Method and apparatus for screening telephone calls

Details Method and apparatus for screening telephone calls Method and apparatus for screening telephone calls

1999-12-06

2002-03-05

Kuntz, Curtis (Department: 2643)

Telephonic communications

With usage measurement

Call charge metering or monitoring

C379S111000, C379S114010, C379S114050, C379S114210, C379S114250, C455S405000, C455S406000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06353663

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT OF FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to telecommunications and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for screening telephone calls.
2. Description of the Related Art
A continuing problem in telecommunications is the vast number of telemarketers and other unwanted callers who continuously invade the privacy of one's home or business. The reduced cost of telecommunications has made telemarketing a very cost effective advertising method. In addition to being very disturbing, many people find that telemarketers are much more likely to induce purchase of an unwanted service or good than are other forms of advertising.
Among the classes of people most likely to succumb to persistent telemarketers are the poor and elderly. Telemarketers are able to pinpoint the most susceptible segment of the population through purchased telephone lists. Often, these telemarketers are intentionally dishonest or misleading in identifying themselves and/or the nature of the good or service that they are selling. Since very few people record their calls, dishonest telemarketers can make misrepresentations without any evidentiary trail.
Some advancements in technology have improved a person's ability to screen calls. Caller ID allows a person to identify the calling party in some circumstances. However, it is possible for a calling party to block the caller ID information. In this case, a call will show up as “unknown name, unknown number.” Since desirable parties may also show up as an “unknown name, unknown number”, a receiving party must choose whether to accept a potentially undesirable call at the risk of missing a desirable call. Additionally, caller ID requires special circuitry and incurs a monthly fee from the telephone company.
Another form of screening calls is the use of an answering machine. A receiving party can listen to a message as it is being recorded, and answer the call if the caller is desirable. Many people are uncomfortable leaving messages, which results in some desirable calls being missed. Generally, only one answering machine is used per household, which requires the user to run to the machine when a call comes in. Further, answering machines are generally not practical in business situations (and many household situations); voice mail does not allow the user to intercept calls as the message is being recorded.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for an effective method and apparatus to screen calls.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method of screening calls, wherein an unauthorized calling party is prompted that a fee will be charged in order to establish a connection to the called party. Responsive to an action indicative of a rejection of the fee charge, the call is terminated. If the calling party indicates an acceptance of the fee charge, a connection is established and a charge is made to the calling party.
The present invention provides significant advantages over the prior art. Persons who knowingly making unwanted calls will generally disconnect the call in order to avoid paying the fee. If an undesirable caller, such as a telemarketer, chooses to complete the connection, at least the called party will be compensated for the inconvenience of answering the call. On the other hand, the called party can eliminate the charges to desirable parties, or can use a list of authorized callers to bypass the charging mechanism.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5027387 (1991-06-01), Moll
patent: 5381467 (1995-01-01), Rosinski et al.
patent: 5566235 (1996-10-01), Hetz
patent: 5579379 (1996-11-01), D'Amico et al.
patent: 5646984 (1997-07-01), Oda
patent: 5822411 (1998-10-01), Swale et al.
patent: 5835573 (1998-11-01), Dee et al.
patent: 5937044 (1999-08-01), Kim
patent: 6263056 (2001-07-01), Gruchala et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Method and apparatus for screening telephone calls does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for screening telephone calls, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for screening telephone calls will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2838719