The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 03, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 17, 1999
William Bunney, Köln, DE;
Steve Knox, Brier, WA (US);
Sony International (Europe) GmbH, Berlin, DE;
Abstract
A network comprising at least one server ( ) and a plurality of user terminals ( ), wherein the user terminals ( ) can communicate with each other by means of an IRC server ( ). The user terminal ( ) can send a command to a chat proxy ( ). The chat proxy ( ) is connected with a session manager ( ) to translate any address longer than nine characters (limit of the IRC protocol) to a code with a maximum length of nine characters. The chat proxy ( ) can cache the result of the conversion in a storage device ( ). The chat proxy ( ) then sends ( ) an IRC command to the IRC server ( ) together with a code having a maximum number of nine characters. The chat proxy ( ) according to the present invention therefore allows a translation process, the provision of semi-private chat rooms with an additional access control and a supply of supplemental chat room attributes.