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US 7,480,065 B1Granted
Facsimile telecommunications system and method
AssigneeCallwave, Inc.
InventorsDavid S Trandal, David J Brahm, Leland W Kirchhoff, Robert A Dolan, David F Hofstatter
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fax processing system handles faxes that are originally destined for a recipient's phone number. The fax processing system communicates with the fax recipient via a data communications network (for example, the Internet) and can provide more sophisticated fax handling capabilities than conventional fax machines.
Claims50
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address, wherein transmission of the fax call notification begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received;
- transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address, wherein transmission of the fax call notification begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received;
- receiving an instruction from the subscriber for handling the fax, wherein a display of the fax call notification includes options for fax handling instructions, and the received instruction is selected from the options in the display;
- in response to the received instruction, transmitting the fax to the subscriber's network address, wherein the fax is streamed to the subscriber's network address;
- halting streaming of the fax upon interruption of the subscriber's connection;
- and
- then automatically resuming transmission of the fax upon reconnection by the subscriber.
6 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address, wherein transmission of the fax call notification begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received;
- receiving an instruction from the subscriber for handling the fax, wherein a display of the fax call notification includes options for fax handling instructions, and the received instruction is selected from the options in the display;
- and
- in response to the received instruction, transmitting the fax to the subscriber's network address,
- wherein the fax is streamed through a firewall to the subscriber's network address.
4 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address, wherein transmission of the fax call notification begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received;
- receiving an instruction from the subscriber for handling the fax, wherein a display of the fax call notification includes options for fax handling instructions, and the received instruction is selected from the options in the display;
- and
- in response to the received instruction, transmitting the fax to the subscriber's network address,
- wherein the step of transmitting the fax to the subscriber's network address comprises:
- streaming the fax to the subscriber's network address at a data rate that reduces congestion with other transmissions to or from the network address.
5 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call via a public telephone network at a fax processing system the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address, wherein transmission of the fax call notification begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received;
- receiving an instruction from the subscriber for handling the fax, wherein a display of the fax call notification includes options for fax handling instructions, and the received instruction is selected from the options in the display;
- and
- in response to the received instruction, transmitting the fax to the subscriber's network address,
- wherein the step of transmitting the fax to the subscriber's network address comprises:
- transmitting the fax through a firewall to the subscriber's network address.
5 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address, wherein transmission of the fax call notification begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received;
- and
- transmitting a second fax call notification to a second network address for the subscriber.
2 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is not connected to a data communications network;
- storing the fax;
- subsequently determining that the subscriber is connected to the data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- and transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address;
- and
- streaming the fax to the subscriber's network address,
- wherein streaming the fax to the subscriber's network address comprises transmitting the fax through a firewall to the subscriber's network address.
5 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting the fax or a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address, wherein transmission begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received, and
- halting transmission of the fax upon interruption of the subscriber's connection, and then automatically resuming transmission of the fax upon reconnection by the subscriber.
1 more element
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is not connected to a data communications network;
- storing the fax;
- subsequently determining that the subscriber is connected to the data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- and transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address;
- streaming the fax to the subscriber's network address;
- and
- transmitting the fax to two or more network addresses.
5 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax call via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is not connected to a data communications network;
- storing the fax;
- subsequently determining that the subscriber is connected to the data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- and transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address;
- streaming the fax to the subscriber's network address;
- and
- halting streaming of the fax upon interruption of the subscriber's connection;
- and then automatically resuming transmission of the fax upon reconnection by the subscriber.
6 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, wherein the fax was originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting a fax notification to the subscriber's network address;
- and
- receiving a fax handling instruction from the subscriber at the fax processing system;
- beginning transmission of the fax to the subscriber's network address at a first data rate;
- and
- after transmission of the fax to the subscriber's network address has begun, changing a data rate of the transmission according to the subscriber's instruction.
5 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, wherein the fax was originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting a fax notification to the subscriber's network address;
- receiving a fax handling instruction from the subscriber at the fax processing system;
- and
- undeleting the fax, according to an instruction from the subscriber.
3 more elements
A method for handling fax transmissions comprising:
- receiving a fax via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, wherein the fax was originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
- determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network;
- transmitting a fax notification to the subscriber's network address;
- receiving a fax handling instruction from the subscriber at the fax processing system;
- and
- transmitting a query to the subscriber asking whether the subscriber's instruction should be adopted as a rule for handling faxes.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.