Patent ID: 8155591

Claim:
An electronic communication method operative to transmit and receive data among a plurality of terminals, comprising: generating, in each terminal, user identification information comprising information to identify a user in the terminal who manipulates the terminal and information to identify the terminal; receiving, in one of the plurality of terminals manipulated by a user, a signal indicating the user identification information of another user directly transmitted from another terminal that the other user manipulates without mediation of a server; transmitting data directed to the other user with the user identification information of the other user as a destination user to a server which mediates transmission and reception of the data from the one terminal; storing the data received from the one terminal originating the data, in association with the user identification information of destination user in the server; identifying, in the server, the user identification information of a connection originating user who manipulates a terminal newly connected to the server; searching data stored in association with the user identification information of the destination user based on the user identification information of the connection originating user, and specifying data stored in association with the user identification information which matches the user identification information of the connection originating user, in the server; and transmitting specified data to the newly connected terminal.