Patent ID: 8588207
Filing Date: 2013-11-19
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of alerting a group of recipients over a wireless network and providing acknowledged group messaging, each recipient comprising at least one mobile device capable of transmitting and receiving data, the method comprising the steps of: storing data relating to recipients, groups and group members, in a memory device, the data comprising a recipient identifier for each of a plurality of recipients, one or more group identifiers corresponding to each of respective groups of recipients, the groups each comprising selected ones of the plurality of recipients, and group membership data comprising the recipient identifiers of the selected recipients corresponding to each of the group identifiers; providing the mobile device corresponding to each of the plurality of recipients with at least a subset of the data stored in the memory device, the subset of the data being stored in the mobile device and comprising its corresponding recipient identifier and the group identifier of each group to which that recipient belongs as a group member; wirelessly transmitting a group message to the mobile device corresponding to each recipient in a selected group of recipients, each of the mobile devices being configured to receive the group message and send a response when the group message is determined to be for a group to which that recipient belongs as a group member; monitoring for responses to the group message from the group members; and storing acknowledgement data in the memory device for each of the group members, the acknowledgement data comprising a listing of each of the group members and an indication of response for each of the group members, the indication of response comprising at least one of an indication of no response when that group member has not yet responded to the group message, and an indication of response when a response sent by the mobile device of that group member has been received.