Two ad patents awarded to Unicast

Unicast, an advertising technology provider, says it has been granted two patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that cover areas in the delivery of online advertising. The New York-based company sells Web site operators an advertising format known as the "superstitial"--a large, graphically rich pop-up ad resembling a TV spot--that runs atop the requested page. Its first patent, Dynamic Tag Generation, covers the method that third-party Web sites often use to manage the ad delivery process, or the download and playing of a rich media ad, to a Web surfer. Unicast's second patent, Polite Ad Delivery, includes the process of playing an ad or content "interstitially," or in between Web pages. Unicast, backed by Intel, was founded as a joint venture between The MacManus Group, now Bcom3 Group, and BBN Technologies, which is now part of Verizon Communications.