Managing Communication Events

• US 20160309038A1
• Filed: 04/17/2015
• Published: 10/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Cinar, Onur, Chandrasekaran, Vijay, Chastney, Daniel James
• Granted Patent: US 9,716,796 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1059 End-user terminal functionalities specially adapted for real-time communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1076 Screening of IP real time communications, e.g. spam over Internet telephony [SPIT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1079 of unsolicited session attempts, e.g. SPIT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/58 Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party substation line holding circuits H04M1/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0012 Details of application programming interfaces [API] for telephone networks; Arrangements which combine a telephonic communication equipment and a computer, i.e. computer telephony integration [CPI] arrangements

Abstract

A user terminal associated with a first user, the user terminal comprising a communication client application for managing communications with at least one further user terminal over a first network, the communication client application being configured to: determine with respect to at least one incoming call whether a further user terminal at the call origin point comprises the communication client application; and manage the reception of the call based on the determination of whether the further user terminal at the call origin point comprises the communication client application.

Claims

1. A user terminal associated with a first user, the user terminal comprising a communication client application for managing communications with at least one further user terminal over a first network, the communication client application being configured to:

determine with respect to at least one incoming call whether a further user terminal at the call origin point comprises the communication client application; and

manage the reception of the call based on the determination of whether the further user terminal at the call origin point comprises the communication client application.

2. The user terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication client application configured to manage the reception of the call based on the determination of whether the further user terminal at the call origin point is further configured to trigger a call transfer such that the reception of the call uses the communication client application over the first network when the further user terminal at the call origin point comprises the communication client application.

3. The user terminal according to claim 2, wherein the communication client application is further configured to generate a user interface element based on the determination of the further user terminal at the call origin point comprises the communication client application.

4. The user terminal according to claim 3, wherein the communication client application further configured to control the triggering of the call transfer based on a response to the user interface element.

5. The user terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication client application is further configured to generate an invite for the at least one further user terminal to install the communication client application when the determination of whether the further user terminal at the call origin point determines the further user terminal at the call origin point does not comprise the communication client application.

6. The user terminal according to claim 5, wherein the communication client application is further configured to generate a user interface element based on the determination of the further user terminal at the call origin point does not comprise the communication client application, and wherein the communication client application is configured to control the generation of the invite based on a response to the user interface element.

7. The user terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication client application configured to determine with respect to at least one incoming call whether a further user terminal at the call origin point comprises the communication client application is further configured to:

receive an incoming call event notification, the incoming call event notification comprising an identifier identifying the user of the at least one further user terminal;

generate a search request based on the identifier for a communication client application database; and

receive a response to the search request determining whether the at least one further user terminal at the call origin point comprises the communication client application.

8. The user terminal according to claim 7, wherein the identifier comprises a incoming call number, wherein the communication client application is configured to:

generate a caller identifier search request comprising the incoming call number; and

receive a caller identifier response comprising a caller identifier associated with the incoming call number, wherein the communication client application configured to generate the search request based on the identifier for a communication client application database is further configured to generate the search request comprising the caller identifier for the communication client application database.

9. The user terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication client application is further configured to:

generate an blocked caller search request for a blocked call database;

the blocked caller search request comprising an identifier from the at least one incoming call;

receive a response to the blocked caller search request determining whether the at least one further user terminal at the call origin point is on the blocked caller database;

further manage the reception of the call based on the determination of whether the at least one further user terminal at the call origin point is on the blocked caller database.

10. The user terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication client application is further configured to:

monitor the length of the call; and

control a generation of a blocked call report based on the length of the call being less than a determined threshold.

11. The user terminal according to claim 10, wherein the communication client application is further configured to:

generate a blocked call user interface element based on the determination of the length of the call being less than the determined threshold;

control the generation of the blocked call report based on a response to the blocked call user interface element.

12. The user terminal according to claim 10, wherein the communication client application configured to control a generation of a blocked call report based on the length of the call being less than a determined threshold is further configured to generate and forward the blocked call report comprising an identifier identifying the further user terminal at the call origin point.

13. The user terminal according to claim 1, wherein the user terminal is one of:

an Internet-enabled mobile telephone;

a handheld game console;

a personal digital assistant (PDA);

a tablet computer;

a laptop computer.

14. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory comprising communication client application code for managing communications with at least one further apparatus over a first network, the code, when executed on the at least one processor, causes the apparatus to;

determine with respect to at least one incoming call whether a further apparatus at the call origin point comprises the communication client application; and

manage the reception of the call based on the determination of whether the further apparatus at the call origin point comprises the communication client application.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the communication client application code caused to manage the reception of the call based on the determination of whether the further apparatus at the call origin point is further caused to trigger a call transfer such that the reception of the call uses the communication client application over the first network when the further apparatus at the call origin point comprises the communication client application.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the communication client application code is further caused to generate a user interface element based on the determination of the further apparatus at the call origin point comprises the communication client application.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the communication client application code is further caused to control the triggering of the call transfer based on a response to the user interface element.

18. A method for managing communications between user terminals over a first network, the method comprising:

determining with respect to at least one incoming call whether a user terminal at the call origin point comprises the method for managing communications between user terminals over a first network; and

managing the reception of the call based on the determination of whether the user terminal at the call origin point comprises the method for managing communications between user terminals over a first network.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein managing the reception of the call based on the determination of whether the user terminal at the call origin point is further caused to trigger a call transfer such that the reception of the call uses the method for managing communications between user terminals over a first network when the user terminal at the call origin point comprises the method for managing communications between user terminals over a first network.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising generating a user interface element based on the determination of the user terminal at the call origin point comprises the method for managing communications between user terminals over a first network.