Methods and systems for inbound call control

• US 9,491,286 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2014
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kedlin Company, LLC
• Original Assignee: Kedlin Company, LLC
• Inventors: Sharpe, Benjamin
• Primary Examiner(s): TIEU, BINH KIEN
• Application Number:
  US14/552,267
• Publication Number:
  US 20150078542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 715 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.19, 379/88.2, 379/88.21, 379/93.17, 379/93.23, 379/142.01, 379/142.02, 379/142.04, 379/142.06, 379/142.17, 379/201.01, 379/201.02, 379/207.13, 379/207.15, 379/210.02, 379/211.02, 379/210.03
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/38 Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections queuing arrangements H04Q3/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4365 based on information specified by the calling party, e.g. priority or subject
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53308 Message originator indirectly connected to the message centre, e.g. after detection of busy or absent state of a called party

Abstract

An indication of an incoming call may be received at a call control unit communicatively coupled to, and/or resident within, a telephone. The indication may include identification information for the incoming call. It may be determined whether additional information regarding a caller associated with the identification information exists, and if so, a first operation may be performed on the incoming call responsively to the additional information, otherwise, a second operation may be performed on the incoming call responsively to an absence of the additional information. The additional information my include a user-configurable list of desired callers (e.g., a whitelist) and/or undesired callers (e.g., a blacklist). The additional information may also include caller identification information and/or a spam score. The first operation may be blocking the incoming call, forwarding the incoming call to a voice mailbox, transmitting the incoming call to the telephone, enabling the telephone to receive the incoming call, and/or answering the incoming call and then terminating the incoming call. In some embodiments, the first and/or second operations performed on the incoming call is/are user configurable.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an incoming call from a caller at a call control unit communicatively coupled to, or resident within a telephone, the call control unit being positioned between a telecommunication service provider providing the incoming call and the telephone, the incoming call being associated with a telephone number and the caller; and

querying, by the call control unit, a server to determine whether additional information associated with the telephone number and the caller exists, and if so, determining whether the additional information indicates that a negative characteristic is associated with at least one of the caller and the telephone number and, if so, performing a first operation on the incoming call responsively to the additional information, otherwise, performing a second operation on the incoming call responsively to an absence of the additional information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether additional information regarding a caller associated with the identification information exists is performed at the call control unit using information retrieved from a locally accessible data store.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether additional information regarding a caller associated with the identification information exists comprises:

forwarding the identification information from the call control unit to a server, wherein the server is operative to determine whether the additional information regarding a caller associated with the identification information exists; and

receiving from the server, if the additional information exists, the additional information regarding the caller associated with the identification information, otherwise receiving from the server an indication that no additional information exists.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operation is at least one of blocking the incoming call, forwarding the incoming call to a voice mailbox, transmitting the incoming call to the telephone, enabling the telephone to receive the incoming call, and answering the incoming call and then terminating the incoming call.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information includes a user-configurable list of at least one of desired callers and undesired callers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second operations performed on the incoming call is user configurable.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication at the call control unit that the incoming call is undesired; and

communicating, by the call control unit, the indication to the server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information includes a user-configurable list of undesired callers, the method further comprising:

receiving an indication at the call control unit that the incoming call is undesired; and

automatically adding the identification information for the undesired incoming call to the user-configurable list of undesired callers.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional information includes at least one of caller identification information and a spam score.

10. A call control unit comprising:

an input for receiving an incoming call for a telephone from a telecommunication service provider, the incoming call being associated with a telephone number and a caller;

a processor communicatively coupled to the input, the processor being configured to query a server to determine whether additional information associated with the telephone number and the caller exists, and if so, determining whether the additional information indicates that a negative characteristic is associated with at least one of the caller and the telephone number and, if so, performing a first operation on the incoming call responsively to the additional information, otherwise, performing a second operation on the incoming call responsively to an absence of the additional information; and

a communication port configured to enable the call control unit to communicate with a telephone responsively to at least one of the first operation and the second operation.

11. The call control unit of claim 10, wherein the first operation is at least one of:

blocking the incoming call, forwarding the incoming call to a voice mailbox, transmitting the incoming call to the telephone, enabling the telephone to receive the incoming call, and answering the incoming call and then terminating the incoming call.

12. The call control unit of claim 10, further comprising:

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory being configured to store the additional information.

13. The call control unit of claim 10, wherein the additional information includes a user-configurable list of at least one of desired and undesired callers.

14. The call control unit of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first and second operations performed on the incoming call is user configurable.

15. The call control unit of claim 10, wherein the input is further configured to receive an indication that the incoming call is undesired and the processor is further configured to communicate the indication to a server.

16. The call control unit of claim 10, wherein the additional information includes a user-configurable list of undesired callers, the input is configured to receive an indication at the call control unit that the incoming call is undesired and the processor is further configured to automatically add the identification information for the undesired incoming call to the user-configurable list of undesired callers.

17. A system comprising:

a telephone network communicatively coupled to a call control unit, the telephone network being configured to transfer an incoming call to a call control unit communicatively coupled to or resident within a telephone and positioned between a telecommunication service provider providing the incoming call and the telephone;

the call control unit configured to receive the incoming call, the incoming call being associated with a telephone number and a caller, the call control unit being further configured to query a server to determine whether additional information regarding a caller associated with the telephone number and the caller exists and, if so, determining whether the additional information indicates that a negative characteristic is associated with at least one of the caller and the telephone number and, if so, performing a first operation on the incoming call responsively to the additional information, otherwise, performing a second operation on the incoming call responsively to an absence of the additional information, wherein at least one of the first and second operation is transferring the incoming telephone call to the telephone; and

the telephone for receiving the incoming telephone call from the call control unit.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the call control unit is further configured to request the additional information from a server, the system further comprising:

a database configured to store the additional information; and

the server communicatively coupled to the call control unit and the database, the server being configured to transmit a request to the database for the additional information, receive the additional information from the database, and transmit the received additional information to the call control unit.