Patent ID: 8650275

Claim:
A distributed ID management system comprising: a first ID management apparatus comprising hardware; a first service providing server belonging to a domain that is the same as that of the first ID management apparatus; a second ID management apparatus belonging to another domain and also comprising hardware; and a second service providing server belonging to said another domain that is the same as that of the second ID management apparatus, wherein the first ID management apparatus includes: an inter-domain cooperating unit implemented at least by the hardware and that requests a management user identifier in the second ID management apparatus that is associated with a user identifier in the first ID management apparatus itself to the second ID management apparatus; and an ID requesting processing unit implemented at least by the hardware and that transmits the management user identifier in the second ID management apparatus that is obtained from the second ID management apparatus to the first service providing server, the first service providing server includes: an ID requesting unit implemented at least by the hardware and that obtains the management user identifier in the second ID management apparatus from the first ID management apparatus, and requests a user identifier in the second service providing server to the second ID management apparatus by presenting the management user identifier in the second ID management apparatus that is obtained from the first ID management apparatus; and a service requesting unit implemented at least by the hardware and that directly requests the second service providing server to provide a service by using the user identifier in the second service providing server that is received from the second ID management apparatus, and the second ID management apparatus includes: an ID managing unit implemented at least by the hardware and that holds the management user identifier in the second ID management apparatus itself, the user identifier in the first ID management apparatus, and the user identifier in the second service providing server in a manner in which they are associated with each other; and an ID request processing unit implemented at least by the hardware and that transmits, to the first ID management apparatus, the management user identifier in the second ID management apparatus itself that is associated with the user identifier in the first ID management apparatus and is held by the ID managing unit in response to the request from the first ID management apparatus, and transmits, to the first service providing server, the user identifier in the second service providing server that is held by the ID managing unit in a manner that is associated with the management user identifier in the second ID management apparatus itself designated in the request from the first service providing server.