Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-30
2004-04-27
Channavajjala, Srirama (Department: 2177)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C709S200000, C709S206000, C709S219000, C709S226000, C709S249000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06728714
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the field of electronic communications and more particularly to a method for a sender to locate and delete a piece of electronic mail after the mail has been sent.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With personal computers having become commonplace, most office communications, and indeed a large percentage of so-called “home communications”, are now conducted electronically. The ability for a sender to communicate a message to another at any time of day, and to have a fairly reliable record of delivery of the message, facilitates communications, particularly in a distributed working environment where co-workers may be physically located at geographically remote sites. Communications among individuals located in different countries and/or in different time zones are particularly suitable for electronic delivery, such that a message can be opened by a recipient during the recipient's normal business day, even if the electronic message was sent hours earlier during the sender's business day. In addition, the ease of distributing a single electronic mail message to a plurality of recipients greatly reduces the time spent in providing information to a large group of interested parties.
The sending of electronic mail (hereinafter referred to as “e-mail”) must, however, be exercised with care. Once the sender clicks on the “send” button to send an e-mail to one or a group of people, the e-mail message is immediately transmitted to the mailboxes of each of the recipients and is not retrievable. There currently exists no way to “rescind” an e-mail message, although there may be reasons why a sender may wish to delete the e-mail after it has been sent; for example, failure to include a desired attachment; realization that wrong information was included; fear that the content should not have been “written” down in light of privilege doctrine, a determination that the message is obsolete, due to intervening events; etc. In any of those instances, if a message could be deleted before it has been read, time and resources could be saved and possible misunderstandings could be avoided.
It is desirable, therefore, and is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for rescinding e-mails after they have been sent.
It is another object of the invention to provide a system and method for tracing all copies of e-mails which have been sent, determining their current status, and reporting that status to the sender.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method for a sending site to automatically generate and send a cancellation notice to an e-mail receiving site and for that receiving site to automatically locate and delete the e-mail.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objects are realized by the present invention which provides a system and method wherein a sender can create an e-mail cancellation request which identifies a previously-sent e-mail, bears the designation of a cancellation request as its “subject” or “reference”, and is automatically communicated to all of the same sites to which the previously-sent e-mail was transmitted. At the receiving end, a cancellation agent monitors all incoming e-mails to determine if any are cancellation requests. If a cancellation request is detected at the receiving end, the cancellation agent locates the identified e-mail and deletes same. Once the e-mail has been located, or alternatively upon deletion of same, the cancellation agent replies to the cancellation request by notifying the sender of the status of the e-mail, preferably by reporting the location at which the identified e-mail was found (e.g., inbox folder, trash folder, etc.) and the disposition (e.g., deletion) of the e-mail. Should the cancellation agent be unable to locate the e-mail, due to the fact that the recipient has permanently deleted the e-mail or has downloaded the e-mail, the sender is notified of that fact.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5590178 (1996-12-01), Murakami et al.
patent: 5793972 (1998-08-01), Shane
patent: 5826022 (1998-10-01), Nielsen
patent: 5893099 (1999-04-01), Schreiber et al.
patent: 5928333 (1999-07-01), Landfield et al.
patent: 5937162 (1999-08-01), Funk et al.
patent: 5944786 (1999-08-01), Quinn
patent: 5961590 (1999-10-01), Mendez et al.
patent: 6026396 (2000-02-01), Hall
patent: 6088720 (2000-07-01), Berkowitz et al.
patent: 6092101 (2000-07-01), Birrell et al.
patent: 6108688 (2000-08-01), Nielsen
patent: 6216122 (2001-04-01), Elson
patent: 6324569 (2001-11-01), Ogilvie et al.
patent: 6393465 (2002-05-01), Leeds
patent: 0813162 (1997-12-01), None
patent: 0984593 (2000-03-01), None
Russell Borland, running microsoft outlook 97, microsoft press, 1997, part II, chapter 3, pp. 100-101, 106-109.*
Advanced microsoft outlook, computer services, southwest missouri state university, http″//computerservices.smsu.edu,doco54XP, pp. 1-12.
Doganata Yurdaer N.
Paraszczak Jurij R.
Cameron Douglas W.
Channavajjala Srirama
Dougherty Anne V.
LandOfFree
System and method for assigning unique identifier to deleted... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System and method for assigning unique identifier to deleted..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System and method for assigning unique identifier to deleted... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3242965