ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,542,849, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to Crosstalk Technologies, PBC (New York).

"Enabling groups of users to be connected 1-on-1" was invented by Christopher Lee Chin (New York).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system and method for establishing seamless 1-on-1 conversations by telephone or video between users in a social graph comprising group membership and direct connections between users. The system and method obviate the need for users to dial out to other users to initiate conversations, which can be frustrating when their calls go unanswered. Instead, the system makes near-simultaneous outbound calls to a plurality of users. Then...