Patent ID: 6421439
Filing Date: 2002-07-16
Classification: G06F,H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
In an environment where subscribers call a user over a telephone network, wherein a user telephone is coupled with the telephone network, a system for processing an incoming call from a subscriber to a user in the telephone network according to user specifications, the system comprising:a data structure contained within a computer network to store user-selectable criteria for call processing, wherein the data structure stores the user-selectable criteria in one or more lists that are used in filtering an incoming call and wherein some of the one or more lists are used to filter the incoming call according to current activity of subscribers on the computer network or according to current activity of the user on the computer network; a computer network access port used by the telephone network to access the data structure such that the telephone network has access to the one or more lists over the computer network access port; and a controller to receive the incoming call designated for the user telephone and to process the incoming call in accordance with the user-selectable criteria, the controller accessing the user-selectable criteria in the one or more lists of the data structure via the computer network access port and thereby applying the user-selectable criteria to the incoming call.