Subject: Re: relevant patent issued

From: Geoff Marshall <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 08:43:56 -0400

5,739,919  is much general as it would appear to cover any digital network and
is not specific about file format.

Lawyers are going to have a field day if any of these people try to collect.

A fax network for communicating fax transmissions over either a conventional
public switched telephone network or a digital network based on a telephone
number of a destination fax machine. If the destination fax machine can be
serviced by the digital network, a device intercepts the phone digits on the
telephone link, and redirects the call to a local point-of-presence, which is
preferably located near the local exchange carrier. The POP receives
information related to the desired fax transmission from the device, and
accesses a destination POP via the digital network. The destination POP is
local with respect to the destination fax machine, and the destination POP
attempts to contact the destination fax machine to ascertain if a fax session
is allowable. If so, the destination POP notifies the source POP, which then
notifies the device, thereby allowing the fax session to start. The source POP
packetizes the analog fax data received from the sending fax machine, and
sends
the fax data as packets over the digital network to the destination POP. The
destination POP unpacketizes the data, and sends the fax data using a standard
protocol and a standard local telephone link to the destination fax machine.