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:
Oct. 08, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 29, 1999
Stephen C. O'Neal, San Francisco, CA (US);
John Jiang, Danville, CA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A computer-implemented method for permitting a subscriber of a call forwarding service to customize call forwarding parameters associated with the call forwarding service. The call forwarding service being configured to permit the subscriber to specify whether a call received at a telephone number associated with a given account of the call forwarding service be forwarded to a forwarding telephone number. The call forwarding parameters includes a call forwarding enable option and the forwarding telephone number. The method includes providing a subscriber communication profile database. The subscriber communication profile database has therein the account pertaining to the subscriber. The account includes the call forwarding parameters for the subscriber. The method further includes visually displaying the call forwarding parameters on a display terminal coupled to a data-centric network, using a computer server coupled to exchange data with the subscriber communication profile database, when the subscriber employs the display terminal to access the account. There is also included receiving from the subscriber via the display terminal a first change to the call forwarding parameters. The first change to the call forwarding parameters pertains to at least one of the call forwarding enable option and the forwarding telephone number. Further, there is included updating the first change to the account in the subscriber communication profile database, wherein subsequent calls to the given account are handled in accordance with parameters present in the subscriber communication profile database after the update.