Patent ID: 7523146

Claim:
A method of synchronizing a datum between a plurality of stores, the method comprising: associating a version history with the datum in each store, each of the version histories identifying one or more stores that have modified the datum, the version histories comprising a first version history associated with the datum in a first store and a second version history associated with the datum in a second store, the first version history comprising a loser array having one or more losing version histories, if any, that have lost a conflict resolution; comparing the first and second version histories of the datum in the first and second stores when the datum is synchronized between the first and second stores; determining whether one of the version histories in one store is subordinate to the version history in another store when comparing the version histories by determining whether the second version history is contained in the loser array of the first version history or whether the second version history is subordinate to one of the one or more losing version histories contained in the loser array of the first version history; designating the second version history as a subordinate version history and the first version history as a dominant version history if the second version history is contained in the loser array or is subordinate to one of the losing version histories in the loser array; and replacing the datum in the store having the subordinate version history with the datum in the store having the dominant version history.