Electronic mail delivery system

• US 20060101118A1
• Filed: 08/27/2003
• Published: 05/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Yabe, Toshiyasu, Enatsu, Tomoko, Soga, Makoto
• Granted Patent: US 7,860,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

A transmitting apparatus transmits its own identification information to a terminal station and controls the terminal station to transmit to a relay apparatus a delivery permission registration request including the identification information and the email address of the user of the terminal station. On receiving the delivery permission registration request, the relay apparatus, then, stores in a delivery permission table the identification information of the transmitting apparatus corresponding to the email address, and controls the terminal station to transmit to the transmitting apparatus recipient registration request including the email address. Finally, the transmitting apparatus stores in a recipient list the email address included in the received recipient registration request. Accordingly, an email delivery system is provided, in which, while an email address of a user is registered at a transmitting apparatus offering an email service providing information, the transmitting apparatus offering the email service providing information is surely registered in a delivery permission table, so as to receive only emails which are not regarded as junk mails.

Claims

1. An email delivery system, comprising:

a terminal station accommodated in a first communication network, the terminal station receiving emails transmitted from senders via the first communication network, obtaining from the senders their identification information, and transmitting the obtained identification information, the identification information identifying a registered sender of an email; and

a relay apparatus for receiving the identification information, and for storing the received identification information corresponding to an email address of the user of the terminal station, the relay apparatus receiving all emails forwarded from senders accommodated in a second communication network to the first communication network, and forwarding only those emails whose identification information is stored corresponding to designated email addresses, wherein

the relay apparatus stores the identification information received from the terminal station corresponding to an email address of a user of the terminal station, and then

the relay apparatus controls the terminal station to register the email address of the user of the terminal station as a recipient email address at the transmitting apparatus of the sender identified with the identification information.

2. The email delivery system according to claim 1, wherein

the identification information of a sender is assigned in the second communication network to identify a sender of an email.

3. The email delivery system according to claim 1, wherein

the identification information of a sender is a prescribed number of characters of the beginning of the email address of the sender of the email.

4. The email delivery system according to claim 1, wherein

the identification information of a sender is configured as a prescribed number of characters of the end of the email address of the sender of the email.

5. The email delivery system according to claim 1, wherein

the terminal station obtains identification information of one or a plurality of senders, the identification information identifying a sender of an email,

the terminal station prompts a user of the terminal station to select one of the users for whom identification information is obtained, and

the terminal station transmits the identification information selected by the user to the relay apparatus.

6. The email delivery system according to claim 1, wherein

the relay apparatus controls the terminal station to provide a user interface for transmitting the identification information to the relay apparatus, the identification information being transmitted from the sender of the email to the terminal station, and

the relay apparatus receives the identification information transmitted according to the user interface.

7. The email delivery system according to claim 6, wherein

the relay apparatus transmits to the terminal station a file, written in a prescribed language, describing procedures of forwarding identification information to the relay apparatus itself, the identification information being transmitted from the sender of the email to the terminal station, and causes the terminal station to display screen in accordance with the details of the file,

so that the relay apparatus controls the terminal station to provide a user interface for transmitting the identification information to the relay apparatus, the identification information being transmitted from the sender of the email.

8. The email delivery system according to claim 7, wherein

the terminal station transmits the identification information of a sender to the relay apparatus, the identification information identifying a sender of the email, and then

the terminal station deletes the file transmitted from the relay apparatus.

9. The email delivery system according to claim 7, wherein

the relay apparatus prohibits the terminal station from storing a locator of the file.

10. The email delivery system according to claim 1, wherein

on receiving the identification information transmitted from a terminal station, the relay apparatus determines whether to allow the user of the terminal station to make use of the relay apparatus itself,

only in the case of allowing the user, the relay apparatus obtains an email address of the user, and stores the obtained email address corresponding to the identification information transmitted from the terminal station.

11. The email delivery system according to claim 1, wherein

the terminal station obtains from a sender of an email identification information, the identification information identifying a sender of an email,

the terminal station transmits to the relay apparatus the obtained identification information as well as time information indicating a time of obtaining the identification information,

the relay apparatus receives the identification information and the time information transmitted from the terminal station,

only in the case that difference between the time indicated by the received time information and the time of receiving the time information are shorter than a prescribed time, the relay apparatus stores the received identification information corresponding to the email address of the user of the terminal station.

12. A relay apparatus, comprising:

receiving means for receiving from a terminal station identification information, the terminal station being accommodated in a first communication network, receiving emails transmitted from senders via the first communication network, obtaining from senders their identification information, the identification information identifying a sender of an email which a user of the terminal station wishes to receive; and

storing means for storing the identification information received by the receiving means corresponding to an email address of the user of the terminal station;

control means for controlling the terminal station to register the email address of the user as a recipient email address at the transmitting apparatus of the sender identified with the identification information;

forwarding means for forwarding to each recipient each email from among all the received emails, wherein the identification information of the sender of each email is stored corresponding to a designated email address.