Vonage Lands 11 New Patents for Second Quarter 2015, Ups Total to 86

Vonage had a very busy second quarter of 2015, as noted from recent reports. Of particular note were recent gains in its patent count, as the company picked up 11 new patents for its technology, bringing its patent count to 86.  While the patent numbers will likely get bigger in the weeks to come—reports note there are almost 250 patent applications still outstanding—the most recent new additions to Vonage's patent lineup should prove sufficiently noteworthy alone.

The new patents are split across two main lines: mobility solutions and call processing system enhancements. Mobility solution patents include one for showing “high-priority contacts” on displays, one for improving the field of view for video communications, one for allowing new subscribers access to telephony systems, and three that combine for the ability to offer call forwarding options that help reduce costs while traveling. With these patents in place, not only can Vonage offer up a better look at who's calling based on certain factors like how often a call is received from such a source, but also can make video calling more “panoramic” in nature, as well as allowing systems to recognize the device being used such that, if any updates need to be made, the user can quickly get the relevant link to the most compatible version of the app in question.

The call processing system enhancement patents, meanwhile, offer the ability to more readily provide the best in quality of service options by communicating signaling and data options over several different channels as well as better distributing calls received, in real time. There's also an improved ability to allow third-party providers to resell telephony services and the ability to use “two-tiered load balancing” to help adjust call volume across multiple servers.

This all might sound a bit esoteric, but Vonage has a very impressive slate of patents here, which will likely lead to better service for users and more reason to turn to Vonage as a provider. This comes at an excellent time, as the market for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service is rapidly on the rise, and that means a lot of new firms looking to get in on the action. With Vonage already having a user base in place, it will have to innovate not only to hold that user base, but also gain ground and bring in new users—those who haven't yet had the chance to turn to VoIP before, but are with other companies for VoIP service. While all of these patents may not necessarily turn into actual products—sometimes companies have patents just to keep such technology out of competitors' hands—these look like actionable patents that will serve useful purposes right out of the gate.

Vonage itself, meanwhile, is already a major competitor in the VoIP field, and these new patents likely won't slow that progress down any. These new features will likely make Vonage an even more potent competitor in the field, and make any entry into the market much tougher to accomplish as a whole.

Edited by Maurice Nagle