Invalidity dossier
US 6292566
Telephone and associated method for routing a call
Current assignee: Qwest Communications International Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 4:49:25 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 6,292,566 B1
Title: Telephone and associated method for routing a call
Patent number: US 6,292,566 B1
Application number: US09/201,022
Inventors: Bradley S. Reeves; Craig I. Weich; Lee Quintanar
Original assignee: Qwest Communications International Inc. (per the source, U.S. WEST, INC. was an earlier assignee recorded 1999-03-02)
Priority/filing date: 1998-11-30
Publication (grant) date: 2001-09-18
Legal status (per source): Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2018-11-30
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6292566/en
Purpose. The patent addresses customer premise equipment (CPE), such as telephones, and associated methods for routing a call from an inbound central office. Its stated object is to simplify making a packet-switched (e.g., Internet protocol) call from an analog telephone.
Plain-language scope. The telephone has an audible input (microphone), an audible output (speaker), a keypad, and control logic. The keypad includes a standard telephone keypad (numbers 0–9, asterisk, pound sign) plus at least one additional key to designate a call routing method. Pressing that key designates call routing as packet switched (e.g., IP); a suitable label is the "@" symbol. Multiple such keys may correspond to multiple routing methods. Pressing the key may designate a non-default method, while not pressing it designates a default (circuit-switched/PSTN) method. The control logic responds to the pressed key sequence by transmitting a signal indicative of call information to an inbound central office, which routes the call accordingly (via PSTN, IP gateway/IP network, or another network) to an outbound central office and destination. The method includes listening for a first signal indicating routing-method designation (from a non-standard key), selecting that method, listening for a second signal indicating call destination, and routing the call using the designated method.
What the excerpt does not establish. It does not establish litigation, ownership transfers beyond the recorded assignments, validity, or prior art, and it does not provide the full claims, complete description, or drawing contents (the excerpt is partial).
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:44:07 PM
Cases on file (0)
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.
Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.
Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.