Method and apparatus for communicating information about a called party to a calling party

• US 6,658,100 B1
• Filed: 09/03/1999
• Issued: 12/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Properties, L.P.
• Inventors: Lund, Arnold M.
• Primary Examiner(s): TIEU, BENNY QUOC
• Application Number:
  US09/390,070
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• Field of Search: 379/220.01, 379/221.01, 379/230, 379/207.02, 379/201.01, 379/127.01, 379/142.01, 379/142.09, 379/218.01, 379/201.04, 379/142.17, 707/104.1, 707/10, 709/238, 709/201
• US Class Current: 379/201.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/247 Telephone sets including user guidance or feature selection means facilitating their use user interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones H04M1/724
• 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 1/56 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 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/354 Reverse directory service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/22 Automatic class or number identification arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42017 Customized ring-back tones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42076 where the identifier is a Uniform Resource Locator
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42093 Notifying the calling party of information on the called or connected party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4211 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42119 where the identifier is a Uniform Resource Locator
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4228 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42323 PBX's with CTI arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13039 Asymmetrical two-way transmission, e.g. ADSL, HDSL
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13091 CLI, identification of calling line
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13096 Digital apparatus individually associated with a subscriber line, digital line circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 : Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13166 : Fault prevention
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13167 : Redundant apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13175 : Graphical user interface [GUI], WWW interface, visual indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13204 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13209 : ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13345 : Intelligent networks, SCP
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13389 : LAN, internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13546 : Intelligent Peripheral
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 : Provisions for intelligent networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/72 : Finding out and indicating number of calling subscriber

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for automatically retrieving and displaying supplemental information about a called party on the customer premise equipment (CPE) of a calling party. When a caller places a call, the number called is used to look up and return to the caller the Universal Resource Locator (URL) of the called party. Application software resident in the caller'"'"'s CPE uses the URL to retrieve the home page of the called party from the Internet.

Claims

1. A method of communicating information about a called party to a calling party comprising a sequence of the following steps:

collecting a number of the called party;

accessing a database to retrieve an address for locating a customized file of the called party;

transmitting the address to a device at the calling party'"'"'s premises,

retrieving the customized file for use by the calling party'"'"'s device; and

connecting the called party with the calling party over a telephone network using the number of the party called.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said calling party'"'"'s device is located at the calling party'"'"'s premises and is used to generate the number.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said device includes a microcomputer and a modem for connecting with the Internet, said address is the Universal Resource Locator (URL) associated with the called party'"'"'s telephone number, and said file is the World Wide Web Page of the called party.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said device includes a microcomputer connected with the Internet via a signal switching point (SSP) of an advanced intelligent network (AIN)-based telephone network, said address is the Universal Resource Locator (URL) associated with the called party'"'"'s telephone number stored in a database connected with the Internet, and said file is the World Wide Web Page of the called party.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said device includes a microcomputer connected with the Internet via a central office of a telephone network, said address is the Universal Resource Locator (URL) associated with the called party'"'"'s telephone number stored in a database connected with the Internet, and said file is the World Wide Web Page of the called party.

6. A method of communicating information about a called party to a calling party comprising a sequence of the following steps:

placing a telephone call to a party through a network interconnecting customer premise equipment (CPE) of the called and calling parties;

accessing a database storing a Universal Resource Locator (URL) associated with the telephone number of the called party and retrieving the URL;

transmitting the URL associated with the telephone number of the called party, through said network to the calling party'"'"'s CPE,

retrieving and displaying the World Wide Web page associated with the URL on the calling party'"'"'s CPE; and

connecting the called party'"'"'s CPE to the calling party'"'"'s CPE over the network to permit voice communication between the parties.

7. Apparatus for communicating information about a called party to a calling party comprising:

a calling party customer premise equipment (CPE) for placing a telephone call to a called party;

a called party CPE for receiving a telephone call from a calling party;

a network interconnecting the called and calling party CPE'"'"'s;

said network including storage means for storing customized information associated with the telephone number of the called party;

said network further including means for retrieving and transmitting said information to said calling party CPE;

said calling party CPE including means for displaying said information.

8. The apparatus defined in claim 7 wherein said information is a Universal Resource Locator (URL), said calling party CPE further including means for accessing the Internet for retrieving the World Wide Web page associated with said URL.

9. The apparatus defined in claim 8 wherein said network includes an signal switching point (SSP) connected with the calling party CPE, and an SCP connected with said storage means for accessing said customized information.

10. The apparatus defined in claim 8 wherein said network includes a central office connected with said calling party CPE and with said storage means for accessing said customized information.

11. A method of communicating information about a called party to a calling party comprising:

collecting a telephone number of the called party entered by the calling party at customer premise equipment (CPE) of the calling party;

automatically retrieving a customized file of information associated with the telephone number of the called party, wherein the customized file of information is maintained in a database comprising a plurality of customized files of information associated with a respective one of a plurality of telephone numbers;

displaying the retrieved customized file of information on a display at the CPE of the calling party; and

connecting the called party with the calling party over a telephone network using the telephone number of the called party.