ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM WITH AGGREGATION AND INTEGRATED DISPLAY OF RELATED MESSAGES

• US 20070005715A1
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Published: 01/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Appriver Canada, ULC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Email2 SCP Solutions Inc.
• Inventors: McLean, Matt, LeVasseur, Thierry, Rasmussen, Jeremy, Houg, Derek, Chen, Kung, Astadillo, Esteban
• Granted Patent: US 7,870,204 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/68 Special signature format, e.g. XML format
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 : the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 : above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/306 : intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 : using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 : involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 : involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. Embodiments of the system may include various features, including but not limited to: (1) secure transfer of e-mail messages, without the need for users to replace existing e-mail clients or to change e-mail addresses; (2) tracking of all actions performed in connection with an e-mail transmission; (3) the ability for a recipient to view information about an e-mail message, optionally including information about how other addressees have responded to it, before deciding whether to retrieve the e-mail message; (4) the aggregation of entire e-mail conversations into a single threaded view; (5) the ability to include both private and public messages in a single e-mail communication; (6) sender control over downstream actions performed in connection with an e-mail message; (7) flexible control over cryptographic methods used to encrypt emails messages for storage.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating viewing of e-mail messages, comprising:

receiving reply messages from each of a plurality of recipients of an original e-mail message sent by a sender, and storing the reply messages on a server system in association with the original e-mail message;

presenting to the sender a single e-mail inbox entry that represents the plurality of reply messages; and

in response to a request initiated by the sender in connection with the single e-mail inbox entry, retrieving the plurality of reply messages from the server system, and displaying the plurality of reply messages to the sender as part of a single logical e-mail message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the plurality of reply messages comprises displaying a plurality of tabs, each of which is selectable to view a corresponding one of the plurality of reply messages.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the single logical e-mail message additionally includes the original e-mail message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reply messages are stored on the server system in association with a unique identifier of the original e-mail message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the reply messages are associated with the original e-mail message without analyzing the subject line text or any other message text of any e-mail messages.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the single inbox entry additionally represents at least one reply to one of the plurality of reply messages.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the plurality of reply messages to the sender as part of a single logical e-mail message is performed, at least in part, by an e-mail client plug-in that communicates with the server system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the plurality of reply messages to the sender as part of a single logical e-mail message is performed, at least in part, by a web-based e-mail interface.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising including in the single logical e-mail message at least one e-mail message generated by a user by forwarding the original e-mail messages or one of the reply messages.

10. An e-mail system configured to perform the method of claim 1.

11. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

assigning a unique identifier to an original e-mail message sent from a sender to a plurality of recipients;

storing the original e-mail message, and a plurality of reply messages to said original e-mail message, on a server system in association with said unique identifier of the original e-mail message, said plurality of reply messages including reply messages from at least two different recipients of the original e-mail message; and

using the unique identifier to automatically aggregate at least the original e-mail message and the plurality of reply messages into a threaded display.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method comprises automatically arranging the messages in the threaded display in chronological order.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising representing at least the plurality of reply messages as a single entry in an inbox of the sender.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising including in the threaded display a separate control for each of the plurality of recipients, each control being selectable to view only the e-mail messages sent by that recipient.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of reply messages form a part of an e-mail conversation resulting from the original e-mail message, and the method further comprises dividing the conversation into sub-conversations, each of which comprises multiple e-mail messages, and displaying each sub-conversation as a respective message thread.

16. A computer-implemented method of facilitating viewing of an e-mail conversation, comprising:

identifying a plurality of e-mail messages of an e-mail conversation, said plurality of e-mail messages including, at least, an originating e-mail message sent to a plurality of recipients, reply messages from at least two of the recipients, and at least one reply to one of said reply messages;

identifying a plurality of sub-conversations of the e-mail conversation, each sub-conversation including a different respective sequence of e-mail messages; and

generating a separate, chronological display of each sub-conversation.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying, for each sub-conversation, a set of controls for filtering the display to e-mail messages from a particular sender.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating a separate inbox entry for each sub-conversation in an inbox of a sender of the originating e-mail message.

19. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon an executable computer program that embodies the method of claim 16.

20. An e-mail client plug-in stored on a computer readable medium, said e-mail client plug-in adapted to run in conjunction with an e-mail client program on a user computing device, and being capable of intercepting e-mail messages sent from the e-mail client program and causing the intercepted e-mail messages to be communicated to recipients via a secure e-mail service, the e-mail client plug-in additionally being capable of retrieving a plurality of e-mail messages of a common e-mail conversation from the secure e-mail service, and aggregating the plurality of e-mail messages into a threaded display.

21. The e-mail client plug-in of claim 20, wherein the e-mail client plug-in is additionally capable of visually representing the plurality of e-mail messages as a single inbox entry.

22. The e-mail client plug-in of claim 20, wherein the plurality of e-mail messages comprise reply messages from at least two different recipients of a parent e-mail message of said e-mail conversation.

23. The e-mail client plug-in of claim 20, wherein the e-mail client plug-in additionally provides functionality for the user to terminate the e-mail conversation, wherein termination the e-mail conversation prevents users from, at least, responding to any of the plurality of e-mail messages.

24. The e-mail client plug-in of claim 20, wherein the e-mail client-plug-in is additionally capable of identifying multiple sub-conversations in the e-mail conversation, and of displaying each sub-conversation separately, each sub-conversation including a different respective sequence of e-mail messages.