Call Forwarding Patents (Class 379/211.02)
  • Patent number: 10304452
    Abstract: A voice interactive device constituting an interaction system in which a plurality of voice interactive devices interact with a user, comprises a voice input unit that acquires voice uttered by a user; an information generating unit that generates user utterance information, the user utterance information being information for specifying a voice interactive device having been spoken to by the user; a transmitting/receiving unit that transmits the generated user utterance information to another voice interactive device and that receives, from the other voice interactive device, user utterance information; a determining unit that determines whether or not a response is to be made to the utterance by the user based on the generated and received user utterance information; and an interacting unit that performs interaction with the user on the basis of a result of the determination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoshi Kume, Kota Hatanaka
  • Patent number: 10291775
    Abstract: When authorized, a user of a computing device, such as a smart phone, may associate a telephone number that is assigned to a computing device with other computing devices. The other computing devices may or may not have an assigned device number. A user may also select to use the same number as the originating number of an electronic device. For example, a user may specify that each computing device associated with the user utilizes the same telephone number. The user may also specify that a computing device not utilize an assigned number. The associations of a device number with the computing devices may be stored as implicit registration data and/or as hunt groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Shelby Seward, Robert F. Piscopo, Jr.
  • Patent number: 10289961
    Abstract: A method for presenting search query results is provided. The method may include detecting an occurrence of the trigger event. The method may include determining a category of information based on data associated with the trigger event. The method may include identifying at least one constraint based on the determined category of information. The method may include appending to the identified at least one constraint to the determined category of information. The method may include generating at least one search query. The method may include selecting at least one candidate website based on the category of information. The method may include performing the at least one search query on the at least one candidate website. The method may include filtering each search query result within the search query results. The method may include sending each filtered search query result within the search query results to a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Geetika T. Lakshmanan, Martin A. Oberhofer
  • Patent number: 10237403
    Abstract: A system and method of blocking a telecommunication is provided. The present invention may include a network of subscribers in communication with a server. The server is able to count an amount of times a third party attempts a telecommunication with one of its subscribers. Each subscriber may set threshold amount of telecommunications. Once the third party has reached the threshold amount of telecommunications, the telecommunication attempt is blocked from reaching additional subscribers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2019
    Inventor: Mark Stephen Block
  • Patent number: 10230840
    Abstract: A method of using a system processing phone call routing, the method including: automatically capturing, by a computer system, call data for each of a plurality of phone calls utilizing a toll free number and routed as referrals to a service, which engages accounting software to automatically track compensation for the referrals by generating an association of the captured phone call data for each of the referrals with compensation for connecting the referrals so as to distinguish the service from phone call referral data and compensation for a plurality of other services receiving other referrals, the engaging initiating digital reporting, via an Internet address, which includes generating, from the association, call referral information related to the service and said compensation for the referrals to the service.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2019
    Inventor: Peter K. Trzyna
  • Patent number: 10225398
    Abstract: A telecommunication system is configurable so that there can be flexible control of a switching command issued by an application to a platform where the switching command is executable in (a) a first execution mode in which the switching command is executed simultaneous with switching and verified or (b) a second execution mode in which the switching command is executed immediately and without verification. The application can be run to cause the switching command to be sent to the platform and the platform can execute the switching command received from the application. At least one of testing on a case-by-case basis and deciding which execution mode should be utilized for execution of the switching command can also occur before the sending of the switching command and/or before the executing of the switching command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: Unify GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventor: Claus Rist
  • Patent number: 10205829
    Abstract: When an incoming call is received from a customer, various aspects of a scalable computer-telephony integration system may include receiving an indication of availability from several call agents within the computer-telephony integration system and presenting the indications of availability and identification information for each of the call agents on a display. A user control for searching the call agents may also be presented on the display for use by a first call agent to view an indication of availability for a particular call agent. The customer call may then be transferred from the first call agent to the particular call agent in response to the indication of availability identifying the particular call agent as available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2019
    Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
    Inventors: Aaron C. Kammeyer, Randall J. Kirchner, Christopher L. Ward, Louis A. Littell
  • Patent number: 10171672
    Abstract: A system includes a contact center to provide an interaction between a customer and an agent workstation of the contact center. A contact center network connects a call from a mobile device to an interactive voice response application. A mobile engagement platform collect authentication information from the mobile device to authenticate a customer using the mobile device. A short message service platform sends a link to connect the mobile device to a mobile application. The mobile engagement server authenticates the customer of the mobile device for the mobile application based on the collected authentication information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Inventors: Cliff Bell, Daniel Stoops, Sergey Fedorov, Herbert Willi Artur Ristock, David Beilis, Adrian Lee-Kwen
  • Patent number: 10171963
    Abstract: A call transfer method and terminal are provided. The method includes: sending, by a first terminal, a local number query request to a second terminal by using a near field communication link, where the local number query request is used to request the second terminal to query a local number of the second terminal; receiving, by the first terminal, the local number of the second terminal that is sent by the second terminal; and sending, by the first terminal, a call transfer request to a network side according to the received local number of the second terminal, where the call transfer request is used to request the network side to update a call transfer target of the first terminal to the local number of the second terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Si Wu
  • Patent number: 10171676
    Abstract: A call between a calling party and a called party, one or both of whom may be subscribers to Internet Telephony (IT) services, commences upon the receipt of a call dialed by the calling party to the Plain Old Telephony Service (POTS) number associated with the calling party. A first hub receives the call and routes it to the called party if that party is not an IT services subscriber that is currently on line. If the called party is an IT services subscriber that is on-line, the call is received at an Internet Services Provider serving the called party. The ISP converts the call to an IT format if the call is not already in that format and thereafter delivers the call to the called party.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.
    Inventors: John Jutten Lawser, Larry Arnise Russell
  • Patent number: 10165105
    Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus and method for automatic communication mode selection. The method may include detecting a communication by a user equipment. The method may also include determining one or more characteristics associated with the communication, wherein the one or more characteristics comprise user environmental data, public environmental data, or a combination thereof associated with the communication. Furthermore, the method may include selecting a mode for the communication that is different from an original mode of the detected communication based on the one or more characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Ju-Yong Do, Sai Pradeep Venkatraman, Meghna Agrawal, Weihua Gao, Gengsheng Zhang
  • Patent number: 10152874
    Abstract: A method for a positioning server configured to locate positioning devices and to maintain information on users, who are associated with respective positioning devices. The server receives one or more alert messages from an alerting positioning device. Each alert message conveys identifying information of the alerting positioning device. The server uses the identifying information to retrieve a location estimate of the alerting positioning device. The server forms a first set of other positioning devices in a vicinity of the alerting positioning device and sends an assist request message to the positioning devices in the first set. The assist request message indicates the location estimate of the alerting positioning device and/or said descriptive information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignees: Airista Flow, Inc., Arista International Oy
    Inventor: Renato Francesco de Lorenzo
  • Patent number: 10154132
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for call leg selection is provided. In an embodiment, a call manger is provided which is connected to telephones that have the same telephone number. When the call manager receives an incoming call identifying that telephone number, the call manager sends a query to each of the telephones inquiring as to which telephone should receive the call. Depending on the response, the call manager will route the call to the appropriate one of the telephones.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2018
    Assignee: BLACKBERRY LIMITED
    Inventor: Richard John George
  • Patent number: 10142470
    Abstract: In an ACD system according to the present disclosure, when an ACD apparatus having a function of automatically assigning incoming telephone calls for reception work to arbitrary reception-staff terminals receives a notification request for information about a distribution order of incoming telephone calls from a reception-staff terminal that is waiting for an incoming telephone call through a network, the ACD apparatus generates incoming-call distribution order information indicating the distribution order of incoming telephone calls for, among one or a plurality of reception-staff terminals, the reception-staff terminal that has made the request, transmits the incoming-call distribution order information to the reception-staff terminal that has made the request through the network, displays the incoming-call distribution order information on a screen of the reception-staff terminal, and thereby notifies a reception staff member that has made the request of the incoming-call distribution order information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: NEC Platforms, Ltd.
    Inventor: Akihito Tomori
  • Patent number: 10122813
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided that allow a proprietor of a location or merchant to which a user is interacting through a third party to send a push notification to a user device associated with the user using the third party as a proxy. The provided systems and methods may assign an interaction identifier to the user and interaction when an interaction request is received by the third party that may be later used to identify the user and user device to which a notification received from the proprietor or merchant will be pushed. The user may be able to define rules and settings that limit the scope and timing of the push notifications that can be received, and the third party may determine if notifications received from the proprietor or merchant meet these rules and settings before pushing the notifications to the user device and user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: PAYPAL, INC.
    Inventor: Max Edward Metral
  • Patent number: 10123184
    Abstract: A method for controlling call forwarding information in an electronic device is provided. The method includes generating call forwarding information, detecting an outgoing event to a partner electronic device, and transmitting the call forwarding information to the partner electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yeung-Seob Shin, Hee-Deog Kim, Sang-Min Bae
  • Patent number: 10102536
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes systems and methods for automatically rolling-up data associated with one or more geographic units, such as ZIP+4 codes, such that the rollup comprises a minimum number of households to protect anonymity and ensure compliance with privacy regulations, while preserving variance of the underlying data associated with the geographic regions. Data attributes may include demographic data, socio-economic data, lifestyle segmentation, psychographic data, behavioral data, credit data, and other data. The rollup process may involve identifying one or more geographic units with a number of households below a minimum or threshold amount, applying filters to find candidate geographic units for rollup, scoring candidate geographic units to select best pairings for rollup, and repeating until the rollup group has at least the minimum number of households. The process may make trades off between granularity (e.g.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew John Hickman, Alan Tsang, Yaqi Tao, Shengjun Pan
  • Patent number: 10097649
    Abstract: A method includes the following steps. A request is received to locate one or more convenient communication devices for a recipient of an interaction request. A command is issued to search for the recipient at one or more communication devices. Information related to the recipient is received from the one or more communication devices. A convenience score is computed for each of the one or more communication devices based on the received information. The interaction request is forwarded to one of the one or more communication devices based on the one or more computed convenience scores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2018
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kuntal Dey, Seema Nagar, Roman Vaculin
  • Patent number: 10069871
    Abstract: A device may receive a first session initiation protocol (SIP) message from another device, and may determine a first timestamp associated with the first SIP message. The first timestamp may represent a receipt time of the first SIP message by the device. The device may determine a second timestamp associated with a second SIP message. The second timestamp may represent a transmission time of the second SIP message by the device, and may be a response to the first SIP message. The device may determine a device latency value representing a difference between the second timestamp and the first timestamp. The device may provide the second SIP message to the other device at the transmission time. The second SIP message may include the device latency value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2018
    Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
    Inventors: Yi Jing, Jeffrey R. Evans, Robert P. Faber, Jr., Taral Patel
  • Patent number: 10051443
    Abstract: The present disclosure discloses a method for processing a trunking communication service. The method includes the following steps that: a user equipment receives a trunking communication service request message sent by a trunking core network device, the trunking communication service request message including a service type identifier (101); and the user equipment determines whether to receive the trunking communication service according to the service type identifier (102). The present disclosure also discloses another method for processing a trunking communication service, core network device, user equipment and a storage medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: ZTE Corporation
    Inventor: Yan Lin
  • Patent number: 10038781
    Abstract: A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may include, for example, receiving a new call request in response to equipment of a calling party placing a call from a calling-party location to equipment of a called party, wherein the new call request includes an identity of the equipment of the calling party. An identity of the calling-party is determined based on an association between the identity and the equipment of the calling party. A location of the equipment of the calling party is determined and a location indicator is generated based on the identity of the calling-party and the location of the equipment of the calling party. The location indicator is presented to a display of the equipment of the called party. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, LP
    Inventor: Liaqat Ali
  • Patent number: 9992335
    Abstract: Techniques and technologies for caller assistance systems are described. In at least some embodiments, a system comprises: a processing component; and a caller assistance engine configured to receive a request from a calling device; select a menu execution path associated with the request, the menu execution path defining one or more operations to be performed to achieve an intent of the request; execute the menu execution path including execute the one or more operations to be performed to achieve the intent of the request; determine whether the intent of the request has been achieved; and when the intent of the request has been achieved, connect the calling device with the intent of the request or provide an alert to the calling device that the intent of the request has been achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Deepak Vijaywargi, Yicheng Tao, Shashank Singh, Mikhail Birman
  • Patent number: 9973625
    Abstract: A system for sharing and presenting temporary contact information associated with a service personnel. When a user generates an order request, the system generates temporary data indicative of a contact name and a phone number associated with the service personnel. The system sends the temporary data to a media device of the user. The media device stores the temporary data in a secure storage and receives a communication from a service media device associated with the service personnel. The media device presents at least the contact name responsive to the communication. The media device after completion of the communication prevents access to the temporary data stored on the media device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: William Voorhees
  • Patent number: 9967382
    Abstract: A system capable of connecting a home telephone circuit connected to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to a server via a data network using an adapter. The system may enable a telephone connected to the home telephone circuit to perform voice commands by sending audio data from the telephone to the server via the data network and the server determining the voice commands included in the audio data. Based on the voice command, the server may send an instruction to the adapter via the data network, the instruction causing the adapter to initiate a telephone call over the PSTN. Additionally, the server may send an instruction to any device associated with a user profile corresponding to the adapter. Thus, the system may enable the telephone to control a number of devices within the home using the voice commands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2018
    Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Gregory Michael Hart, Brian Oliver, Adrian Hurditch, Nawdesh Uppal, Reza Abdollahi
  • Patent number: 9955003
    Abstract: A contact information system provides an independent network authority for providing contact information in connection with incoming calls or messages. The contact information system utilizes a database of communication identifiers to provide contact information for end user devices that receive incoming communications which specify communication identifiers that are stored in the database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: Neustar, Inc.
    Inventors: Tim Cody, Guido Jonjie S. Sena, Jr., Ken Politz, John Devolites, Michael Cooley
  • Patent number: 9948886
    Abstract: Methods for providing a video communication with a detention environment are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request from a first user to initiate a video communication with a second user. The video communication uses a shared communications terminal located in a detention environment. The method further includes determining, based on a schedule of the second user, whether the second user is currently available for participating. The method also includes sending a notification to the second user to accept the request when the determination indicates the second user is currently available, and receiving a response to the notification to accept the request. The method further includes initiating the video communication when the response indicates the second user has accepted the request. Either of the users is detained in the detention environment. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: Intelmate LLC
    Inventor: Richard Torgersrud
  • Patent number: 9900431
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies for handling and screening incoming calls are provided. A processor executing instructions associated with a call handling service can detect that a call from a calling party is being routed, via a communication interface, to a called party device associated with a customer. The processor can obtain caller identification data that specifies an identity that is generated by the calling party and intended to be representative of the calling party when presented to the customer by the called party device. The processor can determine an interface identifier associated with the communication interface, and retrieve a call authentication scenario based on the interface identifier. The call authentication scenario can specify a storage location of data. The processor can obtain the data from the storage location, determine a call handling action, prepare a call handling command, and provide the call handling command to a network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2018
    Assignees: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P., AT&T Mobility II LLC
    Inventors: Barrett Kreiner, Robert Shively, Ryan Schaub
  • Patent number: 9894200
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for dialing a phone number, where the method for dialing the phone number includes obtaining, by a communications terminal from a number record of a called party, root-level number information of the called party, number information of sub-levels 1 to j, and a relationship between the root-level number information and the number information of sub-levels 1 to j, calling the called party for the second time according to the root-level number information, and sending, according to a relationship between the root-level number information and sub-level i number information, the sub-level i number information corresponding to an ith input prompt of the called party after the second call succeeds, where i?1 and i?j. Therefore, information can be automatically entered to the called party according to an input prompt of the called party.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Fen Yang
  • Patent number: 9888124
    Abstract: An electronic device and bidirectional communication control method thereof for supporting communication between electronic devices. The electronic device of the present disclosure includes a communication unit configured to communicate with other electronic devices; a storage unit configured to store service type and operation mode information per communication service; and a control unit configured to check information on the communication service, determine a service type corresponding to the communication service information, and control a call forwarding function to enable/disable call forwarding to a companion electronic device in an operation mode corresponding to the determined service type.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2018
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Jinyup Kim, Geonsoo Kim
  • Patent number: 9888122
    Abstract: A system includes a contact center to provide an interaction between a customer and an agent workstation of the contact center. A contact center network connects a call from a mobile device to an interactive voice response application. A mobile engagement platform collect authentication information from the mobile device to authenticate a customer using the mobile device. A short message service platform sends a link to connect the mobile device to a mobile application. The mobile engagement server authenticates the customer of the mobile device for the mobile application based on the collected authentication information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2018
    Assignee: GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.
    Inventors: Cliff Bell, Daniel Stoops, Sergey Fedorov, Herbert Willi Artur Ristock, David Beilis, Adrian Lee-Kwen
  • Patent number: 9883362
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a communication method and a system for converging a 5th-Generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4th-Generation (4G) system with a technology for Internet of Things (IoT). The present disclosure may be applied to intelligent services based on the 5G communication technology and the IoT-related technology, such as a smart home, a smart building, a smart city, a smart car, a connected car, health care, digital education, a smart retail, and security and safety services. A method and an apparatus for communicating voice calls in a communication system are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Han-Na Lim, Jung-Shin Park, Ji-Cheol Lee, Jin-Sung Lee, Hyung-Ho Lee, Ha-Kyung Jung
  • Patent number: 9854092
    Abstract: A computerized system and related method for assisting a user with placing a telephonic call, comprising a user specifying an originally-specified telephone number to place an intended telephonic call, which telephone number, as originally-specified, for at least one particular reason, cannot be used to successfully complete the intended telephonic call; after specifying the originally-specified telephone number, later specifying later-specified telephone number elements, including the possible deleting, ignoring or changing of part of the originally-specified telephone number and/or related dialing elements; and causing the telephonic call to be successfully signaled using the originally-specified telephone number in combination with the later-specified telephone number elements, without the user having to re-specify the originally-specified telephone number; wherein: the originally-specified telephone number is stored in a redial memory, for purpose of the deleting, ignoring or changing and signaling, until
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Inventor: Gilbert J. Yablon
  • Patent number: 9854100
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method and device for call forwarding. The method comprises: receiving a calling number of an incoming call; forwarding or holding the calling number according to a preset multi-call forwarding rule. The disclosure increases the call forwarding flexibility of mobile terminals such as mobile phone, and provides convenience to users.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: XI'AN ZHONGXING NEW SOFTWARE CO. LTD
    Inventors: Shufang Dong, Gonghong Xiang
  • Patent number: 9854417
    Abstract: A method and system are described for servicing a second line service (“SLS”) based communication request originating from a subscriber's telecommunications device (“TD”) even if the call signal does not include sufficient information to identify the phone number from which the subscriber initiated the call. The method involves associating the SLS phone number of the subscriber, the primary number of the subscriber and the primary number of a third party via a special relationship number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: MOVIUS INTERACTIVE CORPORATION
    Inventors: George Backhaus, Jignesh Gandhi, Julio Gonzalez, John Green, Philip Lowman, Paul Rubenstein, Mike Speanburg
  • Patent number: 9785949
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention help users (e.g., associates, customers, or the like) utilize communications to take actions with respect to systems or applications that do not directly allow for users to take actions using the communications. In some embodiments the communications are voice communications (e.g., phone calls, voice activation, voice services through the Internet, or the like) or written communications (e.g., e-mail communications, text communications, or the like) or other like voice communications or written communications. The present invention identifies keywords in the communications to determine the application for which the user wants to take an action, and the action that the user wants to take. The present invention takes the action within the application based on the keywords, or requests additional information from the user through the communication channel (or another communication channel).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Manu Jacob Kurian
  • Patent number: 9787793
    Abstract: A cache server receives content and an instruction indicating an event associated with the content that causes a processor to invoke a call out to an adjunct device. The instruction further indicates an operation that the adjunct device is to perform. The cache server detects the event associated with the content, halts a flow of the content in response to detecting the event associated with the content, passes via the call out the content to the adjunct device to perform the operation, receives from the adjunct device a response and resulting data from the operation, and performs an additional operation on the resulting data based on the response from the adjunct device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Robert J. Sayko, Gregory J. Smith
  • Patent number: 9781596
    Abstract: A method of and an engine for providing a Mobile Virtual Number, MVN, service in a node of a mobile telecommunications system comprising a plurality of nodes providing service to a plurality of mobile User Equipments, UEs. The MVN service instructs the telecommunications system for handling calls related to a first mobile subscriber number, corresponding to the mobile UE, and a second mobile subscriber number such that the mobile UE operates under the second mobile subscriber number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)
    Inventor: Kok Liang Toh
  • Patent number: 9774748
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer program products for provisioning a temporary disposable number are described. A user can be provided with a pool of available temporary disposable numbers that have a limited shelf life. The user can select one of the available temporary disposable numbers while submitting a permanent phone number associated with a communications device (e.g., mobile phone, home phone, business phone, etc.). Prior to activating the selected temporary disposable number, the temporary disposable number is linked to the permanent phone number. After activation, when an incoming call to the temporary disposable number is received, the permanent phone number is identified to be associated with the temporary disposable number being called. The incoming call is then forwarded to the communications device on which the permanent phone number is established.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2017
    Assignee: RINGCENTRAL, INC.
    Inventors: Vi Dinh Chau, Naveen Gupta, Rituparna Mukherjee, Nisha K. Ahluwalia
  • Patent number: 9769272
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided that allow a proprietor of a location or merchant to which a user is interacting through a third party to send a push notification to a user device associated with the user using the third party as a proxy. The provided systems and methods may assign an interaction identifier to the user and interaction when an interaction request is received by the third party that may be later used to identify the user and user device to which a notification received from the proprietor or merchant will be pushed. The user may be able to define rules and settings that limit the scope and timing of the push notifications that can be received, and the third party may determine if notifications received from the proprietor or merchant meet these rules and settings before pushing the notifications to the user device and user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: PayPal, Inc.
    Inventor: Max Edward Metral
  • Patent number: 9730053
    Abstract: Computer program products, methods, systems, apparatus, and computing entities are provided for call control. In one embodiment, it can be determined whether an outbound phone number is one of a plurality of target telephone numbers. Responsive to determining that the outbound phone number is one of the plurality of target telephone numbers, one or more call control rules associated with the outbound phone number can be identified. Responsive to identifying the one or more call control rules associated with the outbound phone number, one or more actions to be carried out by the apparatus in accordance with the one or more call control rules can be identified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: MBTE SWEDEN AB
    Inventors: Yoram Meriaz, Ran Meriaz, Alex Tkachman
  • Patent number: 9667779
    Abstract: Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for providing and using a routing service. A processor can obtain a routing scenario associated with a customer of the routing service. The routing scenario can specify customer data to be accessed to determine a call handling decision when a call is received from a calling party, and the customer data can include information associated with the calling party. The processor can obtain a request to route a call intended for the customer. The processor can generate a query of the customer data to obtain data associated with the calling party. The customer data can be stored at a storage location associated with the customer that is remote from the routing service. The processor can analyze the customer data and the routing scenario, determine a call handling decision, and provide the call handling decision to a network to route the call.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
    Inventor: Kristin Kocan
  • Patent number: 9603172
    Abstract: A system is configured to receive, from a user device, voice traffic to be sent to another user device; determine whether the voice traffic is local traffic based on whether an eNodeB, associated with the user device, and another eNodeB, associated with the other user device, are served by a particular network device; forward the voice traffic, as non-local traffic, to another network device, associated with a packet data network, for processing when the eNodeB or the other eNodeB are not served by the particular network device; process the voice traffic as local traffic when the eNodeB and the other eNodeB are served by the particular network device; and forward, to the other user device via the other eNodeB, the voice traffic, as local traffic, where the forwarding is performed in a manner that does not include routing the voice traffic via the other network device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignees: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc., Cellco Partnership
    Inventors: Sagiv Draznin, Steven R. Rados, Lalit R. Kotecha, Vikram K. Rawat, Patricia Ruey-Jane Chang, Yee Sin Chan
  • Patent number: 9602671
    Abstract: A method and terminal device for transferring a telephone call, are provided. The method comprises: detecting if an incoming call is received; displaying an incoming call interactive interface containing an incoming call transferring option, if the incoming call is detected; transferring the incoming call to a terminal device corresponding to a designated number when the incoming call transferring option is chosen. As the user is allowable to choose whether the incoming call should be transferred according to actual needs, the problem of automatically transferring incoming calls under some circumstances not suitable for transferring a telephone call may be avoided, thereby achieving more intelligent call transfer manner with more flexibility and better effect for transferring a telephone call.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2017
    Assignee: XIAOMI INC.
    Inventors: Zhijun Chen, Hu Zang, Lin Wang
  • Patent number: 9544253
    Abstract: A method performed by a first computing device to transfer a multimedia conversation to the first computing device includes sending, to a first service node, a request to transfer a first communication session to the first computing device, the first communication session using a first type of protocol, the first communication session being between a second computing device and a first endpoint, and sending, to a second service node, a request to transfer a second communication session to the first computing device, the second communication session using a second type of protocol that is different from the first type of protocol, the second communication session being between the second computing device and a second endpoint. The multimedia conversation comprises the first communication session and the second communication session.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: GENBAND US LLC
    Inventors: Arjun Cholkar, Anthony Jones, Ibrahim Dogru, Don Gilchrist, Dany Sylvain
  • Patent number: 9497044
    Abstract: A system for and method of call transfer management may include receiving a phone call over a landline, receiving, using a device connected to the landline, a wireless signal from a mobile device indicating a call transfer request, wherein the call transfer request contains a mobile device indicator, determining, using the device connected to the landline, that the phone call over the landline will be transferred to the mobile device, wherein the determination is made at least in part on the receipt of the call transfer request, sending, from the device connected to the landline, a call transfer request over the landline, wherein the call transfer request contains a mobile device indicator of the mobile device, and transferring the phone call from the landline to the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: VERIZON PATENT AND LICENSING INC.
    Inventors: Hong Xiao, Dongchen Wang, Andre Turner, Changqing Wang
  • Patent number: 9473323
    Abstract: Disclosed are a system and method for selective delivery of text messages using a global text gateway in communication with a database of delivery criteria for text messages in which a user can program delivery criteria for text messages directed to a telephone number, wherein the global text gateway is associated with the telephone number so that text messages addressed to the telephone number are routed to the global text gateway and wherein the global text gateway is adapted to forward text messages to a communication network for delivery based on the delivery criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC
    Inventors: David E. Emerson, Gary LaFreniere, Mike Goergen, Kelsyn D. S. Rooks
  • Patent number: 9439054
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for connecting a caller to an alternate telephone number, such as 911, when a call to a private response center does not result in immediate assistance. In one example, when the call to the private response center does not connect, the communications device used to make the call may prompt the user to indicate that the call relates to an emergency, and the communications device may call the emergency services telephone number. Failure to connect may result when the call does not connect to a receiving party, or upon failure to timely reach a customer service representative. In another example, the call to the private response center may connect, but the private response center may signal the communications device that the call will not be handled immediately. The communications device may then prompt the user to indicate whether an alternate telephone number should be called.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: GreatCall, Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan J. Sieg, Kotaro Matsuo, Dean Williams
  • Patent number: 9413843
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for enabling handling of communication requests. Handling-profile information, which may be used in handling of communication requests directed to a user, may be received in a computerized central unit. The computerized central unit may then transfer handling information that is based on the handling-profile information, to a network server in a network with which the user is associated, for enabling the network server to handle (e.g., forward) communication requests associated with the user based on the handling information. The handling-profile information may comprise destination addresses for use in handling communication requests associated with the user; categorizations of callers into caller groups; and/or handling-schemes for specifying how to handle communication requests from particular callers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: SWISSCOM AG
    Inventors: Thomas Staudte, Erich Gebhardt, Frank Fitzlaff, Oscar Genovese
  • Patent number: 9407705
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided that allow a proprietor of a location or merchant to which a user is interacting through a third party to send a push notification to a user device associated with the user using the third party as a proxy. The provided systems and methods may assign an interaction identifier to the user and interaction when an interaction request is received by the third party that may be later used to identify the user and user device to which a notification received from the proprietor or merchant will be pushed. The user may be able to define rules and settings that limit the scope and timing of the push notifications that can be received, and the third party may determine if notifications received from the proprietor or merchant meet these rules and settings before pushing the notifications to the user device and user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: PAYPAL, INC.
    Inventor: Max Edward Metral
  • Patent number: 9356816
    Abstract: The application relates to the transport of SS7 signaling over an Internet Protocol based network and in particular to the routing of SS7 Signaling Network Management SSNM Messages such as Destination Unavailable DUNA and Signalling Congestion SCON by a SIGTRAN relay node. The SSNM messages are checked against a so-called “validation rule”, which either specifies a list of allowed affected point codes or a threshold rate of SSNM messages with the same affected point code. If the SSNM message is “valid” it is sent to a so-called “broadcast domain” which comprise nodes such as signaling endpoints or component of one or more application servers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
    Inventors: Alexandru Hlibiciuc, Bernardin Drenski, Lukica Medak, Robert Schnell