Patent ID: 8019797

Claim:
A computer implemented method for merging virtual universe entities, the computer implemented method comprising: selecting, by a virtual world server, a source virtual universe account having source account information and a destination virtual universe account having destination account information, the source virtual universe account being hosted by a source grid and the destination virtual universe account being hosted by a destination grid, wherein the source grid and destination grid are disparate; sending, by the virtual world server, a lock account instruction to the source grid, the lock account instruction preventing any avatar or inventory modifications to the source virtual universe account; retrieving, by the virtual world server, account, avatar, and inventory data for the source virtual universe account from the source grid; comparing, by the virtual world server, one or more universe user account identifications for the source virtual universe account to universe user account identifications in the destination virtual universe account; resolving each duplicate identification of at least two matched virtual universe accounts, wherein each duplicate identification is found between the source virtual universe account and the destination virtual universe account, the resolving performed by modifying each duplicate identification from the source virtual universe account to be at least two resolved identifications that are each unique; generating a new universe user identification for each resolved identification and for each non-duplicate identification from the source virtual universe account by invoking a user identification generation function in the destination grid; sending, by the virtual world server, an insert query to the destination grid, the insert query comprising the source account information and the new universe user identification; and sending, by the virtual world server, a delete query to the source grid to delete the source virtual universe account.