Patents by Inventor James Benford Shepard

James Benford Shepard 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).

  • Completing telecommunications calls in a competitive local and toll environment
    Patent number: 6324277
    Abstract: In an environment of competitive local and interexchange carriers, offering number portability between local carriers serving a common region and between switches serving that region, each local carrier accesses a regional database to determine the identity of the carrier and switch serving a local customer. In addition, interexchange carriers access a national database to determine the identity of the carrier and switch serving the customer specified by the number dialed by an originating customer. For customers requiring high reliability service, alternate carriers can be used to serve such customers in case the primary carrier is unavailable; the databases identify these alternate carriers. Advantageously, this arrangement allows a high degree of freedom of movement of customers between carriers and geographic relocation without requiring a number change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2001
    Assignee: AT&T Corp.
    Inventors: Akinwale Ademola Akinpelu, Promod Kumar Bhagat, Dana Lee Garoutte, Anthony Hatalla, Robert Bruce Hirsch, Ali H. Krisht, Chiu-Kai Lee, James Benford Shepard, Dorothy V. Stanley, Theodore Louis Stern
  • Completing telecommunications calls in a competitive local and toll enviroment
    Patent number: 5661792
    Abstract: In an environment of competitive local and interexchange carriers, offering number portability between local carriers-serving a common region and between switches serving that region, each local carrier accesses a regional database to determine the identify of the carrier and switch serving a local customer. In addition, interexchange carriers access a national database to determine the identity of the carrier and switch serving the customer specified by the number dialed by an originating customer. For customers requiring high reliability service, alternate carriers can be used to serve such customers in case the primary carrier is unavailable; the databases identify these alternate carriers. Advantageously, this arrangement allows a high degree of freedom of movement of customers between carriers and geographic relocation without requiring a number change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 1995
    Date of Patent: August 26, 1997
    Assignee: AT&T
    Inventors: Akinwale Ademola Akinpelu, Promod Kumar Bhagat, Dana Lee Garoutte, Anthony Hatalla, Robert Bruce Hirsch, Ali H. Krisht, Chiu-Kai Lee, James Benford Shepard, Dorothy V. Stanley, Theodore Louis Stern