Patent ID: 8099768

Claim:
A method for multi-protocol logout in a circle of trust, comprising: receiving, by a first identity provider executing on at least one computer processor, a first logout request from a user agent to logout a user, wherein the first identity provider executes in a central federation manager, wherein the first identity provider manages communication with all service providers in the circle of trust that communicate using a first federation protocol; initiating, by the first identity provider, a logout on any service provider associated with the first identity provider that has at least one open session with the user agent based on the first logout request; sending, by the first identity provider to a multi-federation protocol manager, an access request to logout the user, wherein the multi-federation protocol manager executes in the central federation manager; identifying, by the multi-federation protocol manager executing on the at least one computer processor, a second identity provider and a third identity provider associated with the user agent, wherein the second identity provider manages communication with all service providers in the circle of trust that communicate using a second federation protocol, wherein the third identity provider manages communication with all service providers in the circle of trust that communicate using a third federation protocol, and wherein the second identity provider and the third identity provider each execute in the central federation manager; sending, by the multi-federation protocol manager, based on the access request, a second logout request to the second identity provider using the second federation protocol; sending, by the second identity provider, a third logout request to each service provider corresponding to the second identity provider that has at least one open session with the user agent using the second federation protocol; sending, by the multi-federation protocol manager, based on the access request, a fourth logout request to the third identity provider using the third federation protocol; sending, by the third identity provider, a fifth logout request to each service provider corresponding to the third identity provider that has at least one open session with the user agent using the third federation protocol; identifying a status of each logout of the user initiated in the circle of trust; and sending, to the user agent, the status of each logout.