Patent ID: 7321877
Filing Date: 2008-01-22
Classification: G06Q,G16H

Abstract:
1. A data processing system-implemented method for directing a data processing system to manage a virtual persona within a user session through selective association of the user with a buyer from among a plurality of buyers, the data processing system-implemented method comprising: initiating a software session between a Seller and a user, wherein the user is initially associated with a Buyer A from a plurality of buyers, and wherein the software session initially utilizes software objects provided from Buyer A to authorize the user to represent Buyer A; selectively specifying a Buyer B, from the plurality of buyers, as being an organization for which the user is to be authorized to act as an agent, wherein selectively specifying Buyer B is initiated by and performed by the user; determining if software objects that are associated with Buyer B are locked to prevent the user from using the software objects that are associated with Buyer B, wherein the software objects that are associated with Buyer B are selectively lockable to prevent the user from using the software objects that are associated with Buyer B, and wherein all software objects associated with Buyer A are never lockable against the user that is initially associated with Buyer A; in response to determining that the software objects associated with Buyer B are not locked, inheriting attributes and privileges from software objects associated with Buyer B to software objects that are associated with Buyer A; persisting the inherited attributes and privileges of software objects used in the session with the Seller, wherein the inherited attributes and privileges authorize the user to represent Buyer B instead of Buyer A in the session with the Seller, wherein the user can represent only one buyer at a time, and wherein the inherited attributes and privileges persistently authorize the user to represent the Buyer B until a Buyer C is selected, by the user, to be a new buyer that is represented by the user in the session with the Seller, wherein the user presently represents only Buyer C in the session with the Seller; tailoring content of the software session in accordance with the inherited attributes and privileges such that the user is presently representing Buyer B instead of Buyer A; and in response to the user closing a browser used by the user in the session with the Seller in which the user is representing Buyer B, terminating the user's permission to act on behalf of Buyer B by deleting attributes and privileges inherited from the software objects associated with Buyer B, and returning, to the user, permission to represent Buyer A in the session with the Seller.