Method and apparatus for prioritizing telephone calls
First Claim
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1. A method of processing a telephone call, comprising the steps of:
- storing a signal representing a call recipient'"'"'s priority and an association between the recipient'"'"'s priority and the recipient'"'"'s individual telephone number;
storing a signal representing a caller'"'"'s priority, said caller'"'"'s priority having been selected by a caller; and
thenassigning said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority to a telephone call received from said caller; and
thendirecting the telephone call based on a function of said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority and said recipient'"'"'s priority.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for prioritizing telphone calls that enables a caller to specify priority criteria relating to the calls and a recipient to specify priority criteria relating to the treatment of the calls.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method of processing a telephone call, comprising the steps of:
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storing a signal representing a call recipient'"'"'s priority and an association between the recipient'"'"'s priority and the recipient'"'"'s individual telephone number; storing a signal representing a caller'"'"'s priority, said caller'"'"'s priority having been selected by a caller; and
thenassigning said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority to a telephone call received from said caller; and
thendirecting the telephone call based on a function of said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority and said recipient'"'"'s priority. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of processing telephone calls in a telephone network, comprising the steps of:
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for at least two respective recipients, storing a signal representing a call recipient'"'"'s priority and an association between the recipient'"'"'s priority and a recipient'"'"'s individual telephone number; storing a signal representing a caller'"'"'s priority, being a priority selected by a caller; and
thenon receiving a first telephone call from said caller, automatically retrieving said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority signal and assigning said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority to said first telephone call, and directing the routing of said first telephone call based on a function of said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority and the stored priority associated with the number of the recipient of the first telephone call; and
thenon receiving a second telephone call from said caller, automatically retrieving said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority signal and assigning said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority to said second telephone call, and directing the routing of said second telephone call based on a function of said previously stored caller'"'"'s priority and the stored priority associated with the number of the recipient of the second telephone call. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An apparatus for processing a telephone call, comprising:
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means for storing priority criteria of a caller; means for retrieving said priority criteria of said caller in response to receiving a telephone call from said caller, and routing said call along with said caller'"'"'s priority criteria; and means for receiving said call along with said caller'"'"'s priority criteria, and routing said call based at least in part on said caller'"'"'s priority criteria. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of processing a telephone call, comprising the steps of:
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receiving at an originating switch a telephone call from a caller and processing said call; routing, to a terminating switch from said originating switch, said call along with priority criteria of said caller determined during said processing; and routing the call from said terninating switch based on a comparison of said caller'"'"'s priority criteria with a recipient'"'"'s priority criteria. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification