Prepaid limited usage calling card

United States Patent [w]

Walker

[54] PREPAID LIMITED USAGE CALLING CARD

[75] Inventor: Jay S. Walker, Ridgefield, Conn.

[73] Assignee: Walker Asset Management Limited Partnership, Stamford, Conn.

[21] Appl. No.: 570,443

[22] Filed: Jun. 17, 1996

[51] Int. CI.6 H04M 17/00; H04M 15/00

[52] U.S. CI 379/144; 379/121; 379/196

[58] Field of Search 379/67, 88, 89,

379/112, 114, 115, 121, 133, 134, 216, 355, 356, 359, 188, 189, 196, 197, 199,

200

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,706,275 11/1987 Kamil 379/144

4.893,330 1/1990 Franco 379/196

4,975,942 12/1990 Zebryk .

5,163,086 11/1992 Ahearn et al. .

5,204,894 4/1993 Darden 379/216

5.222,121 6/1993 Shimada 379/355

5,249,219 9/1993 Morganstein et al 379/197

5,287,403 2/1994 Atkins et al. .

5,359,642 10/1994 Castro .

5,546,446 8/1996 Tsunokawa et al 379/144

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US005825863A [ii] Patent Number: 5,825,863 [45] Date of Patent: Oct. 20, 1998

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

College Talk, www.adforce.com/video/ctalk.html.
College Students May Learn the Hardest Accounting Les-
sons Outside the Classroom, Orange County Register, Liz
Pulliam, p. K01, Sep. 1, 1996.

Kids' Phone Usage Another Way for Marketers to Get
Connected, Phillips Business Information, Inc., Selling to
Kids, Jan. 22, 1997.

TCI Control, Inc. (Programmable call controller for selective call control), 1990.

Primary Examiner—Curtis Kuntz
Assistant Examiner—Palu Loomis

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Morgan & Finnegan LLP; Jeffrey
L. Brandt

[57] ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a system that embodies an apparatus and method for enabling prepayment of telephone call charges in connection with a calling-card, the authorized called telephone number(s) being selectable by the cardholder so that the calling-card account can only be charged for telephone calls made to the cardholder authorized telephone number(s), the calling-card account capable of being continuously recharged from a linked credit account, bank account or the like, or charges may be incurred thereafter on a perunit-time basis.

21 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets