Vonage (News - Alert) is announcing it has been granted an important new patent. The VoIP company (officially Vonage Holdings Corp.) has been granted U.S. Pat. No. 8,223,720 titled, “Systems and Methods for Handoff of Mobile Telephone Call in a VoIP Environment.” What the new technology does is allow a mobile phone user, who is on a voice-over-IP call, to seamlessly move between multiple wireless data connections without dropping the call.

Vonage filed for the patent, called a “720 patent,” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office about seven months ago, and it was granted under the agency's speedy (relatively speaking) new Prioritized Examination Procedure.

Analysts say the patent is another step toward Vonage's mobile growth initiative, which includes the company's new Vonage Mobile app for Android and iPhone (News - Alert) smartphones, enabling free high-definition calls and texts to other app users worldwide, as well as low-cost international calls to phones without the VoIP app. This is Vonage's third patent to be issued in six weeks, indicating Vonage's commitment to develop and protect useful and innovative technologies to better serve the needs of its customers, according to the press release announcing the patent.

“Our recent success obtaining this and other patents is a result of the focused efforts of our technical teams and the sound execution of our intellectual property strategy,” said Vonage's chief legal officer, Kurt M. Rogers.

About 2.4 million people subscribe to Vonage's communications services that connect individuals through cloud-connected devices worldwide.

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