Patent ID: 7689657

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for forwarding an E-mail message from a sender to a recipient when attempts to forward an instant message (IM) from the sender are unsuccessful, comprising: logic configured to receive an IM from the sender on a primary IM processing device of the recipient; logic configured to attempt to forward the IM received on the primary IM processing device from the sender, wherein the IM is attempted to being forwarded from the primary IM processing device to a secondary IM processing device of the recipient; logic configured to receive notification at the primary IM processing device that the attempt to forward the IM was unsuccessful; logic configured to, in response to the unsuccessful IM attempt to forward the IM to the secondary IM processing device, query the sender of the IM as to whether the sender wishes to send the recipient of the IM an E-mail message including the text of the IM; logic configured to include the text of the IM in an E-mail message to be forwarded to the recipient; and logic configured to send the E-mail message to the recipient when the sender affirmatively replies to the query.