Voice mail advertising system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system for voice mail advertising, said system comprising:
- at least one server programmed to execute a process including selecting an advertisement for playback, playing said advertisement to a caller;
determining whether said caller terminated playback of said advertisement, and billing an advertiser if said caller did not terminate playback of said advertisement.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for a voice mail advertising system. Incoming telephone calls are routed to a user. If the user does not answer the call, the call is routed to a voice mail server, which communicates with an advertising server. The servers execute software for determining if the user has subscribed to voice mail advertising, selecting an advertisement for playback, playing the advertisement, recording an incoming message, if any, and billing the advertiser if the advertisement was played in its entirety without early termination by the caller.
72 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A system for voice mail advertising, said system comprising:
at least one server programmed to execute a process including selecting an advertisement for playback, playing said advertisement to a caller;
determining whether said caller terminated playback of said advertisement, and billing an advertiser if said caller did not terminate playback of said advertisement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A system for voice mail advertising, said system comprising:
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a telephone router;
a storage component for advertisements and messages;
an input/output component for communicating with said telephone router; and
a processing component executing a process including customizing said advertisement by a user, reading a plurality of user information, selecting an advertisement for playback, playing said advertisement to a caller;
determining whether said caller terminated playback of said advertisement, and billing an advertiser if said caller did not terminate playback including charging said advertiser an advertiser fee and crediting a user a portion of said advertiser fee.
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8. A system for voice mail advertising, said system comprising:
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a means for routing an unanswered telephone call from a caller to a user;
a means for playing an advertisement for said caller;
a means for billing an advertiser for playing said advertisement;
a means for crediting said user; and
a means for receiving a message from said caller. - View Dependent Claims (9)
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10. A system for voice mail advertising, said system comprising:
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at least one server programmed to execute a process including customizing said advertisement by a user, reading a plurality of user information, selecting an advertisement for playback, playing said advertisement to a caller;
determining whether said caller terminated playback of said advertisement, and billing an advertiser if said caller did not terminate playback including charging said advertiser an advertiser fee and crediting a user a portion of said advertiser fee; and
a telephone router for routing an unanswered telephone call to said at least one server, said unanswered telephone call being originally directed to a cellular telephone user.
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11. At least one computer programmed to execute a process for voice mail advertising, the process comprising
selecting an advertisement for playback; -
playing said advertisement to a caller;
determining whether said caller terminated playback of said advertisement; and
billing an advertiser if said caller did not terminate playback. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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15. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for voice mail advertising, said method comprising:
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selecting an advertisement for playback;
playing said advertisement to a caller;
determining whether said caller terminated playback of said advertisement; and
billing an advertiser if said caller did not terminate playback. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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19. Computer readable media tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer to perform a method of voice mail advertising, said method comprising:
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selecting an advertisement for playback;
playing said advertisement to a caller;
determining whether said caller terminated playback of said advertisement; and
billing an advertiser if said caller did not terminate playback. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification