US 6,301,609 · Granted 2001-10-09

How Lucent Patented the Unified Messaging Hub Before Smartphones

This patent describes a system that acts like a personal assistant for all your messages and calls. Instead of checking email, text, voicemail, and chat separately, one smart hub figures out where you are and how you want to be contacted, then routes incoming messages to the right place automatically.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a unified messaging platform that uses instant messaging to locate a registered user and manage their communication preferences across multiple devices and channels. What's protected here is the specific method of storing user-defined rules in a database, then having a user proxy—a digital stand-in—apply those rules to decide how to handle incoming messages. The system coordinates between different communication modes (phone, email, chat) based on the user's preferences.

Why it matters

Filed in 1999 and granted in 2001, this patent captured an early vision of what we now call unified communications—the idea that your phone shouldn't just ring, your email shouldn't just pile up, and your messages shouldn't scatter across ten different apps. Lucent was anticipating a world where technology would be smart enough to know whether you wanted a call forwarded, an email held, or a message sent somewhere else entirely, all based on rules you set yourself.

Real-world use

When you set your Slack status to Do Not Disturb and your messages queue up until you're free, or when your phone automatically sends certain callers to voicemail based on time of day, you're experiencing the basic logic this patent locked down.

Original USPTO abstract

A unified messaging solution and services platform is provided by utilizing the features and capabilities associated with instant messaging to locate a registered user, query the user for a proposed message disposition, and coordinate services among a plurality of communication devices, modes, and channels. A user proxy is registered to the user as a personal communication services platform. The user is able to define various rules for responding to received data and communications, the rules stored within a rules database servicing the communication services platform. Instant messaging is used for communications between the user and the communication services platform's user proxy.

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,301,609
Filing date: 1999-09-08
Grant date: 2001-10-09
Assignee: Lucent Technologies Inc.
Inventor(s): ARAVAMUDAN MURALI, HENRICK ROBERT F., SUNDAR RANGAMANI, XIKES GREGORY JAMES
CPC class: H04L51/226

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