Bizarre Patents
Dining Table Having Integral Dishwasher
A space-saving dishwasher, which may be installed within a counter top or table, having a dish-carrying rack that is vertically shiftable through the open top of the dishwasher for facilitating loading and unloading of the dishes.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8036354 | Calling-party-pays call processing for cellular and paging An enhanced Calling Party Pays (CPP) or Paging Party Pays (PPP) system that enables 1) billing of calls originating from traditionally non-billable sources, 2) routing of incoming calls to voicemail if the caller does not wish to incur the additional charges, 3) all... | 10/11/2011 |
| 7848500 | Method and apparatus to validate a subscriber line A method is described to verify the identity of a user. The method, in one example embodiment, comprises obtaining automatic number identification (ANI) data or billing telephone number (BTN) data associated with a subscriber line of a telecommunications network; ob... | 12/07/2010 |
| 7424100 | Prepaid telephony system and method of activating a prepaid telephony account In one particular embodiment, the disclosure is directed to a method of activating a prepaid telephony account. The method includes receiving a call from a caller at a prepaid service destination address identified by a prepaid calling card; receiving a prepaid card... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7403602 | Internet-based message delivery with PSTN billing A global computer network message delivery service is disclosed. A sender enters a short message for delivery to a recipient's telephone. The sender also enters the recipient's telephone number. The sender may also enter the telephone number that he can be reached a... | 07/22/2008 |
| 7394897 | Method and system for routing service calls made from resold lines A method and system for routing service calls made from lines resold to a competitive service provider includes advanced intelligent network and standard switching functionality. The call may be made into an AIN service switching point (60) or a non-AIN switc... | 07/01/2008 |
| 7386106 | Method, system, and database for providing a telecommunication service A database for a telecommunication service includes a first record for a first number having a predetermined NXX, and a second record for a second number having the predetermined NXX. The first record includes an indication that a call having an automatic number ide... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7369842 | Telephony service in event of link failure between mobile switching center and a home location register or a service control point A mobile switching center is configured with software instructions which allow it to continue to provide at least limited call termination and call origination services for mobile terminals in the event of a failure of a signaling link between the mobile switching c... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7366683 | Methods and apparatuses for offline selection of pay-per-call advertisers Methods and apparatuses to connect telephone calls and track information about the telephone calls resulting from advertisements for groups of advertisers. In one embodiment, a method includes: determining a geographic area after receiving a telephone call to a firs... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7366289 | Domestic origination to international termination country set logic A method and device for preventing fraud in international calls in a long-distance telecommunications system, where selected customers can avoid fraud control blocks and greater granularity is achieved in blocking international destinations. In the method and device... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7336651 | Broadband telecommunications system The invention is a system for providing virtual connections through an ATM interworking multiplexer on a call-by-call basis. A signaling processor receives signaling for a call and selects the virtual connection for the call. The signaling processor generates new si... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7333809 | Multi-standard prepaid communication services Calls to or from a prepaid subscriber of a wireless communication network are identified as being associated with prepaid services, and a prepaid identifier is associated with the call. The prepaid identifier and other call information such as call origin or destina... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7333598 | Method and system for providing calling name identification requery A method for determining the name of a calling party where the calling party's name and corresponding telephone number are found in a remote database. The method first identifies whether the calling party's telephone number is contained within the local database. Wh... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7324961 | Video rental e-commerce solution A method and system for providing a business-to-business network service for applications used by service providers is disclosed. The method and system include providing a central application capable of communicating with at least two applications over a public netw... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7313626 | Operations and maintenace architecture for multiprotocol distributed system The present disclosure is directed to an open access Network Management System (NMS) that provides multiple tenants in an open access wireless distribution system with an appropriate level of access and control over the system elements that carry their signaling. Fo... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7305079 | Method and apparatus for communicating with one of plural devices associated with a single telephone number A system for (and a method of) selectively establishing communication with one of plural devices associated with a single telephone number is provided. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a wireless connect unit connected between an enterprise private bra... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7295659 | Method and system for prepaid communications credit A method and system for prepaying credits to a user account for communications services provided. If a system detects a predefined condition associated with a communications connection, the system deducts the cost of the communications connection from the credit in ... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7295773 | Camera, an image inputting apparatus, a portable terminal device, and a method for transforming the camera configuration A camera has a camera body formed in a longitudinal rectangular shape, and in the intermediate portion of the camera body, a flexion/transformation mechanism dividing the camera body into an image photographing section including a lens system for capturing an optica... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7295658 | System and method for providing prepaid telecommunication services The present invention relates to a system and method for providing prepaid telecommunication services. More particularly, prepaid telephone calls can be made by users without entering any access code, if such calls are made from telephone numbers previously register... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7286048 | Supervised guard tour systems and methods The present invention comprises systems and methods for addressing exceptions (i.e., alarms) associated with a guard tour according to a predefined hierarchy. The exception is generated automatically based on data associated with the guard tour, as typicdally collec... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7286656 | Method and system for displaying customer information According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for displaying information is provided. The method includes providing an identity information section, a product information section, and a notes section. The method also includes identifying a plurality of cate... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7280652 | Handheld electronic device having improved phone call log, and associated method An improved handheld electronic device and an associated method provide an improved call log that presents information relating to logged phone calls in a collapsed manner, meaning that for each phone number having a call stored in the memory of the device, only the... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7272218 | Subscription-based billing methods and systems for shared network modem pools Methods of billing telephone calls in networks that utilize shared modem pools. A request from a user of the network is received along with user identifying data. The user identifying data is correlated with records in a database of user identifying data and if a ma... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7257209 | Calling-party-pays call processing for cellular and paging An enhanced Calling Party Pays (CPP) or Paging Party Pays (PPP) system that enables 1) billing of calls originating from traditionally non-billable sources, 2) routing of incoming calls to voicemail if the caller does not wish to incur the additional charges, 3) all... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7254222 | Method and apparatus for implementing a pre-paid card service A pre-paid telecommunications card service in which the card-holder can register the card with a service provider in such a way that the card account becomes associated with the customer's home telephone line. Thereafter, toll calls made over that particular telepho... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7247024 | Method for spatially distributing a population A process for spatially distributing a population count within a geographically defined area can include the steps of logically correlating land usages apparent from a geographically defined area to geospatial features in the geographically defined area and allocati... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7236768 | Systems and methods for a carrier-independent calling-party-pays system Disclosed are systems and methods for providing a carrier-independent calling-party-pays system. In one embodiment, upon having a call routed to a mobile switching center from a calling party, the mobile switching center determines if the called party is a calling-p... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7227935 | Bill payment configuration A method, system and apparatus for bill payment over a PSTN. The method can include processing a call in the PSTN to establish a telephonic connection between a caller and a call center configured to process bill payments. The method further can include resolving an... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7224784 | Subscriber service management A method, system and apparatus for service management. A service management system can include a name resolution adapter disposed in a PSTN. The name resolution adapter can be communicatively linked to a LIDB also disposed within the PSTN. Notably, an enterprise app... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7224783 | Subscriber service management A method, system and apparatus for service management. In accordance with the present invention, a service management method can include the steps of receiving a telephone call from a service subscriber over a PSTN and identifying the service subscriber through iden... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7221753 | Method and system for providing network interactive voice response with intelligent call routing integration An approach for providing interactive voice response services is disclosed. A voice response platform receives a call and generates an automated menu in response. The menu, according to one embodiment, includes an option to transfer the call to an available agent an... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7218719 | Advanced intelligent single telephone number routing A method, system and computer readable medium are provided for defining a service area served by a service location of a telecommunications network customer. The method includes ascertaining a geographic designator of a geographic area. The geographic area includes ... | 05/15/2007 |
| 7215745 | Greetings and announcements for a multimedia IP communication system The method and system for presenting a predetermined announcement or greeting to a calling party attempting to reach a called party within a Multimedia IP Communication System comprising the steps of or software or circuitry for: determining an announcement or greet... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7215750 | System and method for providing custom caller-ID messages Systems and methods for providing a message in Caller-ID information are described. In one embodiment of the present invention, an applications server, such as service control point (SCP), substitutes a message for Caller-ID information when a switch serving the cal... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7215749 | Time, date and originating number display provided to calling party For analog telephone service subscribers, an apparatus and a method is provided for displaying a caller's originating number and/or the current time of day on the subscriber's incoming call line identification equipment. The subscriber's originating telephone number... | 05/08/2007 |
| 7203674 | Method and system to connect and match users in an electronic dating service Described herein is a method and system for connecting and matching users in an electronic dating service. In one embodiment of the invention, subscribers, or users, of the dating service are connected for a brief duration of time. During that time the users have a ... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7203301 | System and method for call treatment Disclosed are systems and methods in which call intelligence, such as may be disposed in communication with signaling systems utilized in controlling calls, is used to provide information for making determinations with respect to the treatment of calls. Call intelli... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7190772 | Methods and systems for automatically and accurately generating call detail records for calls associated with ported subscribers Methods and systems for generating accurate call detail records in networks that utilize number portability are disclosed. A number portability reconciliation (NPR) monitoring system receives signaling messages relating to different calls or transactions. The signal... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7190777 | Method and system for providing calling name identification requery A method for determining the name of a calling party where the calling party's name and corresponding telephone number are found in a remote database. The method first identifies whether the calling party's telephone number is contained within the local database. Wh... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7184526 | Telephone-based selection, ordering, and billing of digital content delivered via a network A content delivery system for delivering digital multimedia content to a premise appliance of a user comprises an intelligent voice response (IVR) unit which is responsive via a public switched telephone network to a premise telephone of the user. The IVR unit prese... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7184536 | Intelligent forwarded telephone call handling with a call answering system The present invention allows calls that have previously been handled by an answering system to be identified when they are forwarded from a switch back to the answering system. In one embodiment, the invention includes receiving an incoming call at an automated atte... | 02/27/2007 |
