The number of patents a company receives indicates the innovations it is making in its industry. It shows its competitors it is not a passive player subject to the tools available in the marketplace before it can introduce new products and services. This not only ensures long-term survivability, but it increases the reliance other organizations have on the company because of the innovations coming in the pipeline. Since it was founded in 1987 by Dr. Chi-Shin Wang and Dr. Y.W. Sing, 8x8 has been awarded 107 United States patents, and one of the results of this innovation is a customer base of more than 40,434 businesses as of October 2014. The company has announced it has been awarded a new communications patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office addressing communications.

Patent number 9,055,423, titled “Virtual Telephone Extension,” was issued on June 9, 2015, which is a continuation of United States Patent number 7,684,554 awarded to 8x8 (News - Alert) on March 23, 2010.

According to 8x8, the patent is introducing methods of routing communications to users and associated equipment by applying a user identifier that serves as a virtual extension number. With this solution, as described in the patent, users will be able to remotely direct their calls to different communication devices at different locations, voicemail and email destinations.

This is an important step in today’s collaborative and mobile ecosystem currently being used by businesses around the world. Removing the limitations of geographical locations and accessibility to communication resources allows individuals to be virtually anywhere, and still carry out their tasks without having to worry about missing an important call or delivering a critical message.

The claims of the Virtual Telephone Extension according to the patent as it was filed include:

• It is a packet-based communication routing system for routing a call between different PSTNs (public switched telephone networks) for a plurality of user subscribers.
• It encompasses a dynamic assignment circuit configured to assign a device identifier to each of a plurality of destination communication devices, receive user identifiers from the user subscribers, and for each of the user subscribers and in response to respective user identifiers received from the user subscribers, assign at least two of the user identifiers with a device identifier for a destination communication device operated by the user subscriber.

As mobile technology continues to increase in adoption in business operations, there can be no limitations regarding the accessibility of the resources employees need. The new 8x8 patent is another innovation that will ensure users will always have access and be accessible no matter where they are.