System and method for intelligent transmission of digital content embedded in electronic mail messages
First Claim
1. A method for transmitting electronic mail messages containing multimedia elements that reduces bandwidth usage and transmission time, the method comprising:
- embedding one or more multimedia elements within an electronic mail message, each multimedia element identified by a globally unique identifier;
replacing each multimedia element contained within the electronic mail message with a reference to its globally unique identifier;
transmitting the electronic mail message to an intended recipient; and
replacing each globally unique identifier contained in the electronic mail message with the corresponding multimedia element upon receipt by the intended recipient.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention discloses a method and system for transmitting electronic mail messages containing multimedia elements that reduces bandwidth usage and transmission time. The present invention comprises embedding one or more multimedia elements within an electronic mail message where each multimedia element is identified by a globally unique identifier. Each multimedia element contained within the electronic mail message is replaced with a reference to its globally unique identifier. The electronic mail message is transmitted to an intended recipient and the intended recipient replaces each globally unique identifier contained in the electronic mail message with the corresponding multimedia element upon receipt. The method further comprises transmitting to a smart server a listing of the globally unique identifiers for each multimedia element contained within the electronic mail message, the smart server storing multimedia elements indexed by globally unique identifier, searching to identify globally unique identifiers contained in the transmitted listing that are stored on the smart server, and transmitting to the smart server all multimedia elements not identified by the search as being stored on the smart server. The multimedia elements are retrieved by the intended recipient from the smart server and each globally unique identifier contained in the electronic mail message is replaced with its corresponding multimedia element.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method for transmitting electronic mail messages containing multimedia elements that reduces bandwidth usage and transmission time, the method comprising:
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embedding one or more multimedia elements within an electronic mail message, each multimedia element identified by a globally unique identifier;
replacing each multimedia element contained within the electronic mail message with a reference to its globally unique identifier;
transmitting the electronic mail message to an intended recipient; and
replacing each globally unique identifier contained in the electronic mail message with the corresponding multimedia element upon receipt by the intended recipient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for transmitting electronic mail messages containing multimedia elements that minimizes bandwidth usage and transmission time, the method comprising:
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embedding one or more multimedia elements within an electronic mail message, each multimedia element identified by a network address indicating where a file containing the element resides on a network;
replacing each multimedia element contained within the electronic mail message with a reference to the network address indicating where the file containing the element resides on the network;
transmitting the electronic mail message to an intended recipient; and
replacing each network address indicating where the file containing the element resides on the network contained in the electronic mail message with the corresponding multimedia element upon receipt by the intended client. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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10. A system for transmitting electronic mail containing multimedia elements that minimizes bandwidth usage and transmission, the system comprising:
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a smart email client operative to identify multimedia elements contained in the electronic mail message, replace each multimedia element with the element'"'"'s globally unique identifier, and generate a listing or index of the unique identifiers contained in the electronic mail message for transmission to a smart server, the electronic mail message transmitted to its intended recipient; and
a smart email server operative to receive the listing or index generated by the smart email client, identify unique identifiers for unknown multimedia elements, receive copies of the unknown multimedia elements, and respond to requests from smart email clients for known multimedia elements.
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Specification