Patent ID: 9432416
Filing Date: 2016-08-30
CPC Classification: H04L,H04N

Claim Text:
1. A communication management system that manages a plurality of communication terminals, the communication management system comprising: a memory configured to store, for each respective one of the plurality of communication terminals, candidate counterpart terminal information indicating a candidate counterpart communication terminal of the respective communication terminal, the candidate counterpart communication terminal being one or more communication terminals that are associated with the respective communication terminal; a receiver configured to receive identification information of a request communication terminal from a request communication terminal, the request communication terminal being one of the plurality of communication terminals; processing circuitry configured to a transmitter configured to transmit state information associated with the extracted identification information of the candidate counterpart communication terminal to the request communication terminal such that the state information of the candidate counterpart communication terminal is reflected on an operation state of the candidate counterpart communication terminal to be displayed on a screen at the request communication terminal for selecting a counterpart terminal to start communication, wherein when the determination result indicates that the communications protocol of the candidate counterpart communication terminal is the same as the communications protocol of the request communication terminal, the transmitter transmits information indicating that the state of the candidate counterpart terminal is online or offline to the request communication terminal as the state information of the candidate counterpart communication terminal, and wherein when the determination result indicates that the communications protocol of the candidate counterpart communication terminal is different and incompatible from the communications protocol of the request communication terminal such that communication is prevented between the request communication terminal and the candidate counterpart communication terminal, the transmitter transmits information indicating that the communications protocol of the candidate counterpart communication terminal is different and incompatible from the communications protocol of the request communication terminal to the request communication terminal as the state information of the candidate counterpart communication terminal without indicating that the state of the candidate counterpart terminal is one of online or offline, wherein the state information is displayed on a screen of the request communication terminal prior to a user of the request communication terminal selecting any one of the plurality of communication terminals to communicate with, wherein the state information causes the request communication terminal to display a graphical image indicating the communications protocol of the candidate counterpart communication terminal is different and incompatible from the communications protocol of the request communication terminal, wherein the graphical image indicating the communications protocol of the candidate counterpart communication terminal is different and incompatible from the communications protocol of the request communication terminal indicates that the communications protocol of the candidate counterpart communication terminal is unknown.