Patent ID: 7764972

Claim:
A chat group system, comprising: a controlling computer having a processor that executes computer instructions; two or more access devices each having a processor that executes computer instructions wherein the access devices communicate with the controlling computer and wherein a first access device requests a chat session by communicating with the controlling computer, the two or more access devices being heterogeneous devices; and wherein the controlling computer further comprises a chat group module having a chat group session manager and an address assignment module, the address assignment module further comprising computer instructions that assign a multicast internet protocol address to the chat session and the chat group session manager further comprising computer instructions that communicate a chat request command with the multicast internet protocol address to the access devices associated with the chat session and computer instructions that start a timer when the first access device completes its transmission over the multicast internet protocol address wherein the multicast internet protocol address for the chat session remains assigned to the chat session as long as another transmission over the multicast internet protocol address occurs before the timer times out.