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:
Jan. 26, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1996
Bruce L Hanson, Little Silver, NJ (US);
Kenneth M Huber, Middletown, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., Middletown, NJ (US);
Abstract
A message and billing system and method is provided for transmitting a reply message over a communications network from a called party's message service system to a calling party's message service system. Prior to transmitting a message to a called party, a calling party's message service system prompts the calling party to specify whether a prepaid reply is authorized. Based upon the calling party's response to the prompt, the calling party's message service system generates a message file associated with the message, which includes a prepaid reply field indicating whether a prepaid reply was authorized by the calling party. The message file is transmitted over a communications network to the called party's message service system and the called party's message service system identifies whether a prepaid reply had been authorized by the calling party based upon the prepaid reply field of the message file. Upon the called party's transmission of a reply message to the calling party's original message, the called party's message service system generates a reply message detail record having a prepaid reply field indicating whether the calling party had authorized a prepaid reply. When the prepaid reply field of the reply message detail record indicates that the calling party authorized a prepaid reply, the calling party is charged a fee for the transmission of the reply message. Alternatively, when the prepaid reply field of the reply message detail record indicates that the calling party had not authorized a prepaid reply, the called party is charged a fee for the transmission of the reply message.