Viztone Ltd has developed application that will allow the delivery of advertisements during the pre-connection phase of any telephone call.  Viztone’s “video ring back tones” replace the traditional (brrr, brrr sound) a caller hears whilst he is waiting for the recipient of his call to pick up. The innovation is backed by patents granted in the UK and Australia and filed in the USA (2001).

Video ring back tones may be commercially deployed in numerous situations, businesses may deliver advertisements or customised clips to customers who contact their call centres, consumers may create and distribute their own content; however person to person calls, carrying generic pre-connection advertisements represent the largest potential market.

Whilst Video ring back tones have been widely adopted in other markets, notably the Far East, difficulties with a legacy network infrastructure and the slow uptake of video calling have delayed adoption within Western Europe and the USA. More specifically, billing difficulties remain a barrier to uptake in these regions.

However, the emergence of more sophisticated smart phones has enabled more complex handset applications to be developed; allowing the development of an application that delivers video ring back tones to users independently of network connectivity and infrastructure.

Viztone has recently completed the development of a working prototype; this fully functional and interactive model is available for demonstration.

Users will receive incentives in return for viewing advertisements during the pre-connect phase of their calls. These could take the form of a revenue share from advertising revenues, free minutes or accumulation of reward points from existing schemes. Viztone revenues will be generated by charging advertisers for delivery of their content.

Ofcom’s Telecommunications Market Data Update Q4 2009 reported “..in Total call volumes increased by 6.3% year-on-year to 27.4 billion in Q4 2009; Total messaging volumes reached nearly 26 billion in Q4 2009, equivalent to 367 messages per subscriber; The number of active mobile subscriptions grew by nearly 1.5 million in Q4 2009 to 70.65 million”

A Demonstration of the Viztone (Formally Host Telecom) concept is available  Here ]]> http://www.host-telecom.co.uk/wordpress/wordpress/2011/10/24/delivery/feed/ 0 http://www.host-telecom.co.uk/wordpress/wordpress/2011/08/17/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-a-granted-patent-in-the-usa/ http://www.host-telecom.co.uk/wordpress/wordpress/2011/08/17/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-a-granted-patent-in-the-usa/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:14:04 +0000 admin http://www.host-telecom.co.uk/wordpress/wordpress/?p=142 If you filed a Patent application in 2001, you’d probably be expecting to at the very least enter into a dialogue with the examining body fairly quickly and given that the accepted wisdom is that these things do take time that a few years at most should bring the matter to a conclusion, one way or another.

This pattern was followed with our application to both the UK and Australian patent office’s which granted in 2003 & 2005 respectively,  given that we’d started the UK prosecution a little earlier in 1999, this all seemed fairly reasonable.

So three to four years, probably par for the course? Not in the USA !

It took the USPTO six years to even pick up our application and start to read it.  Their immediate response was to ask us to split the invention in half and file two applications (more fees for them!) So, that takes us to 2007, ongoing dialogue lasting a year or almost two, leading to a face-to-face meeting in Washington with the examiner in 2008, movement towards a grant you might think.  Yes at first, we seemed to have agreed language and content that described our invention, just when we thought the grant was there, complete reversal from the examiner! Then there was backtracking, more paperwork, more fees and unbelievably three more years to take us to the beginning of 2011.

At this point we contacted the USPTOs ombudsman, who I understand is operating on a temporary trial basis to see how things go. Given our experience we think is likely to be extremely busy. Remarkably within six months of our contacting him and following almost 10 years of dialogue fees, paperwork, trans-continental phone calls and flights, more fees and of course more paperwork we have today the 16th of August 2011 been granted patent number 8,001,000.

I wonder if they were just waiting till they got to a round number?

Background

Viztone is a privately owned UK based company that has developed Video Ring back Tone and Video Ring Tone technology based around its patent portfolio.  www.viztone.co.uk

Contact: colinb@viztone.co.uk

Mob +44(0) 7774 924500

Viztone : The Attic, 110 Clement Royds Street, Rochdale, OL12 6PL, UK

An increasing number of businesses are looking to exploit the mobile device as a lucrative channel for the delivery of highly targeted advertising content; this method which is easy to deliver and most importantly is unobtrusive to the user is seen as a highly effective method of advertising during person-to-person communication.

Martyn Butterworth Viztone’s chairman comments “It’s been a long road but we’re delighted to add a granted US patent to our portfolio which includes patents granted in the UK and Australia, we’ve always seen the US is key to our longer term objectives and are now actively looking for partners to help us exploit our patents & technology”

Background

Viztone is a privately owned UK based company that has developed Video Ring back Tone and Video Ring Tone technology based around its patent portfolio.  www.viztone.co.uk

Contact:

Colinb@viztone.co.uk

Mob +44(0) 7774 924500

Viztone : The Attic, 110 Clement Royds Street, Rochdale, OL12 6PL, UK

We are delighted to announce that we have made it through to the finals of Mobitech-fest this year in London. The selection process was arduous with our business plan, forecasts and presentations being thoroughly scrutinised. We are delighted to have made it through to the last 12 and without being overconfident we have eyes on the $25,000 prize!

CEO Colin Barnes adds “We’ve had a growing amount of interest from fund and angel investors alike following the development of our working prototype earlier this year. We anticipate being able to complete this round of funding over the next few months and feel this event will give us the opportunity to pitch to investors of exactly the right profile”.

MobiTechFest Europe -2010

November 24, 2010

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Viztone  is pleased to announce that it has successfully raised interim finance from a number of private investors.  This funding has allowed Viztone (formerly Host Telecom) to reach a settlement with its original seed fund investor paving the way for a further round of VC funding, the company has also taken the opportunity to restructure and relaunch under the more consumer friendly brand name of “Viztone”.

A key element of the company’s ongoing business plan is the development of a handset based application that will enable the delivery of video ring back tones completely independently of mobile network operators.

This work has now been completed and is available for demonstration.

For more information Contact Viztone

For more information contact Viztone

From techcrunch.com … “An SEC filing has revealed that video ringtone sharing community Vringo has filed to raise an estimated $64.3 million $13.8 million via an initial public offering of stock and warrants.

The company plans to trade on NASDAQ, with Maxim Group serving as lead underwriter. Vringo  shareholders include Warburg Pincus, who invested $12 million for a 31.9% ownership stake in 2007, and undisclosed private investors.”. More

Read article in GoMo news

An extract and link to the article is listed below.

“The newly announced Google Voice looks like a great service that should ease your communication problems on multiple devices significantly.

And Google is already thinking of the ways of monetizing Voice. In a way it knows best – through advertising. And it just might work.

When I use my phone, there is actually one time, when I wouldn’t really mind listening to some short audio adverts. Especially if Google can make them relevant to me.

It’s that time between when I dial the number and the person I called answers the phone. Filled with those boring beeps or stupid ringback tones from the operator.

This is exactly the place where Google wants to insert their short audio advertisements, described in a patent app “Ringback  advertising”.”

Read the full article here

The USPTO confirmed in a comuncation today that it will issue Host Telecom a notice of allowance in relation to its divisional application reference number 11/850, 8259.

The notice comes following an extensive series of discussions between Host, their US attorney (Michael Best and Friedrich LLP) and the USPTO, which began in March 2009.

Host patents relate to the delivery of multimedia messages during the pre-connect phase of any telephone call (video ring back tones or VRBT) and were originally filed in 2001. The extensive delays in moving the applications forward relate to the USPTO’s chronic shortage of examiners with dialogue only commencing in earnest in 2007.

Based on feedback from the examiner Host divided its original application (which applied to both caller and receiver) into two separate applications one for the caller and one for the receiver. Perhaps surprisingly the divisional (receiver) application has become the first to be issued with a notice of allowance.

Dialogue with the examiner is ongoing with regard to the original application (caller) with further discussions planned for early October. Host remains confident that the original application will proceed to grant.

Host CEO Colin Barnes added “This is excellent news for us, we have been in discussion with a number of parties who have interest in acquiring our patents and believe that this development will move things forward significantly”.

HOST is a unique Mobile Applications Provider of Video RingBack Tones (VRBT). Host is based in UK yet offers global opportunity.

Host develops the huge potential of Video RingbackTones as a value added service, on mobile and VOIP for both commercial advertising and social networking.

Host’s advertising solution enables the ‘lost moments’ prior to connection to be used effectively and efficiently for brand promotion.

Brand and Commercial advertisers will have access to a unique, simple, mass market advertising medium and targeted customers. The VRBT is an advertising ‘blank canvas’.

Mobile Network Operators will gain new revenue sources of high margin from the advertiser, whilst simultaneously introducing users to extra 3G content.

The mobile/VOIP user may enjoy free or subsidised calls and texts funded by the advertiser. The user enjoys non-intrusive multi-media content that is offered outside the normal connection period.

HOST owns IPR in UK, Australia and US, and is now looking to market its patents either via outright sale or license.