Patent ID: 8280026

Claim:
A linkage apparatus for linking a plurality of telephones with one another, comprising: a communication part that communicates with the plurality of telephones; a detection part that detects operating states of the plurality of telephones; a determination part that determines, on the basis of the detected operating states, whether or not the operating state of a first telephone out of the plurality of telephones has changed to a first state from a third state, and when it is determined that the operating state of the first telephone has changed, determines whether or not the operating state of a second telephone precedently set to be linked with the first telephone is a second state; a decision part that decides a linkage process that the linkage apparatus makes the second telephone to execute when it is determined that the operating state of the second telephone is the second state; a part that issues an instruction corresponding to the decided linkage process to the second telephone; and a process table for recording a user ID for specifying a user, a first state, a second state and a linkage process in association with one another, and recording information corresponding to a party telephone of a call with each of the plurality of telephones in association with the first state, wherein the determination part makes determination on the basis of the user ID, the first state, the second state and the information corresponding to the party telephone of the call recorded in the process table, and the decision part makes decision on the basis of the linkage process recorded in the process table in association with the first state, the second state, and the information corresponding to the party telephone of the call.