Patent ID: 7778963

Claim:
A computer-based data synchronization system comprising: a processor communicatively coupled to a memory having stored thereon data related to at least one replica involved in a synchronization event; a synchronization component that synchronizes between data stores two or more replicas; a conflict component that detects constraint-based conflicts, including naming conflicts between data entities stored on the data stores, during synchronization, the conflict component includes a cycle detection component that identifies temporary conflicts associated with name collisions caused by cyclic renames by at least in part receiving knowledge associated with the data entity in question transmitted from one or more synchronization partners to facilitate determining if the conflict is temporary or permanent; and a handler component that automatically resolves the detected conflict such that when a temporary cyclic rename conflict is detected, a change or update to a named data entity participating in the synchronization is at least in part facilitated by applying said change or update to a data entity with a temporary name that is unique in the related namespace and at a later time resolving the temporary name to the named data entity, wherein the handler component comprises a merge component that specifies a single identifier for referencing one or more conflicting entities based on a merge history.