METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROPAGATING ADDRESS CHANGE IN AN EMAIL

• US 20070124394A1
• Filed: 06/12/2006
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: O'Sullivan, Patrick, Farrell, Colm, Ogle, David, Smyth, Hugh
• Granted Patent: US 9,350,694 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

There is provided a system, method and computer program product for managing an email comprising a plurality of email boxes with corresponding email addresses; a first selector for selecting, in one email box, an email that has been sent to at least one addressee; a second selector for selecting an incorrect email address in the sent email corresponding to an incorrect addressee; a change service for changing, in the sent email, the incorrect address to the correct address; and a distributor for making the change service available to at least one recipient box.

Claims

1. A system for managing emails comprising:

a plurality of email boxes with corresponding email addresses;

a first selector for selecting, in one email box, an email that is in draft for sending or has been sent to at least one addressee;

a second selector for selecting an incorrect email address in the email corresponding to an incorrect addressee; and

a change service for changing, in the draft email, sent email or a corresponding sent email, the incorrect email address to a correct address.

2. A system according to claim 1 wherein the change service is a change executable for changing, in the sent email or corresponding sent email, the incorrect address to the correct address.

3. A system according to claim 1 further comprising

a distributor for making available the change service to at least one recipient email box where, on execution of the change service, the incorrect address in a corresponding sent email is changed to the correct email address.

4. A system according to claim 3 further comprising:

a third selector for selecting, on execution of the change service, a correct email address.

5. A system according to claim 3 further comprising:

a permission service for requesting permission from a recipient email box user before executing the change service at the recipient email box.

6. A system according to claim 3 further comprising:

a monitor service available to the recipient email box with the change service, wherein, on execution of the monitor service, the monitor service checks for the incorrect addressee in email on the recipient email client and, on detection of the incorrect addressee, initiates the change service.

7. A system according to claim 1 wherein the initiation of the change service is initiated by a recipient of the sent email and made available to the sender of the sent email or it is initiated by a sender of the sent email and made available to at least one addressee email client.

8. A system according to claim 6 wherein the change service and monitor service are made available to recipients located in a central email directory.

9. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a seek service for seeking other emails which are linked to the selected email and performing the same change.

10. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a mark service for marking the changed email to indicate that a change has been made.

11. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

an undo service for undoing the change and for making available with the change service whereon execution of the undo service a change is undone.

12. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a propagate service for making available the services to the other email addresses.

13. A method of managing an email system including a plurality of email boxes with corresponding email addresses, comprising:

selecting, in one email box, an email that is in draft for sending or has been sent to at least one addressee;

selecting an incorrect email address in the email corresponding to an incorrect addressee; and

providing a change service for changing, in the draft email or sent email or one or more corresponding sent emails, the incorrect address to a correct address.

14. A method according to claim 13 wherein the change service is a change executable for performing the selecting steps and to change, in the sent email or a corresponding sent email, the incorrect address to the correct address.

15. A method according to claim 13 further comprising:

making available the change service to at least one recipient email box whereon execution of the change service in conjunction with the at least one recipient email box, the incorrect addressee in a corresponding sent email in the at least one recipient email box is changed to the correct email address.

16. A method according to claim 13 further comprising:

selecting a correct email address on execution of the change service.

17. A method according to claim 15 further comprising:

requesting permission from a recipient email box user before executing the change service on that recipient email box.

18. A method according to claim 15 further comprising:

providing a monitor service at the recipient email box with the change service, on execution of the monitor service, checking for the incorrect address in an email on the recipient client and, on detection of the incorrect address, initiating the change service.

19. A method according to claim 13 wherein an instantiation of the change service is initiated by a recipient of the sent email and sent to the sender of the sent email or it is initiated by a sender of the sent email and sent to at least one addressee email box.

20. A method according to claim 18 further comprising:

making available the change service and monitor service to recipients located in a central email directory.

21. A method according to claim 13 further comprising:

seeking other emails which are linked to the selected email and performing the same change.

22. A method according to claim 13 further comprising:

marking the changed email to indicate that a change has been made.

23. A method according to claim 13 further comprising:

providing an undo service for undoing the change and for making available the change service whereon execution of the undo service a change is undone.

24. A method according to claim 13 further comprising:

providing a propagate service and making available the propagate service to the recipient together with the change service, whereon execution, checking the selected email for addresses other than the incorrect address, recipient address and sender address and making available the change service to the other addresses in the email.

25. A computer program product comprising computer readable recording medium having computer readable code stored thereon for managing an email system comprising a plurality of email boxes with corresponding email addresses, said computer readable code, which when loaded onto a computer system and executed, performs the steps of:

selecting, in one email box, an email that is in draft for sending or has been sent to at least one addressee;

selecting an incorrect email address in the email corresponding to an incorrect addressee; and

providing a change service for changing, in the draft email or sent email or one or more corresponding sent emails, the incorrect address to a correct address.