Patent ID: 7676577

Claim:
A presence distribution system comprising: a plurality of presence servers; and a centralized management function for coordinating registration of a presentity with multiple ones of the plurality of presence servers to register the presentity on two or more of the plurality of presence servers to enable the presentity to publish presence information of the presentity to the two or more presence servers for use by the two or more presence servers in coordinating dissemination of the presence information to watchers of the presentity; wherein the watchers are entities that subscribe to the presence servers to receive the presence information of the presentity; wherein the centralized management function directs the presentity to register with one of the plurality of presence servers based on a geographic location of a watcher of the presentity and a geographic location of each of the plurality of presence server; and wherein the centralized management function comprises a table including a list of registered presentities that publish presence information to any one of the plurality of presence servers and, for each of the registered presentities, a watcher list for the presentity and an address of the presence server with which the presentity is registered with respect to the watcher list.