Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing – Demand based messaging
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-22
2001-12-04
Wiley, David (Department: 2155)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
Demand based messaging
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327612
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an electronic-mail (e-mail) transmission apparatus and a method thereof adapted for selectively attaching data files to e-mails for each of individual recipients (i.e., on a recipient-selective basis) for transmission thereto.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
E-mail apparatuses, which are capable of transmitting e-mails with attached data files (attachment files), have been widely used in the art. In conventional e-mail however, attachment files are transmitted to all of the designated addresses without exception and, thus, there has been no way to limit attachment files to a portion of the recipients (e.g., one or more “TO addresses” identifying one or more primary recipients). Thus, e-mail with attachment files is transmitted to other addresses as well (i.e., one or more “CC addresses” and/or “BCC addresses” identifying one or more secondary recipients). For the sake of brevity, each of these addresses (TO, CC and BCC) and their identifying recipients (primary, secondary) is generally represented in a plural form unless otherwise specifically noted. Also, for the same reason, these addresses (TO, CC and BCC) or any combinations thereof will be alternatively called “TO, CC, BCC addresses” or “CC/BCC addresses” in a simpler form.
Even if a sender does not feel it necessary to send attachment files to secondary recipients, or the secondary recipients do not feel it necessary to receive information other than the e-mails' body text, such e-mail with attachment files are nevertheless transmitted to all of the recipients. This also leads to undesirable phenomena such as congestion in a network used for transmitting the e-mail and/or overflow of memory for storing the received e-mail.
Japanese Patent Publication 8-251221 discloses a message handling method, wherein recipients' addresses are divided into a plurality of groups set up in e-mail such that text is attached to e-mail for transmission to each of the grouped recipients' addresses. In accordance with this method, however, it is possible to attach text only to e-mail, whereas it is not possible to attach another type of data (e.g., binary data, programs or the like) other than the text data. Also, in this method, it is mandatory to write character patterns for associating the grouped recipients' addresses with the attached text data into the e-mails and, therefore, it becomes much troublesome to create such e-mails in comparison with sole attachment of data files.
Moreover, recipients who are not identified to receive attached text do not know who else received the attached text. Accordingly, except where a sender describes such a fact within the e-mail in an explicit manner, those recipients who receive e-mail without any attached text are unable to know existence of the text even if the recipients need to receive it.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it is an object of this invention to provide an e-mail transmission apparatus and a method thereof capable of transmitting e-mail with selectively appended attachment files to only those recipients who need to receive the attachment files, even if a sender of the e-mail designates primary addresses (TO addresses) together with secondary addresses (CC/BCC addresses), respectively.
More specifically, it is another object of this invention to provide an e-mail transmission apparatus and a method thereof capable of transmitting e-mail including a text body plus one or more attachment files to primary recipients having the TO addresses, and of simultaneously transmitting e-mail each including the text body plus a message to secondary recipients having the CC/BCC addresses, thereby to inform the secondary recipients of the fact that the attachment files have been transmitted to the TO addresses.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an e-mail transmission apparatus and a method thereof capable of transmitting e-mail with selectively appended attachment files to a plurality of recipients identified in the e-mail on a recipient-selective basis, thereby to avoid undesirable phenomena such as congestion in a network used for transmitting the e-mail or overflow of memory for storing the received e-mail. It is yet another object of this invention to provide an e-mail transmission apparatus and a method thereof capable of transmitting e-mail with selectively appended attachment files to each of the recipients in order to allow the recipients to visibly confirm which of the attachment files has been transmitted to which of the recipients.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an transmission apparatus and a method thereof capable of selectively appending any type of data to e-mail for transmission to recipients. It is yet another object of this invention to provide an e-mail transmission apparatus and a method thereof capable of securely informing those recipients who have received e-mail without attachment files that the attachment files have been transmitted to other recipients.
In order to accomplish these objectives, an electronic-mail (e-mail) transmission apparatus of this invention comprises: address designation accepting means for accepting designation of one or more e-mail addresses; body text accepting means for accepting a body text that is common to e-mail destined for each of said accepted e-mail addresses; attachment file accepting means for accepting one or more attachment files to be attached to the e-mail; address-attachment file associating means for associating one or more subsets of e-mail addresses with each of said accepted attachment files, each said subset including one or more of said accepted e-mail addresses; e-mail creating means for creating the e-mails each being destined for a given one of said subsets of the accepted e-mail addresses, each said e-mail including said accepted body text together with one or more of said attachment files that are associated with a given one of the accepted e-mail addresses; and e-mail transmitting means for transmitting each of said created e-mails.
Preferably, the e-mail transmission apparatus further comprises first message appending means for appending a message to each e-mail that does not have one or more of said accepted attachment files attached thereto for at least indicating the existence of said unattached attachment files.
Preferably, the e-mail transmission apparatus further comprises first address displaying means for displaying each of said subsets of the accepted e-mail addresses in association with a message that indicates each of said attachment files associated with the said subsets.
Preferably, said address designation accepting means accepts designation of one or more e-mail addresses identifying primary recipients of the e-mail (TO addresses), and/or designation of one or more e-mail addresses identifying secondary recipients of the e-mail (secondary addresses); said address-attachment file associating means associates a primary one of said subsets of said e-mail addresses including said TO addresses only and/or a secondary one of said subsets of said e-mail addresses including said secondary addresses only with each of said accepted attachment files; and said e-mail creating means creates e-mails each being destined for a given one of said TO addresses and including said accepted body text together with one or more of said attachment files associated with the said TO addresses, and/or e-mail each being destined for a given one of said secondary addresses and including said accepted body text together with one or more of said attachment files associated with the said secondary addresses.
Preferably, said attachment file accepting means accepts one or more attachment files to be attached to the e-mail that is destined for said TO addresses; said address-attachment file associating means associates said TO addresses with said accepted attachment files; and said e-mail creating means creates e-mails each being destined for a given one of said TO addresses and including
Carstens Yee & Cahoon, L.L.P.
Clay A. Bruce
International Business Machines Corp.
Wiley David
LandOfFree
Electronic mail transmission with selective file attachment does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Electronic mail transmission with selective file attachment, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Electronic mail transmission with selective file attachment will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2567894