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. 12, 2012
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2005
Nikhil Jain, San Diego, CA (US);
Dhinakar Radhakrishnan, San Diego, CA (US);
Donald John Jones, Cardiff, CA (US);
Nikhil Jain, San Diego, CA (US);
Dhinakar Radhakrishnan, San Diego, CA (US);
Donald John Jones, Cardiff, CA (US);
QUALCOMM Incorporated, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method are provided for controlling a cellular telephone account User Terminal (UT). The method includes: registering a UT with an account in a cellular telephone network; uploading a credit for cellular telephone network services to the UT from a second party; and, converting the credit to an account balance. When the UT accesses a cellular telephone network service (i.e., makes a call), then the account balance is debited. In one aspect, the method accesses a credit server funded by the second party. Then, the credit is uploaded in response to accessing the credit server. For example, the credit server may be a module embedded in the UT. Alternately, the credit server is accessed via the cellular telephone network. For example, an Internet Protocol (IP) network-connected credit server may be accessed via the cellular network.