Message identification, correlation, recipient authentication, and reception confirmation in multi-event and multi-media environments

• US 20070118647A1
• Filed: 10/31/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nytell Software LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: TTI Inventions C LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Szachara, Mark, Lee, Chiao-Wei, Tong, Chao-Chi
• Granted Patent: US 8,615,071 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A generic approach for identifying, authenticating, and correlating a received message with a particular event and a particular recipient, regardless of the number of events, number of recipients and types of media used for the originally sent message, is achieved by the inclusion of a unique ID embedded in the “From” address field of each originally sent message. Upon receipt of an incoming reply message, a parser extracts the unique ID and PIN information provided by the recipient from the message for correlation of the incoming message with the associated sent message and for authentication of the identity of the recipient sending the incoming reply message.

Claims

1. A method for identification and correlation of an incoming reply message and recipient authentication and reception confirmation in a multi-event and multi-media environment, comprising the steps of:

generating a unique ID for each message to be sent to a recipient;

embedding the unique ID in a message to be sent to a recipient;

sending the message with the embedded unique ID to the recipient;

receiving a reply message from the recipient responsive to receiving said message;

extracting the unique ID from the reply message; and

correlating the reply message with the sent message.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said unique ID is embedded in the “

From”

address of the text message to be sent.

3. A method as set forth in claim 2, wherein said unique ID is contained in the “

Reply to”

field of the reply message.

4. A method as set forth in claim 2, wherein the unique ID is associated with a predetermined PSTN phone number to deliver a voice message.

5. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said unique ID is different for each sent message based on an event, media or recipient.

6. A method as set forth in claim 5, where there are multiple media.

7. A method as set forth in claim 5, where there are multiple recipients.

8. A method as set forth in claim 6, where there are multiple recipients.

9. A method as set forth in claim 5, where there are multiple events.

10. A method as set forth in claim 6, where there are multiple events.

11. A method as set forth in claim 7, where there are multiple events.

12. A method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising inserting a PIN identifier in the reply message.

13. A method as set forth in claim 12, further comprising extracting the PIN identifier to identify and authenticate the recipient.

14. A system for identification and correlation of an incoming reply message, and recipient authentication and reception confirmation in a multi-event and multi-media environment, comprising the steps of:

means for generating a unique ID for each message to be sent to a recipient;

means for embedding the unique ID in a message to be sent to a recipient;

database for storing data associated with each message, including the unique ID;

means for sending the message with the embedded unique ID to the recipient;

means for receiving a reply message from the recipient responsive to receiving said message;

parser for extracting the unique ID from the reply message; and

means for correlating the reply message with the sent message.

15. A system as set forth in claim 14, wherein said means for embedding the unique ID embeds the unique ID in the “

From”

address of the message to be sent.

16. A system as set forth in claim 15, wherein said parser extracts the unique ID from the “

Reply to”

field of the reply message.

17. A system as set forth in claim 14, wherein means for embedding the unique ID associates the unique ID with a predetermined PSTN phone number to be called.

18. A system as set forth in claim 14, wherein said unique ID is different for each sent message based on an event, media or recipient.

19. A system as set forth in claim 14, where the stored data comprises for each transaction recipient PIN identifier, recipient media address, message content and a time stamp.

20. A system as set forth in claim 14, where said parser extracts a PIN identifier in the reply message.

21. A system as set forth in claim 20, where said means for correlating compares the extracted PIN identifier with PIN data associated with each recipient stored in said database to identify the recipient sending the reply message.

22. A system as set forth in claim 14, where said means for sending sends messages via multiple media.