Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing – Demand based messaging
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-10
2002-04-09
Sheikh, Ayaz (Department: 2155)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
Demand based messaging
C709S201000, C709S203000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06370566
ABSTRACT:
REFERENCE TO CO-PENDING PATENT APPLICATION
This patent application claims the priority of the following two U.S. provisional patent applications, Ser. No. 60/063,164 entitled “FEATURES OF A MOBILE DEVICE AND ASSOCIATED COMPUTER”, filed on Oct. 24, 1997 and Ser. No. 60/064,986 entitled “FEATURES OF A MOBILE DEVICE AND ASSOCIATED COMPUTER”, filed on Nov. 7, 1997.
Reference is hereby made to the following co-pending U.S. patent applications which are hereby incorporated by reference:
Ser. No. 09/058,613, filed on even date herewith, entitled “ELECTRONIC MAIL OBJECT SYNCHRONIZATION BETWEEN A DESKTOP COMPUTER AND MOBILE DEVICE”; and
Ser. No. 09/058,528, filed on even date herewith, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERACTION BETWEEN A DESKTOP COMPUTER AND MULTIPLE MOBILE DEVICE”, all of which are assigned to same assignee as the present invention.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Mobile devices are small electronic computing devices often referred to as personal digital assistants. One such mobile device is sold under the trade name Handheld PC (or “H/PC”) based on a Windows CE brand operating system provided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. While a wide variety of computing tasks and applications can be performed by such mobile devices, personal information managers (PIMs) are particularly well suited to mobile devices.
PIMs typically comprise applications which enable the user of the mobile device to better manage scheduling and communications, and other such tasks. Some commonly available PIMs include scheduling and calendar programs, task lists, address books, and electronic mail (e-mail) programs. Some commonly commercially available PIMs are sold under the brand names Microsoft Schedule+ and Microsoft Outlook and are commercially available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. For purposes of this discussion, PIMs shall also include separate electronic mail applications, such as that available under the brand name Microsoft Exchange.
It is also common for mobile devices to be used in conjunction with a desktop computer. For example, the user of a mobile device may also have access to, and use, a desktop computer at work, at home, or both. A user may typically run the same types of PIMs on both the desktop computer and the mobile device (although the particular versions of the PIMs may be somewhat different from the desktop computer to the mobile device). Thus, it is quite advantageous for the mobile device to be designed to be couplable to the desktop computer to exchange information with, and share information with, the desktop computer.
The user may also typically make changes to the PIMs both on the mobile device, and at the desktop. Therefore, it is advantageous for the PIMs on both the mobile device and the desktop to contain the most up-to-date information, regardless of whether recent changes to the PIMs have been made on the mobile device or the desktop computer. The process of coupling the mobile device with the desktop computer, and integrating the information stored by the PIMs on the mobile device and the desktop computer such that the two contain the same updated information is referred to as synchronization.
Conventional PIMs which support electronic calendaring and scheduling features (collectively referred to as a scheduler, or as a scheduling application) are traditionally supported on desktop computers. Such PIMs provide the ability of the user to schedule a meeting request for one or more desired attendees.
In order to generate a meeting request, the user typically interacts with the scheduling application through a user interface. The user interface provides the user with a plurality of selectable options to parameterize the meeting request. For example, the user interface typically allows the user to pick a date and time (and often a place) on which the meeting is to be held. The user interface also typically allows the user to select a group of attendees that the user wishes to attend the meeting, to enter some textual description of the meeting, and to specify whether the meeting is for only a single date, or is a recurring meeting (i.e., whether the meeting is to occur only on one date, the 15
th
of every month, the first Monday of every month, every Monday, etc.).
Based on this information, the scheduling application creates an object which is representative of the meeting and enters it on the user's calendar as an appointment. Such objects are typically defined by a number of properties, some of which are defined by the user input information which the user provides while generating the meeting request. The meeting object also contains a critical time stamp (UTC) which is updated whenever a critical change is made to the meeting object, such as changes to the start or end date or time, changes in the location, etc.
Since other people are identified as attendees, the appointment entered on the calendar is viewed as a meeting and the scheduling application typically calls methods exposed by an electronic mail application in accordance with messaging application programming interfaces (MAPI), or other APIs which are a set of well documented, published interfaces commercially available from the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
In response, the electronic mail application creates another object (an electronic mail meeting request object) indicative of the meeting request and the electronic mail application (or suitable transport) formats this electronic mail meeting request object into a well defined electronic mail message suitable for transmission. In doing so, the critical time stamp from the meeting object is also placed in the electronic mail meeting request object. The electronic mail application then interacts with a specified transport and transports the electronic mail meeting request object to a network which routes it to the designated attendees. In doing so, the electronic mail application typically accesses an address book stored in a database to obtain the fully qualified electronic mail address for the attendees. This is also typically done by calling MAPI or other suitable API methods associated with the database storing the address book. The generation of the meeting object and the creation of the electronic mail meeting request object will be referred to herein collectively as creating a meeting request.
The potential attendees then typically respond to the meeting request. In doing so, the originator's critical time stamp is sent back (unmodified) along with the response. The response also includes a recipient critical time stamp and an indication of the recipient's response (e.g., accept, decline, tentative, etc.). The recipient critical time stamp is updated by the recipient (potential attendee) whenever a critical change is made by the recipient. This allows the user to reliably order receipt of multiple versions of the same meeting (e.g., where the originator changes the time, date or location of the meeting such that multiple meeting requests are generated). It also allows the originator to reliably order receipt of responses and ensure that each response correlates to the most recent version of the meeting.
The response is then transmitted back to the originator (e.g., the sending computer). The electronic mail application and scheduling application on the originator then typically process the response (or responses) accordingly. For example, the originator stores, for each recipient (or potential attendee) the recipient critical time stamp in a table along with each recipient's response code (which is indicative of the accept, decline, tentative response). The two commercially available PIMs identified above (the Microsoft Schedule+ and Microsoft Outlook brand PIMs) are examples of PIMs which support the features discussed above.
Meeting cancellations, and exceptions to recurring meeting must also be handled. For example, the PIMs may allow scheduled meetings to be cancelled, and allow a variety of exceptions to a recurring meeting pattern.
Scheduling of meeting requests as descr
Alam Salim
Discolo Anthony
Ferrell John I.
Skorupa Scott
Ulrich Bryce
Kelly Joseph R.
Microsoft Corporation
Sheikh Ayaz
Tran Philip B.
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