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. 25, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 19, 1997
Paul Shepherd, McKinney, TX (US);
Jin Chen, Plano, TX (US);
Sanjay Kulkarni, Plano, TX (US);
Edgar Martinez, Cary, NC (US);
James Bender, Dallas, TX (US);
De D Cai, Dallas, TX (US);
Harminder Singh, Raleigh, NC (US);
Laxminarayan G Iyengar, Raleigh, NC (US);
Nortel Networks Corporation, Montreal, CA;
Abstract
A method and system are disclosed for extending the directory number of a terminal. The invention allows service providers to provide a service which uses an existing subscriber directory number and effectively extends it to include one or more other directory numbers. To the subscriber, the terminals associated with the other directory numbers effectively look like virtual extensions. The method and system provide this flexibility without requiring any additional personal numbers being assigned to the subscriber. The subscriber can choose to have all incoming calls to a directory number (DN) of one of their existing terminals alert or ring one or more other terminals having a different DN. The terminals may for example be on the same network (e.g. all on the wireline network) or they may be on different networks (e.g. one on the wireline network and one on the wireless network). The method and system are substantially transparent to subscribers and calling parties as no additional numbers or new DNs of any sort are required.