US 5,867,494 · Granted 1999-02-02

The 1999 Patent That Made Video Conferencing Billing Automatic

Back in the 1990s, video calls over the internet were new and weird — but nobody knew how to bill people fairly for them. This patent solved that by automatically tracking what happened during a video conference (who joined, how long they stayed, what data they shared) and charging the right person at the end, all in real time.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

What's protected here is a system that combines video conferencing with automatic billing. The claim covers a switched network that routes phone calls, video, audio, and data together, tracks events that happen during a conference call as they occur, records those events in a billing detail record, and then automatically debits the appropriate account. It's the integration of conferencing capability with real-time billing capture that the patent locks down.

Why it matters

In the mid-1990s, video conferencing was technically possible but commercially messy — companies didn't have a standard way to bill participants, so they couldn't monetize it or scale it. MCI Communication's patent tackled that specific problem by automating billing at the moment events happened during a call. This removed a major barrier to commercial video conferencing adoption and gave MCI a legal moat around its approach to integrating billing and conferencing infrastructure.

Real-world use

When you join a Zoom call or Teams meeting today and see a transcript being generated, or when your company gets billed for that conference call, you're benefiting from foundational ideas this patent pioneered about tracking and charging for multimedia communications.

Original USPTO abstract

Telephone calls, data and other multimedia information including video, audio and data is routed through a switched network which includes transfer of information across the internet. Users can participate in video conference calls in which each participant can simultaneously view the video from each other participant and hear the mixed audio from all participants. Users can also share data and documents with other video conference participants. Users can manage more aspects of a network than previously possible, and control network activities from a central site. Billing of the conference call is accomplished utilizing a billing detail record to capture events associated with a call as they occur and debit the appropriate bill.

Patent details

Publication number: US 5,867,494
Filing date: 1996-11-18
Grant date: 1999-02-02
Assignee: Mci Communication Corporation
Inventor(s): KRISHNASWAMY; SRIDHAR, ELLIOTT; ISAAC K., REYNOLDS; TIM E., FORGY; GLEN A., SOLBRIG; ERIN M.
CPC class: H04Q3/64

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