System and method for conference calling

• US 8,600,027 B1
• Filed: 08/14/2012
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gregory Joseph Doerr, Timothy J. Reedy
• Original Assignee: Gregory Joseph Doerr, Timothy J. Reedy
• Inventors: Doerr, Gregory Joseph, Reedy, Timothy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): ADDY, THJUAN KNOWLIN
• Application Number:
  US13/585,482
• Time in Patent Office: 476 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202.01, 379/201.01, 379/203.01, 379/204.01, 455/416
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/652 Call initiation triggered by text message
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/565 relating to time schedule aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0054 where the data service is an electronic mail service

Abstract

A system for conference calling having a memory having at least one user record associated with a system user, the user record having telephone number and an electronic address. A conference call request receiving function is executable by the processor to receive a conference call request email, the conference call request email has calendar information and an electronic address of one or more participants. A scheduling function is executable by the processor to schedule a conference call on the system server between the one or more participants that are system users at the time of the conference call according to the calendar information in the conference call request email. Also provided is a method for conference calling whereby a conference call request is received via email.

Claims

1. A method of conference calling, comprising the steps of:

receiving via a conference resource email address, a conference call request email on a system server, the conference call request email comprising user-entered conferencing information, the user-entered conferencing information comprising calendar information, and an email address of one or more participants, and the conference resource email address;

determining whether each of the one or more participants is a system user by querying a user database, the user database having telephone contact information and an electronic address for each system user; and

,

scheduling a conference call on the system server between the one or more participants according to the calendar information in the conference call request email.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of scheduling a conference call, is further defined in that only participants that are system users are scheduled for the conference call.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising the step of:

inviting each participant that is not a system user to become a system user by the participant submitting at least telephone contact information of the participant.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

registering a participant that is not a system user as a system user by;

sending the participant an electronic message to the electronic address of the participant, the electronic message having connection information for connecting to a user registration page;

confirming an identity of the participant through the use of said connection information;

receiving telephone contact information from the participant,

storing the telephone contact information associated with the electronic address of the participant in the user database.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of sending is further defined in that the connection information comprises a unique identifier corresponding to the participant;

and wherein the step of confirming is further defined in that the identity of the participant is confirmed through the unique identifier.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of sending is further defined in that the connection information is a URL having a time-limited validity and comprising a unique identifier corresponding to the participant, and wherein the step of confirming is further defined in that the identity of the participant is confirmed through the unique identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

starting the conference call by the system server instructing a conference bridge connected to a telephone network to dial the telephone contact information of one or more of the participants that are a system users; and

joining, through the conference bridge, calls received from the one or more participants to the conference call.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

starting the conference call by the system server instructing the dialing, at or before a conference call start time, of the telephone contact information of one or more of the participants that are a system user at a time of the dialing, wherein the calendar information comprises the conference call start time; and

joining the one or more participants to the conference call.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from at least one participant, of the one or more participants, that is a system user, to access a conference call start page;

receiving from the at least one participant a participant phone number for connecting to the conference call;

dialing the participant phone number through a conference bridge connected to a telephone network according to instructions from the system server; and

joining, through the conference bridge, the at least one participant into the conference call.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising the step of,

before receiving a request from the at least one participant, sending one or more participants a conference start electronic message prior to a conference call start time, the conference start electronic message having connection information for connecting to the conference call start page;

and

wherein the step of receiving a request from the at least one participant, of the one or more participants, comprises the step of receiving a request from the at least one participant to access the conference call start webpage corresponding to the connection information.

11. The method of claim 9, comprising the steps of,

after receiving a receiving a request from the at least one participant to access a conference call start webpage, determining whether the participant is authorized to access the conference call corresponding to the conference call start page;

serving to the participant the conference call start page only if the participant is authorized to access the conference call corresponding to the conference call start page.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein in the step of receiving is further defined in that the conferencing information is in an iCalendar format.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising the step of,

after receiving a conference call request email on a conference call server, determining whether a sender of the conference call request email is authorized to schedule conference calls by querying the user database;

and,

wherein the step of scheduling a conference call on the conference call server, is further defined in that the conference call is only scheduled if the sender is authorized to schedule conference calls.

25. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

after the step of receiving,

scanning the conference call request email for one or more code fields;

extracting the data associated with the one or more code fields;

storing in a database, the extracted data related to a conference call organizer that sent the conference call request email;

providing the extracted data along with usage information associated with the conference call organizer to a billing system.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the one or more code fields corresponds to a user billing code or user client code.

27. The system of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

starting the conference call by receiving on a conference bridge a call from a participant or by the system server instructing the dialing, at or before a conference call start time, of the telephone contact information of one or more of the participants that are a system user at a time of the dialing, wherein the calendar information comprises the conference call start time;

determining a security level of a conference call by querying a security database;

prompting the participant for additional security information required by the security level;

receiving the additional security information from the participant;

verifying the additional security information with an authentication system;

storing the verification response from the authentication system in the security database;

joining the participant to the conference call if the verification response indicates the additional security information was authenticated.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving comprises the step of receiving the calendar information in an email generated by calendar program of a sender of the conference call request email, where the calendar program has email functionality for scheduling meetings.

29. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of, before the step of receiving via a conference resource email address, a conference call request email on system server,

receiving the user-entered conferencing information, comprising the calendar information, and the email address of one or more participants, and the conference resource email address, into a meeting invitation form in a calendar software on a first computing device of the user,

generating a meeting invitation with the conferencing information;

and,

sending the meeting invitation in the conference call request email to at least the conference resource email address.

30. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of:

receiving, via the conference resource email address, a conference call modification request email on the system server, the conference call modification request email comprising a request to modify at least one item of the user-entered conferencing information related to the conference call that has already been scheduled;

modifying the conference call according to the conference call modification request email.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the step of receiving is further defined in that said at least one item of the user-entered conferencing information comprises at least one of a conference call start date, a conference call start time, a conference call end date, a conference call end time, or a participant.

14. A system of conference calling, comprising:

a computer system comprising,

a processor, and

a memory signal connected to the processor, the memory having at least one user record associated with each system user, the user record comprising, telephone number and an electronic address for each system user;

a conference call request receiving function executable by the processor to receive, via a conference resource email address, a conference call request email, the conference call request email comprising user-entered conferencing information, the user-entered conferencing information comprising calendar information, and an email address of one or more participants, and the conference resource email address;

a participant authentication function executable by the processor to determine whether each of the one or more participants is a system user by querying a user database, the user database having a telephone number and an electronic address for each system user; and

,

a scheduling function executable by the processor to schedule a conference call on computer system between the one or more participants according to the calendar information in the conference call request email.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the scheduling function only schedules the conference call between participants that are system users.

16. The system of claim 14, comprising a user registration function executable by the processor to register participants that are not system users as system users, the user registration function comprises,

a send registration request function executable by the processor to send the participant an electronic message to the electronic address of the participant, the electronic message having connection information for connecting to a user registration page;

an identity confirmation function executable by the processor to confirm an identity of the participant through the use of said connection information;

an information receiving function executable by the processor to receive telephone number from the participant;

a information storage function executable by the processor to store the telephone number associated with the electronic address of the participant in the user database.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the connection information sent by the send registration request function comprises a unique identifier corresponding to the participant;

and wherein the identity confirmation function is executable to confirm the identity of the participant through the use of the unique identifier.

18. The system of claim 14, comprising:

a start conference call function executable by the processor to dial, at or before a conference call start time, the telephone number of one or more of the participants that are a system user at a time of the dialing, wherein the calendar information comprises the conference call start time; and

a join call to conference function executable by the processor to join the one or more participants to the conference call.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer system comprises a conference call bridge in signal communication with the processor, the conference call bridge configured to connect with a telephone network and to join calls into one or more conference calls.

20. The system of claim 14, comprising:

a conference call bridge in signal communication with the computer system, the conference call bridge configured to connect with a telephone network;

a start conference call function executable by the processor to instruct the conference bridge to dial the telephone number of one or more of the participants that are a system users at a time of the dialing, wherein the calendar information comprises the conference call start time; and

a join call to conference function executable by the conference bridge to join one or more calls of the one or more participants to the conference call, where calls of the one or more participants are received by the conference bridge from the telephone network.

21. The system of claim 14, comprising, a start conference call function executable by the processor to,

receive a request from at least one participant that is a system user to access a conference call start page;

receive from the participant a participant phone number for connecting to the conference call;

dial the participant phone number, and

join the participant into the conference call.

22. The system of claim 19, the start conference call function executable by the processor to,

send one or more participants a conference start electronic message prior to a conference call start time, the conference start electronic message having connection information for connecting to the conference call start page;

and

receive a request from at least one participant to access the conference call start webpage corresponding to the connection information.

23. The system of claim 14, comprising a organizer authentication function executable by the processor to determining whether a sender of the conference call request email is authorized to schedule conference calls by querying the user database;

and, wherein the a scheduling function is further defined in that scheduling only occurs if the sender is authorized to schedule conference calls.

32. The system of claim 14, comprising a conference call modification function executable by the processor to receive, via the conference resource email address, a conference call modification request email on the system server, the conference call modification request email comprising a request to modify at least one item of the user-entered conferencing information related to the conference call that has already been scheduled, and to modify the conference call according to the conference call modification request email.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the at least one item of the user-entered conferencing information comprises at least one of a conference call start date, a conference call start time, a conference call end date, a conference call end time, or a participant.

24. A system of conference calling, comprising:

a conference call server comprising,

a processor, and

a memory signal connected to the processor, the memory comprising a user database, the user database having at least one user record associated with each system user, the user record comprising a telephone number and an electronic address for each system user;

,

a conference bridge signal connected to the conference call server, the conference bridge configured to connect with a telephone network;

a conference call request receiving function stored on the memory and configured to receive, via a conference resource email address, a conference call request email, the conference call request email comprising user-entered conferencing information, the user-entered conferencing information comprising calendar information, and an email address of one or more participants, and the conference resource email address;

a participant authentication function stored on the memory and configured to determine whether each of the one or more participants is a system user by querying the user database, the user database having a telephone number and an electronic address for each system user,

a scheduling function stored on the memory and configured to schedule a conference call on the conference call server between the one or more participants according to the calendar information in the conference call request email;

a start conference call function stored on the memory and configured to instruct the conference bridge to dial, at or before a conference call start time, the telephone number of one or more of the participants that are a system user at a time of the dialing, wherein the calendar information comprises the conference call start time; and

,

a join call to conference function stored on the memory and configured to instruct the conference bridge to join calls from the one or more participants to the conference call.