Invitation to bind to a device

• US 7,912,962 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2006
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Yanagihara, Kazuhisa, Vaughan, Gregory Bjorn, Serlet, Bertrand, Michaud, Jeffrey H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung; Zarni
• Application Number:
  US11/539,539
• Publication Number:
  US 20080086537A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709227-229, 709245-250
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

A server device sends a list of account holders together with an invitation to bind to the server. A client device can decide to present the invitation to a user for decision only if the client device finds a match between the list and the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for handling an invitation to bind to a device, the method comprising:

receiving an invitation to bind to a first device, the invitation received at a second device and identifying at least one account on the first device for which no device has been bound to the first device;

determining whether the identified at least one account matches the second device; and

presenting the invitation, if a match is determined, so that a user of the second device can choose whether to bind to the first device, else not presenting the invitation to the user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the invitation is presented to the user and the user does not initiate binding to the first device, further comprising providing that the invitation is not presented to the user again.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the invitation includes a link that the user can activate to bind the second device to the first device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the invitation includes, for each of the identified at least one account, a name of an account holder.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein determining whether there is a match comprises determining whether the name of the account holder matches a user name for the second device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising reversing an encryption of the invitation to determine the at least one account.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a server device and the second device is a client device.

8. A computer program product comprising instructions stored in a non transitory computer readable medium that when executed by a processor perform a method for inviting a device to bind to another device, the method comprising:

receiving an invitation to bind to a first device, the invitation received at a second device and identifying at least one account on the first device for which no device has been bound to the first device;

determining whether the identified at least one account matches the second device; and

presenting the invitation, if a match is determined, so that a user of the second device can choose whether to bind to the first device, else not presenting the invitation to the user.