Avistar Communications Corporation, a provider of unified visual communications solutions, has been awarded five new U.S. patents, including its 92nd patent (U.S. # 7,441,001). In the last 45 days, a total of 10 new patents were issued across the globe.
Avistar (
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Simon Moss, CEO of Avistar, said, "These new patents, which apply to service offerings and products involving two or more real-time communications services, continue to expand Avistar's intellectual property coverage. Since the early 1990s, Avistar has been a pioneer in unified communications, and the latest patents involve real-time communications, an area that will continue to grow in importance for the industry.”
“We believe that our current portfolio represents the world's most comprehensive and deepest IP holdings in this rapidly growing commercial area. From a product perspective, our commitment to research and development means that our customers continue to get the latest technology, allowing us to set the pace for the industry," added Moss.
Avistar’s recently granted real-time communications European patent applications have been nationalized in the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands. These European patents cover real-time communications that incorporates three users, either in two two-way sessions or as a single three-way session.
In February,
Microsoft Corporation challenged Avistar to re-examine its entire U.S. patent portfolio and had submitted to the U.S. Patent Office (USPTO) noting its arguments, but Avistar cleared it all.
Later, the USPTO rejected 19 of Microsoft's (
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Alert) 29 requests. After a request from Microsoft, the USPTO reconsidered their rejection of five re-examination requests. The re-examination process relating to the allowed requests is under process, says the company.
Avistar also said that three other foreign and domestic patent applications of the company have been allowed and are expected to be issued in the next several months. These patents will also cover additional aspects of real-time communications as well as software, systems and applications that are related to popular and enterprise on-line recorded video services.
Avistar provides its intellectual property to potential partners and licensees through an active licensing program.
Jayashree Adkoli is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Jayashree's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Michelle Robart