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:
May. 18, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 24, 1997
Steven Lloyd Greenspan, Scotch Plains, NJ (US);
Robert S Hisiger, Martinsville, NJ (US);
Richard H Janow, South Orange, NJ (US);
Barbara Anne Taylor, Denville, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., Middletown, NJ (US);
Abstract
A method for wide area overlapped ringing is disclosed wherein a primary destination is rung, and, if a no answer condition is encountered after an initial ringing threshold, a secondary destination is rung such that the ringing of the primary and secondary destinations at least partly overlap. Some embodiments involve the ringing of more than one secondary destination, where each secondary destination is rung for a set time and then halted. Other embodiments provide bridging capability for three-way calling. The disclosed method has wide area capability; thus, the secondary destination may comprise any destination accessible by the Publicly-Switched Telephone Network.