ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 4 -- United States Patent no. 12,323,640, issued on June 3, was assigned to CROWDSTRIKE INC. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Movie advertising playback systems and methods" was invented by Thomas S. Gilley (New York), Eric Hoffert (South Orange, N.J.), Rabih Nassar (Ain Saadeh, Lebanon) and Brenda Pomerance (New York).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An ad in a movie can be a static ad having a position in the movie that cannot be moved, or a dynamic ad having a position in the movie that can be changed. When a viewer wishes to skip a portion of the movie containing the ad, the playback system determines whether the ad is static or dynamic. If the ad is static, only the portion of th...