System and Method of Sharing a Contact List Among Mobile Phones

• US 20050059418A1
• Filed: 09/17/2003
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snaptrack Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Northcutt, John W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,613,472 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/517
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2757 by data transmission, e.g. downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages

Abstract

A method of sending mobile phone contact list data from one mobile phone to another mobile phone is disclosed. The sender composes an SMS or MMS message having contact data from the mobile phonebook attached. The message is sent using a messaging service like SMS or MMS to other mobile phones in a group. Before receiving mobiles act on the message, a check is determined to see if the message contains contact list data. If it does not, the message is processed normally. If the message does contain contact list data, a software program is launched to manage the received contact list data. The program displays the received mobile phone contact list data so that the mobile phone user can examine the data. An import function is run to resolve conflicts, store and overwrite data into the mobile phone'"'"'s contact database based on the newly received contact list data.

Claims

1. A method of sending a mobile phone contact list from a first mobile phone using a mobile phone messaging service to one or more other mobile phones comprising:

displaying the mobile phone contact list of the first mobile phone;

selecting one or more contacts from the mobile phone contact list;

adding the selected contacts from the mobile phone contact list to a message; and

sending the message containing selected contacts to the one or more other mobile phones.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile phone messaging service uses a short messaging service (SMS) format.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile phone messaging service uses a multi-media messaging service (MMS) format.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising previewing the message prior to sending the message so that additional contacts can be added to the message and selected contacts can be deleted.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the contact data for a selected contact prior to adding the contact to the message.

6. A computer program product for sending a mobile phone contact list from a first mobile phone to one or more other mobile phones using a mobile phone messaging service, the computer program product comprising:

computer program code for displaying the mobile phone contact list of the first mobile phone;

computer program code for selecting one or more contacts from the mobile phone contact list;

computer program code for adding the selected contacts from the mobile phone contact list to a message; and

computer program code for sending the message containing selected contacts to the one or more other mobile phones.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the mobile phone messaging service uses a short messaging service (SMS) format.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the mobile phone messaging service uses a multi-media messaging service (MMS) format.

9. The computer program product of claim 6 further comprising computer program code for previewing the message prior to sending the message so that additional contacts can be added to the message and selected contacts can be deleted.

10. The computer program product of claim 6 further comprising computer program code for displaying the contact data for a selected contact prior to adding the contact to the message.

11. A method of receiving mobile phone contact list data in a first mobile phone sent from a second mobile phone using a mobile phone messaging service comprising:

receiving a message in the first mobile phone from the second mobile phone;

determining whether the received message contains contact list data and, if so launching a application specific software program to manage the received contact list data, otherwise handling the received message normally;

displaying the received mobile phone contact list;

resolving contact list data conflicts between the received contact list data and contact data already stored on the first mobile phone; and

storing the new mobile phone contact list data in the first mobile phone.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the mobile phone messaging service uses a short messaging service (SMS) format.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the mobile phone messaging service uses a multi-media messaging service (MMS) format.

14. A computer program product for receiving a mobile phone contact list data in a first mobile phone sent from a second mobile phone using a mobile phone messaging service, the computer program product comprising:

computer program code for receiving a message in the first mobile phone from the second mobile phone;

computer program code for determining whether the received message contains contact list data and, if so launching a application specific software program to manage the received contact list data, otherwise handling the received message normally;

computer program code for displaying the received mobile phone contact list;

resolving contact list data conflicts between the received contact list data and contact data already stored on the first mobile phone; and

computer program code for storing the new mobile phone contact list data in the first mobile phone.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the mobile phone messaging service uses a short messaging service (SMS) format.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the mobile phone messaging service uses a multi-media messaging service (MMS) format.

17. A method of uploading a mobile phone contact list from a mobile phone to a computer server residing on a digital cellular network (DCN), the method comprising:

selecting one or more contacts on the mobile phone to be uploaded to the computer server;

establishing a connection between the mobile phone and the computer server; and

uploading the contact list from the mobile phone to the computer server.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising storing the uploaded contact list on the computer server.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising sending a message to other mobile phones indicating that a new contact list has been posted on the computer server.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the message indicating that a new contact list has been posted on the computer server is sent from the mobile phone that uploaded the contact list to the server.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the message indicating that a new contact list has been posted on the computer server is automatically sent from the computer server.

22. A computer program product for uploading a mobile phone contact list from a mobile phone to a computer server residing on a digital cellular network (DCN), the computer program product comprising:

computer program code for selecting one or more contacts on the mobile phone to be uploaded to the computer server;

computer program code for establishing a connection between the mobile phone and the computer server; and

computer program code for uploading the contact list from the mobile phone to the computer server.

23. A method of downloading a mobile phone contact list from a computer server residing on a digital cellular network (DCN), the method comprising:

establishing a connection between the mobile phone and the computer server; and

downloading the contact list from the computer server to the mobile phone.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising previewing the downloaded contact list on the mobile phone.

25. The method of claim 23 further comprising storing the downloaded contact list on the mobile phone.

26. A computer program product for downloading a mobile phone contact list from a computer server residing on a digital cellular network (DCN), the computer program product comprising:

computer program code for establishing a connection between the mobile phone and the computer server; and

computer program code for downloading the contact list from the computer server to the mobile phone.