The Patents Behind VideoStorm
Interactive video advertising only works if the technology underneath it works: in real browsers, real video players and real ad stacks. A good deal of that technology at VideoStorm has been patented.
This post walks through the US patents on which Timothy Ross, VideoStorm's Chief Technology Officer, is named as an inventor. All eight have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and are assigned to Content Directions, Inc., the company behind VideoStorm (and, before it, Linkstorm). Most were invented together with Christopher Schacht.
The summaries below are plain-English descriptions based on each patent's title and abstract. The claims of each patent define its actual scope, and every patent number links to its full public record.
The video augmentation family
Seven of the eight patents belong to a single family that started with an application filed in November 2020. They share a core idea, described in their abstracts as a system and method for augmenting video displayed in a web browser to add interactive functionality.
In broad terms: elements included in a video's structured media definition cause the video player to create new elements on the webpage when the video plays. Those elements include a script that generates an interactive menu, and choosing an option from that menu calls functions on a remote server. The result is a video ad that viewers can do things with, not just watch.
The original patent and its continuations each build on that foundation:
- US 11,430,019: Video Advertisement Augmentation with Dynamic Web Content. Granted August 30, 2022. The original patent in the family, covering the augmentation of video ads with an interactive menu backed by remote API functions.
- US 11,494,812: Video Augmentation with Dynamic Web Content. Granted November 8, 2022. A continuation that applies the same approach to video more broadly.
- US 11,610,234: Augmenting Web-Based Video Media with a Cross-Domain Social Media Interface. Granted March 21, 2023.
- US 11,610,235: Augmenting Web-Based Video Media with Cross-Domain Interactive Online Games. Granted March 21, 2023.
- US 11,610,236: Augmenting Web-Based Video Media with Broadcast Communication Functionality. Granted March 21, 2023.
- US 11,610,237: Augmenting Web-Based Video Media with Security and Authentication Functionalities. Granted March 21, 2023.
- US 11,631,114: Augmenting Web-Based Video Media with Online Auction Functionality. Granted April 18, 2023.
Taken together, the family covers a range of things an interactive video can offer from inside the player: social media interaction, games, broadcast communication, secure and authenticated experiences, and online auctions, all built on the same interactive-menu foundation.
Supra Boundary Web Compositor
The eighth patent addresses a different problem: what happens at the edges of a frame.
- US 12,346,400: Supra Boundary Web Compositor Apparatuses, Methods and Systems. Granted July 1, 2025. Invented by Timothy Ross, it traces back to provisional applications filed in 2016.
Ads and other embedded content usually live inside frames on a webpage, and they are confined to those frames' boundaries. The patent's abstract describes a system that transforms webpage requests into composited, expandable elements, using components that work across frames, including ones described as "frame busting" and "frame escaping." In plain terms, it is about letting embedded content expand beyond the box it was served in, which opens up richer, larger interactive experiences than a fixed ad slot allows.
Pending applications
Two more applications naming Timothy Ross are pending, which means they have been published but not yet granted:
- US 2022/0092148 A1: Methods and Systems for Cross-Domain Two-Way Communication by Dynamic Web Content. Filed March 26, 2021, with Christopher Schacht. It concerns two-way communication between dynamic web content and other domains.
- US 2024/0373086 A1: Interactive Broadcast Overlay Making Use of Ultra-Dynamic QR Code Embedding. Filed July 12, 2024 and published November 7, 2024, with Christopher Schacht. It covers interactive overlays for broadcast video that use QR codes which can update dynamically.
Both are also being pursued internationally through related filings.
Why patents matter for interactive video
Interactive video ads have to solve problems that ordinary video ads never face. They need to run inside players and pages that someone else controls, communicate across domains securely, and give viewers real things to do (shop, play, bid, sign in) without breaking the experience. Each of these patents captures an approach to one of those problems.
For advertisers and publishers working with VideoStorm, that body of work is part of what stands behind the products: interactive menus that let viewers choose what to explore, commerce inside the ad, and experiences that reach beyond a standard video player.
Want to see what this technology can do for your campaigns? Get in touch.