Patent ID: 7768999

Claim:
A conference system comprising: a first conference server operable to communicatively link together a first plurality of client stations in a first conference and to control a floor of the first conference; a second conference server operable to communicatively link together a second plurality of client stations in a second conference and to exchange bearer traffic with the first conference server via a packet switched connection, wherein, when any of the first plurality of client stations holds the floor, the second conference server restricts the second plurality of client stations to a listen-only mode with respect to the first conference, and bearer traffic flows uni-directionally from the first conference server to the second conference server for transmission in turn to the second plurality of client stations, and wherein, when none of the first plurality of client stations holds the floor, bearer traffic flows uni-directionally from the second conference server to the first conference server for transmission in turn to the first plurality of client stations, wherein each of the first plurality of client stations communicates with the first conference server via a respective packet-data link, and wherein each of the second plurality of client stations communicates with the second conference server via a respective packet-data link.