Accepting an invitation sent to multiple computer systems

• US 20060271635A1
• Filed: 05/27/2005
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raghav, Amritansh, Chavda, Ankur, Shtiegman, Eran, Samdadiya, Parag, Bobde, Nikhil
• Granted Patent: US 7,856,470 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method and system for accepting invitations sent to multiple endpoints for an instant messaging participant is provided. The acceptance system allows multiple endpoints of a participant to be registered at the same time with an instant messaging service. The endpoint of the inviting participant sends an invitation to the instant messaging service indicating that the receiving participant is to be invited to establish a conversation with the inviting participant. When the instant messaging service receives the invitation, it detects that the receiving participant has multiple endpoints registered and forwards the invitation to each registered endpoint. When an endpoint receives the invitation request, it displays an information window asking whether the receiving participant wants to accept the invitation. Upon acceptance, the endpoint sends an acceptance to the endpoint of the inviting participant to establish the conversation between that endpoint and the endpoint of the inviting participant.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for choosing one of multiple endpoints of a user to accept an invitation for the user to join a conversation comprising:

receiving at each endpoint of the user an invitation to join the conversation;

notifying the user of the received invitation;

determining at each endpoint whether the endpoint meets an invitation acceptance criterion based on user interaction with the notification; and

when an endpoint determines that it meets the acceptance criterion, sending by that endpoint an acceptance to join the conversation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each endpoint subscribes to presence information of the other endpoints.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the determining includes, when the user does not interact with the notification within a certain time, determining whether the endpoint meets the acceptance criterion based on the presence information of the other endpoints.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each endpoint subscribes to changes in the method of determining whether the acceptance criterion is met.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the notification is displaying an information window indicating that the invitation has been received.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the acceptance criterion is met when the user indicates to accept the invitation by interacting with a notification window.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the acceptance criterion is met when the user interacts in any way with the notification window.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein when a sender of the invitation does not queue messages sent before the invitation is accepted, the endpoint determines whether the acceptance criterion is met without notifying the user.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the endpoint determines whether a sender queues messages by inspecting a user-agent property in the sender'"'"'s presence information.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the acceptance criterion is the endpoint that has recorded user activity most recently.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the sender and receiver communicate using the Session Initiation Protocol.

12. The method of claim 1 including when more than one endpoint determines that it meets the acceptance criterion and sends an acceptance, acceptances received after the first are ignored.

13. The method of claim 1 including a sender of the invitation queues messages entered before the invitation is accepted.

14. The method of claim 1 including when the user has only one endpoint, the endpoint determines whether the acceptance criterion is met without notifying the user.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the user is notified after the invitation is accepted, and a message entered by a sender of the invitation is displayed.

16. A method in a computing system to avoid losing messages sent before an instant messaging conversation is established, comprising:

sending an invitation to a receiver to join a conversation with a sender;

queuing a message entered by the sender while waiting for a response to the invitation from the receiver;

receiving an acceptance to the invitation from the receiver; and

sending the receiver the queued message.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the sender and receiver communicate using the Session Initiation Protocol.

18. A method in a computing system to avoid losing messages when an instant messaging user switches from one endpoint to another, comprising:

sending a first invitation to each of multiple endpoints registered for the user;

receiving an acceptance to the first invitation from the user at a first endpoint thereby establishing a conversation on the first endpoint;

detecting that the user has terminated the conversation at the first endpoint and that the user is active at a second endpoint;

sending a second invitation to each of multiple endpoints registered for the user; and

receiving an acceptance to the second invitation from the user at the second endpoint thereby establishing the conversation on the second endpoint.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the sender and receiver communicate using the session initiation protocol.

20. The method of claim 18 including determining that the receiver is active by subscribing to the receiver'"'"'s presence information.