| US 7,519,708 B2 | ||
| Guest account life cycle | ||
| Dale W. Malik, Dunwoody, Ga. (US) | ||
| Assigned to AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P., Reno, Nev. (US) | ||
| Filed on Apr. 08, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/820,374. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2005/0228876 A1, Oct. 13, 2005 | ||
| Int. Cl. G06F 15/173 (2006.01); G06F 12/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 709—225 [709/206] | 19 Claims |
| 1. A system for managing accounts within a network community, comprising:
an account server to manage a plurality of direct accounts for a plurality of resident users of the network community and
at least one guest account for at least one guest of a respective resident user;
a client of a respective resident user of the network community configured to send to a non-resident user of the network community
an invitation to become the guest of the respective resident user, wherein the account server is configured to create a guest
account for the non-resident user after the sending of the invitation and the guest account is activated in response to acceptance
of the invitation by the non-resident user thereby making the non-resident user a member to the network community and wherein
a respective guest account contains a data field to specify an end-date for canceling the respective guest account, the account
server configured to:
after occurrence of the end-date, offer a respective guest associated with the respective guest account an opportunity to
convert the respective guest account into a new direct account.
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