--ITV Convergence Specialist Now Holds 10 US and International Patents
Integra5, a Burlington, Massachusetts-based company that specializes in technologies for converged services (note: the company recently formed partnerships with IPTV technology providers, Minerva Networks and SeaChange International--see [itvt] Issue 7.36 Part 2), said Tuesday that the US Patent and Trademark Office has awarded it a patent for call management via television. According to the company, the new patent--US #7,277,445--protects its active call-control and call- screening-on-TV technology, both in IPTV and cable networks. The company's caller ID technology lets viewers see who is calling them, via a banner alert on the TV screen, before the phone actually rings. The call-screening and call-management capabilities in the company's Converged Services Platform (i5 CSP) allow viewers to forward the incoming call directly to voicemail, then listen to the message on their TV speakers. They can also use the TV remote control to click to answer the call mid-message, to continue listening, or to stop playback. According to Integra5, the application is network-based and requires no wiring changes or additional hardware at the viewer's premises.
Integra5 now holds 10 patents in countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, the UK, and Israel, in addition to the US. It also has patents pending in China, Japan and the European Union. Last month, the company was awarded a UK patent (GB #2431811), entitled "Method for association between telephony and television network equipment." According to the company, that patent protects its device-association technology, which enables real-time communications and content notifications to be delivered from a network to selected TV's, PC's and other devices within a consumer's home. In addition to its caller-ID application (which also works on the PC), Integra5 has developed apps for message-waiting indication to TV/PC, customer-care notifications to TV/PC, and SMS to TV/PC (the latter app delivers text messages, that were sent from a mobile phone to the consumer's landline number, to the consumer's TV or PC, and allows the consumer to respond via the TV remote or via the PC). "Our latest patents are continued validation of the rich intellectual property portfolio we have amassed as a result of more than seven years of research and development to make converged services a reality," Eyal Bartfeld, Integra5's co-founder and EVP of strategy and product management, said in a prepared statement. "The broad range of patents we hold across numerous countries provides us with a global footprint to capitalize on the widespread demand for converged services by geographically diverse service providers."
Originally Published: October 12, 2007 in [itvt] Issue 7.39 Part 2B
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