Method and apparatus for electronic mail notification
US6212265A · kind A · utility
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 27, 1999 |
| Grant date | Apr 3, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 27, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04Q1/446
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Existing wire-line public switched telephone networks and Caller Identification ("CallerID") systems operated by local telephone companies are utilized to deliver email notification to users via the users'telephone lines. The present invention queries the user's ISP remote server to determine whether any email addressed to the user is received by and/or stored thereon and, if so, causes an associated CallerID server of, for instance, the local telephone company to send an email notification signal in a format compatible with operating CallerID protocols to an email notification device using a public switched telephone network. By transmitting email notification signals over existing telephone lines, the present invention is widely available to users and advantageously eliminates the need for users to maintain a paging or cable service and, perhaps more importantly, does not require the user to maintain an online cable connection, an online Internet connection, or a paging device. In some embodiments, email notification signals in accordance with the present invention are transmitted during telephone ringing intervals and, in other embodiments, are transmitted prior to the first tel…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.