Are you ready to pay Apple a licensing fee for using a coverage path?

[jimbojimbo]

Patent 20180146089 issued to Apple yesterday basically is coverage paths, send-all-calls, DND, and providing different coverage options. Things we've been doing for decades. Borders on the absurd.

 

[Wanebo]

At first blush I was going to disagree with you jimbojimbo because the patent appears to be related to the phone consulting with another application to determine call routing and automated responses. But then I realized AACC (and other applications) interact with phone systems and have been doing those exact things for a long time.

I don't think Apple's patent would hold up if they attempted to strong arm folks into paying licensing to do what we have been doing for years. Arguing prior use would be a strong defense.

 

[janni78]

I don't have time to read through the whole patent but it looks like they are patenting a "digital assistant" that can respond and react to incoming calls and texts if you are for example driving.
I don't see it as they have patented coverage paths and DND.

Although a lawyer can probably find an angle where they can sue everybody.

"Trying is the first step to failure..." - Homer

 

[dialtonebone]

Seems speculative and not something I would worry about. Is there any news articles or sources showing that this could potentially cause trouble for the PBX world?

 

[kyle555]

I wonder how different it is to this:

https://patents.justia.com/patent/20040225650

 

[jimbojimbo]

Avaya has made it perfectly clear this is something they will not respond to. Personally I don't have the time or inclination to file a 429.