Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing – Demand based messaging
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-06
2003-09-02
Luu, Le Hien (Department: 2141)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
Demand based messaging
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06615241
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention concerns electronic mail, and in particular a correspondent-centric way of organizing and processing e-mail to enhance setup, ease of use, convenience, storage, and functionality of e-mail. For end-users the invention simplifies and improves the management of messages and e-mail addresses, helps manage and reduce junk e-mail, and makes it easier to manage multiple mail-boxes. The invention also helps organizations set up and manage group e-mail systems with less effort and inconvenience, and at lower cost.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
E-mail is widely used today and its rapid growth is expected to continue. Over 70 million people use e-mail, sending over 200 million messages daily. Usage is expected to grow by 50% this year, with rapid growth projected for the foreseeable future
However, despite e-mail's growing popularity, current e-mail systems have various drawbacks. These include the fact that e-mail systems are hard to use (particularly for non-technical users), that users are often plagued with excessive junk e-mail, and others drawbacks which will be described below.
The interface problems exist in part because the prior art for storing and displaying messages has evolved in a way that prevents users from readily monitoring key correspondence relationships. This prior art is based on a “message-centric” e-mail paradigm for storing e-mail and communicating information about e-mail to users.
By way of background, E-mail systems are generally either “client-server-based” or “host-based.” In client-server systems messages are forwarded to the server, which stores them until the client logs in and downloads them for use and storage on the client (often the server continues to store messages after sending them to the client). In these systems most of the processing takes place on the client, with the server acting as a “store and forward” agent. Examples of client-server-based systems include typical Internet e-mail provided by Internet Service Providers (or “ISP's”), who use free server softwares such as Sendmail, or proprietary server softwares such as CC-Mail or Microsoft Exchange. Their customers handle their mail using client softwares such as Eudora, or the mail readers packaged with Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer.
In host-based e-mail systems, on the other hand, messages are stored and processed on the server rather than the client. Examples of host-based systems include (1) main-frame e-mail systems (where users connect using “dumb terminals”), (2) private dial-in networks such as America On-line or Compuserve, and (3) Web-browser-based e-mail systems such as HotMail and Yahoo Mail.
The most widely used e-mail protocols today are POP3 and SMTP. POP3 (“Post Office Protocol 3”, as specified in RFC 1725) is an interface standard designed to facilitate mail management locally on the user's e-mail device. Any POP3-compliant client can receive e-mail through a POP3-compliant e-mail server. (Note: a recent interface protocol, IMAP4—RFC 1730, is similar to POP3 except that it gives the client the option of sharing additional functionality with the server.) Likewise, SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, as specified in RFC 821) is an interface used by e-mail servers to exchange messages with other servers. In order to exchange mail over the Internet, servers in both client-server and host-based e-mail systems must be SMTP-compliant.
POP3 and SMTP-based e-mail softwares create, send, and store e-mail in a standard format that does not lend itself to certain functions (that format is specified in RFC 822). These standard e-mail messages are self-contained strings of text, delimited into several standardized fields. Key fields in the messages text string include “header” information (e.g. sender's e-mail address, recipients' e-mail addresses, date/time sent, topic, etc.), and message “body”. Other fields can be appended, but are principally useful only if sender's or receiver's e-mail system can recognize and use them.
These e-mail softwares store and let the user view these messages in a standard way, using designated files (also called “mailboxes” or “folders”). The default files are typically an “Inbox” and an “Outbox.” When a user sends a message the software typically creates a message text string which it appends to the sender's “Out” file, then transmits the string over the network to the receiver's e-mail system, where the text string is appended to sender's “In” file. Users can create additional files (or “folders”), and can then move messages from the “In” or “Out” files to a new file, but this process typically requires manual effort or programming on the user's part.
In prior art systems it is hard to organize, find, and view useful information about one's correspondences. For example, end users can sort or view messages in only one file at a time (e.g. either the “In”-file or “Out”-file, but not both). Further, within a single file users can sort messages only by using a message field contained in the message itself (e.g. by date, topic, or sender's e-mail address). Users cannot reliably or readily view information pertaining to correspondence with a single correspondent, which information is usually contained in two or more files. For example, users cannot see summarized, compiled information about their correspondence history with any one correspondent, nor can they readily view a chronological correspondence sequence of incoming and outgoing mail between themselves and a specific correspondent. Further, sorting mail by sender e-mail address does not consistently link messages to correspondents, because the sender and receiver address fields allow many different text formats for messages sent to the same e-mail address.
Another problem with prior art systems is that they don't manage e-mail address lists well. Just as with handling of e-mail messages, the prior art handles e-mail address lists as flat files with no intelligent linking either to other e-mail address lists or to messages. Also, prior art e-mail address lists must be painstakingly created and managed by the user, rather than being automatically created based on correspondence.
The proliferation of junk e-mail is another problem with the prior art. Junk e-mail—often called “spam”—has lately become so pervasive that a Wall Street Journal article recently opined that spamming “has no foolproof solutions.” Unfortunately, it is impossible to prevent spam by excluding messages from offending e-mailers, because spammers can easily fake their sender e-mail address. The prior art attempted to deal with spam by letting users create e-mail filters in their local e-mail system. Such a filter sorts incoming e-mail for the recipient into categories determined by the user. The filter simply scans each e-mail message as it reaches the recipient and determines what category it should be placed into. One category is, of course, “discard.” Messages which the filter places in that category are automatically discarded. However, these filters have two disadvantages. First, they are hard to create, and consequently most e-mail user's don't bother to use them. Second, filters often filter out the good mail with the bad.
For example, an employee survey sent by e-mail may request the user to indicate his or her sex.
The “message filtering technique” in U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,648 to Canale et. al. Apr. 8, 1997, attempted to reduce junk e-mail. However, it offered an entirely different type of solution than the Invention. U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,648 relied on inserting additional information into the standard flat message file. It further required that all third-party users also use its invention, so that patent's application would only apply within closed loops of users.
Another frustration with the prior art is that it doesn't make it easy to own and use multiple e-mail addresses. Many current e-mail users have multiple e-mail addresses, but find it difficult to access
Miller Stephen S.
Ross Lewis Edward
Shaalan Mohammed S.
Luu Le Hien
Net Exchange LLC
Ward Richard W.
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