BT seeks India patent for computer telephony system

British Telecom, a UK-based telecom major, has filed a patent application in India for its invention computer telephony system, which could make a phone call through internet more secure, a development particularly more useful for call centres.

BT, which is one of the largest communication companies in the world, has approached the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, for patenting the invention.

Admitting the application, the authorities have published the claims made by the company in their Patent Office Journal, giving a public notice.

BT has presence in India and it has collaborations with five domestic players -- Tech Mahindra, HCL, Infosys, TCS and Wipro.

In its patent application filed on May 29 this year, the company has claimed that the "invention provides a method of securely registering an association between a computer terminal and a selected one of a plurality of communications terminals in a computer telephony system."

CTS is particularly useful in call centres, where it can arrange an automatic call distribution (ACD) suite for a secured incoming and outgoing call.

In common, at large call centres, there arises some common problems in making call to a potential target due to non-secured identity and similar case happens in incoming calls but CTS minimises it by using some codification methods.

Jointly developed by David Peter Thorpe and Jon Laurence Booton, the CTS has already been granted a patent by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).