Method and apparatus for providing caller identification based responses in a computer telephony environment
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. In a packet-switched computer network over which packets from a plurality of packet-based Internet telephony processes are transmitted, the telephony processes having a dynamically assigned protocol address that is dynamically assigned upon connecting to an Internet and is temporary for each instance of connecting to the Internet, a method, performed in connection with a telephony process executed on a communications end-point device, of selectively alerting a user of an incoming communication over the computer network comprising the steps of:
- A. receiving a call packet containing an information profile identifying one of the plurality of telephony processes which is the source of an incoming communication; and
B. responding to the incoming communication by transmitting a responsive packet over the computer network in accordance with the identity of the source;
wherein a central server stores the dynamically assigned protocol addresses to establish an Internet telephony communication between the telephony processes.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A utility for enabling real-time, point-to-point communications over computer networks between users having dynamically assigned Internet Protocol addresses includes the ability to identify incoming communications, and, based on the identity of the incoming communication, selectively responding. In one embodiment, an information profile contained within an incoming signal is compared to a plurality of information profiles contained within the personal directory of a user, and, if a match occurs, the notification signal associated with the matched profile is generated. In an alternative embodiment, the information profile contained within the incoming communication includes an identifier of a notification signal which is used to select from a number of predefined notification signals resident within the user'"'"'s private directory.
445 Citations
33 Claims
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1. In a packet-switched computer network over which packets from a plurality of packet-based Internet telephony processes are transmitted, the telephony processes having a dynamically assigned protocol address that is dynamically assigned upon connecting to an Internet and is temporary for each instance of connecting to the Internet, a method, performed in connection with a telephony process executed on a communications end-point device, of selectively alerting a user of an incoming communication over the computer network comprising the steps of:
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A. receiving a call packet containing an information profile identifying one of the plurality of telephony processes which is the source of an incoming communication; and B. responding to the incoming communication by transmitting a responsive packet over the computer network in accordance with the identity of the source; wherein a central server stores the dynamically assigned protocol addresses to establish an Internet telephony communication between the telephony processes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computer program product for execution in connection with a telephony process executed on a communications end-point device, the telephony process communicating with other telephony processes over a packet-switched computer network, the telephony processes having dynamically assigned protocol addresses that are dynamically assigned upon connecting to an Internet and are temporary for each instance of connecting to the Internet, the computer program product comprises a computer useable medium having embodied therein program code comprising:
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A. program code for receiving, at the communications end-point device, an incoming communication over the computer network, the incoming communication containing a call packet containing an information profile identifying one of the plurality of telephony processes which is the source of the incoming communication; and B. program code executable at the communications end-point device, responsive to the information profile, for selectively notifying a user of the incoming communication by transmitting a responsive packet over the computer network in accordance with the identity of the source; wherein a server interacts with the communications end-point device to store the dynamically assigned protocol addresses to establish an Internet telephony communication between the telephony processes. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A server configured to establish point-to-point communications, comprising:
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a first processing unit configured to receive, at a communications end-point device, an incoming communication over a packet-switched computer network over which packets from a plurality of packet-based telephony processes are transmitted, said plurality of telephony processes having a dynamically assigned protocol address that is dynamically assigned upon connecting to an Internet and is temporary for each instance of connecting to the Internet, said incoming communication containing a call packet containing an information profile identifying one of said plurality of telephony processes which is a source of said incoming communication; and a second processing unit configured to selectively notify, at a communications end-point device, responsive to said information profile, a user of said incoming communication by transmitting a responsive packet over the computer network in accordance with an identity of said source; wherein said server interacts with said communications end-point device to store said dynamically assigned protocol addresses to establish an Internet telephony communication between said telephony processes. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. An apparatus for use with a computer system capable of executing a telephony process and communicating with other telephony processes over a packet-switched computer network, the telephony processes having dynamically assigned protocol addresses that are dynamically assigned upon connecting to an Internet and are temporary for each instance of connecting to the Internet, the apparatus comprising:
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A. program logic, for use in connection with the telephony process, configured to receive an incoming communication over the computer network, the incoming communication containing a call packet containing an information profile identifying one of the plurality of telephony processes which is the source of the incoming communication; and B. program logic, for use in connection with the telephony process, responsive to the information profile, and configured to selectively notify a user of the incoming communication by transmitting a responsive packet over the computer network in accordance with the identity of the source; wherein a server interacts with the computer system to store the dynamically assigned protocol addresses to establish an Internet telephony communication between the telephony processes.
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32. A method of enabling a selective response at a called telephone process based on the identity of a caller telephone process communicating over a network implementing dynamic Internet protocol addressing, the method comprising:
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providing an e-mail address of the called telephone process to a database server; receiving a current Internet protocol address of the called telephone process from the database server based on the provided e-mail address; sending a call packet directed to the current Internet protocol address of the called telephone process, the call packet including an information profile having information identifying the caller telephone process; and wherein the information profile enables the called telephone process to extract selective response information based on the information profile from a local database.
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33. A method of enabling a selective response at a called party based on the identity of a caller between telephone processes communicating over a network implementing dynamic Internet protocol addressing, the method comprising:
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maintaining a current database of all on-line telephone processes, the database including current Internet protocol addresses of each on-line telephone process and associating the current Internet protocol addresses with an identifier of each telephone process; receiving a connection request from a calling telephone process to a called telephone process, the connection request including the identifier of the called telephone process; extracting the identifier from the connection request; determining the current Internet protocol address of the called telephone process by mapping the identifier against entries in the current database; providing the current Internet protocol address of the called telephone process to the calling telephone process; wherein provision of the Internet protocol address of the called telephone process enables the calling telephone process to send a call packet directed to the current Internet protocol address of the called telephone process, the call packet including an information profile having information identifying the caller telephone process, and wherein the information profile enables the called telephone process to extract selective response information based on the information profile from a local database.
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Specification