US 7,130,616 · Granted 2006-10-31

The Patent That Automated Personalized Content Delivery to Your Devices

Imagine a system that watches what you like and automatically pulls the right content to your phone or tablet without you having to ask. That's what this patent covers: a way for devices to learn your preferences and grab digital stuff you'd actually want to see, then manage it all for you.

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The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a system and method where client devices automatically receive digital data based on preferences a user has specified. What's protected here is the combination of preference-gathering, automatic content fetching, transfer to multiple devices, and management tools that let users control what gets delivered to them—essentially the framework for making devices pull personalized content on their own rather than users manually searching for everything.

Why it matters

Filed in 2001 and granted in 2006, this patent staked out early territory in automated content personalization at a time when most people still manually navigated websites. The patent's core concept—devices learning what you want and delivering it automatically—became foundational to how modern apps, streaming services, and smart home systems work. It's the intellectual backbone of recommendation engines and push notifications that define today's digital experience.

Real-world use

Every time your phone pushes a notification with a video or article tailored to what you've watched before, or when a music app auto-fills your queue based on your listening history, the system this patent describes is working in the background.

Original USPTO abstract

A system and a method for providing content, management and interactivity for client devices are provided. Digital data based on user specified preferences is automatically obtained and transferred.

Patent details

Publication number: US 7,130,616
Filing date: 2001-08-07
Grant date: 2006-10-31
Assignee: Simple Devices
Inventor(s): JANIK CRAIG M.
CPC class: H04L12/2898

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