Patent ID: 7552210

Claim:
A method for handling cookies, said cookies including a domain attribute and a path attribute, which comprises: defining in a client system a scope attribute for cookies, said scope attribute being in addition to a domain attribute and path attribute; allocating separate storage areas in said client system for cookies according to identified scopes; allocating a global storage area in said client system for cookies with unidentified scopes; receiving incoming responses from server systems at said client system, said responses including cookies; determining if a cookie received at said client system with a response includes an identified scope; if said cookie received with said response includes an identified scope, determining if said storage in said client system allocated to said identified scope contains a stored cookie with the same domain and path as said received cookie; if said storage in said client system allocated to said identified scope contains a stored cookie with the same domain and path as said received cookie, overwriting said stored cookie with said received cookie; if said storage in said client system allocated to said identified scope does not contain a stored cookie with the same domain and path as said received cookie, storing said received cookie that includes said identified scope identifier in the storage area allocated to the identified scope of said cookie; if said cookie received with said response is received with an unidentified scope, determining if said storage in said client system allocated to said global scope contains a stored cookie with the same domain and path as said received cookie; if said storage in said client system allocated to said global scope contains a stored cookie with the same domain and path as said received cookie, overwriting said stored cookie with said received cookie; if said storage in said client system allocated to said global scope does not contain a stored cookie with the same domain and path as said received cookie storing said cookie received with said unidentified scope in said global storage area; determining a domain and path for an outgoing request from said client system to a server system; determining if said outgoing request from said client system to a server system is associated with an identified scope; if said outgoing request is associated with an identified scope, retrieving all cookies having said determined domain and path from the storage area allocated to the identified scope of said outgoing request, and attaching said retrieved cookies to said outgoing request; and, if said outgoing request is not associated with an identified scope, retrieving all cookies having said determined domain and path from the global storage area, and attaching said retrieved cookies to said outgoing request.