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Telephone directory apparatus and method    
United States Patent6005927   
Link to this pagehttp://www.wikipatents.com/6005927.html
Inventor(s)Rahrer; Timothy Joseph (Ottawa, CA); McClennon; Robert Scott (Ottawa, CA); Cuddy; David Robert (Ottawa, CA)
AbstractAn apparatus and method for maintaining records in a telephone directory involves maintaining a personal directory of at least one record associated with at least one party with which a telephone call is conducted. The record has a field for identifying the party and a frequency of use field for storing a number representing the number of times a call is conducted with the party. In response to a call conducted with a party, the personal directory is searched for a record associated with the party and upon finding such a record, the contents of the frequency of use field of the record are incremented and the records of the personal directory are sorted in an order dependent upon the contents of the frequency of use fields.



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Patent Text Patent PDF Print Page Summary File History
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Inventor     Rahrer; Timothy Joseph (Ottawa, CA); McClennon; Robert Scott (Ottawa, CA); Cuddy; David Robert (Ottawa, CA)
Owner/Assignee     Northern Telecom Limited (Montreal, CA)
Patent assignment
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Publication Date     December 21, 1999
Application Number     08/767,499
PAIR File History     Application Data   Transaction History
Image File Wrapper   Patent Term   Fees
Litigation
Filing Date     December 16, 1996
US Classification    
Int'l Classification    
Examiner     Kuntz; Curtis A.
Assistant Examiner     Barnie; Rexford N.
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USPTO Field of Search    
Patent Tags     telephone directory
   
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5684868
Alexander
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Takahashi
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 Technical Review Submit all comments and votes
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What is claimed is:

1. A method of maintaining records in a telephone directory, the method comprising the steps of:

a) maintaining a personal directory of at least one record associated with at least one party said user is likely to call, said record having a field for identifying said party and a frequency of use field for storing a number representing the number of times a call is conducted with said party; and

b) maintaining a dial directory of at least one telephone call record of a called party, said record having a field for identifying the associated party and a frequency of use field for storing a number representing the number of times a call is made to said party;

c) maintaining an incoming directory of at least one telephone call record of a calling party, said record having a field for identifying the calling party and a frequency of use field for storing a number representing the number of times a call is received from said party;

d) incrementing said frequency of use field of a record in said personal directory when a call is made to a party associated with said record in said personal directory;

e) incrementing said frequency of use field of a record in said dial directory when a call is made to a party associated with said record in said dial directory;

f) incrementing said frequency of use field of a record in said incoming directory when a call is received from a party associated with said record in said incoming directory; and

g) transferring from said dial directory and said incoming directory to said personal directory records having frequency of use fields with contents greater than a pre-defined value.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 further including the step of sorting the records of said personal directory in an order dependent upon the contents of the frequency of use fields.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 further including the step of periodically decreasing the contents of the frequency of use fields of each of said records in said personal directory to avoid overflow of numerical values stored in said frequency of use fields.

4. A method as claimed in