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:
Apr. 30, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 14, 1998
Michael Julian Joyce, Victoria, AU;
Ping-Wen Ong, Middletown, NJ (US);
Abbas Ourmazd, Berlin, DE;
Colin Alan Warwick, Holmdel, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
An automated message system sends a message of the calling party to the called party in response to a control signal. The automated message system includes a telephone network, a first telephone station, a second telephone station used by the called party and an automated message unit coupled to the first and second telephone stations through the network. A controller of the automated message unit that receives the control signal from the calling party selects a database from a memory device and retrieves a message from the database based on information included in the control signal. If an answering machine answers the calling party's call, the controller waits for the answering machine message to complete and sends the message retrieved from the database to the second telephone station of the called party.