Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 19
Claim 1
Independent Claim
89 words
A method for alerting a called party to the presence of a waiting call initiated by a calling party on a communications network, comprising the steps of: in response to initiation of the call, automatically transmitting to a paging supplier which provides paging services to the called party, a message which signals the paging supplier to page the called party; and in response to the message, transmitting a page to a pager of the called party indicating to the called party that a call is waiting on the network.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the call is over the Internet or an Internet-like packet-switched network.
Claim 3
Independent Claim
90 words
A method for alerting a called party that a call from a calling party on the Internet or an Internet-like packet switched network is waiting to be answered, comprising the steps of: in response to the call from the calling party, automatically transmitting to a paging supplier which provides paging services to the called party, a message to page the called party; and in response to the message, transmitting a page to the called party to alert the called party of the call on the Internet or Internet-like packet-switched network.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
31 words
The method according to one of the preceding claims wherein the message to the paging supplier and the page to the called party indicates the type of call that is waiting.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
34 words
The method according to one of the preceding claims wherein the message to the paging supplier and the page to the called party further indicates a protocol to be used to answer the call.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
122 words
A method for completing a call initiated by a calling party to a called party over the Internet or an Internet-like packet-switched network, comprising the steps of: in response to the initiation of the call from a terminal of the calling party, automatically transmitting to a paging supplier which provides paging services to the called party, a message which signals the paging supplier to page the called party; in response to the message, transmitting a page to a pager of the called party that indicates to the called party that a call is waiting to be answered; and in response to the page, connecting a terminal of the called party to the Internet or the Internet-like packet-switched network to answer the call.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 18 wherein the message to the paging supplier further includes information for identifying an Internet phone access provider and accounting/billing information.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
175 words
A method for completing a call initiated by a calling party to a called party over the Internet or an Internet-like packet-switched network, comprising the steps of: in response to the initiation of the call from a terminal of the calling party to the called party, establishing a connection on the Internet or the Internet-like packet-switched network to a service provider having an associated database providing information for associating the identity of a called party with paging information that includes a paging supplier for that called party; retrieving from the database the paging information for the called party; automatically transmitting a message to the paging supplier of the called party that includes the retrieved paging information for signaling the paging supplier to page the called party; in response to the message, transmitting a page to the called party's pager that indicates to the called party that a call is waiting to be answered; and in response to the page, connecting the called party's terminal to the Internet or Internet-like packet-switched network to answer the call.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 1 or 3 or 8 wherein the message to the paging supplier is transmitted on the Internet or on an Internet-like packet-switched network.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
14 words
The method of claim 2 or 9 wherein the call is a voice call.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
36 words
The method of claim 10 wherein the terminal of the calling party is a computer terminal running a software program for transmitting and receiving voice signals onto and off the Internet or the Internet-like packet-switched network.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
44 words
The method of claim 11 wherein the terminal of the called party is a computer terminal running the software program and is connected by the called party to the Internet or the Internet-like packet-switched network in response to the page from a "home" location.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
80 words
The method of claim 11 wherein the terminal of the called party is a computer terminal running the software program and is connected by the called party to the Internet or the Internet-like packet-switched network from a remote location in response to the page, and the method further comprises the step of linking the terminal of the called party at the remote location and the terminal of the calling party together on the Internet or the Internet-like packet switched network.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
52 words
The method of claim 11 wherein the terminal of the called party is a telephone station set that is connected to the Internet or the Internet-like packet-switched network by a call on a switched tetephone network to an Internet-savvy platform that is connected to the Internet or the Internet -like packet-switched network.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 9 wherein the message to the paging supplier and the page to the called party indicates the type of call initiated by the calling party.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 15 wherein the message to the paging supplier and the page to the called party further indicates a protocol to be used by the called party's terminal to answer the call.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 1 or 3 or 15 wherein the type of call is a voice call, a mixed media call, a multimedia call, or a data call.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 1 or 3 or 9 or 17 wherein the message to the paging supplier includes information for identifying the pager of the called party and the frequency at which it operates.
Claim 19
Independent Claim
25 words
The method of cliam 18 wherein the message to the paging supplier further includes information for identifying an Internet phone access provider and accounting/billing information.