VoIP-Pal.com Inc. recently announced a bit of exciting news, especially for those who think that 911 service could use a little boost when it comes to its connection to VoIP. VoIP-Pal.com Inc. landed a Notice of Allowance on a recent patent application, meaning that not only is the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) not following further prosecution for the patent application, but that the patent application was now allowed for issuance as a patent, making the full patent forthcoming.

The item in question that VoIP-Pal.com was looking to patent can be derived from the title of the application, “Emergency Assistance Calling for Voice over IP Communications Systems (News - Alert) (Enhanced 911).” With such technology, emergency responders can place a call back to the person calling 911 should the connection be dropped mid-call.

With the total number of calls going to 911 coming from mobile devices, or VoIP systems, on the rise—reports indicate that 70 percent of 911 calls now come from mobiles—the ability to trace such calls and make return calls should the connection be dropped is only increasing in overall importance. Thus the new patent for VoIP-Pal.com should go a long way in helping make that very necessary connection.

VoIP-Pal.com's CEO Dennis Chang offered some background on the technology and its impact, saying, “Our Enhanced 911 patent is an important step forward in VoIP technology and public safety, in that it solves the major challenges VoIP users face when accessing 911 emergency services. The ability for VoIP callers to be called back and located after a dropped call to 911 could prove to be a matter of life and death.”

Indeed, such a system will likely prove valuable—life-saving, even—for many 911 users, so getting that technology patented is the first step toward getting it in place and operational, thus providing its benefit to the 911 callers who use mobile and/or VoIP-based devices. Enhanced 911, in general, is offering a lot of value, especially as more and more users look to the Internet to provide calling solutions.

While VoIP-Pal's development is looking to put a lot of extra value into 911 callers' lives, it's far from the only source of patents in the IP and telecom fields. Set to arrive August 27-29 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, and co-located with IPEXPO, the Synopsis (News - Alert) under IP/Patents Telecom Sourcing (SUITS) Conference will take a closer look at issues of patents and intellectual property in the field of telecommunications. Protecting current patents, protecting against patent trolls, and a wide variety of other topics will be discussed during this event.

Patents are a major part of the telecommunications industry. Whether finding out how to protect same, or putting said patents to use as VoIP-Pal.com is set to in the coming months, having these documents in the first place is the building block of most any corporate endeavor.