Voice mail source address indentification blocking
First Claim
1. In a voice mail system having addressable storage for storing digital format voice mail messages in mailboxes associated with respective telephone numbers of a plurality of served subscribers that are connectable to the voice mail system through respective local loops of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and at least one telephone central switching office, the digital voice mail messages comprising header identification and voice information content, a method for communicating voice mail messages between the voice mailboxes comprising the steps of:
- designating at least one of the voice mailboxes as a private voice mailbox;
storing a voice mail message received by the voice mail system from a first subscriber in the first subscriber'"'"'s associated voice mailbox;
in response to a request from the first subscriber to transfer the voice mail message stored in the storing step to an identified second subscriber voice mailbox, determining whether the first subscriber voice mailbox is designated private;
in response to a private designation determination in said determining step, concealing the identification of the first subscriber voice mailbox in the header portion of the message; and
forwarding the message, with the identification of the first subscriber voice mailbox concealed, to the second subscriber voice mailbox.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In a voice messaging system, voice mailboxes can be designated as private boxes from which boxes messages can be forwarded, with their source identities concealed, to destination mailboxes. Communication of messages may be between remote VMS systems as well as between mailboxes in the same VMS system. The private designation may be made selectively by a subscriber to the public switched telephone network on a global basis or on an individual basis for each message. The global designation may be toggled on or off at any time by a call to the system with appropriate input from the subscriber. Optionally, the private designation may be made for an individual message during the call in which the message is stored in the subscriber'"'"'s mailbox. While information identifying the source of a communicated message is concealed from the recipient, a response message may be communicated from the recipient mailbox back to the source mailbox or a third party mailbox designated by the source subscriber.
91 Citations
25 Claims
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1. In a voice mail system having addressable storage for storing digital format voice mail messages in mailboxes associated with respective telephone numbers of a plurality of served subscribers that are connectable to the voice mail system through respective local loops of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and at least one telephone central switching office, the digital voice mail messages comprising header identification and voice information content, a method for communicating voice mail messages between the voice mailboxes comprising the steps of:
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designating at least one of the voice mailboxes as a private voice mailbox;
storing a voice mail message received by the voice mail system from a first subscriber in the first subscriber'"'"'s associated voice mailbox;
in response to a request from the first subscriber to transfer the voice mail message stored in the storing step to an identified second subscriber voice mailbox, determining whether the first subscriber voice mailbox is designated private;
in response to a private designation determination in said determining step, concealing the identification of the first subscriber voice mailbox in the header portion of the message; and
forwarding the message, with the identification of the first subscriber voice mailbox concealed, to the second subscriber voice mailbox. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
receiving a call that requests privacy status from a calling subscriber; and
toggling the global status of the mailbox associated with the calling subscriber from non-private to private.
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6. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising the steps of:
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receiving a call that requests a change of privacy status from the calling subscriber; and
toggling the status of the mailbox associated with the calling subscriber from private to non-private.
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7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of designating comprises selectively setting a privacy status for each message stored in the designated voice mailbox.
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8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the step of selectively setting occurs during a calls from the subscriber of the designated voice mailbox to the voice mail system, in which a message is formulated.
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9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the concealing step comprises erasing source identifying data from the header portion of the message and the forwarding step comprises setting a flag in the message.
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11. A method as recited in claim 9, further comprising the steps of:
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forming a response message to be sent from the second subscriber voice mailbox to a receiving voice mailbox in response to input received from a user of the second subscriber mailbox;
entering data related to the flag in the response message;
identifying a voice mailbox for receiving the response message from the data entered in the entering step;
and delivering the response message to the receiving voice mailbox identified in the identifying step.
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12. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the flag related data of the entering step is entered as a destination address in the header portion of the response message.
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13. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the receiving voice mailbox is the first subscriber voice mailbox.
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14. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the receiving voice mailbox is a mailbox other than the first subscriber voice mailbox.
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15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the receiving voice mailbox is stored at a location remote from the voice mail system and interconnected thereto via the public switched telephone network.
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16. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of selectively tagging, in response to input from the first subscriber, the voice mail message for blocking receipt of reply messages.
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17. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
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determining whether the second subscriber voice mailbox has been designated for rejecting anonymous voice mail messages; and
blocking receipt of the voice mail message at the second subscriber mailbox in response an anonymous message rejection determination if a private designation determination was made in said determining step.
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18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the blocking step further comprises sending a reply message to the first subscriber voice mailbox indicating the blocked receipt status of the original voice mail message.
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10. A method as recited in 9, wherein the concealing step further comprises replacing the erased source identifying data with coded data related to the flag.
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19. In a switched communication network including first and second interconnected central office switching systems each connected to a plurality of subscriber lines to which subscriber communication equipment may be coupled, each of the first and second central office switching systems coupled to an associated centralized voice messaging system having addressable storage associated respectively with voice mailboxes of the subscriber lines, a method for communicating voice messages between the centralized voice messaging systems comprising:
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designating at least one of the voice mailboxes of a first one of the centralized voice messaging systems as a private box;
storing a voice mail message directed to a destination voice mailbox of a second one of the centralized voice messaging systems in a source voice mailbox of the first centralized voice messaging system;
determining whether the source voice mailbox is designated private;
in response to a private determination in the determining step, concealing the identification of the first subscriber voice mailbox in a data portion of the message; and
forwarding the message, with the identification of the first subscriber mailbox concealed, to the destination voice mailbox in the second centralized voice messaging system. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
forming session identifying data for transmission of the message;
formatting the message in one or more packets having data header portions and message content portions in accordance with a data network protocol; and
transmitting the message to the second centralized voice messaging system;
and the concealing step comprises erasing source mailbox address data from the data header portions.
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21. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the concealing step further comprises the steps of:
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replacing the erased source mailbox address data with session code data; and
setting a flag in the data header portions.
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22. A method as recited in claim 21, further comprising the steps of:
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formulating a response message at the second centralized voice messaging system to be sent to a receiving mailbox;
entering session code data in a destination address portion of the response message;
transmitting the response message to the first centralized voice messaging system;
identifying, at the first centralized voice messaging system, the receiving mailbox for the response message in accordance with the data entered in the entering step;
and delivering the response message to the receiving mailbox identified in the identifying step.
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23. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the receiving mailbox is the source voice mailbox of the first centralized voice messaging system.
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24. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the receiving mailbox is a mailbox other than the source voice mailbox.
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25. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein the receiving mailbox is located remote from the first centralized voice messaging system.
Specification