Patent ID: 8255467

Claim:
A device management and sharing system for use in an instant messaging system comprising: an instant messenger server; and an enhanced instant messenger module operatively coupled to the instant messenger server, the enhanced instant messenger module having an instant messenger process and a networked device process, the instant messenger process being operable to provide instant messaging functions and services to a user and the networked device process being operable to provide data from networked devices to the instant messenger server, and wherein a user logs in to the instant messaging server and wherein the user may add another second user to a contact list and wherein the user selects a network device from a list of registered network devices and wherein access rights are granted allowing access to the selected registered network device so the second user is granted access rights to the networked device and may then view the networked device on a device list and may provide an input on a displayed icon of the networked device to request output of the networked device, and wherein a process running on the networked device sends the requested output to the instant messaging server from which the output is accessed.