Patent ID: 8320362

Claim:
A communications system comprising: a first SIP endpoint having multiple line capabilities; a second SIP endpoint having multiple line capabilities and a unique Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); a first file transfer agent system associated with the first SIP endpoint; and a second file transfer agent system associated with the second SIP endpoint; and wherein a user of the first SIP endpoint is in voice communication with a user of the second SIP endpoint; and wherein the first SIP endpoint initiates a call to the first file transfer agent system, the call comprising the unique URI; and wherein the first file transfer agent system answers the call and presents an audio menu to the user of the first SIP endpoint; wherein the voice communication is held; and wherein the user of the first SIP endpoint responds to the audio menu by selecting at least one file to transfer to the second SIP endpoint; and wherein the first file transfer agent system transfers the selected at least one file to the second file transfer agent system by a transfer process comprising: the first file transfer agent system constructing an SIP address for the second file transfer agent system using the unique URI of the second SIP endpoint, the first file transfer agent system calling the second file transfer agent system using the constructed SIP address, the second file transfer agent system receiving the call and sending a setup message to the second SIP endpoint, the setup message comprising a file transfer request, the second SIP endpoint providing an indication in response to the setup message accepting the file transfer request, the second file transfer agent system forwarding the acceptance to the first file transfer agent system, and the first file transfer agent system notifying the user of the first SIP endpoint that the second SIP endpoint accepted the file transfer request, and wherein the first file transfer agent system transfers the at least one selected file to the second file transfer agent system after receiving the forwarded acceptance from the second file transfer agent; and wherein the unique URI is independent of an IP address of the second SIP endpoint.