Telephone call handling list for multiple users

• US 20060147014A1
• Filed: 12/21/2004
• Published: 07/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Smith, Michael, McMullin, William P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,894,588 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/210.20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53383 Message registering commands or announcements; Greetings

Abstract

Enabling handling of incoming phone calls includes receiving an indication from one or more call recipients reflecting a desire to block future calls from a call source. A number of received indications reflecting a desire to block future calls from the call source is determined and compared to a threshold. An identifier of the call source is added to a list of call sources from which future calls are specially handled when the number of indications meets the threshold. Handling an incoming call from an undesired call source includes receiving an indication of a call placed to a call recipient. A source of the call is identified. Whether the identified call source is included in the list of call sources from which future calls are specially handled is determined. Special handling is applied to the call when the identified call source is included in the list.

Claims

1. A method for enabling handling of incoming phone calls, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from one or more call recipients reflecting a desire to block future calls from a call source;

determining a number of received indications reflecting a desire to block future calls from the call source;

comparing the number of indications to a threshold;

adding an identifier of the call source to a list when the number of indications meets the threshold; and

enabling a determination of how to handle an incoming phone call from the call source based on whether the call source is included in the list.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication is received in response to a call to the one or more call recipients from the call source.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein enabling a determination of how to handle an incoming phone call from the call source comprises enabling the phone call to be blocked when the call source is included in the list.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifier of the call source comprises a phone number of the call source.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an indication reflecting the desire of the one or more call recipients to block calls from the call source comprises:

enabling presentation of a user interface that presents calls from the call source to one or more of the call recipients; and

receiving the indication from the user interface.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein receiving the indication from the user interface presented to a recipient comprises receiving the indication from an online service provider system that provides the user interface to the recipient.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the user interface makes perceivable a log of calls received by the recipient.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the user interface makes perceivable a notification of an incoming call to the recipient from the call source.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an indication reflecting the desire of the one or more call recipients to block calls from the call source comprises receiving the indication from phones used by recipients of calls from the phone number.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein adding the call source to the list comprises:

identifying an appropriate category for the call source; and

adding the call source to the appropriate category.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein identifying an appropriate category for the call source comprises retrieving an indication of the appropriate category from the indication reflecting the desire to block future calls from the call source.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the appropriate category is a category of call sources from which future calls are blocked for a single recipient of the calls.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the appropriate category is a category of call sources from which future calls are blocked for a group of recipients of the calls.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an indication from one of the call recipients of times when phone calls from the call source are to be handled; and

associating the indication of the times with the call source in the list.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein receiving an indication from one of the call recipients of times when phone calls from the call source are to be handled comprises receiving an indication of times when phone calls from the call source are to be handled from a user interface presented to a recipient of the calls from the phone number.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein receiving the indication of the times from the user interface presented to the recipient comprises receiving the indication of the times from an online service provider system that provides the user interface to the recipient.

17. A method for handling an incoming call from an undesired call source, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a call placed to a call recipient;

identifying a source of the call;

determining if the identified call source is included in a list of call sources from which future calls are specially handled; and

applying special handling to the call when the identified call source is included in the list,

wherein a call source is added to the list of call sources after a number of received indications reflecting a desire of corresponding call recipients to block future calls from the call source exceeds a threshold number.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein applying special handling to the call comprises blocking the call.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein applying special handling to the call comprises forwarding the call to the call recipient with additional information identifying the call as originating from a call source included in the list.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the additional information causes the call to ring differently on a phone used by the call recipient than calls originating from call sources not included in the list.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the additional information comprises the number of indications reflecting a desire of the corresponding call recipients to block future calls from the call source that have been received.

22. The method of claim 19 further comprising presenting the additional information to the call recipient.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein presenting the additional information comprises presenting the additional information in a notification that the call originated from a call source included in the list.

24. The method of claim 17 further comprising forwarding the call with additional information identifying the call as originating from a call source not included in the list for which at least one indication reflecting the desire of the corresponding call recipients to block future calls from the call source has been received.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the additional information comprises a number of indications reflecting the desire of the corresponding call recipients to block future calls from the call source that have been received.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein the additional information causes the call to ring differently on a phone used by the call recipient than calls originating from other call sources not included in the list.

27. The method of claim 24 further comprising presenting the additional information to the call recipient.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein presenting the additional information comprises presenting the additional information in a notification that the call originated from a call source for which at least one indication has been received.

29. The method of claim 17 wherein applying special handling to the call when the call source is included in the list comprises:

identifying a category within the list of call sources that includes the call source;

applying special handling to the call when the call recipient corresponds to the identified category of the list.

30. The method of claim 17 wherein applying special handling to the call when the call source is included in the list comprises:

determining if a time at which the call is received is a time at which special handling is to be applied to calls from the call source; and

applying the special handling to the call when the time at which the call is received is a time at which the special handling is to be applied to the calls.

31. The method of claim 17 wherein applying special handling to the call comprises playing an audio message for the call source indicating that special handling is being applied to the call.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein playing the audio message for the call source comprises playing an audio message for the call source that informs that call source that future phone calls from the call source will be blocked.

33. The method of claim 17 further comprising notifying the call recipient that the special handling has been applied to the call.

34. The method of claim 17 wherein:

identifying a source of the call comprises identifying a phone number from which the call was placed; and

determining if the identified call source is included in the list comprises determining if the identified phone number is included in a list of phone numbers of call sources from which future calls are to be blocked

35. The method of claim 17 further comprising presenting a user interface to the call recipient that presents indications of calls placed to the call recipient and enables the call recipient to generate indications that future calls from the sources of the presented calls are to be blocked.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the user interface makes perceivable a log of calls received by the call recipient.

37. The method of claim 35 wherein the user interface makes perceivable a notification of incoming calls placed to the call recipient.

38. The method of claim 17 further comprising receiving an indication reflecting a desire of corresponding call recipients to block future calls from the call source from a phone used by the call recipient.

39. The method of claim 17 further comprising notifying the call recipient that the call is being handled regularly when the call source is not included in the list.

40. The method of claim 39 further comprising enabling the call recipient to generate an indication reflecting the desire that future calls from the call source are to be blocked when the call source is not included in the list.