Patent ID: 7865816

Claim:
An information processing apparatus comprising: an additional information adding unit that adds additional information to an electronic document; a display that displays the electronic document and the additional information added to the electronic document; an acquisition unit that acquires, based on an annotation transmission request, in a state where the electronic document is being displayed by the display unit, additional information added to the electronic document by another information processing apparatus; a status determination unit that determines whether or not a user is unhindered in referencing the additional information added by the other information processing apparatus, based on a status of an operation by the user with respect to an annotation device and an operation unit; and a display control unit that controls the display to display the additional information acquired by the acquisition unit if it has been determined by the status determination unit that the user is unhindered in the referencing, wherein if the user does not supply an input for display in said electronic document for a threshold amount of time for said electronic document that is displayed to the user, said additional information added by said another information processing apparatus is set to be displayed to the user by setting a value in a predetermined flag, and if the user does supply the input within said threshold amount of time, said additional information is inhibited from being displayed to the user, wherein whether said input has been supplied is determined based on an occurrence of an event comprising at least one of (a) a key event, (b) a handwritten event, (c) a click event that does not occur within an expiration of a predetermined time, and (d) a movement event that does not exceed a predetermined speed, wherein said additional information is added by another user for display in a collaborative work environment, and wherein when a plurality of users each independently annotate a common portion of said electronic document, said annotation by each of said users is associated with a body of said electronic document, and registered in advance, and further wherein editing of a document is not inhibited.