US 6,577,726 · Granted 2003-06-10

The Patent That Let Office Workers Hotdesk Like Modern Remote Teams

Imagine walking into your office and sitting at any desk—not your desk—and your phone and computer instantly know it's you and have all your calls and data ready to go. This patent from 2003 describes exactly that system, letting workers log in anywhere in the network and pick up where they left off, or even pass an ongoing call to a coworker without dropping it.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a computer telephony integration system that allows a user to log into any workstation on a network and automatically sync their phone settings, call history, and active interactions to that station. What's protected here is the method of enabling seamless session transfer—both the ability to authenticate at a new terminal and the ability to hand off an active call or transaction to another authorized user without interruption or data loss.

Why it matters

In the early 2000s, this was a significant innovation for large call centers and corporate environments where employees didn't have assigned desks. By patenting the hotelling concept, Siebel Systems protected a workflow that reduced setup friction and improved operational efficiency—especially valuable in high-volume customer service operations where flexibility and handoff speed directly impact customer experience and agent productivity.

Real-world use

When a customer service agent takes your call and needs to transfer you to a supervisor, they can now do it seamlessly while keeping your history intact—the supervisor's workstation instantly pulls up your account and conversation context without any manual transfers or dropped calls.

Original USPTO abstract

A method and system for enabling a CTI user to log in at any work station in a network and utilize the system with the correct teleset, and also to transfer a CTI transaction or interaction to another CTI user.

Patent details

Publication number: US 6,577,726
Filing date: 2000-03-31
Grant date: 2003-06-10
Assignee: Siebel Systems, Inc.
Inventor(s): HUANG KUANG-YANG, MALDEN MATTHEW S., JAY HENRY D., ANNADATA ANIL
CPC class: H04M3/5183

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