Dropbox Assigned Five Patents

Storage interface for synchronizing content
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,429,634) developed by Koorapati, Nipunn, Horn, Daniel, and Jubb, IV, Elmer Charles, San Francisco, CA, for a “storage interface for synchronizing content.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In some embodiments, an interface of a content management system manages synchronized content on storage systems. For example, the interface stores, on a metadata storage structure, records of metadata associated with blocks of data stored on a storage, the records including block identifiers that uniquely identify the blocks and timestamps associated with the blocks. The interface identifies a batch of storage operations associated with the blocks, including one or more delete operations. For each delete operation, the interface queries the metadata storage structure for a timestamp corresponding to a block of data associated with the delete operation, determines whether the delete operation creates a race condition between the delete operation and an add operation associated with the block of data, and rejects the delete operation when the delete operation creates the race condition or the timestamp corresponding to the block of data is newer than a predetermined period of time.”

The patent application was filed on December 29, 2017 (15/858,430).

Storage scheme switching in distributed storage
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,422,721) developed by Loh, Michael, El Cerrito, CA, Horn, Daniel R., Mountain View, CA, Kavalar, Andraz, Lichtenberg, David, Sung, Austin, San Francisco, CA, Feng, Shi, Millbrae, CA, and Baek, Jongmin, Foster City, CA, for a “data storage scheme switching in a distributed data storage system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Systems and methods for dynamic and automatic data storage scheme switching in a distributed data storage system. A machine learning-based policy for computing probable future content item access patterns based on historical content item access patterns is employed to dynamically and automatically switch the storage of content items, e.g., files, digital data, photos, text, audio, video, streaming content, cloud documents, etc.) between different data storage schemes. The different data storage schemes may have different data storage cost and different data access cost characteristics. For example, the different data storage schemes may encompass different types of data storage devices, different data compression schemes, and/or different data redundancy schemes.”

The patent application was filed on April 3, 2020 (16/839,605).

File sharing and synchronization
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,341,114) developed by Strong, Jack Benjamin, Austin, TX, and Thomas, Gibu, San Francisco, CA, for “method and apparatus for a file sharing and synchronization system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computer-implemented method is provided for managing and sharing picture files. In one embodiment of the present invention, the method comprises providing a server platform and providing a datastore on the server platform for maintaining full resolution copies of the files shared between a plurality of sharing clients. A synchronization engine is provided on the server platform and is configured to send real-time updates to a plurality of sharing clients when at least one of the sharing clients updates or changes one of said files. A web interface may also be provided that allows a user to access files in the datastore through the use of a web browser.”

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2015 (14/872,019).

File sharing and synchronization system
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,334,555) developed by Strong, Jack Benjamin, Austin, TX, and Thomas, Gibu, San Francisco, CA, for “method and apparatus for a file sharing and synchronization system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A computer-implemented method is provided for managing and sharing picture files. In one embodiment of the present invention, the method comprises providing a server platform and providing a datastore on the server platform for maintaining full resolution copies of the files shared between a plurality of sharing clients. A synchronization engine is provided on the server platform and is configured to send real-time updates to a plurality of sharing clients when at least one of the sharing clients updates or changes one of said files. A web interface may also be provided that allows a user to access files in the datastore through the use of a web browser.”

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2015 (14/872,004).

Storage constrained synchronization of shared content items
Dropbox, Inc., San Francisco, CA, has been assigned a patent (11,275,763) developed by Newhouse, Benjamin Zeis, San Francisco, CA, for a “storage constrained synchronization of shared content items.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A content management system synchronizes content items across client computing systems connected by a network. Each client device has a storage allocation for synchronized shared content items. If the storage allocation for shared content items on a client device is exceeded by the request to add or edit a content item such that it is enlarged, or open a large content item remote to the client device, a client application or the host of content management system selects content items to remove from residence on the client device but keep remotely on content management system. Upon removal of the selected content items, the client application creates shadow items, representing the content item but only containing the metadata of the content item. This creates sufficient space for the initial request to be completed while maintaining user access to all synchronized shared content items.”

The patent application was filed on November 15, 2019 (16/685,528).