Patent ID: 7995064

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing a first logical communication channel between a first chat client and a second chat client, the first logical channel conveying text chat messages between the first chat client and the second chat client; providing a second logical communication channel between the first chat client and the second chat client, the second logical channel conveying text chat command/control information between the first chat client and the second chat client, the chat command/control information including special predefined text characters inserted into a text stream transferred in a common instant messaging (IM) text stream with the first logical communication channel; using a processor and the chat command/control information to modify a 3D chat scene displayed on each of the first chat client and the second chat client systems; and using the chat command/control information to identify a digital product for retrieval, the digital product being derived from one or more other digital products in a hierarchical product definition, at least one of the one or more other digital products being derived from a different one of the one or more other digital products, the one or more other digital products being separately identifiable as digital products for retrieval using chat command/control information, the derived digital products inheriting characteristics of ancestor digital products from which the derived digital products are derived, the derived digital products inheriting revenue values from the ancestor digital products, a value of a derived digital product corresponding to a combined value of the inherited revenue values associated with the ancestor digital products from which the derived digital product is derived.