The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 11, 1995
Filed:
Jun. 01, 1994
Kenneth R Core, Stanton, CA (US);
Mark J Karnowski, Garden Grove, CA (US);
Stephen B Knuth, Mission Viejo, CA (US);
PhoneMate, Inc., Torrance, CA (US);
Abstract
A system of telephone answering devices includes a master telephone answering device (MTAD) and at least one (and often a plurality) of extension telephone answering devices (ETADs). If a telephone call is answered by someone, others nearby may be paged through the ETADs from any telephone. The ETADs can be temporarily disarmed so that they do not respond to tone codes that might otherwise activate them. When activated, the ETADs transmit back to the caller noticeably different ringback signals to indicate that the activated ETAD is responding to the caller's commands. For telephone utilities offering a distinctive ring service, the ETADs may respond to distinctive rings corresponding to the ETADs by usurping the function of and disabling the MTAD and by subsequently answering the telephone call.