Call Blocking Patents (Class 379/210.02)
  • Patent number: 11956384
    Abstract: The present application describes providing an attestation level to a received communication. The attestation level may be used to communicate a level of security to a network or a called party that receives the communication. The attestation level associated with the communication may indicate to a destination network and/or recipient that the phone number associated with the communication is secure and/or the telephone number has not been spoofed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLC
    Inventors: Richard D. Moore, Joseph Roy, Joseph Scivicque, Matthew C Hess, George Wendell McFalls
  • Patent number: 11675821
    Abstract: Described herein are systems and methods for facilitating the information entry and task updates to a task database in a cloud server. In one embodiment, a method includes the operations of receiving, by one or more neutral network models on a cloud server, voice instructions captured by an interactive voice response (IVR) application on a mobile device, wherein the voice instructions are to update states of one or more tasks displayed in a voice interface of the IVR application; recognizing the voice instructions and constructing appropriate texts using the one or more trained neutral network models; presenting the texts to one or more voice interfaces provided by the IVR application for confirmation by a user; and storing the user confirmed texts to a repository on the cloud server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: CLARI INC.
    Inventor: Balasubramaniam Raju
  • Patent number: 11663250
    Abstract: Described herein are systems and methods for facilitating the information entry and task updates to a task database in a cloud server. In one embodiment, a method includes the operations of receiving, by one or more neutral network models on a cloud server, voice instructions captured by an interactive voice response (IVR) application on a mobile device, wherein the voice instructions are to update states of one or more tasks displayed in a voice interface of the IVR application; recognizing the voice instructions and constructing appropriate texts using the one or more trained neutral network models; presenting the texts to one or more voice interfaces provided by the IVR application for confirmation by a user; and storing the user confirmed texts to a repository on the cloud server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: CLARI INC.
    Inventor: Balasubramaniam Raju
  • Patent number: 11632461
    Abstract: The present application describes providing an attestation level to a received communication. The attestation level may be used to communicate a level of security to a network or a called party that receives the communication. The attestation level associated with the communication may indicate to a destination network and/or recipient that the phone number associated with the communication is secure and/or the telephone number has not been spoofed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLC
    Inventors: Richard D. Moore, Joseph Roy, Joseph Scivicque, Matthew C. Hess, George Wendell McFalls
  • Patent number: 11616698
    Abstract: A method for processing a data package to be sent using an application, by an originator of the data package to at least one recipient, the data package having an associated mode of communication, the method comprising the steps of analysing the data package to determine content of at least one field of the data package. The method also comprises the step of generating a characteristic of the data package, wherein the characteristic is based on the mode of communication and the content of the at least one field of the data package; and an incorrect action by the originator of the data package based on the characteristic is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: Egress Software Technologies IP Limited
    Inventors: Anthony Pepper, Neil Larkins, John Goodyear, Ian Macinnes, Hannah Clough
  • Patent number: 11611844
    Abstract: The invention generally relates to systems and methods that enable processor readable instruction(s) (e.g., an un-wired algorithm, an un-wired application, an un-wired services, etc.), stored in processor readable media(s), to be accessed and/or processed on mobile electronic devices (e.g., “mobile phones”) and/or networks such that, for example, when activated by user(s) and/or authorized parties, the mobile electronic device's alert (e.g., audiovisual alert, vibrator, etc.) can be deactivated. Further, when the un-wired application is activated customizable replies can automatically and/or substantially automatically be communicated in response to missed communication attempts (e.g., voice calls, video calls, texts, e-mail, etc.).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Inventor: Joseph Schuman
  • Patent number: 11601350
    Abstract: The present invention allows a user to review the routing of various communications. The system receives incoming communications for analysis by a smart routing engine (SRE) software module. The SRE module analyzes the communication at various system routing points, which is used by SRE to route the communication to an appropriate party. The SRE updates a routing log at each point to ensure a record of the reasons for routing the communication in a certain way. The routing log passes with the communication. This ensures that the ultimate recipient of the communication understands why they have received the communication and reduces the time required for a communication to be acted upon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: Verint Americas Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen McSwiggan
  • Patent number: 11540134
    Abstract: The disclosed computer-implemented method for proactive call spam/scam protection may include intercepting network traffic by the at least one processor employing a network extension feature of an operating system of a computing device. The method may additionally include capturing, by the at least one processor employing the network extension feature, a phone number in the network traffic. The method may also include comparing, by the at least one processor employing the network extension feature, the phone number to a plurality of entries in a spam/scam repository. The method may further include performing, by the at least one processor, a security action in response to the comparison. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: Gen Digital Inc.
    Inventors: Anand Darak, Sharad Mhaske
  • Patent number: 11483428
    Abstract: A method and system for automatically detecting and blocking robocalls. A robocall application on a server network device detects whether incoming calls from a first network device requesting a connection to a second network device are live voice calls are robocalls including natural synthesized voice data or artificial synthesized voice data. The robocall application on a server network device also detects whether incoming or outgoing calls from a third-party network device used to connect the first network device to the second network device are live voice calls or are robocalls including natural synthesized voice data or artificial synthesized voice data. Robocalls are automatically detected and blocked.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Inventors: Joseph D. Grabowski, Ernest F. Falco, III
  • Patent number: 11438389
    Abstract: A system described herein may provide a technique for handling call requests, prior to the performance of a call setup procedure, based on attributes of a calling User Equipment (“UE”) and/or a called UE. A Messaging Application Server may receive a call request, from the calling UE and to the called UE, identify a category or event type associated with the call request, and notify the called UE of the call request, including the category or event type. Different categories or event types may be associated with different sets of eligible actions to perform. The called UE may indicate a particular action, associated with the identified category or event type, and the MAS may handle the call request according to the particular action (e.g., reject the call request or proceed with a call setup procedure).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
    Inventors: Yi Jing, Timothy M. Dwight, Lulia Ann Barakat
  • Patent number: 11395147
    Abstract: A telecommunications service provider's real time analysis system analyzes communications data to detect potentially fraudulent communications data, where the analysis is performed in real time in the routing path of the communications data. The communications data may include calls (e.g., SS7, VoIP, etc. based calls) and messages (e.g., SMS, MMS, etc.). The real time analysis system rejects potentially fraudulent communications data and non-fraudulent communications data in order to be used in real time in the routing path of the communications data. A rejection by the real time analysis system may cause non-fraudulent communications data to still be sent to the intended destination of the communications data. The real time analysis system can be in the routing path of the communications data without further routing non-fraudulent communications data traffic to the next appropriate hop in the routing path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: TATA COMMUNICATIONS (AMERICA) INC.
    Inventors: Carlos Miranda, Manish Arora, Kumar Thirumalaiappan, Brian Dowd
  • Patent number: 11381482
    Abstract: The present invention allows a user to review the routing of various communications. The system receives incoming communications for analysis by a smart routing engine (SRE) software module. The SRE module analyzes the communication at various system routing points, which is used by SRE to route the communication to an appropriate party. The SRE updates a routing log at each point to ensure a record of the reasons for routing the communication in a certain way. The routing log passes with the communication. This ensures that the ultimate recipient of the communication understands why they have received the communication and reduces the time required for a communication to be acted upon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Verint Americas Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen McSwiggan
  • Patent number: 11323562
    Abstract: The disclosure provides a communication method. The method includes: receiving a call request forwarded by an operator server, the call request being sent by a calling terminal to the operator server; generating a transferring instruction in response to the call request being a crank call; and sending the transferring instruction to the operator server, such that the operator server establishes a call connection between the calling terminal and a smart device based on the transferring instruction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: BEIJING BAIDU NETCOM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jun Dai, Guorui Huang
  • Patent number: 11218379
    Abstract: A method for processing a data package to be sent using an application, by an originator of the data package to at least one recipient, the data package having an associated mode of communication, the method comprising the steps of analysing the data package to determine content of at least one field of the data package. The method also comprises the step of generating a characteristic of the data package, wherein the characteristic is based on the mode of communication and the content of the at least one field of the data package; and an incorrect action by the originator of the data package based on the characteristic is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Egress Software Technologies IP Limited
    Inventors: Anthony Pepper, Neil Larkins, John Goodyear, Ian Macinnes, Hannah Clough
  • Patent number: 11178275
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for detecting an abnormality of a caller are provided. The method includes at the beginning of a call, acquiring, by a terminal device, real voice/video data of a call object who needs abnormality detection and a corresponding pre-trained multi-stage neural network detection model, during the call, collecting, by the terminal device, call data according to a preset data collection policy, for each call object, inputting the currently collected call data and the real voice/video data of the call object into the model of the call object, and determining whether the call object is abnormal according to a detection result output by the model, in which the call data includes image data and/or voice data, and an identification manner adopted by the model includes face identification, voiceprint identification, limb movement identification, and/or lip language identification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Chengjun Wang, Xin Liu, Feng Tang, Suxia Li, Bo Peng, Lei Wan
  • Patent number: 11153435
    Abstract: A method and system for automatically blocking robocalls. A set of incoming call data is captured from the incoming call. The set of incoming call data, including captured audio data, is checked with plural different tests to determine if the robocall includes a voice call component. The plural different tests provide additional levels of detection for robocalls. The method and system automatically identify and process robocalls and help prevent call spoofing and neighbor spoofing by robocalls.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Inventors: Joseph D. Grabowski, Ernest F. Falco, III
  • Patent number: 11095772
    Abstract: Systems and methods for network-controlled scam/robocall handling are described. When an incoming call for a user device is received, a user may elect to add the originating number of the incoming call to a block list or a report list at the network level. Future calls from the originating number, if placed on the block list, are then blocked by the network from being received by the user device. Numbers on the report list may be moved by the user from the report list to the block list, and numbers on the block list may be moved from the block list to the report list. Also, the user may request additional information in order to determine whether to add the originating number to the block list or the report list.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Muhammad Ejaz Sial, Shujaur Mufti
  • Patent number: 11076044
    Abstract: One example method of operation may include determining a call received from a calling party and intended for a subscriber device has an elevated likelihood of being a scam call, determining a percentage of calls over a current period of time being filtered as scam calls by a carrier server, when the percentage of calls being filtered as scam calls during the current period of time is above a call threshold percentage, retrieving call history information associated with a subscriber profile of the subscriber device, identifying one or more call patterns from the call history information of the subscriber profile corresponding to the received call, and determining whether to permit the received call based on the identified one or more call patterns.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: FIRST ORION CORP.
    Inventor: Samuel Kenton Welch
  • Patent number: 10993115
    Abstract: A telecommunications service provider's real time analysis system analyzes communications data to detect potentially fraudulent communications data, where the analysis is performed in real time in the routing path of the communications data. The communications data may include calls (e.g., SS7, VoIP, etc. based calls) and messages (e.g., SMS, MMS, etc.). The real time analysis system rejects potentially fraudulent communications data and non-fraudulent communications data in order to be used in real time in the routing path of the communications data. A rejection by the real time analysis system may cause non-fraudulent communications data to still be sent to the intended destination of the communications data. The real time analysis system can be in the routing path of the communications data without further routing non-fraudulent communications data traffic to the next appropriate hop in the routing path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: TATA COMMUNICATIONS (AMERICA) INC.
    Inventors: Carlos Miranda, Manish Arora, Kumar Thirumalaiappan, Brian Dowd
  • Patent number: 10963496
    Abstract: Described herein are systems and methods for facilitating the information entry and task updates to a task database in a cloud server. The task database is in synchronization with a customer relationship management (CRM) system. The systems and methods described herein enable users to update the task database and enter information into the task database in a timely manner such that the task database can stay updated. The updated database can be used to construct a suggested task set at the beginning of a period of time to meet a preset target sales value for the end of the period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: CLARI, INC.
    Inventor: Balasubramaniam Raju
  • Patent number: 10911719
    Abstract: A videophone system includes a processor which selectively sets a television (TV) broadcast program viewing function mode and videophone function mode in response to manual operation of a remote control, a decoder which performs, in the TV program view mode, a TV program-use decode function for decoding a broadcast program signal received from a TV tuner to thereby display it on a display screen while producing audio sounds by loudspeakers and which performs, in the videophone function mode a videophone-use decode function for decoding a videophone signal received from a distant party to thereby display on the screen an image of the distant party using the screen and speakers, and an encoder which performs a videophone-use encode function for encoding a video signal from a camera and a voice signal from a microphone to generate a videophone signal, which is sent to the distant party via a network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: Maxell, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazunori Iwabuchi, Hiroki Mizosoe, Mutsumi Shimoda, Setiawan Bondan, Manabu Sasamoto
  • Patent number: 10873860
    Abstract: A telecommunications service provider's real time analysis system analyzes communications data to detect potentially fraudulent communications data, where the analysis is performed in real time in the routing path of the communications data. The communications data may include calls (e.g., SS7, VoIP, etc. based calls) and messages (e.g., SMS, MMS, etc.). The real time analysis system rejects potentially fraudulent communications data and non-fraudulent communications data in order to be used in real time in the routing path of the communications data. A rejection by the real time analysis system may cause non-fraudulent communications data to still be sent to the intended destination of the communications data. The real time analysis system can be in the routing path of the communications data without further routing non-fraudulent communications data traffic to the next appropriate hop in the routing path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: TATA COMMUNICATIONS (AMERICA) INC.
    Inventors: Carlos Miranda, Manish Arora, Kumar Thirumalaiappan, Brian Dowd
  • Patent number: 10855837
    Abstract: The sections of the call unnecessary for reproduction are grasped without wasting time and labor. The call recording system includes a call information entry unit to enter operation information of call terminals which is acquired by a call control unit into a terminal operation information table; a recorded information entry unit to enter recorded information of the call which are acquired by a call recording unit into a recorded information table; and a call information reproduction unit to recognize sections unnecessary for reproduction of the recorded information based on the operation information of the call terminals so as to display a reproduction screen including a result on the recognized sections on a display section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: HITACHI INFORMATION & TELECOMMUNICATION ENGINEERING, LTD.
    Inventors: Terumi Saito, Takashi Sugiyama
  • Patent number: 10778841
    Abstract: Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing telephone solicitation prevention using enhanced voice over Internet protocol (“VoIP”) functionalities in conjunction with STIR/SHAKEN protocols. In various embodiments, in response to receiving a call setup message or a call request from a calling party, a call server might send a verification request to a secure telephone identity (“STI”) verification server (“VS”). The STI-VS might verify and send the call setup message to a no solicitation application server, which might instruct a media server to connect to a first gateway device and to play a no solicitation message requesting a response from the calling party, and which might verify whether the response is an appropriate response. If so, a call is established. If not, the call might be disconnected and/or forwarded to a voicemail server to play a voicemail message to the calling party in accordance with preferences of the called party.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC
    Inventor: Joseph A. Scivicque
  • Patent number: 10778732
    Abstract: A method of control, by a piece of management equipment of a first telecommunication domain, of the authenticity of at least one relationship datum relating to the initiator of a communication and indicated in a message for establishing the communication originating from a second telecommunication domain and destined for the first telecommunication domain. The method includes, upon receipt of the message by the management equipment, extracting the at least one relationship datum from the message; searching for the at least one relationship datum in at least one database of the relationship data associated with the first domain, and rejecting the communication when an occurrence of the at least one relationship datum is found in the database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: ORANGE
    Inventor: Bertrand Bouvet
  • Patent number: 10701315
    Abstract: One embodiment relates to a video communication device and video communication method, capable of preventing a user who is making a video communication from being exposed to an inappropriate image from the other party and may provide a video communication method comprising establishing a video communication session with a first terminal, receiving an image stream from the first terminal through the video communication session, examining at least one first image selected from images included in the image stream, displaying a message suggesting reporting a user of the first terminal as an abusive user when a second image included in the at least one first image includes an abusive element, receiving input of confirmation in response to the displaying the message, and transmitting the reporting a user of the first terminal as an abusive user and the second image to a server in response to the received input of confirmation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: HYPERCONNECT, INC.
    Inventors: Sangil Ahn, Kangsik Jung, Hyountaek Yong
  • Patent number: 10659485
    Abstract: The present invention relates to communications methods and apparatus dynamically detecting and/or mitigating anomalies in communications systems/networks. An exemplary embodiment includes the steps of: processing a set of call detail records (CDRS), each CDR in said set of CDRs corresponding to an individual call and including multiple information fields providing information about the individual call to which the CDR corresponds, said processing including: generating from said CDRs, on a per CDR basis one or more Field GroupIDs using a hash function; generating for CDRs corresponding to a first Field GroupID a first set of key performance indicators (KPIs), said first set of (KPIs) including one or more KPIs corresponding to the first Field GroupID, said one or more KPIs including at least a first KPI; and determining that a first KPI violation has occurred for the first Field GroupID when the first KPI exceeds a dynamic performance threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc.
    Inventors: Shaun Jaikarran Bharrat, Tie Ju Chen
  • Patent number: 10645216
    Abstract: The present invention relates to communications methods and apparatus for determining whether a received call originated from an artificial intelligence system and the call handling procedures to be used on the received call based on whether or not the call was determined to have been originated from an artificial intelligence system. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of: receiving a first call at a communications device including a first artificial intelligence system; determining whether said first call originated from a second artificial intelligence system; and when said first call is determined to have originated from a second artificial intelligence system performing one or more artificial intelligence call handling operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc.
    Inventor: Justin Hart
  • Patent number: 10554812
    Abstract: A method and system for controlling unwanted phone calls. In response to a determination that a phone number of a current incoming call to a user is not a phone number in a contact list including phone numbers of the user's contacts and to a determination that the phone number of the current incoming call is a phone number in a phone list of a shared table, the shared table for the previous call duration is analyzed for the previous call duration and the previous sentiment of the user during a previous incoming phone call for the phone number of the current incoming call to the user. It is ascertained, from analyzing the shared table for the previous call duration, that the previous call duration is less than a predetermined call duration and the previous sentiment is a negative sentiment, and in response the current incoming call is rejected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Geetha Adinarayan, Dinesh Radhakrishnan, Akshat Dixit, Gandhi Sivakumar
  • Patent number: 10324910
    Abstract: A contact record processing method includes: detecting whether a use time of a phone number stored in a contact record is greater than a use term of the phone number; and deleting the phone number from the contact record when the use time is greater than the use term.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: Xiaomi Inc.
    Inventors: Guilin Liu, Changliang Wu, Peng Zhang
  • Patent number: 10313516
    Abstract: A user device (e.g., a mobile phone) may receive unwanted calls on a regular enough basis to irritate a user of the user device. Systems and/or methods, described herein, may identify unwanted calls in an automated fashion, and may allow users to quickly make intelligent decisions as to whether they should answer an incoming call from an unknown number or not. Potentially unwanted calls may be blocked entirely, to further enhance users' experiences. The determination of whether a caller is an unwanted caller may be refined in an ongoing process, in order to ensure that calls are being properly blocked or allowed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Inventor: Sadiq Aziz Ansari
  • Patent number: 10212279
    Abstract: Systems, methods and tools for leveraging computer networks, data sharing, data analytics and sentiment analysis to control the receipt of unwanted telephone calls and preventing unwanted telephone calls from disturbing a user through the implementation of contacts list and/or a shared table of unique calls. Contact lists and shared tables of unique calls may identify incoming calls that may be directed to the user or filtered out based on whether the incoming call's number is in the user's contact list and/or based on the past experiences of the individual users engaging with the incoming caller. Embodiments may track the past call durations for unique incoming number and track the sentiment of users during these calls and use the collected call data and sentiment determine whether subsequent incoming calls from a phone number should be forwarded to the user's telephone enabled device or automatically responded to with further instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Geetha Adinarayan, Dinesh Radhakrishnan, Akshat Dixit, Gandhi Sivakumar
  • Patent number: 10212278
    Abstract: Systems, methods and tools for leveraging computer networks, data sharing, data analytics and sentiment analysis to control the receipt of unwanted telephone calls and preventing unwanted telephone calls from disturbing a user through the implementation of contacts list and/or a shared table of unique calls. Contact lists and shared tables of unique calls may identify incoming calls that may be directed to the user or filtered out based on whether the incoming call's number is in the user's contact list and/or based on the past experiences of the individual users engaging with the incoming caller. Embodiments may track the past call durations for unique incoming number and track the sentiment of users during these calls and use the collected call data and sentiment determine whether subsequent incoming calls from a phone number should be forwarded to the user's telephone enabled device or automatically responded to with further instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Geetha Adinarayan, Dinesh Radhakrishnan, Akshat Dixit, Gandhi Sivakumar
  • Patent number: 10205825
    Abstract: A system can be operable to receive an automated call from a communications device, determine whether preferences associated with a called party identity), is applicable to the automated call, and determine whether a condition that precludes acceptance of the automated call is present. The determination of whether the condition is present can be based on information received from a sensory device coupled to the user device. In response to the condition being determined to be present, the automated call can be denied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Sangar Dowlatkhah, Venson Shaw
  • Patent number: 10142494
    Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for enforcing restrictions or compliance rules specified by a dialer application or messaging application executed by a client device such as a smartphone. Such a device can be managed by an enterprise and assigned to a particular user. Restrictions can be based on a location of the client device, a network to which the client device is communicating, or other environmental variables.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: AIRWATCH LLC
    Inventors: Alan Dabbiere, Erich Stuntebeck
  • Patent number: 10009461
    Abstract: A user device (e.g., a mobile phone) may receive unwanted calls on a regular enough basis to irritate a user of the user device. Systems and/or methods, described herein, may identify unwanted calls in an automated fashion, and may allow users to quickly make intelligent decisions as to whether they should answer an incoming call from an unknown number or not. Potentially unwanted calls may be blocked entirely, to further enhance users' experiences. The determination of whether a caller is an unwanted caller may be refined in an ongoing process, in order to ensure that calls are being properly blocked or allowed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Inventor: Sadiq Aziz Ansari
  • Patent number: 9723484
    Abstract: One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprises logic, where the logic corresponds to an application associated with a remote device and a remote system. When executed, the logic is operable to receive, from the remote system, data identifying a plurality of compromising entities, identify a pending outgoing communication initiated by the remote device, and identify information regarding a destination of the outgoing communication. Additionally, the logic is operable to determine an entity associated with the destination of the outgoing communication and determine that the entity associated with the destination matches at least one of the plurality of compromising entities based on comparing the data identifying the plurality of compromising entities and the entity associated with the destination of the outgoing communication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: Bank of America Corporation
    Inventors: David N. Hillis, Manu J. Kurian
  • Patent number: 9706048
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer readable media for nuisance call management. In one example, a method includes receiving, at a telecommunications signaling computer system for routing telecommunications signaling messages in a core network of a telecommunications signaling network, a message from a subscriber's user equipment (UE) indicating that the subscriber has flagged a first call as a nuisance call. The method includes storing, in a subscriber-level nuisance call database, an association between a calling party identifier for the calling party and a subscriber identifier for the subscriber. The method includes, in response to a second call from the calling party to the subscriber, blocking, at the telecommunications signaling computer system, the second call using the association between the calling party identifier and the subscriber identifier in the subscriber-level nuisance call database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
    Inventor: Travis Earl Russell
  • Patent number: 9294616
    Abstract: Arrangements described herein include identifying a voice communication session established between a first communication device and a second communication device and, based on the voice communication session established between the first communication device and the second communication device, identifying a plurality of contacts who potentially may be the second user. A list including at least a name of each of the plurality of contacts who potentially may be the second user is presented to a first user using the first communication device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jonathan F. Brunn, Jessica W. Forrester, Stephen C. Hess, Jeffrey R. Hoy
  • Patent number: 9294617
    Abstract: Arrangements described herein include identifying a voice communication session established between a first communication device and a second communication device and, based on the voice communication session established between the first communication device and the second communication device, identifying a plurality of contacts who potentially may be the second user. A list including at least a name of each of the plurality of contacts who potentially may be the second user is presented to a first user using the first communication device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2016
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jonathan F. Brunn, Jessica W. Forrester, Stephen C. Hess, Jeffrey R. Hoy
  • Patent number: 9277179
    Abstract: A method and computing system for enabling a video conference between a plurality of video conference participants. A video feed associated with the video conference is broadcast to a plurality of viewers. A plurality of interactions are received from a plurality of submitters included within the plurality of viewers. A chosen interaction is selected from the plurality of interactions. The submitter associated with the chosen interaction is invited to join the video conference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Amit Fulay, Chee H. Chew, Brian David Marsh, David Scrymgeour Bennett, William Kuo-Wei Wen, Eduardo Fernandez, Jonas E. Lindberg
  • Patent number: 9036797
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes a system, method, and computer readable medium for providing information of a calling party to an alert party, wherein the calling party is in communication with the receiving party in a communications network. The method includes receiving a message from a calling party to a receiving party and performing a lookup of information relating to the calling party in a database, wherein the lookup is based on an identifier associated with the message, Thereafter, an alert is sent to the alert party if the calling party information is unavailable in a contact list of the receiving party.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: I D YOU, LLC
    Inventors: Monica Rose Martino, Kevin V. Nguyen, M. Gregory Smith
  • Patent number: 9031217
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling a call volume for an office that serves as a protecting site for another office in a packet network are disclosed. For example, the method collects one or more customer registration counts from one or more session border controllers located in a first office, determines if the one or more customer registration counts have reached or exceeded a threshold. The method directs all of said one or more session border controllers located in said first office to enact one or more throttling rules if the one or more customer registration counts have reached or exceeded the threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Chaoxin Qiu, Robert Dailey, Arshad Khan, Satish Parolkar, Jeffrey Scruggs
  • Patent number: 9026160
    Abstract: A method and system for priority handling of a dispatch call in a dispatch network is disclosed. A dispatch call request message from a mobile communications unit is received at a dispatch cell site. The cell site determines whether a DAP is configured for operation in a call request reject mode. The cell site determines a priority level of the mobile communications unit if the DAP is configured in the call request reject mode. When the priority level meets a defined threshold, the cell site forwards the dispatch call request message to the DAP and the DAP processes the dispatch call request message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Nextel Communications, Inc.
    Inventor: Steven W. Barrow
  • Patent number: 9025745
    Abstract: A system and method for reducing unwanted telemarketing calls may include storing a contact list for users of a telephone assigned to an associated telephone number. An incoming telephone call from a caller may be intercepted and a determination may be made as to whether the caller is in the contact list. In response to determining that the caller is in the contact list, the incoming call may be connected to the telephone assigned to the called telephone number. Otherwise, in response to determining that the caller is not in the contact list, the caller may be prompted with an audible message, and, in response to the caller responding to the audible message by entering a first response, the incoming call may be blocked from connecting to the called telephone. Otherwise, in response to a second response, the incoming call may be connected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC
    Inventor: Shekhar Gupta
  • Patent number: 9020123
    Abstract: A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a server having a controller to obtain billing data associated with a plurality of calls over a Voice Over Internet Protocol network, determine special service calls being made based on the billing data, monitor for the special service calls being associated with at least one of one calling number or one network node, and determine an undesired condition based at least in part on the special service calls being made from the one calling number or through the one network node exceeding a threshold. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Li-Jin Chung, Yu-Lein Kung, Jeffrey Stein, Ching-Chyuan Shieh
  • Patent number: 9014359
    Abstract: An analyzer resource receives call information about outbound phone calls from multiple phone numbers to target phone numbers in a phone network. The analyzer resource analyzes the call information to detect likely unwanted call activity. Based on the analyzing, the analyzer resource produces a list of phone numbers from which one or more entities originate unwanted calls to the subscribers in the phone network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC
    Inventors: Howard Leigh Pfeffer, Matthew John Cannon, Jeffrey James Lindsay
  • Patent number: 9008298
    Abstract: A method may include receiving, from a network, a call request in a communication device, the call request including an identification of a calling party; notifying a user of the communication device of the call request; receiving an indication to deny the call request; prompting the user of the communication device, in response to receiving the indication to deny the call request, regarding automatically denying call requests having the identification of the calling party; receiving, from the user, an indication to deny call requests having the identification of the calling party; and sending an instruction to the network to automatically deny the call requests having the identification of the calling party.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen Wright, Stuart Langham, Hinal K. Balia
  • Patent number: 9002333
    Abstract: A reputation system aids in the prevention of unwanted spam or malicious communications from being sent to a mobile device, such as a cell phone. A collaborative process is used to determine ratings for a collection of source identifications of the communications. The source identifications are caller identifications (IDs) of a corresponding voice or SMS communication. A collection of opinions is maintained regarding the caller IDs. The reputation system then uses a method of making automatic predictions about the caller IDs by collecting caller ID information from many users to populate the database of maintained opinions. As such, caller IDs of users who have sent spam or malicious messages can be blocked by using collaborative information from many users, as opposed to relying on individual users to block unwanted communications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Trend Micro Inc.
    Inventors: Ning Tong, Gang Chen
  • Publication number: 20150086001
    Abstract: A method for filtering a telephone call is provided. The method may comprise receiving from a caller the telephone call directed to a communication device associated with an intended call recipient. The received telephone call may be scored based on predetermined scoring criteria to create a score indicative of a desirability of the telephone call. Furthermore, the method may comprise comparing the score to a predetermined threshold score. Based on the comparison, the method may further comprise selectively classifying the telephone call as an unwanted telephone call. Furthermore, the method may comprise selectively rejecting the unwanted telephone call.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2013
    Publication date: March 26, 2015
    Inventors: Toby Farrand, Kevin Snow, Dennis Peng