Patent ID: 7664491

Claim:
A method for user programming of call forwarding instructions on a mobile communication device capable of forwarding incoming calls according to a call forwarding profile of call forwarding destinations for each of a plurality of pre-defined call forwarding conditions, the method comprising: providing a menu on the mobile communication device to program call forwarding instructions for incoming calls, the menu including a plurality of options to define the call forwarding profile by one of (a) user input of individual digits of multi-digit identifying data or, (b) user selection of existing entries of multi-digit identifying data internally stored in a data memory of the mobile communication device; providing a user option to store the defined call forwarding profile in the data memory of the device and define a different name for each stored call forwarding profile; and using the programmed multi-digit identifying data to forward incoming calls to one of the defined call forwarding destinations when a corresponding pre-defined call forwarding condition is detected for an incoming call; wherein the call forwarding profile includes selected call forwarding conditions from the group consisting of: (A) call forwarding unconditional, (B) call forwarding when the mobile device is in use, (C) call forwarding when the mobile device is not reachable, and (D) call forwarding when the mobile device is not answered in a predetermined period of time.