Patent ID: 7624421
Filing Date: 2009-11-24
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a computing device providing an endpoint in a peer-to-peer collaboration system in which each user has an identity and a display name, the method comprising: in response to communicating with a first user, recording the first user as a contact in a contact data store in memory associated with the computing device, the recording comprising storing at least an identity and display name of the first user; in response to receiving a communication from a second user: when the display name of the second user is equivalent to the display name of a user in the contact data store, and the identity of the second user is different than the identity of the user in the contact data store with the matching display name, generating a warning on a display associated with the computing device, wherein generating the warning comprises generating a warning about a potentially masquerading user having a display name equivalent to the display name of the user in the contact data store with the matching display name, the potentially masquerading user selected from a set of users having display names equivalent to the display name of the user in the contact data store with the matching display name, the set including the user in the contact data store with the matching display name, and the potentially masquerading user being selected based on relative authorization levels of the users in the set, wherein: the warning comprises a name conflict indicator displayed in a first graphical user interface to the computing device indicating a conflict with a conflicted display name, the conflicted display name being the display name common to the second user and the user in the contact data store with the matching display name; and the method further comprises: