Patent ID: 8374637
Filing Date: 2013-02-12
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. In a Universal Short Code (USC) Administrator (UA), a server-based method for administering USCs, the server-based method comprising: (a) receiving a USC lease request, the USC lease request comprising (i) an indicia of an Application Provider (AP) and (ii) a specified period of time; (b) determining from the USC lease request a specific USC; (c) determining a current status of the specific USC through at least a lookup against a repository; (d) temporarily assigning the specific USC to the AP for the specified period of time, provided the current status of the specific USC is available, by at least updating the repository to (i) change the current status of the specific USC to unavailable and (ii) associate the AP indicia with the specific USC; and (e) notifying one or more entities external to the UA of the temporary assignment of the specific USC to the AP.