Amazon Assigned Two Patents

Optical media encoding with hybrid optical discs
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA, has been assigned a patent (8,929,182) developed by Schwartz Benjamin Martin, Seattle, WA, for a “optical media encoding with hybrid optical discs.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A disc encoding system encodes a plurality of optical discs with identical data on a first portion and variable data on a second portion of each of the plurality of optical discs. A hybrid disc can include a first and a second portion. The hybrid disc enables encoding the identical data on the first portion using a disc pressing process in which a master disc is used to define a pressing pattern. The variable data can be written on the second portion using a disc burning process in which at least one laser is used to modify a reflective property of the hybrid optical disc material, such that at least some of the optical discs vary in content. In an embodiment, the identical data includes one of movies, games, software, or music and the variable data includes one of digital fingerprints, logo data, or advertisement content. The disc encoding system can use location identifiers to identify location in the second portion of the hybrid optical disc for burning varying data.”

The patent application was filed on September 23, 2013(14/034,302)

System and method for splitting a replicated data partition
Amazon Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, has been assigned a patent (8,930,312) developed by Rath Timothy Andrew, Seattle, WA, Kulesza Jakub, Bellevue, WA, and Lutz David A., Renton, WA, for a “system and method for splitting a replicated data partition.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system that implements a data storage service may store data on behalf of storage service clients. The system may maintain data in multiple replicas of partitions that are stored on respective computing nodes in the system. The system may split a data partition into two new partitions, and may split the replica group that stored the original partitions into two new replica groups, each storing one of the new partitions. To split the replica group, the master replica may propagate membership changes to the other members of the replica group for adding members to the original replica group and for splitting the expanded replica group into two new replica groups. Subsequent to the split, replicas may attempt to become the master for the original replica group or for a new replica group. If an attempt to become master replica for the original replica group succeeds, the split may fail.”

The patent application was filed on January 17, 2012, (13/352,075)