Method and apparatus for content presentation in association with a telephone call

Inventor: Wendell Brown (Henderson, NV)

Assignee: Wendell Brown

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Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 8,977,242
App. No.: 12/563,102
Granted: Mar 10, 2015
Kind: B1

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Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for presenting multimedia content to caller and/or a called party in association with a telephone call. Content may be presented pre-ring (before the called party's telephone rings), in-call and/or post-call. Content presented to a party may be related to or selected by another party participating in the call, or may be related to a third party (e.g., an advertiser that paid for the ability to have its content presented). Presented content may be actuable, and allow a caller to change the destination of a call, take advantage of an offer presented to him, redeem a coupon, schedule or queue a subsequent call, etc. To find a desired destination party, a caller may initiate a manual or automatic search of his local contacts (on his telephone) and/or a central or global directory or contact list.

Claims (61)

1. A method of facilitating presentation of content to a user of a communication device in association with a call placed from the communication device to a destination party, the method comprising:

at the destination party, prior to receipt of signaling of a voice channel of the call:

receiving notification of initiation of the call to the destination party;

identifying to the communication device a storage location of initial content to be presented to the user in association with the call; and

instructing the communication device to present the initial content to the user; and

at the destination party, after the voice channel is established between the communication device and the destination party:

identifying to the communication device a storage location of updated content that visually depicts one or more details of a transaction between the user and the destination party other than a recording of a conversation between the user and the destination party;

instructing the communication device to present the updated content to the user;

selecting final content to be presented to the user after the call is terminated; and

instructing the communication device to present the final content to the user after the call is terminated;

wherein the final content is different than the initial content and the updated content.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initial content is presented to the user before the destination party answers the voice channel of the call.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

at the destination party, after receiving notification of initiation of the call, instructing the communication device to delay placement of the voice connection.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updated content comprises details of a transaction currently being conducted between the user and the destination party.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updated content comprises details of a previous transaction conducted between the user and the destination party.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the updated content comprises an offer from the destination party to the user.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating, one or more times during the call:

said identifying to the communication device a storage location of updated content; and

said instructing the communication device to present the updated content to the user.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

said instructing the communication device to present the initial content comprises transmitting the initial content to the communication device; and

said instructing the communication device to present the updated content comprises transmitting the updated content to the communication device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initial content is selected based on whether the destination party has an existing relationship with the user.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of facilitating presentation of content to a user of a communication device in association with a call placed from the communication device to a destination party, the method comprising: