Patent ID: 7478172

Claim:
A method for supporting a communication application between a plurality of enterprises in a secure manner, wherein each enterprise includes a plurality of clients, the method comprising: providing a distributed instant multimedia communication (IMC) system that includes: a plurality of autonomous networks communicatively coupled to one another via a network, wherein each autonomous network is associated with an enterprise of the plurality of enterprises, and each autonomous network comprises: an IMC server that manages IMC services for a plurality of clients in the enterprise, and is configured to support a private channel that allows each client of the plurality of clients in the enterprise to share its presence information with other clients in at least one other enterprise; providing the communication application in a first client in a first enterprise such that a user of the first client is allowed to invoke and control the communication application locally; allowing the user of the first client to invoke the communication application to create application specific data and to create a recipient list comprising a recipient client in a second enterprise; receiving, by a first IMC server associated with the first enterprise, the application specific data and the recipient list from the communication application in the first client; and in response to receiving the application specific data and recipient list, utilizing the private channel to transmit the application specific data to the recipient client in second enterprise.