TMCnews Featured Article

8x8 (News - Alert), Inc., provider of Packet8 broadband-based VoIP, videophone and mobile VoIP communication services, has been granted U.S. Patent No. 7,394,803 entitled “Distributed Local Telephony Gateway (News - Alert).” The patent issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on July 1, 2008.

 

The patent relates to Internet Protocol (IP) communication systems, especially broadband telephony services having distributed local gateways.

 

Since its establishment in 1987, 8x8 has been awarded 73 United States patents covering a variety of voice and video communications, processing and storage technologies.

 

Given the patent issues Vonage (News - Alert) and others have faced in recent years, 8x8’s patent portfolio has to be considered both an insurance policy against unexpected patent infringement suits, as well as a possibly significant portion of the firm’s equity value.

 

Normally, litigants in patent disputes settle such disputes by cross licensing of each others’ intellectual property. In principle, 8x8 has enough intellectual property to persuade just about any potential litigant that cross licensing is in the best interests of both parties.