For communications businesses—and most any technology business, really—patents are the thing that keeps a lot of business going. Without patents, there often come issues of cash flow, potential legal battles, and several other problems. With patents comes advantage in the marketplace and new bargaining leverage, and 8x8 (News - Alert) recently landed a pair of new patents in communications.
More specifically, reports note that the two patents in question focus on some significant sectors of the communications field, including patent number 9,116,223, which relates to a location database geared toward emergency call centers. This database offers the locations for nodes in data transmission routes, which in turn receive information from endpoint devices. Meanwhile, patent number 9,116,752 offers up a new way to manage server load distributions, a particularly useful point for those receiving services via computer.
So far, 8x8 counts 111 United States patents to its collective credit, covering an array of different technology fronts, mainly in voice and video communications. It also has patents in fields like storage, signaling and processing technologies, all adding to its overall capability as a major provider of cloud-based unified communications (UC) technology, as well as various contact center solutions.
Indeed, 8x8's presence in the UC and contact center solution field is positively massive. The company can offer voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service for as little as $19.99 per month, and even offers some of the equipment required for such operations like headsets. But it's a lot more than that, as the company also boasts a powerhouse operation for the call center including its complete virtual contact center operation. Users can get access to skills-based and direct agent routing tools, interactive voice response (IVR) mechanisms, a set of agent supervisor tools and plenty more besides.
But what role will these new patents play in the overall operation? Anyone who's followed Apple (News - Alert) for any length of time knows that not all patents see the light of day. Sometimes patents are just held on hand to keep others from developing in a certain space, while other patents are held for the sake of future sale or licensing later on if need be. In this case, though, it's likely the patents will be used, especially the one regarding the emergency call center. That sounds like it could be a boost to an E911 system, or something similar, and considering how VoIP has had some trouble in the past adapting to 911—though that's been seen to change—it could be that 8x8 has a better way of solving that particular issue. The second, meanwhile, sounds tailor-made for operations, being as 8x8 is all about customers receiving services remotely.
So it's likely that the two patents 8x8 won won't be held in reserve or used to prevent development elsewhere, but rather put to use in the company's current operations. While just what form these patents will take is as yet unknown, it's still pretty likely that some new features will be on the way soon, or perhaps just a little new improvement in performance. Either way, however, will likely prove welcome to 8x8 customers.
Edited by Maurice Nagle