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. 04, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 03, 1998
Ronald J. Brachman, Westfield, NJ (US);
Donnie Henderson, Manalapan, NJ (US);
Lawrence David Jackel, Holmdel, NJ (US);
Frederick Kenneth Schmidt, Jr., Califon, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A call-forwarding system can be remotely controlled in a simple and easily understood manner, thereby increasing the usage of call-forwarding. By maintaining a registry of special telephone numbers for a user's telephone and, upon receiving a telephone call from one of the special telephone numbers, the system forwards calls to the one of the special telephone numbers. The call-forwarding system includes a registry of special telephone numbers and a call-forwarding controller which, upon receiving a call from one of the special telephone numbers, forwards calls to the one of the special telephone numbers. In addition, the call-forwarding controller includes a caller-ID application which identifies all incoming telephone calls and passes this information to the controller. The controller then compares the incoming call to the telephone numbers in the registry and, upon obtaining a match, activates a routine for forwarding future incoming calls to the matched telephone number. The above method of controlling call-forwarding of an office telephone from a remote telephone provides the end user a very simple interface to allow remote enabling and disabling of call-forwarding.