computer via the telecommunications connection, at least some of the storage provided by the online service provider;
(e) conditionally restricting at least a part of the customer'"'"'s access to the online service provider storage based at least in part on the validating step (c), and(f) allowing the customer'"'"'s computer to store data to the online service provider storage over the telecommunications connection;
(g) tracking at least one of (a) the customer'"'"'s access to the online service and (b) the customer'"'"'s use of the online service provider storage; and
(h) generating billing information based on at least one of (i) the relationship established in step (a), and (ii) the tracking step (g).
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Abstract
A user can use his personal computer to call up an on-line service system over a telecommunications link such as a telephone line. The On-line system provides all sorts of useful services to the personal computer such as antiviral protection, auxiliary processing capabilities, and other features that are impractical or inconvenient to provide locally.
197 Citations
173 Claims
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1. A method of providing on-line auxiliary storage computer services to multiple online service customers by making storage provided by a geographically remotely located online service provider available and accessible to customers'"'"' computers over telecommunications connections connecting the customers'"'"' computers with the geographically remotely located online service provider, the method comprising the following steps:
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(a) establishing a customer relationship between a customer and an online service provider providing an online auxiliary storage service, said customer having a customer'"'"'s computer associated therewith; (b) establishing a telecommunications connection between the customer'"'"'s computer and the online service provider; (c) validating the customer'"'"'s authority to access the online auxiliary storage service provided by the online service provider; (d) making available, to the customer'"'"'s computer via the telecommunications connection, at least some of the storage provided by the online service provider; (e) conditionally restricting at least a part of the customer'"'"'s access to the online service provider storage based at least in part on the validating step (c), and (f) allowing the customer'"'"'s computer to store data to the online service provider storage over the telecommunications connection; (g) tracking at least one of (a) the customer'"'"'s access to the online service and (b) the customer'"'"'s use of the online service provider storage; and (h) generating billing information based on at least one of (i) the relationship established in step (a), and (ii) the tracking step (g). - View Dependent Claims (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 54, 55, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86)
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3. A method of providing on-line computer backup services simultaneously to multiple remote online backup service customers by attaching at least one virtual backup storage resource to customers'"'"' computers using at least one Internet telecommunications link connecting the customers'"'"' computers with a geographically remotely located backup service provider, the method comprising:
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(a) providing storage for backup use through an online backup service provider; (b) establishing an Internet connection between the online backup service provider and a geographically remotely located customer'"'"'s computer; (c) attaching, over the Internet connection, at least a part of the online backup service provider'"'"'s storage to the customer'"'"'s computer as a virtual backup storage device; (d) allowing the customer'"'"'s computer to access the virtual backup storage device substantially as if the virtual backup storage device was a physical backup storage device locally attached to the customer'"'"'s computer; (e) permitting the customer'"'"'s computer to write information to the virtual backup storage device, including the step of transmitting written information to the online backup service provider over the Internet connection and storing the written information on the online backup service provider'"'"'s storage; (f) requesting payment from said customer; and (g) denying said customer further access rights to said virtual backup storage device if said requested payment is not received. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57, 58, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121)
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10. A method as in claim I further including the step of encrypting at least some of the information passing over the telecommunications connection.
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20. A method as in claim I further including the step of compressing at least some of the information passing over the telecommunications connection.
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53. An online computer system providing commercial auxiliary storage services to remote customer computers by performing the following steps:
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(a) providing at least one storage area remote to a customer'"'"'s computer for use in storing customer information; (b) establishing a first online session with a customer'"'"'s computer; (c) allowing the customer to register for auxiliary storage services via the first online session, including the step of establishing logon information; (d) subsequent to steps (a)-(c), establishing a second online session with the customer'"'"'s computer; (e) receiving, over said second online session from the customer'"'"'s computer, the logon information established by step (c); (f) validating the logon information received by step (e); (g) conditioned at least in part on validating step (f), allowing the customer to access the remote storage area via the second online session substantially as if the remote storage area was a storage device physically and/or locally attached to the customer'"'"'s computer, including the steps of; (1) encrypting data provided by the customer'"'"'s computer, (2) transmitting the encrypted data to the online auxiliary storage service over the second online session, (3) storing the data in the remote storage area provided by the online auxiliary storage service, and (4) permitting the customer'"'"'s computer to access the data stored in the remote storage area by step (3). - View Dependent Claims (122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169)
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170. An online service provider server for providing online auxiliary storage computer services to multiple geographically remotely located customer computers over Internet connections, said online service provider server cooperating with an online registration system that establishes an online auxiliary storage service relationship between each said customer computer and said online service provider;
- said online service provider server comprising;
a mass storage device; a communications handler coupled to said mass storage device, said communications handler establishing Internet connections between said customer computers and said online service provider server, said communications handler making at least some of the storage provided by said mass storage device available and accessible to said customer computers via said Internet connections; a storage access controller coupled to said mass storage device and said communications handler, said storage access controller validating, based at least in part on said online auxiliary storage service relationships, the authority of said customer computers to access the mass storage device, said storage access controller conditionally restricting customer computer access to the storage provided by the mass storage device based at least in part on said validation, said storage access controller allowing authorized customer computers to store data to and read data from the mass storage device via said Internet connections; a tracking processor coupled to at least one of said communications handler, said mass storage device and said storage access controller, said tracking processor tracking at least one of (a) customer computer access to the online service provider server, and (b) customer computer usage of the storage provided by the mass storage device; and a billing processor for generating billing information based on at least one of (i) said online auxiliary storage service relationships, (ii) said tracked access, and (iii) said tracked usage. - View Dependent Claims (171, 172, 173)
- said online service provider server comprising;
Specification
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Litigation Data
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Current AssigneeOasis Research LLC
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Original AssigneeChristopher M. Crawford
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InventorsCrawford, Christopher M.
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Primary Examiner(s)Cain, David C
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Application NumberUS08/813,612Time in Patent Office785 DaysField of Search380/23, 380/25, 380/49, 380/4, 395/200.9, 395/200.15US Class Current705/34CPC Class CodesG06F 2209/549 Remote executionG06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining o...G06F 9/5072 Grid computingG06Q 20/085 involving remote charge det...G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determi...G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicingG06Q 40/12 AccountingH04N 21/2347 involving video stream encr...Y10S 707/99953 RecoverabilityY10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup
