8×8, Inc. today announced that it has been awarded a new patent related to its contact/call center technologies. On August 14, 2012, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued United States Patent number 8,243,913, entitled “Limiting Contact in a Networked Contact Center Environment.”

The patent relates to, among other things, limiting contact to a networked contact center that is a host to multiple tenants. In an example embodiment, when a communication is received by a networked contact center, a contact rate value may be examined in order to determine whether to allow the communication to reach contact center resources. The contact rate value may represent an allowable quantity of contact within a time interval. For some example embodiments, a determination of whether the network contact center is to accept or reject the communication is made based on the contact rate value.

Since its establishment in 1987, 8×8 has been awarded 82 United States patents covering a variety of voice and video communications, signaling, processing and storage technologies.