Patents by Inventor Cliff Didcock

Cliff Didcock has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10057411
    Abstract: Techniques to access messaging services for branch offices are described. In one embodiment, for example, an apparatus may include a network interface for a packet-switched network, a private branch exchange for a circuit-switched network, and a gateway to couple to the network interface and the private branch exchange. The gateway may be operative to establish a packet-switched call connection with the network interface and a circuit-switched call connection with the private branch exchange. The gateway may further include a call router to route a call request over a circuit-switched network with the private branch exchange on behalf of a call terminal to access messaging services from a data center with a messaging server when the call terminal and the network interface are unavailable. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Cliff Didcock, Michael Wilson
  • Publication number: 20150244859
    Abstract: Techniques to access messaging services for branch offices are described. In one embodiment, for example, an apparatus may include a network interface for a packet-switched network, a private branch exchange for a circuit-switched network, and a gateway to couple to the network interface and the private branch exchange. The gateway may be operative to establish a packet-switched call connection with the network interface and a circuit-switched call connection with the private branch exchange. The gateway may further include a call router to route a call request over a circuit-switched network with the private branch exchange on behalf of a call terminal to access messaging services from a data center with a messaging server when the call terminal and the network interface are unavailable. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2015
    Publication date: August 27, 2015
    Applicant: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Cliff Didcock, Michael Wilson
  • Patent number: 9049051
    Abstract: Techniques to access messaging services for branch offices are described. In one embodiment, for example, an apparatus may include a network interface for a packet-switched network, a private branch exchange for a circuit-switched network, and a gateway to couple to the network interface and the private branch exchange. The gateway may be operative to establish a packet-switched call connection with the network interface and a circuit-switched call connection with the private branch exchange. The gateway may further include a call router to route a call request over a circuit-switched network with the private branch exchange on behalf of a call terminal to access messaging services from a data center with a messaging server when the call terminal and the network interface are unavailable. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Cliff Didcock, Michael Wilson
  • Publication number: 20090097478
    Abstract: Techniques to access messaging services for branch offices are described. In one embodiment, for example, an apparatus may include a network interface for a packet-switched network, a private branch exchange for a circuit-switched network, and a gateway to couple to the network interface and the private branch exchange. The gateway may be operative to establish a packet-switched call connection with the network interface and a circuit-switched call connection with the private branch exchange. The gateway may further include a call router to route a call request over a circuit-switched network with the private branch exchange on behalf of a call terminal to access messaging services from a data center with a messaging server when the call terminal and the network interface are unavailable. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2007
    Publication date: April 16, 2009
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Cliff Didcock, Michael Wilson
  • Publication number: 20080285088
    Abstract: Techniques to manage facsimile communications are described. An apparatus may comprise a facsimile device having an assigned access number, and a call terminal having the assigned access number and a facsimile control module, the call terminal to establish a call connection in response to a call request with the access number, and the facsimile control module to detect facsimile information and transfer the call connection from the call terminal to the facsimile device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2007
    Publication date: November 20, 2008
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Paul Tidwell, Cliff Didcock, Siunie Sutjahjo
  • Patent number: 6466909
    Abstract: An architecture is provided for sharing text-to-speech (TTS) resources. A TTS controller manages the allocation of the TTS resources. An application provides a conversion request which is provided to a first queue. An available TTS resource begins a conversion upon sentence boundaries and converts a predetermined minimum amount of text. Once a sufficient amount of text is converted, the digitized speech data is played to a user. The amount of converted data is monitored during the playback operation. As the totality of the converted data falls below a predetermined minimum the TTS controller is notified. If more text remains in a message being converted, the TTS controller places a request into a second queue. The second queue has a higher priority so that continuing conversions are completed before subsequent conversions begin. The user is able to cancel this conversion operation at any time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2002
    Assignee: Avaya Technology Corp.
    Inventor: Cliff Didcock
  • Patent number: 6396907
    Abstract: In a unified messaging system, a background stream manager streams message data from a file server into a local storage resource upon a voice server. A foreground stream manager concurrently streams message data from the local storage resource to a telephone. The background stream manager determines whether the amount of contiguous message data within the local storage resource relative to a current message playback position exceeds a high threshold value. If so, the background stream manager interrupts message data streaming into the local storage resource. The foreground stream manager determines whether the amount of contiguous message data remaining to be streamed from the local storage resource relative to the current message playback position has dropped below a low threshold value. If so, the background stream manager resumes message data streaming into the local storage resource.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2002
    Assignee: Avaya Technology Corp.
    Inventor: Cliff Didcock