Telarus Patents Online Quoting

Telarus Inc. announced that all 38 claims relating to the online generation of real-time commercial telecommunication service quotes have been formally accepted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The technology, which Telarus trademarked as “GeoQuote,” powers Telarus’ public-facing lead-generation sites as well as its password-protected agent back-office sites. Using the technology, agents can generate quotes from more than 30 commercial telecom vendors in less than 60 seconds. The official patent, which issued today, comes nearly six years to the day after the original GeoQuote patent application was submitted in 2003.

“This patent is indicative of our pioneering culture,” said Adam Edwards, president of Telarus. “GeoQuote has become a critical tool that all of our agents and partners utilize to conduct their daily sales activities. Since our original patent application in 2003, we have made significant investments in the technology to ensure the prices that agents see are accurate and reliable. Having the protection of a United States patent may give us new licensing opportunities that we plan to explore.”

U.S. Patent 7,496,184, entitled “System and Method to Determine and Deliver Quotes for Distance-Sensitive Communication Links From Multiple Service Providers” was originally filed in May 2003 by Cooley Godward and Kronish LLP on behalf of its inventors, Patrick Oborn and Aaron Jay Lieberman. The patent was amended in August 2008 to include all of the new innovations that occurred after the original application date. Oborn is now Telarus’ vice president of marketing and Lieberman continues as a software developer.

“We knew back in 2003 that real-time quoting was the future of big-ticket communication shopping,” added Lance Akins, vice president of sales for Telarus. “That explains why, in 2003 and 2004, we spent 25 percent and 15 percent, respectively, of our entire operating budget on legal fees relating to the drafting and submission of this patent. We sacrificed investing in our short term growth due to the strategic importance of acquiring this patent, and now that decision appears to have been the right one.”

GeoQuote technology enables the general public to dynamically view carrier service pricing and availability for their exact locations in real time. To determine exact price points, GeoQuote utilizes a combination of carrier XML API connections, geomapping and database standardization techniques to calculate the exact distance from a user’s location to the location of the nearest vendor’s point of presence. GeoQuote has a resolution of one one-hundredth of a mile and an error rate of less than 1 percent.

The only way to get access to Telarus’ patented real-time carrier service quotes is to sign up as a Telarus agent.