The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded 13 patents to TeleCommunication Systems for a range of public safety, messaging and location-based services during the first quarter of 2014.
TCS holds 355 patents globally, has more than 300 pending patent applications and applied for 17 patents in the U.S. this year, the company said Wednesday.
USPTO granted the company a patent for an Inter-Carrier Messaging Service Providing Phone Number Only Experience method, which works to help carrier subscribers transmit messages to other carriers.
The company also received a prepaid messaging service patent that works to determine if a subscriber has enough account balance to forward an SMS message.
Another patent is for a Mobile Automatic Location Identification for First Responders idea that is intended to provide data on a caller’s location during emergencies.