Telephonic communications – Reception of calling information at substation in wireline... – Blocking caller id transmission
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-23
2001-03-06
Nguyen, Duc (Department: 2643)
Telephonic communications
Reception of calling information at substation in wireline...
Blocking caller id transmission
C379S067100, C379S093030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06198812
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF MY INVENTION
My invention pertains to the general field of telephony and especially to a residential telephone service and a small business telephone service. My invention relates to a utilization of a repeated call sequence wherein the first call is silent.
The first call's ring cadence is compared with a predetermined ring-count pattern. When an acceptable ring-count is obtained, the second call is routed to the subscriber's telephone set to telltale signal the called party. In other words, too many rings or too few rings during the first call attempt can be utilized to block the second call from feed through to the subscribers telephone set. My invention further pertains to a utilization of a caller identification (ordinarily known in the art field as “caller-ID”) tag number as instrumental to filtering telemarketing and similar trash calls from calls which probably originate from known parties. Filtering is obtained by comparing a silent first call's caller-ID tag with an immediately subsequent second call's caller-ID tag. When a match is obtained the second call ordinarily rings through to the subscriber's telephone to hail the called party.
DEFINITION PROTOCOL
Throughout my teaching I utilize certain terms which may benefit from further definition:
TELEPHONE CALL FILTERING—A discrimination of wanted and unwanted telephone calls which may depend upon the caller's category, time of call or other factors.
CALLER—A party placing a call to a SUBSCRIBER or another party.
ORIGINATOR—A party placing a call to another party.
SUBSCRIBER—A party usually receiving a call from a CALLER or ORIGINATOR.
INTENDED PARTY—A telephone set to which a call is directed by a CALLER or ORIGINATOR.
INCOMING TELEPHONE CALL—A telephone call originated by a caller and arriving at a subscriber's telephone set.
TELEPHONE SET—A telephone apparatus including a conventional telephone, facsimile, answering machine, voice-mail machine and similar equipment.
LOCAL LOOP—Telephone line(s) between a telephone set and a central exchange.
RING CADENCE—A sequence of a plurality of about 17-25 Hz ringing signal pulses which usually turn-ON for 2 seconds and OFF for 4 seconds in continued alternation.
COMPONENT RING SIGNAL—A component portion of the RING CADENCE signal which is usually considered as the active-state portion, turned-ON portion, or HIGH-state portion having about 2 seconds duration and including 34-50 cycles of a.c. ring signal energy.
TELLTALE SIGNAL—Ringing or its equivalent audible or visual signal produced by the RING CADENCE signal; or an electrical enablement signal for a modem, an answering machine or the like.
TOLL CHARGE—A monetary cost in various form including coins dropped into a pay-station, billing against a charge card, or appearing on a monthly statement.
TRASH CALLS—Telemarketing calls and the like which have no intrinsic value or a negative value to the SUBSCRIBER.
NUISANCE CALLS—Unwanted calls usually from a known party, including estranged friends, but also including wrong numbers and the like.
ANNOYING CALLS—Telemarketing calls and other random and persistently recurrent calls from unwanted parties, including debt collectors, whether known or not.
CALLER-ID—Caller identification information provided as a secondary service by the telephone company in a signaling format ordinarily available as decodable and presentable data obtainable while the telephone set remains on-hook.
BACKGROUND OF MY INVENTION
A telephone may be beneficial or bothersome depending upon the timing, origin and purpose of an incoming telephone call. While many persons have recognized the advantage of being able to shut-out telemarketing and similar trash calls and to only receive calls from selected persons, every attempt to filter the incoming calls which may reach a subscriber's telephone set has met with some level of here-to-fore unresolved problem or user inconvenience as a side-effect. As a result, while telephone filtering systems have been known before, they have met with application resistance due to these and other shortcomings.
Unwanted and trash telephone calls extend a false sense of priority. Since their arrival expresses equal importance with any other call.
As a consequential result, they are ordinarily allowed to ring-through to the subscriber's telephone set.
The called party's privacy is obtrusively violated in a manner which is unacceptable in nearly any other form of communications. This violation occurs because an ordinary telephone set is virtually blind to the nature of incoming telephone calls. In current residential and small business settings, unwanted trash calls bear an equal priority with more important or urgent calls.
INCOMING CALL LEVELS
My invention addresses at least four distinct levels of incoming calls which require different filtering considerations.
URGENT CALLS are those calls from family members and business associates which may require immediate attention or have a quasi-emergency aspect associated with them and which you may ordinarily want to be able to immediately accept.
EXPECTED CALLS are those calls from family members and business associates which, while essentially routine in character, are of the sort which you will accept at nearly any time.
ROUTINE CALLS are those calls from various persons which may be handled at your convenience and therefore may preferably be diverted to an answering machine or voice mailbox, at least during designated times.
TRASH CALLS include a broad range of junk calls and in particular telemarketing calls which further include attempts by parties unknown to you to reach you, usually for reasons which serve their benefit more than yours. These calls are at best preferably diverted to an automated answering system.
USE OF A PIN NUMBER AS A FILTER
One well known device used for eliminating unwanted calls is a Tele-Screen™ Model TS300 phone protector which requires the caller to enter a previously agreed upon “personal code”, i.e, a “PIN” (personal identification number) . This device actually answers the incoming call with a message (similar to) “Thank you for calling. Please enter the four-digit pass code”. Four principal drawbacks for the use of this device are:
1) USE OF A PIN—The caller must recall and use the correct four-digit PIN identification code. This can be bothersome for potential callers from whom a subscriber wants to receive calls, since they may have simply forgotten or otherwise misplaced the subscriber-issued identification code numbers.
2) UNNECESSARY TOLL—The device answers the incoming call thereby breaking the circuit and causing the calling party to assume a toll-charge if from out-of-area even when the subscriber is not available to accept the call.
3) CALL IS LOST—No provision for diverting unanswered calls or calls originating from a person not having or recalling the identification code is provided, where such calls may be recorded on an answering machine or sent to a different telephone.
4) UNNECESSARY RINGS—One ring is delivered before the device activates and blocks subsequent rings.
ANSWERING MACHINE AS A CALL FILTER
Answering machines are also well known which respond to incoming calls with a subscriber's pre-recorded message. When the caller replies to leave a message, the subscriber can “decide” whether to pick-up the line or not, usually upon hearing the caller's voice. As with the Tele-Screen™ device, the use of an answering machine invariably results in a toll-charge for the calling party in event the subscriber is not available to answer.
COMPUTER VOICE-MAIL AS A FILTER
Computer voice-mail systems may also be utilized which answer and record incoming messages. Software for such a system is represented by SuperVoice 2.2™ Software (©Pacific Image Communications, Inc.) which affords the voice-mail response and records incoming calls in accord with one or more “mail-box” code selections.
CALLER CONVENIENCE
When a subscriber's telephone is locked-out by a call diverter, such as the prior art knows, important incoming calls from re
Barnie Rexford N
Effectrol Patent Trust
Nguyen Duc
LandOfFree
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