TCS bags 14 US patents in Q3, 2013

ANNAPOLIS, USA: TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS), a world leader in highly reliable and secure mobile communication technology, has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued TCS 14 U.S. patents during the third quarter of 2013. TCS also received one foreign patent grant during the third quarter.

News Facts:

• The 14 recently issued U.S. patents describe innovations in location-based services (LBS), GIS/mapping, public safety, messaging, secure communications and solid-state drives, and further strengthen these areas of TCS' intellectual property. Of these 14 patents, the following five are indicative of their depth and relevance:

• The recently issued Inter-Carrier Messaging (ICM) Service Providing Phone Number Only Experience patent (U.S. Patent 8,483,729) is a continuation of earlier TCS core ICM patents that TCS has successfully litigated. TCS patented the method used to send messages from one carrier to a different carrier by knowing only the phone number of the recipient. Prior to this invention, subscribers could only send messages to other subscribers within the same carrier's network. This greatly hindered SMS adoption, because most subscribers did not know to which wireless carrier their intended SMS recipients belonged. TCS' invention significantly enhanced the user experience by allowing any subscriber to send an SMS to any other subscriber, regardless of that subscriber's carrier, and paved the way for the explosive multi-trillion annual messaging market. This new patent further expands the claims coverage of this portfolio and describes techniques, disclosed in the original patent filing, for routing digital messages (texts, email, etc.) by associating a device ID with the recipient's phone number. The ICM portfolio was licensed to Acacia Research Group in April 2012, and Acacia continues to successfully sublicense the patents.

• The recently issued Cellular Augmented Radar/Laser Detection Using Local Mobile Network Within Cellular Network patent (U.S. Patent 8,515,414) describes methods for transmitting an alert to vehicles using cellular augmented radar/laser detectors when the vehicle enters an area where a radar/laser has been detected. This patent builds on four issued patents in this portfolio that describe techniques to display and share the locations of radar/laser detection sites with other vehicles within a social network, including on a smartphone's real-time mapping and navigation application. In an effort to directly defend the use of this invention, TCS filed enforcement actions in the third quarter of 2013 against multiple companies where evidence shows that the companies need a license to these patents.

• Data security and integrity has always been of great concern to governments and companies alike. Leaks of U.S. classified information over the past few years, where people have removed storage devices from secured premises and disseminated the information, have heightened such security awareness. The Location Sensitive Solid State Drive (SSD) (U.S. Patent 8,533,853) patent describes a data storage system that includes an SSD with a location sensor to detect the current location of the SSD and encrypt or decrypt the data based on that current location. The system self-determines if the location of the SSD falls within permitted operational locations (e.g., specific buildings, cities, geo-fenced areas); and, if not, the SSD will be encrypted and disabled.

• Hundreds of millions of wireless devices now have integrated cameras capable of capturing still and video images on the fly. Over the last few years, consumer-provided video and still-video images have been used to provide at-the-scene information about terrorist attacks, as well as man-made and natural disasters. In situations such as this, first responders would benefit from having access to video and images taken at the scene of a disaster/accident to help them quickly ascertain the level of impact and give them direction as to where to focus their immediate efforts. The Video E911 patent (U.S. Patent 8,520,805) describes a system and method for associating digital image content with an emergency E911call and facilitates the collation of images from such a scene.

• Personal and fleet navigation systems that allow users to more effectively navigate themselves to and from locations have become ubiquitous. The recently issued System and Method for Providing Routing, Mapping, and Relative Position Information to Users of a Communication Network patent (U.S. Patent 8,509,412) complements TCS' 12 existing patents in its fleet management portfolio. It describes methods that allow a user's wireless device to obtain position information, such as GPS coordinates or a street address, and send this information to a second user's wireless device, as well as to provide routing directions to either user. This patent also describes techniques to transmit the routing data to an in-vehicle navigation system which further enhances the user's overall experience.

The remaining nine patents issued in the period are: Efficient Usage of Emergency Services Keys (U.S. Patent 8,532,266); Integrated Services User Part (ISUP)/Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Gateway for Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) Emergency Services Call Flow (U.S. Patent 8,489,064); Stateful, Double-Buffered Dynamic Navigation Voice Prompting (U.S. Patent 8,521,422); System and Method for Determining a Reference Location Using Cell Table Data Mining (U.S. Patent 8,467,805); Virtual Location Aware Content Using Presence Information Data Formation with Location Object (PIDF-LO) (U.S. Patent 8,516,043); Location Derived Presence Information (U.S. Patent 8,532,277); Location Based Proximity Alert (U.S. Patent 8,525,681); Intelligent Delivery Agent for Short Message Distribution Center (U.S. Patent 8,542,660); and Encryption Standard Telephone Equipment (STE) Communications through Private Branch Exchange (PBX) (U.S. Patent 8,489,874).

TCS chairman, president and CEO Maurice B. Tose said: "Our company continues to create and protect the value of technological innovations. These newly issued patents enhance our growing patent portfolio, and we are committed to monetizing our intellectual property through our business operations, licensing and related arrangements."