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...During the Civil War, the Confederacy established its own Patent Office which issued 266 patents, a third of which concerned implements of war.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5949573 | Tunable wavelength converter A tunable wavelength converter generates a selectable wavelength for an optical signal. The tunable wavelength converter includes an input active section, an output active section, an interferometer and an optical wavelength selector. The above components... | 09/07/1999 |
| 5943397 | Network assisted callback system A network assisted callback method and system for managing calls that fail to reach to a subscriber, and facilitating callback by the subscriber to one or more calling parties. In an embodiment of the invention, a call to a subscriber is routed to an inte... | 08/24/1999 |
| 5894504 | Advanced call waiting and messaging system A communications system is designed to allow a call waiting subscriber who is already busy on a first call to receive information associated with a message being recorded by a second caller attempting to reach the subscriber. According to one aspect of th... | 04/13/1999 |
| 5754633 | Method for achieving third-number call billing A party (12, 14, 16 and 18) to a telephone call carried by a telecommunications network (10) may effect transfer of the call charges that would otherwise be billed to that party by entering a billing transfer request after the call has been set up. Upon r... | 05/19/1998 |
| 5745550 | Multiply accommodated message relaying for hearing impaired callers A call between a caller using a telephone device for the deaf (TDD), and requiring one or more types of expertise from a calling assistant, and another person, including a TDD user, is connected by automatically prompting the TDD caller for calling inform... | 04/28/1998 |
| 5721764 | Conference mailbox service A service establishes conference mailboxes (CMB) for specified durations of time upon request by a user. The CMB service permits a CMB to be accessed by any number of other users authorized by the requesting user. The CMB service also advantageously confe... | 02/24/1998 |
| 5710591 | Method and apparatus for recording and indexing an audio and multimedia conference A method and apparatus for recording and indexing audio information exchanged during an audio conference call, or video, audio and data information exchanged during a multimedia conference. For a multimedia conference, the method and apparatus utilize the... | 01/20/1998 |
| 5708754 | Method for real-time reduction of voice telecommunications noise not measurable at its source A telecommunications network service overcomes the annoying effects of transmitted noise by a signal processing which filters out the noise using interactive estimations of a linear predictive coating speech model. The speech model filter uses an accurate... | 01/13/1998 |
| 5708699 | Hybrid access architecture for voice messaging systems An architecturally and cost efficient method and system are disclosed for accessing a voice messaging platform. An exemplary method for accessing the platform includes: (1) forwarding a telephone call to the platform over foreign exchange lines when the t... | 01/13/1998 |
| 5708422 | Transaction authorization and alert system An automated method for alerting a customer that a transaction is being initiated and for authorizing the transaction based on a confirmation/approval by the customer thereto. In accordance with one illustrative embodiment, a request to authorize the tran... | 01/13/1998 |
| 5707174 | Underwater cable burial machine using a single cable for towing and lifting The underwater cable burial machine uses a single cable for both towing and lifting. The machine includes a retractable cable, which is connected between a retraction mechanism and the towing cable. There is a cable guide through which the retractable cab... | 01/13/1998 |
| 5706431 | System and method for distributively propagating revisions through a communications network A system, and method of operation, for propagating revisions through a communications network. The system includes: (1) status reporting circuitry, associated with a second node of the communications network, for collecting and transmitting a current stat... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5706394 | Telecommunications speech signal improvement by reduction of residual noise A telecommunications network service overcomes the annoying effects of transmitted noise by signal processing which filters out the noise using a model-based iterative signal estimator. The estimator is provided with a current estimate of the noise power ... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5706339 | Technique for use in processing personal telephone calls In a personal communication service (PCS) environment, where a call to a personal telephone number may be routed to a sequence of telephone numbers until the call is answered or abandoned, and where it is possible that the destination telephones indicated... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5706338 | Real-time communications fraud monitoring system Increased network security is provided by monitoring in real time one or more characteristics or attributes of telephone calls that are placed through the network and notifying the network customer (i.e., the party responsible for paying for the telephone... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5706329 | Personal mobile communication system having meet-me bridge reconnect feature It is known in the prior art to, when a telephone customer is unavailable to take a call, page the customer, thereby notifying the customer that a telephone call is waiting. The customer may then call in to a meet-me bridge to be connected to the incoming... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5706328 | Automated inbound test facility and method A technique is provided for enabling remote testing of a telecommunications service provided by an international gateway switch (12). To accomplish such testing, a test facility (10) associated with the switch includes a DTMF interface (16) for automatica... | 01/06/1998 |
| 5694459 | Personalized information service system A high-speed information service system is provided which uses a unique identifier received during call setup to retrieve automatically a personalized profile for an information service subscriber. The identifier uniquely identifies the subscriber, thereb... | 12/02/1997 |
| 5678041 | System and method for restricting user access rights on the internet based on rating information stored in a relational database A system and method for selectively controlling database access by providing a system and method that allows a network administrator or manager to restrict specific system users from accessing information from certain public or otherwise uncontrolled data... | 10/14/1997 |
| 5675707 | Automated call router system and method An automated call routing system and method which operates on a call-routing objective of a calling party expressed in natural speech of the calling party. The system incorporates a speech recognition function, as to which a calling party's natural-speech... | 10/07/1997 |
| 5675629 | Cordless cellular system base station A mobile station communicates with both a cellular network, by which it is assigned a mobile identification number, and to a cordless cellular base station utilizing the same cellular frequency range and communications protocol. The cordless cellular base... | 10/07/1997 |
| 5675607 | Method and apparatus for facilitating the making of card calls Encumbrances on making calls charged to a card can be reduced by a) storing information so that an association is created relating a card number and at least one calling telephone station, from which card calls charged to the associated card are to be mad... | 10/07/1997 |
| 5673430 | System and method for optimizing subscriber programming preferences A method and system is provided for receiving sets of program requests from a plurality of subscriber locations and delivering programs that match or closely match the selected programming preferences or content requests. A processor at a cable headend re... | 09/30/1997 |
| 5666405 | True family telecommunication service Entities who normally are financially responsible for calls made by them have their calls paid for by a sponsor when they are selected by the sponsor to be included in a "family ring" and they make calls to other entities that are included by the sponsor ... | 09/09/1997 |
| 5664102 | Intelligent network internetworking access arrangement All existing services that can be offered in one telecommunication network can be offered across networks without changing any existing interfaces and protocols. A mediation access processor (MAP) is provided in a network element located in a first networ... | 09/02/1997 |
| 5664008 | Message waiting adjunct device A telephone adjunct interface for use with a network-based voice and/or data message storage and delivery service detects and alerts the subscriber to the existence of waiting messages. The interface device utilizes a combination of AC ring detection and ... | 09/02/1997 |
| 5661842 | Method for providing submarine cable joint protection and insulation using heat shrink tubing A method for providing substantial protection and insulation for submarine cable joints without utilizing costly molding and x-ray equipment. A heat shrinkable polyolefin protective covering includes an unexpanded conical transition between two expanded c... | 08/26/1997 |
| 5661792 | Completing telecommunications calls in a competitive local and toll enviroment In an environment of competitive local and interexchange carriers, offering number portability between local carriers-serving a common region and between switches serving that region, each local carrier accesses a regional database to determine the identi... | 08/26/1997 |
| 5661725 | Trunk-conditioning for reconfigurable T1 access to nodal services Dynamic reconfiguration of T1 access channels to various Nodal (network) services can be realized by applying carefully devised trunk-conditioning signals to disconnected channels to provide proper system responses and prevent billing errors as well as un... | 08/26/1997 |
| 5649003 | Method in a communications systems for providing an out-of-band signaling response based on predetermined conditions A method for use in a communications system permitting a first party connected to a central platform to receive an out-of-band signal in response to predetermined trigger conditions. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, leaving a voice mail mes... | 07/15/1997 |
| 5646986 | Network communication system with global event calendar information and trunk allocation In a network-based communication system, communication trunks are allocated based on a history of network use and global event calendar information relating to particular regions that the network system services. A trunk allocation database is used for co... | 07/08/1997 |
| 5644626 | Apparatus and method for connecting telephone calls using automated paging and call bridging An improvement in the transparency of personal telecommunications over the prior art is achieved by automatically placing a return call from a personal communications unit of a called individual in response to a call from a caller and alerting the called ... | 07/01/1997 |
| 5644237 | Method and apparatus for precisely locating a buried utility conveyance An underground utility conveyance (10) may be precisely located by impressing both a locating tone and a confirmation tone on the conveyance. The locating tone is an RF signal that produces a first field that radiates above the earth that is sensed by a f... | 07/01/1997 |
| 5638081 | Antenna for enhanced radio coverage An antenna for use in urban areas and the like, wherein the antenna is of a design that can be attached to the exterior corner of a building. The antenna is designed to be a low-profile configuration and conformal so as to maximize the aesthetic quality. ... | 06/10/1997 |
| 5633922 | Process and apparatus for restarting call routing in a telephone network A telecommunications system is configured for restarting a telephone call within a telephone network as the call is processed from an originating station progressively through the telephone network. The system determines that the originally dialed number ... | 05/27/1997 |
| 5629938 | Method for automated provisioning of dedicated circuits Automatic provisioning of dedicated circuits (40, 44, 48, 49, 55, 56, 64, 68, 72, and 74) within a network (10) to obtain connectivity of a prescribed bandwidth between an origin (12) and an end point (16) is accomplished by first identifying circuits hav... | 05/13/1997 |
| 5628011 | Network-based intelligent information-sourcing arrangement A network-based intelligent information-sourcing system has capabilities akin to an automated universal teacher, researcher, or expert, in that the system is able to interpret, both independently and in context, and provide comprehensive answers to receiv... | 05/06/1997 |
| 5627996 | Method and apparatus for accessing the same computer file using different file name formats A computer-based file system enables user access to any of a plurality of previously-stored data files, each file being identified by at least two file names formatted using different file name formats. The system receives a user request including a purpo... | 05/06/1997 |
| 5627889 | Service restoration technique for telecommunications facilities having a single degree of freedom A technique is provided for re-routing telecommunications traffic that is originally destined for passage between an inter-exchange carrier, via a first gateway POP (18) at a first local exchange (121), and a second local exchange (125 | 05/06/1997 |
| 5627875 | Method in a telephone system for reaching a subscriber under busy/no answer conditions and ring/no answer conditions A method for use in a telephone system, permitting a caller connected to a central platform to further attempt to reach a subscriber after the central platform initially attempted to establish a connection with the subscriber by dialing the subscriber's n... | 05/06/1997 |
