Patents Examined by William Deane, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8494141
    Abstract: Rules-based teleconferencing that may include receiving criteria regarding invitees to a teleconference call, generating rules based on the criteria, and generating a notification regarding the invitees to the teleconference call based on the rules. The criteria may include a quorum of a minimum number of invitees that must be in attendance at the teleconference call or a list of specific invitees required to be in attendance at the teleconference call. A processing device may include a network interface, one or more second interfaces configured to establish a connection between at least three telephones, and a controller configured to establish a teleconference call between the at least three telephones, receive criteria regarding invitees to the teleconference call, generate rules based on the criteria, and generate a notification regarding the invitees to the teleconference call based on the rules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jana H. Jenkins, Lloyd W. Allen, Jr., Steven M. Miller
  • Patent number: 8494138
    Abstract: Subscriber profile data is managed. The subscriber profile data is associated with a communications service subscribed to by a subscriber. A request to retrieve the subscriber profile data is received based upon a client sending a request for the subscriber profile data. The client hosts a user interface configured to allow the subscriber to obtain and update the subscriber profile data. The subscriber profile data is retrieved from the communications network in response to the request to retrieve the subscriber profile data. A request to update the subscriber profile data is received based upon the client sending a request to update the subscriber profile data. An update for the subscriber profile data is forwarded to the communications network based upon receiving the request to update the subscriber profile data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Paul G. Baniak, Kristin Chambers, Katherine L. Krein, Christopher H. Rolwes, Terry L. Vieth, Tracy L. Brokaw, Mary B. Clark
  • Patent number: 8483373
    Abstract: Methods of avoiding or minimizing cost of stateful connections between application servers (ASs) and S-CSCF nodes in an IMS network with multiple domains. S-CSCF service logic is provided and connected to a co-located AS. The IMS includes a network operator administration domain and an MVNO service domain, and the S-CSCF logic and AS are maintained in the same domain, e.g., the MVNO or network operator domain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2013
    Assignee: Aylus Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Shamim A. Naqvi, Prasad S. Dorbala, Mahesh N. Ganmukhi, Ellis L. Wong
  • Patent number: 8477759
    Abstract: Packet filtering is performed to detect for and discard malformed data packets that would be discarded by a wireless network if received from a wireless device. A cdma2000 network may restart a PPP session upon receiving (1) malformed data packets with source IPv4 addresses different from IPv4 addresses (if any) assigned to the wireless device or (2) malformed data packets with source IPv6 addresses having prefixes different from prefixes (if any) associated with the PPP session. The wireless device may receive data packets from a terminal equipment coupled to the wireless device and/or applications running at the wireless device. The wireless device may filter these data packets with packet filters to detect for malformed data packets with invalid IPv4 addresses, invalid IPv6 address prefixes, and so on. The wireless device discards malformed data packets and sends the remaining data packets to the wireless network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Jeffrey Alan Dyck, Marcello Lioy
  • Patent number: 8467320
    Abstract: Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) devices are invited to a conference bridge based on a pre-defined criteria for the conference bridge (e.g., passengers on a plane. The conference invite messages are transmitted using Internet Protocol, which they may or may not accept. The invited VoIP users may be determined based on their physical proximity to the initial caller and other pre-determined characteristics. A VoIP soft switch includes conference bridges that eliminate the conventional requirement that they dial the phone number of another specific VoIP communications device. Instead, location information relating to the initial VoIP user is passed to the VoIP conference bridge, either from the user's VoIP communication device or from their respective location server. Location and other information is then compared by the VoIP soft switch against other VoIP devices, to find potential VoIP conference participants.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Jon Croy, John Gordon Hines, Darrin Johnson, Kathleen Lendvay
  • Patent number: 8442198
    Abstract: Techniques for multi-party conferencing are provided. A plurality of audio streams is received from a plurality of conference-enabled devices associated with a conference call. Each audio stream includes a corresponding encoded audio signal generated based on sound received at the corresponding conference-enabled device. Two or more of the audio streams are selected based upon an audio characteristic (e.g., a loudness of a person speaking). The selected audio streams are transmitted to each conference-enabled device associated with the conference call. At each conference-enabled device, the selected audio streams are decoded into a plurality of decoded audio streams, the decoded audio streams are combined into a combined audio signal, and the combined audio signal is played from one or more loudspeakers to be listened to by a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2013
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Wilf LeBlanc
  • Patent number: 8442209
    Abstract: A system and method for processing out-of-order caller responses during automated call processing is provided. A call session of a caller into a call center is monitored. The call session includes a non-sequential dialogue between the caller and the call center. An interaction with the caller is based on a script. Ordered information-gathering queries, including automated voice prompts are sent to the caller by executing the script. Responses from the caller are evaluated against a topic of conversation addressed in the script through call disposition criteria. A determination is made as to whether an affect on the ordering by the call disposition criteria is met through the responses. The ordering of the information-gathering queries is dynamically modified prior to selecting a next of the information-gathering queries to send.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2013
    Assignee: Intellisist, Inc.
    Inventors: Adam Waalkes, Alastair Sutherland, Gilad Odinak, Haodong (Howard) Jiang
  • Patent number: 8437461
    Abstract: Conference participant finder methods and apparatuses are provided. The conference participant finder maintains a record of expected conference participants. After the scheduled start time of a conference, expected conference participants are automatically contacted and reminded to join the conference. The contact address used to contact an expected conference participant can be obtained with reference to presence information. In addition, information regarding the status of conference participants can be displayed to a conference host.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Avaya Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey G. Gartner, Humphrey D. Chen
  • Patent number: 8428246
    Abstract: A server device configured to receive first-information associated with a call that was received by a first server device; receive second-information associated with the call, where the second-information is associated with processing of the call by the first server device and at least one second server device; generate a unified record associated with the call, where the unified record includes at least some of the first-information and at least some of the second-information; determine, based on the unified record, that a condition exists with respect to the call; and send an instruction to perform a customer operation with respect to the call when the condition is determined to exist, where the customer operation includes increasing a priority for handling of the call by a customer service agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
    Inventors: Kannan Venugopal, Prateek Mehrotra, Vishal Bhasin, Sumit K Mukherjee, Ashokkumar Kannan
  • Patent number: 8428244
    Abstract: A system for cross-registration of a phone device is provided. The system includes a local call processing system that stores phone device information for a local phone that is operable to be used by a user; and a remote call processing system that stores a user phone profile for the user, the remote call processing system being operable to generate a visitor registration for the local phone device. The phone device is operable to use the visitor registration to register with the remote call processing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Edward Chungming Chen, Christopher Edwin Pearce, Chunfeng Huang
  • Patent number: 8428051
    Abstract: A switchboard device and methods of operation of same are disclosed. Embodiments of the invention may provide a flexible means of interconnecting wideband and narrowband communications interfaces, where wideband communications interfaces may transfer low-band data and high-band data, and narrowband communication interfaces may transfer low-band data. Low-band data may be combined and sent to a narrowband communications interface or a wideband communications interface. High-band data may be combined and sent to a wideband communications interface. The low-band data may represent audio signals below a predetermined frequency, while the high-band data may represent audio signals above the predetermined frequency. The predetermined frequency may be, for example, approximately 4 kHz. The spectral mask of the low-band data may meet the spectral mask of G.712. Methods of operating embodiments of the present invention are included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Wilf LeBlanc, Phil Houghton, Kenneth Cheung
  • Patent number: 8416940
    Abstract: A subscriber accommodating apparatus which receives a call connection request from at least one subscriber terminal includes a control unit. The control unit compares a number of sessions under connection with a predetermined threshold value and controls a transfer of the call connection request according to the comparison result, when receiving the call connection request from the subscriber terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2013
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Youichi Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8406402
    Abstract: A technique for service change and service fallback in intelligent networks is described. The network comprises a service control functional component (516) and a service switching functional component (518). A method implementation of the technique includes the step of obtaining (4) from the service switching functional component (518) service preference information for at least one of two or more services indicating a preferred service for a user equipment (510). Further, a service is selected (5) based on the service preference information and service availability information relating to required resources for at least one of the two or more services. The determined service for service change or service fallback is then indicated (6) to the service switching functional component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2013
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
    Inventors: Blaglo Malone, Alfredo Somma
  • Patent number: 8401170
    Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for establishing a communication connection between a client of an organization and an agent of the organization. The method includes the steps of an automatic call distributor of the organization receiving a call from the client, the automatic call distributor detecting an IM handle of the client from the call and the automatic call distributor establishing a VOIP connection between the client and agent of the organization using the IM handle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Aspect Software, Inc.
    Inventor: Prabhuram Mohan
  • Patent number: 8401167
    Abstract: A customized routing service platform for routing international communications includes a receiver that receives, from an international gateway via a network node, international communication origination data for an international communication to a customer's communication address. A database server receives customer routing instructions from the customer via a web server. The database server stores the received customer routing instructions. The database server also retrieves stored customer routing instructions, and determines a destination communication address based on the international communication origination data and the retrieved customer routing instructions. A forwarder forwards the destination communication address to the network node for routing the international communication to the destination communication address.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: William H. Allen, Susanne Marie Crockett, Robert B. Lasken
  • Patent number: 8401166
    Abstract: Systems and methods for mitigating phantom call traffic in a communication system are disclosed. A call may be received at a communications exchange. A jurisdiction of the call may be determined in real-time, and egress signaling information and a route of the call to a terminating local exchange may be determined based on the jurisdiction. At least a portion of the egress signaling information may be provided to the terminating exchange in call signaling and/or in call detail billing records so that the terminating exchange is enabled to correctly charge for call termination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: Peerless Network, Inc.
    Inventors: Scott D. Kell, James E. Brewer, Anthony J. Hiller
  • Patent number: 8379823
    Abstract: A communication system that includes multiple conferencing devices connected in a daisy-chain configuration is communicably connected to far-end conference participants. Multiple conferencing devices provide improved sound quality to the far-end participants by reducing aural artifacts resulting from reverberation and echo. The daisy-chain communication system also reduces the processing and transmission time of the near-end audio signal by processing and transmitting the audio signal in frequency domain. Each conferencing device in the daisy chain performs signal conditioning on its audio signal before transmitting it in the frequency domain to a mixer. The output signal of the mixer is converted back to the time domain before being transmitted to the far-end. The daisy-chain configuration also provides a distributed bridge to external communication devices that can be connected to each conferencing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2013
    Assignee: Polycom, Inc.
    Inventors: Kiril Ratmanski, Eric David Elias
  • Patent number: 8374332
    Abstract: A method, system and apparatus for automatic call completion in a directory assistance system in concert with the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In accordance with the present invention, a method for automatic call completion in a directory assistance system can include receiving and processing a directory assistance request from a calling party over the PSTN. An address for the calling party can be retrieved from the PSTN and an address for a telephone number produced by the directory assistance request can be second retrieved from within the directory assistance system. Prospective telephone charges can be computed based upon the retrieved addresses and the calling party can be prompted with the computed prospective charges. Finally, a call can be automatically completed between the calling party and the telephone number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas E Creamer, Peeyush Jaiswal, Victor S Moore
  • Patent number: 8363802
    Abstract: A method and system for providing a caller-controlled demarcation service is described. An embodiment of the present invention is advantageously implemented as an advanced service in an intelligent telecommunications network. An embodiment of the present invention allows the user to specify an interval for a telephone communication. A telecommunication switch times the communication and when the interval expires, the switch either plays a tone to signal the expiration or disconnects the call. The switch may enforce the interval for calls originating or terminating at the subscriber's phone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventors: Hong Thi Nguyen, Linda Ann Roberts, Edward Michael Silver
  • Patent number: 8363812
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method and system for identifying a first dialog between an element and a server and a second dialog between the server and a first device, wherein the first dialog and second dialog are connected to form an active call, identifying a call park request code from the first device through a third dialog between the first device and the server, creating a fourth dialog between the server and a parking address based on the call park request code, disconnecting the first dialog and second dialog, connecting the first dialog with the fourth dialog to park the active call, identifying a call pickup request code from a second device through a fifth dialog between the second device and the server, disconnecting the first dialog and the fourth dialog, and connecting the first dialog with the fifth dialog to resume the active call.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
    Inventor: David C Robbins