Patent ID: 6430289
Filing Date: 2002-08-06
Classification: H04M,Y10S

Abstract:
In a system that includes a telephone network and a computer network with one or more users, wherein each user is connected through a user computer the computer network and is logically connected through the computer network to the telephone network, a method of determining when to establish telephone communication between two parties, at least one of whom is a user connected to said computer network, comprising:at the computer network, receiving information from the telephone network that a first party from whom a call is originating desires to establish telephone communication with a second party; at the computer network, monitoring activity of a user computer connected to the computer network and associated with the second party; at the computer network, storing a set of pre-determined rules for determining when the second party is available to take a call from the first party; at the computer network, using the set of a pre-determined rules to process i) the information received from the telephone network regarding the call being originated by the first party, and ii) information regarding the monitored activity of the user computer of the second party, to determine when the second party is available to take the call originated by the first party; and using the information processed at the computer network to facilitate connecting the call originated by the first party through the telephone network to the second party.