Patent ID: 7904804

Claim:
A system for web sites in a hierarchical relationship to share assets, comprising: a server machine running an asset sharing management application configured for asset sharing management; and two or more web sites operating on one or more server machines including the server machine; wherein the two or more web sites comprise a first hierarchically organized pair of parent and child web sites; wherein the parent web site utilizes one or more assets in the presentation of the parent web site; and wherein the parent and child web sites are configured to share the one or more assets of the parent web site using a set of asset sharing modes defined via the application running on the server machine, the set of asset sharing modes including a first mode, a second mode, and a third mode; wherein in the first mode, a specified asset of a parent site is imposed on a child site, wherein the child site is able to utilize the specified asset, and wherein the child site is unable to modify or delete the specified asset; wherein in the second mode, the child site is able to utilize the specified asset, wherein a copy of the specified asset is generated when the child site attempts to modify the specified asset, wherein the child site is able to modify the copy of the specified asset, wherein the copy of the specified asset is stored as an asset only of the child site, and wherein the specified asset is no longer shared and becomes an asset only of the parent site; wherein in the third mode, the child site is able to utilize the specified asset, wherein the child site is able to modify or delete the specified asset, and wherein changes made by the child site are reflected at the parent site; and wherein at least one of the one or more assets of the parent web site is shared between the parent and the child web sites in the second mode as a result of a setting in the application running on the server machine.