Patent ID: 8782134

Claim:
A method, implemented at a computing system that includes one or more processors, for protecting against unintentional duplicate registrations for a service by different individuals belonging to the same organization, the method comprising: an act of receiving a request to register for a service from a particular individual over a network, the request including particular registration information provided by the particular individual; an act of automatically estimating that the particular individual might belong to the same organization as another individual who is a prior registrant for the service, by comparing the particular registration information with prior registration information previously provided by the prior registrant, which includes comparing a postal code and an organization name provided by the particular individual in the first registration information with a postal code and an organization name previously provided by the prior registrant; prior to registering the particular individual to the service, an act of notifying the particular individual over the network regarding a prior registration of at least the prior registrant that is already registered to the service that might belong to the same organization as the particular individual; and an act of presenting the particular individual with an option to continue registering despite the existence of the prior registrant, or to cease registration; in response to the presenting the option, an act of receiving a first indication from the particular individual that the particular individual is to continue registering.