Patent ID: 7603411

Claim:
A multiple access communications network comprising a presence management system, a watching party and a watched party, said presence management system being for use by the watching party and watched party in said network, the watched party having a watched party identifier and being an automated service configured to determine the availability of goods or services and to transmit to the presence management system, automatically without human intervention, information indicating a change in the availability of the goods or services, the information indicating the change in the availability of the goods or services being transmitted in response to the change in the availability of the goods or services, the watching party having a watching party identifier and including an output to transmit a notification request to the presence management system, the notification request including a watched party identifier and a request to receive information indicating a change in the availability of goods or services, and an input to receive the information indicating the change in the availability of the goods or services from the presence management system, said presence management system comprising: (i) a first input to receive notification requests from the watching party, (ii) a second input to operate continuously to receive, in real time, information indicating a change in the availability of the goods or services from said watched party; (iii) a processor arranged to notify said watching party of information indicating the change in the availability of the goods or services when information indicative of a change in the availability of the goods or services is received at said second input; and (iv) a store of profile information, the profile information including the watched party identifier and the watching party identifier and connection criteria for each watched party, said connection criteria being dependent on a state of said watched party and including information relating to the type of connection that the watched party would accept; (v) an output to send the information indicating the change in the availability of the goods or services to the watching party; and said processor being further arranged to determine whether to connect said watching party to said watched party and how to connect said watching party to said watched party on the basis of connection criteria for said watched party and information indicative of said state of said watched party.