Patent ID: 6978293

Claim:
In a computer network that includes a plurality of networked computer systems, wherein a sending computer system sends an instant message through a chain of one or more computer systems to a destination computer system, a method of acknowledging delivery of the instant message, wherein the criteria for determining the success or failure of the delivery are user specified, the method comprising: an act of the sending computer system identifying the user specified criteria for returning a successful acknowledgment message corresponding to the instant message to the user; an act of the sending computer system sending the instant message to the destination computer system and receiving a successful acknowledgment message; an act of the sending computer system, upon receiving a successful acknowledgement message, determining whether the user specified criteria for returning a successful acknowledgment message are met; and an act of the sending computer system returning a successful acknowledgment message corresponding to the instant message only if the user specified criteria have been met, wherein the user specified criteria is a “single hop” criteria, and the act of the sending computer system determining whether the user specified criteria for returning a successful acknowledgment message are met comprises an act of determining that the user specified criteria have been met if the first server computer system in the chain of computer systems receives the instant message.