US 12,155,791 B2Granted

Apparatus, methods, and articles of manufacture for filtering calls and reducing spoofing and spamming

OwnerAnatoly S. Weiserinventor

Life of this patent

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Abstract

Unsolicited electronic communications such as robocalls and person-initiated solicitation calls are reduced by imposing tolls for completion of the connections to the called parties, and refunding the tolls to the entities indicated by the electronic communications as the calling parties. In this way, a dishonest originator of a spoofed call bears the cost of the toll, and the toll is not refunded to the dishonest originator. On the other hand, the toll collected from an honest originator of a non-spoofed call is refunded to the honest originator, making the toll transparent to the honest originator and avoiding annoyance of the honest caller caused by the toll. Unsolicited calls may be subjected to filtering, particularly filtering based on the indications of the origins of the calls.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An apparatus for providing telephone service, the apparatus comprising:

networked switching and computing equipment configured to:
receive a request to connect a call to a user device of a user, from an originator of the request;
determine whether the request includes a value token that meets all of one or more acceptability requirements, the one or more acceptability requirements comprising a first requirement of the value token having a value of at least a predetermined toll amount;
reject and drop the request if the request does not include the value token that meets all of the one or more acceptability requirements;
if the request includes the value token that meets all of the one or more acceptability requirements,
obtain via a first electronic transaction the predetermined amount of the value token so that the originator of the request is not in control of the predetermined amount of the value token, and
credit via a second electronic transaction at least a portion of the predetermined amount to an account associated with call origin indicated in the request, if the request indicates the call origin.

4 more elements

An apparatus for processing call requests, the apparatus comprising:

switching equipment;
and
one or more servers;
wherein the switching equipment and the one or more servers are configured to:
receive a request to connect a call to a user device of a user, from an originator of the request, the request comprising a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) INVITE;
determine whether the request contains an acceptable STIR/SHAKEN attestation;
if the request contains an acceptable STIR/SHAKEN attestation, apply a call filter to the request, the call filter being based on at least one characteristic of the request;
if the request contains an acceptable STIR/SHAKEN attestation and also passes the call filter, connect the call to enable the user to answer the call through the user device;
if the request contains an acceptable STIR/SHAKEN attestation and also does not pass the call filter, perform a first rejection of the request;
if the request does not contain an acceptable STIR/SHAKEN attestation, determine whether the request includes a value token that meets all of one or more acceptability requirements, the one or more acceptability requirements comprising a first requirement of the value token having a value of at least a predetermined amount;
if the request does not contain an acceptable STIR/SHAKEN attestation and the request does not include a value token that meets all of the one or more acceptability requirements, perform a second rejection of the request;
if the request does not contain an acceptable STIR/SHAKEN attestation but the request includes a value token that meets all of the one or more acceptability requirements, obtain via a first electronic transaction the predetermined amount of the value token so that the originator of the request is not in control of the predetermined amount of the value token, credit via a second electronic transaction at least a portion of the predetermined amount to an account associated with call origin indicated in the request, if the request indicates the call origin, and connect the call to enable the user to answer the call through the user device;
whereby connecting the call in response to the request that does not contain an acceptable STIR/SHAKEN attestation and includes a value token that meets all of the one or more acceptability requirements costs the originator more when the call is spoofed than when the call is non-spoofed.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/136,866Filed 19 Apr 2023 · continuation
Priority: 19 Mar 2020
Published: US 2023/0262163 A117 Aug 2023
Granted: 26 Nov 2024
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification17 codes

H04M 3/436
Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers: arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics…
H04L 65/1069
Session management: session establishment or de-establishment
H04L 65/1079
Screening of IP real time communications, e.g. spam over Internet telephony [SPIT]: of unsolicited session attempts, e.g. SPIT
H04L 65/1104
Session protocols: session initiation protocol [SIP]

Family

Application62/991,909Us provisional application · filed 19 Mar 2020
Application17/179,230Parent of this continuation · filed 18 Feb 2021
US 2023/0262163 A1Pre-grant publication · published 17 Aug 2023
US 11,665,277 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2021/0297529 A1Published application
US 12,155,791 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.