Categorization of telephone calls

• US 20070116246A1
• Filed: 10/12/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jain, Mukul, Baird, Randall, Walker, Jennifer, Jennings, Cullen, Katkam, Vinod
• Granted Patent: US 7,894,597 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/355.20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2478 Telephone terminals specially adapted for non-voice services, e.g. email, internet access centralized arrangements where telephones services are combined H04M7/0024; for recording text messages H04M3/5322; for accessing Internet H04M3/4938
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2746 Sorting, e.g. according to history or frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/56 Arrangements for indicating or recording the called number at the calling subscriber's set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/575 Means for retrieving and displaying personal data about calling party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/551 Call history
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/48 Arrangements for recalling a calling subscriber when the wanted subscriber ceases to be busy

Abstract

The present invention provides a mechanism for categorizing telephone calls and for providing special information about calls that appear on call lists maintained in a telephone. The invention provides for both providing an indication and for providing an action. When an entry on a call list is highlighted (in a conventional manner), pressing one key adds a flag to the entry on the call list to indicate that follow up action is required. Pressing a second key initiates an action such as attaching a reminder so that the user will be reminded to take action later. Pressing a third key will provide a text message balloon indicating information about the call. The flags and text messages can be added by either the called party or the calling party.

Claims

1. ) In a telephone system including a handset that includes an embedded processor and that stores and displays lists of telephone numbers in call lists, the combination of:

a memory for storing icons, one of which indicates that special action is required,

a key which can be activated by a user, and

programming executable by said embedded processor that displaying an icon next to a particular telephone number when said key is activated to indicate that special action is required with respect to the call associated with the particular telephone number.

2. ) The telephone system recited in claim 1 wherein said system is a VoIP system and said key is a soft key.

3. ) The telephone system recited in claim 1 wherein said memory stores a plurality of icons.

4. ) The telephone system recited in claim 1 wherein said icon indicates that a reminder tone will be sounded at a specified time, and wherein said system includes a timer that sounds a tone after a specified time that is entered into the system by a user.

5. ) The telephone system recited in claim 1 wherein an icon can be added to next to a telephone number by either a calling party or by a called party.

6. ) The telephone system recited in claim 1, a keypad, and wherein said icon indicates that there is text associated with said call and wherein said key is activated a user can enter text in said keypad to be associated with said number.

7. ) The telephone system recited in claim 1 including means for transmitting text information from a calling party to a called party that can be associated with a particular telephone number in a call list.

8. ) In a telephone system that includes a calling party that has a calling party handset and a called party that has a called party handset, the method comprising the steps of,

displaying a list of telephone numbers that represent telephone calls on at least one of said handsets,

Highlighting one of the numbers in said list, and

pressing a user activated device to place an icon adjacent to said, highlighted number to indicate that said number requires special attention.

9. ) The method recited in claim 8 wherein said icon indicates that a follow up action is required.

10. ) The method recited in claim 8 wherein said icon indicates that a text note has been associated with a particular call.

11. ) The method recited in claim 8 wherein said icon indicates that an alarm reminder has been associated with said call.

12. ) The method recited in claim 8 wherein there is a calling party and a called party and wherein said user activated device can be pressed by either the called party of the calling party.

13. ) The method recited in claim 8 wherein said system includes a key pad and a text message is entered into said keypad after said user activated device is pressed in order to associate a text message with said telephone message.

18. ) The telephone system recited in claim 12 wherein when the calling party presses said user activated device, an indication that the calling party pressed said user activated device is sent to the called party'"'"'s handset using the SIP protocol.

19. ) The method recited in claim 8 wherein said telephone system in a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone system.

14. ) In a telephone handset that displays a list of telephone numbers related to telephone calls, and which includes a user activated device and a keypad,

the method that includes,

highlighting one of the telephone numbers in said list of telephone numbers,

activating a user activated device to indicate that there is a text message associated with said highlighted number, and

entering in said keypad a text message to be associated with said telephone number.

15. ) The method recited in claim 14 wherein there is a called party and a calling party and said text message can be entered by either said called party or said calling party.

20. ) The method recited in claim 14 wherein said telephone system in a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone system

16. ) In a telephone system, the combination of:

means for displaying a list of numbers representing telephone calls,

means for displaying an indication next to telephone numbers that require special action, and

means for initiating special action with respect to telephone numbers that have said indication.

17. ) The telephone system recited in claim 16, where there is a calling party and a called party each having a telephone handset and wherein said list of calls can be on either the handset of the called party or the handset of the calling party.