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:
Jun. 05, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 08, 1999
Stephen C. O'Neal, San Francisco, CA (US);
International ThinkLink Corporation, San Francisco, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method are provided for locally intercepting and servicing a long-distance call, prior to incurring charges associated with routing of the long-distance call over a corresponding long-distance carrier channel. A caller is immediately given the option to send a voicemail message to a recipient rather than completing the long-distance call. If the caller so chooses, the voicemail is recorded locally, the call is terminated, and the voicemail message is subsequently transmitted to the recipient via a data-centric network. The apparatus includes a telephony-centric network server and a message router. The telephony-centric network server detects initiation of the long-distance call, it intercepts the long-distance call, and it transmits the voicemail message over the data-centric network. The message router is coupled to the telephony-centric network server. The message router forwards the voicemail message over the data-centric network to a recipient. The voicemail message is delivered to the recipient from a corresponding local telephone switch.