Controlling transmission of email
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
- (A) determining whether information received over a network from a first sender satisfies predetermined conditions indicating that the first sender is a person; and
(B) if the received information satisfies the predetermined conditions, adding an email address of the first sender to a set of email addresses for which the predetermined conditions have been satisfied.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for controlling the transmission of undesired bulk email by, for example, authenticating and classifying sender email addresses and aggregating recipient feedback to provide to participating senders. For example, senders may be separated into two classes—real people and bulk emailers. Senders may be authenticated in different ways depending on their classes. For example, a real person may be authenticated based on its email address and an identifying key, while a bulk emailer may be authenticated based on its email address, an identifying key, and its IP address. Similarly, feedback received from recipients may be provided differently to senders depending on their classes. For example, negative feedback about real people may be provided by limiting such people to sending a certain number of emails per day, while negative feedback about bulk emailers may be provided by charging such emailers a fee.
-
Citations
35 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) determining whether information received over a network from a first sender satisfies predetermined conditions indicating that the first sender is a person; and
(B) if the received information satisfies the predetermined conditions, adding an email address of the first sender to a set of email addresses for which the predetermined conditions have been satisfied. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) adding an email address of a first sender to a list;
(B) adding to the list a first key corresponding to the first sender;
(C) adding an email address of a second sender to the list;
(D) adding to the list a second key corresponding to the second sender; and
(E) inserting the first key into an email originating from the first sender. - View Dependent Claims (12)
-
-
13. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) receiving an email from a sender over a computer network;
(B) identifying an email address of the sender;
(C) identifying a destination email address of the email; and
(D) transmitting the email to the destination email address only if the email address of the sender is in a set of verified email senders who have satisfied predetermined conditions indicating that the verified email senders in the set are people. - View Dependent Claims (14)
-
-
15. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) attempting to extract from an email message a sender email address and a key associated with the sender email address; and
(B) transmitting the email message to a specified recipient of the email message only if the sender email address and key are successfully extracted and the sender email address and key are associated with an email sender. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) determining whether a sender email address is a verified sender email address;
(B) determining whether a key is associated with the verified sender email address; and
(C) providing over a network an indication whether the sender email address is a verified sender email address and whether the key is associated with the verified sender email address. - View Dependent Claims (23)
-
-
24. A method comprising:
-
(A) identifying a plurality of email senders as verified and desired email senders;
(B) identifying a plurality of email servers as member email servers, the plurality of email servers having a plurality of email users; and
(C) providing a guarantee to one of the plurality of email senders that the plurality of member email servers will not identify emails transmitted by that email sender to any of the plurality of email users as undesired email. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
-
-
27. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) providing in an email message a tag specifying whether the email message is of a first class that requires the transmission of a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) upon failure to transmit the email message to its recipient or of a second class that does not require the transmission of an NDR upon failure to transmit the email message to its recipient; and
(B) transmitting the email message over a network. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
-
-
30. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) receiving an email message containing a tag specifying whether the email message is of a first class that requires the transmission of a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) upon failure to transmit the email message to its recipient or of a second class that does not require the transmission of an NDR upon failure to transmit the email message to its recipient;
(B) determining whether the email message has failed to be transmitted to its recipient;
(C) if the email message is determined to have failed to be transmitted to its recipient;
(C)(1) identifying the class specified by the tag; and
(C)(2) transmitting an NDR only if the specified class is the first class. - View Dependent Claims (31)
-
-
32. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) receiving an email from a sender over a computer network;
(B) receiving feedback about the email from a designated recipient of the email;
(C) determining whether the sender is a bulk sender of email;
(D) if the sender is a bulk sender, processing the feedback using a first method; and
(E) if the sender is not a bulk sender, processing the feedback using a second method that differs from the first method. - View Dependent Claims (33)
-
-
34. A computer-implemented method comprising:
-
(A) receiving a first email over a computer network, the first email specifying a sender email address;
(B) in response to receiving the first email, sending a message to the sender email address;
(C) determining whether the message is deliverable to the sender email address;
(D) identifying an intended recipient of the first email; and
(E) providing the intended recipient of the first email an indication whether the message is deliverable. - View Dependent Claims (35)
-
Specification