Telephone having a hold function

• US 5,835,587 A
• Filed: 04/17/1997
• Issued: 11/10/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Miyamoto, Hiroshi, Hirata, Junko, Adachi, Shizuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Chiang, Jack
• Application Number:
  US08/839,279
• Time in Patent Office: 572 Days
• Field of Search: 379/428, 379/429, 379/435, 379/436, 379/161-165, 379/190, 379/168, 379/194, 379/424, 379/425
• US Class Current: 379/435
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0297 Telephone sets adapted to be mounted on a desk or on a wall

Abstract

A telephone includes a telephone body, a handset and a telephone network line hold mechanism. The telephone body includes a handset cradle on which the handset is placed, a plurality of operation buttons and the like. The telephone is placed in the offhook state when the user lifts the handset from the handset cradle and placed in the on-hook state when the user places the handset on the handset cradle. The telephone network line hold mechanism is energized when the user places the handset on the telephone body at its position in which the offhook state of the telephone is retained.

Claims

1. A telephone, connected to a same telephone network in parallel with one or more other telephones, comprising:

a telephone body;

a handset including a receiver portion; and

hold means for setting said telephone to a hold state which renders said telephone inoperative, said hold means including an operation means which is engageable with said receiver portion of said handset when said receiver portion is disposed in an off-hook position, when said operation means is engaged with said receiver portion said operation means is operative to energize said hold means so as to switch said telephone body to a hold state, wherein when said one or more other telephones are set in an off-hook state, operation of said hold means is released such that said telephone is no longer maintained in the hold state.

2. The telephone according to claim 1, further comprising a voltage detecting circuit for detecting a voltage of said telephone network line and wherein said hold means is released from being energized, such that said telephone is no longer maintained in the hold state, when said voltage detecting circuit detects that said voltage of said telephone network line is lowered from a predetermined value.

3. The telephone according to claim 2, further comprising detection means for detecting whether or not said handset is placed at the position in which said hold means of said telephone body is energized and wherein said hold means places said telephone in a hold state or releases said telephone from said hold state, depending on a detected signal supplied from said detecting means to said hold means.

4. The telephone according to claim 2, further comprising a dialer circuit and detection means for detecting whether or not said dialer circuit outputs an output signal and wherein said hold means places said telephone in a hold state or releases said telephone from said hold state, depending on a detected signal supplied from said detecting means to said hold means.