Patent ID: 7602770

Claim:
A system for identification of telephone numbers for IP telephones in a plurality of offices for assignment to different ones of a plurality of persons, comprising: a property management system having a database that stores information about a plurality of offices and physical network addresses of IP telephones located in the plurality of offices with the physical network addresses being identified by office and that also stores telephone numbers identified by ones of a plurality of persons; a server and the IP telephones directly connected to a packet switching network; a telecommunication switching system interconnected to the IP telephones via the packet switching network; the server detects physical network address and IP telephone address of each IP telephone as each becomes active; the server in response to each IP telephone becoming active logs into the telecommunication switching system as each IP telephone by using the detected IP telephone address and a default telephone number or an unnamed registration feature; the telecommunication switching system is responsive to the server logging in as each IP telephone using the default telephone number or the unnamed registration feature to provide telephone service for each IP telephone; the property management system responsive to a request for an office from one of the plurality of persons to assign one of the plurality of offices to the one of plurality of persons and to transmit the physical network address of an IP telephone located in the assigned one of the plurality of offices and a telephone number of the one of the plurality of persons in a message to the server; the server responsive to the message to compare the physical network address of the message with the detected physical network addresses to determine IP address of the IP telephone located in the assigned one of the plurality of offices and to re-log into the telecommunication switching system using the determined IP address and the telephone number of the message; and the telecommunication switching system responsive to the server re-logging into the telecommunication switching system to assign the telephone number of the message to the IP telephone located in the one of the plurality of offices.