Patent ID: 7194542

Claim:
A method of acquiring enhancement functions for character icons, with each character icon having a corresponding attribute for manipulating the display of respective ones of said character icons on a first user device and a second user device, said first user device depicting a first icon having a first corresponding attribute, and said second device depicting a second icon having a second corresponding attribute, comprising the steps of: accessing a service provider with said first and second user devices; providing the user devices with addresses of target websites offering content having enhancement authorization codes corresponding to the first character icon and the second character icon; accessing at least one of the target website addresses on each of said first and second user devices; communicating between the user devices and a target website to locate new character enhancements for the user character icons: communicating between a target website and said service provider for offering a new character enhancement for the user characters icons, wherein the new character enhancement is capable of being enabled in the user's record of the first and/or second user at the service provider without requiring user interaction with the service provider, and wherein the character enhancements are obtained per predefined authorization rules from the service provider and/or the target website in addition to predetermined user preferences; obtaining at least one enhancement authorization code on said first and second user devices upon access of the at least one of the target website addresses, said at least one enhancement authorization code corresponding to enhancement functions for the first and second character icons; selecting the at least one new character enhancement by performing an action on the user devices; determining whether the at least one selected enhancement authorization code corresponding to the selected enhancement icons are authorized to be used with the presently-selected character icons displayed on said first and second user devices; adding an access code for the enhancement function to a first user enhancement file associated with a first user operating said first user device remotely located from said first user device if the enhancement function corresponding to the selected authorization code selected by the first user device is authorized to be used with the presently-displayed character icon on said first user device; adding an access code for the enhancement function to a second user enhancement file associated with a second user operating said second user device remotely located from said second user device if the enhancement function corresponding to the selected authorization code selected by said second user device is authorized to be used with the presently-displayed character icon on said second user device; and providing an indication to the first and second user devices that the selected enhancement functions have been added to the respective user enhancement files.