Prior art — US Patent 12279116

This analysis identifies prior art for US patent 12279116, focusing on references explicitly highlighted within the patent's descriptive text. Due to limitations in directly retrieving a comprehensive list of all cited patents from external databases via live search, the analysis centers on the most relevant prior art directly referenced in the patent itself.

The provided authoritative text for US12279116B2 explicitly mentions one patent in its "Detailed Description" section as having similar functionality to a key component of the invention:

U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870

Full Citation: U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PEER-TO-PEER HYBRID COMMUNICATIONS". The inventors and assignee for this patent are not explicitly detailed in the text of US12279116B2, and attempts to retrieve this information directly via live search were inconclusive.
Publication/Filing Date: The filing date for U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870 is March 15, 2005. The publication date is not explicitly stated in the US12279116B2 text, nor was it directly retrievable via live search.
Brief Description: Based on its title, "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PEER-TO-PEER HYBRID COMMUNICATIONS," and the context in which it's cited in US12279116B2, this patent likely describes a system and method for facilitating communication between endpoints (peers) using a hybrid communication architecture. The "functionality similar to that of an endpoint" suggests it covers aspects of establishing, managing, and terminating real-time communication sessions, including the handling of various media types and signaling within a network environment.
Potential Anticipation under 35 U.S.C. § 102:
US12279116B2 describes a "function block" (200) that provides additional capabilities to a "superblock application" (104) through an Application Programming Interface (API) (202), critically achieving this within the superblock application's display and memory space, thereby avoiding resource-intensive context switching to other applications (DETAILED DESCRIPTION). The functions provided by this function block include instant messaging, presence, audio, video, collaboration, file transfer, and email (DETAILED DESCRIPTION).

U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870, as a system and method for "peer-to-peer hybrid communications" describing "endpoint" functionality, potentially anticipates aspects of US12279116B2 related to the types of communication functionalities provided and the underlying management of communication sessions:
- Communication Features: Claims of US12279116B2 that broadly cover providing communication functionalities such as instant messaging, audio/video capabilities, or file transfer within a software component could be potentially anticipated. An "endpoint" in a communication system would inherently manage these services.
- Session Management: Claims related to the establishment, maintenance, and termination of communication sessions (e.g., for audio/video calls, as described in US12279116B2's API examples) might also be anticipated. The "softswitch 1206" within US12279116B2's function block, which includes a call control module and media control module, has functional overlap with what an "endpoint" for communications would typically encompass (FIG. 12, DETAILED DESCRIPTION).
However, U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870, based solely on its title and the brief description provided, may not specifically anticipate the unique architectural innovation of US12279116B2. This innovation centers on the integrated manner of incorporating the function block directly into an existing application's instruction set and memory space to eliminate context switching and improve performance/battery life on devices, particularly mobile devices (DETAILED DESCRIPTION). This specific problem and its solution of deeply embedding functionality without application switching is a core differentiator of US12279116B2.

Therefore, U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870 potentially anticipates claims of US12279116B2 directed to the functional provision of communication services and general communication session management by a software module. It is less likely to anticipate claims specifically focused on the integrated software architecture designed to avoid context switching by embedding a function block within a superblock application's process and display.

Without the full text and claims of U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870 and the explicit claims of US12279116B2, this assessment of potential anticipation remains a high-level analysis and not a definitive legal determination under 35 U.S.C. § 102.