Patent ID: 7600028

Claim:
A method of utilizing cookies, comprising: at a server, accessing a data structure that stores cookies, wherein the data structure associates a path, a name, and a value with each cookie stored; receiving a first cookie, the first cookie having a first path, a first name, and a first value; not storing the first cookie in the data structure if a condition is met, and storing the first cookie in the data structure if the condition is not met; wherein the condition is that there is a second cookie in the data structure whose associated name and value are the same as the first name and first value respectively, the path associated with the second cookie is a prefix of the first path, and there is no third cookie in the data structure whose associated name is the same as the first name, whose associated path is a prefix of the first path, and for which the path associated with the second cookie is a prefix of the path associated with the third cookie.