CounterPath Corporation Awarded Patent Titled Multimedia Interactive Telephony Services

By Anil Sharma, TMCnet Contributor

CounterPath (News - Alert) Corporation, a developer of desktop, tablet and mobile VoIP software products and solutions, has been awarded patent No. US 8542673 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Officials with CounterPath Corporation said that the patent, titled 'Multimedia Interactive Telephony Services', outlines systems and methods of extending Internet telephony-based services to include interactive visual user interface elements.

Patent enables users to bypass voice prompts or tedious long announcements in audio-based

According to company officials, this technology allows users to instead choose among visually presented options such as buttons, tables and drop-down lists which are presented in a graphical user interface (GUI) such as a web form, desktop application, Google (News - Alert) "widget", CounterPath Bria softphone, or other interfaces such as text messages.

Company officials said that a broad patent, it covers communication protocols such as TDMtelephony, SIP, Skype (News - Alert), XMPP/Jingle, Mitel MiNet, SIP/SIMPLE, XMPP,MSNP, YMSG, HTTP or SOAP, making the patent applicable to not only the Bria softphone, but also Skype, Google Talk, web browsers, Microsoft Windows or Macintosh applications or mobile devices such as iPhones, Android (News - Alert) smartphones and BlackBerrys.

"This patent opens the door for a myriad of new possibilities for howwe interact with audio-based services like voicemail and IVRsystems," said Michael Doyle, vice president of technology for CounterPath, in a statement.

Doyle said that telephony systems are still in wide use today and customers often have to resort to awkward memorized key presses to navigate services offered over the phone such as voicemail or conferences, whether through VoIP solutions such as Bria, or traditional PSTN or cellular phones.

“We recognized the smart phone allows for significantly increased opportunities for customers to control their phones using menus, voice, text, video options and buttons. With this patent, we continue to demonstrate the integrated approach CounterPath has towards building value and protectingtechnology for our current and future customers, and our investors," he said.

Earlier this month, CounterPath Corporation announced it is officially launching a Master Distribution Program to empower channel partners, Value Added Resellers (VARs) and other resellers to distribute CounterPath Bria desktop and mobile softphones, configuration solutions and cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) mobility solutions to their enterprise and commercial customers.

Further, the company announced that it has entered into its first three Master Distribution Program agreements with Interwork Technologies (News - Alert), TeleDynamics and World Telecom Group (WTG).

(source: http://voip-routers.tmcnet.com/topics/voip-routers/articles/354507-counterpath-corporation-awarded-patent-titled-multimedia-interactive-telephony.htm)