Patent ID: 8241131

Claim:
A method for protecting a protected avatar from actions of a second avatar within a virtual universe, comprising: implementing by a processing unit protection for a protected avatar from a second avatar within a virtual universe; and providing an agreement defining a duty of a user associated with the second avatar to a user associated with the protected avatar; the implementing protection comprising: identifying by the processing unit an activity of the second avatar as a function of a behavior term of the agreement; disqualifying by the processing unit the second avatar from engaging in the identified activity within the virtual universe as a function of a relation of the identified activity to the protected avatar and of interpreting the duty; and defining by the processing unit a protective action associated with the identified activity and executable against the protected avatar or the second avatar; monitoring by the processing unit activity of the protected avatar or the second avatar within the virtual universe for an occurrence of the identified activity; and executing by the processing unit the protective action against at least one of the protected avatar and the second avatar in response to the monitoring detecting the occurrence of the identified activity.