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:
Sep. 07, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 28, 1997
William Brian Sink, Overland Park, KS (US);
Constance Ann DeWitt, Kansas City, MO (US);
Karen Harden Miller, Overland Park, KS (US);
Sprint Communications Co. L.P., Kansas City, MO (US);
Abstract
A call referral system (10) for use in a telecommunications network (12) that permits a called party (16) to control the number and treatment of incoming calls. The call referral system includes a switch (34) for receiving calls from calling parties(14) and for connecting the calls to the called party. The call referral system includes a routing monitor computer (40) coupled with the switch for monitoring the connection of the calls to the called party. The monitoring computer receives and stores a gate size selected by the called party indicating the maximum number of calls the called party wishes to simultaneously handle through each of its gates. The gates are comprised of single destination telephone numbers or groups of destination telephone numbers to the various destinations (17 & 18, 32).