How Software Automatically Ranks and Manages Online Customer Feedback
A system that automatically finds, scores, and prioritizes online mentions of a company so they can respond to the most important conversations first.
Original patent title: “Systems and methods for measuring and managing distributed online conversations”
A system that automatically finds, scores, and prioritizes online mentions of a company so they can respond to the most important conversations first. Granted to Individual in 2015 with 19 claims and 27 forward citations.
Key facts
Coverage
What does this patent actually cover?
This system acts as a digital filter for a company's online reputation. It uses automated search queries to scan the internet for mentions of a specific entity, such as a brand or person. Once it finds a relevant post, it saves it as a 'discrete incident' and assigns it a score based on metrics like keyword density or emotional sentiment. Finally, it ranks these incidents based on the importance of the source and the content's score, presenting a prioritized list to the company so they know which customer complaints or mentions need immediate attention.
The gap
What does this patent NOT cover?
- Does not cover manual social media monitoring where a human manually searches for posts.
- Does not cover systems that simply aggregate data without performing automated scoring and prioritization.
- Does not cover general search engine technology that does not link content to a specific entity for incident management.
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 find mentions; it prioritizes them by combining the relevance of the content with the authority of the source, effectively automating the triage process for brand management.
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
Brandwatch
Sprout Social
Hootsuite
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Why it matters
The bigger picture
Before tools like this, companies were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of social media noise. This patent describes the infrastructure for modern social listening platforms, allowing businesses to turn chaotic internet chatter into a structured 'to-do' list for customer support and public relations teams.
Filed
February 23, 2009
Granted
March 17, 2015
Market context
Who's building on this
Companies in this space
Major enterprise software companies like Salesforce, Adobe, and Oracle have built extensive social listening modules that mirror the logic described here. These systems are now standard in the customer experience (CX) and digital marketing industries.
Market impact
This patent reflects the shift from passive brand monitoring to active, data-driven customer engagement. It helped codify the 'social listening' category, making it a mandatory component of modern enterprise software stacks for managing public perception and customer service at scale.
Claim 1 — Plain English
What this patent covers
This system acts as a digital filter for a company's online reputation. It uses automated search queries to scan the internet for mentions of a specific entity, such as a brand or person. Once it finds a relevant post, it saves it as a 'discrete incident' and assigns it a score based on metrics like keyword density or emotional sentiment. Finally, it ranks these incidents based on the importance of the source and the content's score, presenting a prioritized list to the company so they know which customer complaints or mentions need immediate attention.
The clever bit
The system doesn't just find mentions; it prioritizes them by combining the relevance of the content with the authority of the source, effectively automating the triage process for brand management.
What it does not cover
- Does not cover manual social media monitoring where a human manually searches for posts.
- Does not cover systems that simply aggregate data without performing automated scoring and prioritization.
- Does not cover general search engine technology that does not link content to a specific entity for incident management.
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
29/40
Moderately cited
Claim breadth
13/20
Broad claimsclaimsThe numbered statements at the end of a patent that legally define what the inventor owns.Read more →
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
$94K – $300K
Midpoint $187K · 2.7 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
19 claims as filed with the patent office.
Concepts involved
Citations
Patent lineage
Cite this patent
Blankers, T. D., Haghighi, A., & Kenton, C. (2015). How Software Automatically Ranks and Manages Online Customer Feedback (U.S. Patent No. 8,983,975). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/8983975/facebook-news-feed-ranking
Auto-generated from the patent record. Double-check author order and the issue date against the official USPTO document before submitting.
Embed
Add this patent to your site
Drop this plain-English patent card into any blog post or article — free, no signup. It always links back to the full breakdown here.
<div data-patentlens-widget data-patent-number="US8983975"></div> <script src="https://patentbrief.org/embed.js" async></script>
Stay in the loop
Get a weekly digest of new patents.
One email per week. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Keep exploring
Related patents you should know
US 4683195 · 1987
How to Make Billions of Copies of a DNA Segment
This patent describes the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), a method to rapidly create many copies of a specific piece of DNA or RNA, enabling its detection and analysis.
Cetus Corp
US 8697359 · 2014
How to Edit Genes in Human Cells Using an Engineered CRISPR System
This patent describes an engineered CRISPR-Cas9 system for precisely cutting DNA in eukaryotic cells to change how genes work, opening the door for gene editing in complex organisms.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
US 7657849 · 2010
How the iPhone's Slide-to-Unlock Gesture Works
Apple's 2010 patent describes unlocking a device by dragging a specific graphical image across the touchscreen along a predefined path, a gesture that became iconic with the original iPhone.
Apple Inc
US 4733665 · 1988
How Doctors Implant a Permanent Stent Using a Balloon
This patent describes the method for placing a permanent, expandable wire mesh tube inside a blood vessel or other body tube using a balloon-tipped catheter to widen it and keep it open.
Expandable Grafts Partnership
US 4965188 · 1990
How to Make Many Copies of a DNA Piece with Heat
This patent describes the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method, a technique to make millions of copies of a specific DNA segment using a heat-resistant enzyme and repeated temperature changes.
Cetus Corp
US 4235871 · 1980
How to Encapsulate Active Materials in Lipid Bubbles Efficiently
This patent describes a method for trapping biologically active substances inside tiny, multi-layered fat bubbles called liposomes, using a specific water-in-oil emulsion and gel-forming process to improve how much material gets captured.
Individual
More to explore
More in Software & Internet
US 4405829 · 1983 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology
How RSA Public-Key Encryption Keeps Digital Messages Secret
US 6285999 · 2001 · Leland Stanford Junior University
How Websites Get Ranked by Importance
US 5960411 · 1999 · Amazon com Inc
How Amazon's One-Click Ordering Works for Online Purchases
US 7669123 · 2010 · Facebook Inc
Displaying Friends' Activities in a Social Network Feed
New to patents?
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What does How Software Automatically Ranks and Manages Online Customer Feedback cover?
A system that automatically finds, scores, and prioritizes online mentions of a company so they can respond to the most important conversations first.
Who owns patent US 8983975?
Individual owns this patent, granted in 2015.
When does this patent expire?
This patent is expected to expire on March 17, 2035, when the invention enters the public domain.
What is patent US 8983975 cited by?
This patent has been cited by 27 later patents that build on its ideas.
What problem does this patent solve?
Before tools like this, companies were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of social media noise. This patent describes the infrastructure for modern social listening platforms, allowing businesses to turn chaotic internet chatter into a structured 'to-do' list for customer support and public relations teams.
What does this patent NOT cover?
Does not cover manual social media monitoring where a human manually searches for posts.
Same assignee
More from Individual
Patent monitoring