(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 8,271,600 B2 Herold Et Al
USOO8271600B2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 8,271,600 B2 Herold et al. (45) Date of Patent: *Sep. 18, 2012 (54) USING AUTOMATED AGENTS TO 5,880,731 A 3, 1999 Liles FACILITATE CHAT COMMUNICATIONS 6,029, 195 A 2/2000 Herz 6.256,664 B1 7/2001 Donoho 6,259,969 B1 7/2001 Tackett et al. (75) Inventors: June R. Herold, Falls Church, VA (US); 6,480,885 B1 1 1/2002 Oliver William P. Schreiner, Reston, VA (US) 6,564,244 B1 5, 2003 to (73) Assignee: Facebook, Inc., Menlo Park, CA (US) (Continued) (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS patent is extended or adjusted under 35 WO WOO1,98856 12/2001 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days. OTHER PUBLICATIONS This patent is Subject to a terminal dis claimer. Match.com, “Introducing Chemistry.com' press release, Oct. 11, 2005, http://corp.match.com/index/newscenter release detail. (21) Appl. No.: 13/269,133 asp?auto index=94 last visited Nov. 17, 2005 (2 pages). (22) Filed: Oct. 7, 2011 (Continued) (65) Prior Publication Data f b Primary Examiner — Krisna Lim US 2012/OO3O3O1 A1 Feb. 2, 2012 (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm — Workman Nydegger Related U.S. Application Data (63) Continuation of application No. 12/553,536, filed on (57) ABSTRACT Sep. 3, 2009, now Pat. No. 8,037,147, which is a continuation of application No. 1 1/279,091, filed on An automated agent, Such as an instant message robot, is be Apr. 7, 2006, now Pat.
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