Patent · US Expired

Using multiple simultaneous threads of communication

US7328242B1 · kind B1 · utility

369Cited by
1References
94Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 17, 2002
Grant dateFeb 5, 2008
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 19, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L51/04
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described for providing a thread messaging system for communications between users of thread client computing devices. The thread messaging system provides significant benefits over existing prior art messaging systems such as email, IM, chat and bulletin boards. In some situations, the thread messaging system supports each user having multiple simultaneous threads of conversation with distinct user-specified groups of multiple other users, maintains communications in a persistent and virtual manner such that a user can specify communications for threads regardless of their own connectivity status or that of the intended recipients and can receive thread communications from others that occurred while the user was not connected, and allows the communications for each thread conversation to be displayed distinctly and simultaneously such that the contents of current and previous communications are displayed together in a uniform manner and in a user-specified order.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.