Patent ID: 7624421

Claim:
A method of operating a computing device providing an endpoint in a peer-to-peer collaboration system in which each user has an identity and a display name, the method comprising: in response to communicating with a first user, recording the first user as a contact in a contact data store in memory associated with the computing device, the recording comprising storing at least an identity and display name of the first user; in response to receiving a communication from a second user: determining whether the display name of the second user is equivalent to the display name of a user in the contact data store; and when the display name of the second user is equivalent to the display name of a user in the contact data store, and the identity of the second user is different than the identity of the user in the contact data store with the matching display name, generating a warning on a display associated with the computing device, wherein generating the warning comprises generating a warning about a potentially masquerading user having a display name equivalent to the display name of the user in the contact data store with the matching display name, the potentially masquerading user selected from a set of users having display names equivalent to the display name of the user in the contact data store with the matching display name, the set including the user in the contact data store with the matching display name, and the potentially masquerading user being selected based on relative authorization levels of the users in the set, wherein: the warning comprises a name conflict indicator displayed in a first graphical user interface to the computing device indicating a conflict with a conflicted display name, the conflicted display name being the display name common to the second user and the user in the contact data store with the matching display name; and the method further comprises: in response to user input received through the first graphical user interface, the user input being associated with the name conflict indicator, displaying on the computing device a plurality of equivalent display names that are equivalent to the conflicted display name; receiving user input from a user of the computing device specifying an alternative display name for a selected display name, the alternative display name being selected by the user from the plurality of equivalent display names displayed on the computing device, the alternative display name being associated with a selected identity and being different than the conflicted display name; and identifying on a second graphical user interface of the computing device the selected identity with the alternative display name, the second graphical user interface providing a function related to controlling communication within the peer-to-peer collaboration system, the communication being between the computing device and a second device associated with the selected identity.