Dropbox Assigned Eight Patents

Replication lag-constrained deletion of data in large-scale distributed storage
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,226,954) developed by Baid, Mehant, Munteanu, Bogdan, San Mateo, CA, and Tahara, Daniel K., San Francisco, CA, for a “replication lag-constrained deletion of data in a large-scale distributed data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Computer-implemented techniques for replication-lag constrained deletion of data in a distributed data storage system. In some aspects, the techniques improve the operation of a computing system by preventing too high of a delete rate that causes severe replication lag while at the same time increasing and decreasing the delete rate over time to a maximum allowable delete rate constrained by measured replication lag in terms of both local replication lag and geographic replication lag. In one implementation, the delete rate is adjusted by increasing or decreasing a pause interval that determines how long a database data deletion process pauses between submitting database deletion commands to a database server.”

The patent application was filed on filed: May 4, 2018 (15/971,792).

Synchronizing changes within collaborative content management
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,226,939) developed by Tana, Evan, San Francisco, CA, for “synchronizing changes within a collaborative content management system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure is directed toward systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media for generating and providing a collaborative content management interface for a group of users. For example, the systems described herein can detect user input to add a header within the collaborative content management interface. The systems can cause a file management system to generate a subfolder that corresponds with the new header in the collaborative content management interface. Conversely, the systems can analyze a file database maintained by a file management system and, in response to user input to initiate a collaborative content management system, generate a collaborative content management interface with graphical elements to represent files and headers to represent subfolders.”

The patent application was filed on filed: December 29, 2017 (15/859,028).

Server-side rendering password protected documents
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,216,568) developed by Acharya, Aditya, New York, NY, Zhu, Jingsi, Jersey City, NJ, Vente, Sarah, New York, NY, Macartney, Ian, and Unal, Ahmet Emre, San Francisco, CA, for a “server-side rendering password protected documents.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In some examples, a system for server-side rendering of password-protected files can receive, from a client device, a request to view a file on the system, determine that the file should be converted to a different format prior to presentation at the client device, and determine that the file is a password-protected file. The system can send a response to the client device indicating the file is a password-protected file. In response to receiving the password from the client device, the system can generate, based on the password, a preview of the password-protected file including at least a portion of the password-protected file rendered in the different format. After generating the preview, the system can store an encrypted copy of the preview in storage for future requests, and send the preview to the client device.”

The patent application was filed on filed: January 10, 2018 (15/866,837).

Caching of file system warning queries to determine applicable file system warning
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,204,938) developed by Kleinpeter, Thomas, Seattle, WA, Woods, Conor, Oakland, CA, Vorobev, Sergei, Kwaselow, Quazie, Seattle, WA, von Muhlen, Marcio, San Francisco, CA, and Bunger, Nils, Palo Alto, CA, for “caching of file system warning queries to determine an applicable file system warning.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present technology pertains to a organization directory hosted by a synchronized content management system. The corporate directory can provide access to user accounts for all members of the organization to all content items in the organization directory on the respective file systems of the members’ client devices. Members can reach any content item at the same path as other members relative to the organization directory root on their respective client device. In some embodiments novel access permissions are granted to maintain path consistency.”

The patent application was filed on filed: December 29, 2017 (15/857,729).

Providing access to hybrid application offline
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,200,044) developed by Lopyrev, Anton, Gill, Prabhdeep, Raju, Ashok, and Mendiola, Ian, San Francisco, CA, for “providing access to a hybrid application offline.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for providing access to a hybrid web application offline. In some implementations, a computing device can be configured with a hybrid application that includes a native layer and a web view. The native layer can provide access to native features of the computing device while the web view can provide web client features, such as graphical user interfaces and server communication functionality. When the computing device is offline and the hybrid application is invoked, the native layer can load from local storage a resource bundle including the web code needed to present the web view graphical user interface, and/or facilitate communication with the web server. Similarly, when the computing device is offline, the hybrid application can load previously stored content items into the web view from local storage through the native layer so that the user can work with the content items offline.”

The patent application was filed on filed: June 29, 2020 (16/914,891).

Technologies for integrating cloud content items across platforms
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,194,767) developed by Kaplan, Joshua, Terk, Jason, San Francisco, CA, and Yeung, Stan, Oakland, CA, for “technologies for integrating cloud content items across platforms.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Systems and methods for integrating cloud-based and cloud-backed content items with a content management system (CSM) are provided. In some examples, a method can include storing a content item in a shared folder on a CSM, the content item representing a cloud-backed or cloud-based content item associated with a cloud content provider, receiving a request to access the content item in the shared folder, in response to the request, determining, based on permissions configured at the CSM, whether a user account has permissions allowing the user account to access the shared folder or the content item, based on a determination that the user account has permissions, granting the user account access to the content item and providing to the user account a content and features of the content item, the features being supported by the cloud content provider and provisioned at least partly through the cloud content provider.”

The patent application was filed on filed: September 25, 2019 (16/582,809).

Technologies for integrating cloud content items across platforms
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,194,766) developed by Kaplan, Joshua, Terk, Jason, San Francisco, CA, and Yeung, Stan, Oakland, CA, for “technologies for integrating cloud content items across platforms.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Systems and methods for integrating cloud-based and cloud-backed content items with a content management system are provided. In some examples, a method can include receiving a request to open a content item using a client application at a first client device, detecting that the content item is open at a second client device from a different client application that supports live collaboration, and directing the first client device to an instance of the different client application at the first client device.”

The patent application was filed on filed: September 25, 2019 (16/582,685).

Directory snapshots with searchable file paths
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,188,559) developed by Ying, Robert, and Keller, Sam, San Francisco, CA, for “directory snapshots with searchable file paths.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present technology pertains to an organization directory hosted by a synchronized content management system. The corporate directory can provide access to user accounts for all members of the organization to all content items in the organization directory on the respective file systems of the members’ client devices. Members can reach any content item at the same path as other members relative to the organization directory root on their respective client device. In some embodiments novel access permissions are granted to maintain path consistency.”

The patent application was filed on filed: December 29, 2017 (15/857,713).