How Software Detects What You Want Based on Your Social Media Posts
A system that reads your social media posts to figure out your intent, then automatically serves ads or updates your profile based on how likely you are to actually buy or do something.
Original patent title: “Methods and apparatus for recognizing and acting upon user intentions expressed in on-line conversations and similar environments”
A system that reads your social media posts to figure out your intent, then automatically serves ads or updates your profile based on how likely you are to actually buy or do something. Granted to Solariat Inc in 2013 with 26 claims and 34 forward citations.
Key facts
Coverage
What does this patent actually cover?
This patent describes a system that monitors social media posts to identify what a user is trying to accomplish. It breaks text into segments, identifies the 'intention type' (like a complaint or a request), and extracts 'intention topics' using linguistic analysis like n-grams and part-of-speech tagging. The system then scores these intentions based on how 'actionable' they are—meaning how likely the user is to respond to a specific intervention. Finally, it automatically triggers actions, such as showing a targeted advertisement (a 'creative') or updating the user's marketing profile.
The gap
What does this patent NOT cover?
- Does not cover human-to-human manual moderation or customer support responses.
- Does not cover general sentiment analysis that only labels text as positive or negative without identifying a specific actionable intent.
- Does not cover systems that rely solely on metadata like location or time without analyzing the actual textual content of the post.
These exclusions are unique to PatentBrief — derived from the actual claim language, not patent-office boilerplate.
What made this novel
The system doesn't just identify what you are talking about; it calculates an 'actionability score' to decide if it is even worth the effort to show you an ad, preventing wasted marketing spend on low-intent interactions.
Schematic visualization of the patent's claim structure. Hand-drawn diagrams in progress for each landmark patent.
Where you've seen this
Real-world examples
Targeted ads appearing after a user asks for product recommendations on Twitter.
Automated customer service bots that detect a complaint and escalate it to a human agent.
CRM systems that automatically update lead profiles based on social media activity.
Why it matters
The bigger picture
This technology is the backbone of modern 'intent-based marketing.' By moving beyond simple keyword matching to understanding the goal behind a user's post, companies can deliver ads that feel more relevant. It represents the shift from passive advertising to proactive, automated engagement in the social media era.
Filed
June 21, 2012
Granted
August 27, 2013
Market context
Who's building on this
Companies in this space
Major advertising technology platforms and customer relationship management (CRM) providers like Salesforce and Adobe utilize similar intent-recognition architectures. These companies have evolved these techniques into sophisticated real-time bidding and personalization engines.
Market impact
This patent reflects the industry-wide transition toward 'intent-aware' advertising. It helped standardize the practice of using automated linguistic analysis to convert raw social media data into actionable marketing leads, effectively turning social platforms into high-precision sales funnels.
Claim 1 — Plain English
What this patent covers
This patent describes a system that monitors social media posts to identify what a user is trying to accomplish. It breaks text into segments, identifies the 'intention type' (like a complaint or a request), and extracts 'intention topics' using linguistic analysis like n-grams and part-of-speech tagging. The system then scores these intentions based on how 'actionable' they are—meaning how likely the user is to respond to a specific intervention. Finally, it automatically triggers actions, such as showing a targeted advertisement (a 'creative') or updating the user's marketing profile.
The clever bit
The system doesn't just identify what you are talking about; it calculates an 'actionability score' to decide if it is even worth the effort to show you an ad, preventing wasted marketing spend on low-intent interactions.
What it does not cover
- Does not cover human-to-human manual moderation or customer support responses.
- Does not cover general sentiment analysis that only labels text as positive or negative without identifying a specific actionable intent.
- Does not cover systems that rely solely on metadata like location or time without analyzing the actual textual content of the post.
Patent timeline
Application submitted to the patent office
Application published, typically 18 months after filing
Patent officially issued
PatentBrief Score
Impact Score
Moderate
Citation count
31/40
Moderately cited
Claim breadth
17/20
Very broad protection
Recency
5/20
Granted 10–20 years ago
Assignee scale
0/20
Independent or smaller assigneeassigneeThe entity that owns the patent — usually the inventor's employer or a company.Read more →
PatentBrief Impact Score — based on citation count, claim breadth, recency, and assignee scale. Not a legal assessment.
Heuristic Value Estimate
What this patent might be worth
$164K – $524K
Midpoint $328K · 6.0 yr remaining · industry ×1.6
Heuristic only — blends forward/backward citation counts, claim scope, time remaining, litigation history, and CPC-derived industry baseline. Real valuations need a professional appraisal.
The original legal language
Original claims
26 claims as filed with the patent office.
Concepts involved
Citations
Patent lineage
Cite this patent
McGann, C., & Davitz, J. E. (2013). How Software Detects What You Want Based on Your Social Media Posts (U.S. Patent No. 8,521,818). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8521818/facebook-share-button
Auto-generated from the patent record. Double-check author order and the issue date against the official USPTO document before submitting.
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Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What does How Software Detects What You Want Based on Your Social Media Posts cover?
A system that reads your social media posts to figure out your intent, then automatically serves ads or updates your profile based on how likely you are to actually buy or do something.
Who owns patent US 8521818?
Solariat Inc owns this patent, granted in 2013.
When does this patent expire?
This patent is expected to expire on August 27, 2033, when the invention enters the public domain.
What is patent US 8521818 cited by?
This patent has been cited by 34 later patents that build on its ideas.
What problem does this patent solve?
This technology is the backbone of modern 'intent-based marketing.' By moving beyond simple keyword matching to understanding the goal behind a user's post, companies can deliver ads that feel more relevant. It represents the shift from passive advertising to proactive, automated engagement in the social media era.
What does this patent NOT cover?
Does not cover human-to-human manual moderation or customer support responses.
Patent monitoring