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:
Aug. 07, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 19, 1999
Jane E. Cockrell, Denver, NC (US);
Marius J. Gudelis, Matawan, NJ (US);
Barry S. Seip, New Providence, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
An intelligent method is disclosed for handling call redirection to an external service provider (ESP) for subsequent call processing. In one embodiment, a network database (,) is queried to determine whether the calling party station (,) has pre-selected an ESP for subsequent call processing. In the event that the calling party station has pre-selected an ESP, the call is automatically redirected to the pre-selected ESP; no caller input is required. If, however, the calling party station has not pre-selected an ESP, an announcement is played to the calling party offering a menu of available ESPs. To accept the offer, the caller must explicitly respond to the offer using, e.g., DTMF signaling. The call is then redirected on a per-call basis in accordance with the calling party's selection.