Patent ID: 8386776

Claim:
A certificate generating/distributing system comprising: an authentication apparatus that authenticates a user; a service providing apparatus that provides a service; and a service mediating apparatus that mediates service provision by the service providing apparatus, wherein the authentication apparatus comprises a token transmitting section transmitting, to the service mediating apparatus, a first certificate generation request token, which is information corresponding to a first certificate valid in the service mediating apparatus, together with the first certificate, the service mediating apparatus comprises a mediating apparatus token forwarding section forwarding the first certificate generation request token received from the token transmitting section to the service providing apparatus, the service providing apparatus comprises a certificate requesting section transmitting the first certificate generation request token received from the mediating apparatus token forwarding section to the authentication apparatus when requesting a second certificate valid in the service providing apparatus, and the authentication apparatus further comprises a certificate transmitting section transmitting the second certificate generated based on the first certificate corresponding to the received first certificate generation request token to the service providing apparatus in response to a request of the second certificate by the certificate requesting section, wherein the service mediating apparatus comprises a requesting section requesting the authentication apparatus for the first certificate, the requesting section transmits information indicating a predetermined service providing apparatus to the authentication apparatus when requesting the first certificate, and the certificate transmitting section judges whether or not to transmit the second certificate based on the received information indicating the predetermined service providing apparatus.