Patent ID: 7606913

Claim:
A presence management apparatus connected to a first apparatus and a second apparatus via a network, for managing presence representing a dynamic attribute of a user using said first apparatus or said second apparatus, the presence management apparatus comprising: a user table for registering therein for each user a user ID, a presence of said user, and a matching condition for the presence which is designated by said user with respect to another user; presence update means for updating a first user's presence registered in said user table based on an update request received from the first apparatus, or updating second user's presence registered in said user table based on an update request received from the second apparatus, wherein the first user uses the first apparatus and the second user uses the second apparatus; matching condition registration means for registering at said user table, a matching condition for another user's presence including the second user's presence received from the first apparatus and designated by the first user and a matching condition for another user's presence including the first user's presence received from the second apparatus and designated by the second user; and matching decision means of a bidirectional matching decision between the first and second users, for deciding if the updated first user's presence matches the matching condition designated by the second user and the second user's presence matches the registered matching condition designated by the first user, when the matching condition registration means performs matching condition registration processing for the matching condition designated by the first user or the matching condition designated by the second user, wherein when said presence update means updated the first user's presence or the second user's presence registered in said user table based on an update request, in a case that said first user's presence matches with the matching condition designated by the second user and also the second user's presence matches with the matching condition designated by the first user, said matching decision means decides that both of the matching conditions relating to said first user's and second user's presences coincide with each other.