Instant messaging system and method

Patent No. US8412785 (titled "Instant messaging system and method") on Mar 30, 2009. The application was issued on Apr 2, 2013.

’785 is related to the field of Internet instant messaging and web browsing technologies. Specifically, it addresses the technical challenge of bridging the gap between traditional desktop-based instant messaging, mobile short message services, and web browsing environments, which historically operated as siloed applications requiring separate system resources and user contexts.

The underlying idea behind ’785 is the integration of real-time communication protocols directly into a multi-page web browser architecture to enable context-aware social interaction. By binding mobile identifiers to instant messaging IDs and synchronizing user presence with specific URLs, the invention allows users to interact with others visiting the same web content without leaving the browser environment or launching multiple application instances.

The claims of ’785 focus on a unified Web browsing system that integrates an instant messenger client, a chat room client, and a message board client within a single browser instance. The system utilizes a specialized browser server and kernel to track browsing activities across multiple users, identifying who is viewing the same page and enabling real-time communication between them, including support for mobile clients through a centralized IM server.

In practice, the invention functions by maintaining a persistent connection between the browser and a kernel server that monitors the active URL of each user. When a user navigates to a specific page, the browser displays a list of other concurrent visitors, effectively creating a dynamic social layer over any website. This is implemented using a page selector mechanism that allows users to toggle between multiple stored webpages while keeping the communication tools—such as the chat and message board—active and synchronized with the visible content.

This approach differs from prior solutions by eliminating the need to launch separate browser windows or standalone chat applications, which typically consume excessive system memory and lack page-specific context. By utilizing a cross-reference relational database to bind mobile numbers to IM identifiers, the system ensures seamless communication across different network types while maintaining user privacy, as the mobile phone number remains hidden behind the instant messenger ID during all interactions.

How does this patent fit in bigger picture?

Technical Landscape

In the early 2000s when ’785 was filed, Internet-based instant messaging and mobile-based short messaging services operated as distinct, siloed communication ecosystems. At a time when cross-network interoperability was typically implemented using manual gateways or limited to single-protocol exchanges, systems commonly relied on platform-specific identifiers that were incompatible across different network architectures. Hardware and software constraints of the era made the seamless synchronization of user identities between desktop-based IP clients and mobile-based cellular devices non-trivial, often requiring users to maintain separate accounts and presence states for each medium.

Prosecution Position

The disclosed invention achieves a meaningful technical advancement by establishing a structural binding between wireless communication identifiers and instant messenger identifiers to enable cross-network message routing. This architectural shift allows a central server to receive messages from mobile devices, extract hardware-specific routing data, and map it to a corresponding instant messaging identity for delivery over a data network. This integration overcomes the technical constraint of network fragmentation, enabling real-time presence tracking and bidirectional communication between disparate device types. Furthermore, the system introduces a multi-page browser architecture that manages multiple web sessions within a single application instance, reducing the system resource overhead and initialization latency typically associated with launching multiple browser processes.

Claims

The patent contains a total of 2 claims, consisting of independent claim 1 and a single dependent claim. Independent claim 1 focuses on a comprehensive Web browsing system that integrates an instant messenger client, a chat room client, and a message board client within a single browser instance, utilizing a centralized browser server to facilitate real-time communication and activity tracking among multiple users viewing the same webpage. The dependent claim serves to further define the specific user interface behavior of the browser, detailing how page selectors are used to toggle the display of different stored webpages while maintaining the visibility of the integrated communication tools.

Key Claim Terms New

Definitions of key terms used in the patent claims.

Term (Source)	Support for Specification	Interpretation
Analysis server (Claim 1)	Browser kernel server transmits the records of all access users to the statistics management server that will perform analysis on the records. The browser kernel server 2007 also provides all detailed information on the activities of the users to the analysis server (e.g., statistical server) to conduct statistics analysis on the activities of the users.	A statistical management server that receives user access records and browsing activity data from the kernel server to perform statistical analysis.
Instant messenger (IM) client (Claim 1)	The IM client 2002 is responsible for responding to the requests for user identity at user interface and transmitting to the IM server. When the user log in from the desktop, the corresponding instant messenger client 2002 is launched. The IM client 2002 transmits all necessary user information including instant messenger ID and the associated password to the IM server 2004.	A software component responsible for responding to user identity requests, transmitting user information (ID and password) to an IM server for authentication, and communicating with a browser to provide user-specific IM service information.
Kernel server (Claim 1)	The browser kernel server 2007 then starts to keep track with the activities of the user, as well as other users who have logged in to the system. The browser kernel server 2007 also collects the identities of all users logged in to the system, as well as their Web browsing activities, and transmits this information to the browser 2001. This allows the browser to display identifiers for all the users who are visiting the same Web page for the purpose of 'who's with me' capability.	A server component that tracks the web browsing activities and identities of all logged-in users to identify which users are visiting the same web page simultaneously.
Message board client (Claim 1)	The user can choose to leave or read a message to or from another user who has visited the same page. They can also read or leave a message regarding to that Web page, even though they are not visiting the Web page at the same time. This feature facilitates near instant communication of customers' feedback comments to a corporation on their products.	A software component within the browser that allows users to read or leave asynchronous messages associated with a specific web page, even if the users are not visiting the page at the same time.
Page selector (Claim 1)	In another aspect of the present invention, a method of displaying multiple Web pages within a single instance of a browser includes... displaying the plurality of the Web pages within a common instance of the browser, each of the plurality of the Web pages displayed corresponding to a page selector. This introduces a unique Internet browser that can display multiple Web pages in a single browser window.	A user interface element within a single browser instance that allows a user to switch between multiple stored web pages, enabling the display of one page while others remain hidden but loaded.

Litigation Cases New

US Latest litigation cases involving this patent.

Case Number	Filing Date	Title
2:25-cv-00772	Aug 8, 2025	Disintermediation Services, Inc. V. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
2:25-cv-00771	Aug 8, 2025	Disintermediation Services, Inc. V. Carvana, Llc
2:25-cv-00773	Aug 8, 2025	DISINTERMEDIATION SERVICES, INC. v. HILTON WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS INC. et al

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US8412785

Application Number: US12414523A
Filing Date: Mar 30, 2009
Publication Date: Apr 2, 2013
External Links: Slate, USPTO , Google Patents

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