E-mail certification service
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method is provided to handle an electronic mail message such that the receiver of the e-mail message can verify the integrity of the message. A request is provided from a sender'"'"'s side to a service. The request includes information regarding the e-mail message. The service processes at least a portion of the request to generate a result. For example, the service may encrypt the portion of the request, according to a public/private key encryption scheme, to generate a digital signature as the result. The service provides the result to the sender'"'"'s side. At the sender'"'"'s side, the result is incorporated into the e-mail message and the result-incorporated message is transmitted via an e-mail system. At the receiver'"'"'s side, the result-incorporated e-mail message is processed to assess the integrity of the received e-mail message.
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Citations
211 Claims
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1-49. -49. (canceled)
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50. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, wherein;
the service includes a plurality of processing portions; and
the method includes determining a particular one of the plurality of processing portions to utilize to determine the result. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53, 54)
- e-mail”
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55. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, wherein;
processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the received e-mail message includes processing the received e-mail message to nominally reproduce the result determined at the service;
comparing the result and the nominally reproduced result;
assessing the integrity of the e-mail messaging based on the result of the comparing step. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
- e-mail”
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61. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, including processing the received e-mail message to ascertain the service-determined result;
nominally reproducing the result; and
comparing the ascertained service determined-result and the nominally-reproduced result. - View Dependent Claims (62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71)
- e-mail”
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72. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, further comprising;
determining whether the e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message is actually a result-incorporated e-mail message;
if the e-mail message is not actually a result-incorporated e-mail message, performing a first particular action,wherein;
the first particular action includes causing an invitation to be sent by e-mail to the sender of the received e-mail message, to subscribe to the service. - View Dependent Claims (73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79)
- e-mail”
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80. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, further comprising;
at the receiver'"'"'s side, determining whether the received e-mail message is an invitation to the receiver to subscribe to the service; and
when it is determined that the received e-mail message is an invitation to the receiver to subscribe to the service, taking a particular action. - View Dependent Claims (81)
- e-mail”
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82. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, wherein;
determining whether the received e-mail message is an invitation to the receiver to subscribe to the service includes inspecting a header of the received e-mail message.
- e-mail”
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83. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, wherein;
inspecting a header of the received e-mail message includes determining the presence of a particular indicia. - View Dependent Claims (84)
- e-mail”
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85. A method of composing and distributing content, comprising:
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using a web browser program at a client location, interacting with a web-based service to compose content desired to be provided to at least one recipient;
using the browser program, interacting with an e-mail program at the client location to cause the e-mail program to send at least one e-mail message to the at least one recipient including the composed content. - View Dependent Claims (86, 87)
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88. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, further comprising;
at the receiver'"'"'s side, determining that a received e-mail message does not have a result incorporated therein; and
based on the result of the determining step, causing an invitation to subscribe to the service to be transmitted to the sender of the received e-mail message. - View Dependent Claims (90, 91, 92)
- e-mail”
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89. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, further comprising;
determining the sender of the received e-mail message by processing a reply-to field in the received e-mail message.
- e-mail”
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93. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, further comprising;
providing, from the service to the receiver'"'"'s side, information regarding the sender. - View Dependent Claims (94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141)
- e-mail”
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103. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, wherein;
the request further comprises sender verification information; and
the method further comprises at the service, processing the sender verification information,further comprising;
providing the sender verification information from a database associated with an operating system of the client computer at the sender'"'"'s side. - View Dependent Claims (104)
- e-mail”
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105. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, wherein;
the request further comprises sender verification information; and
the method further comprises at the service, processing the sender verification information,further comprising;
providing the sender verification information from storage associated with the client computer, at the sender'"'"'s side; and
automatically synchronizing the sender verification information in the storage associated with the client computer and corresponding sender verification information at the service, while the user at the sender'"'"'s side is logged in to the service. - View Dependent Claims (106, 107)
- e-mail”
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108. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, further comprising;
holding, in storage at the sender'"'"'s side, configuration data useable by the computer at the sender'"'"'s side to configure an interaction between the computer at the sender'"'"'s side and the service; and
automatically synchronizing the configuration data between the storage at the sender'"'"'s side and a storage area, at the service, associated with the sender.
- e-mail”
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109. A method for communicating data between a client computer and a service, wherein the service maintains at least one key encryption key pair, the method comprising:
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at the client computer, using a public key that nominally corresponds to one of the at least one public/private key encryption pair maintained by the service, to encrypt a session key;
transmitting to the service the encrypted session key and an indication of the public/private key encryption pair used to encrypt the session key;
at the service, based on the indication of the public/private key encryption pair, using the private key of the indicated service-maintained public/private key encryption pair to decrypt the encrypted session key. - View Dependent Claims (110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117)
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118. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, wherein;
the request further comprises sender verification information; and
the method further comprises at the service, processing the sender verification information,wherein;
the request includes an indication of an e-mail address associated with the sender, an indication of an e-mail address associated with the recipient, and a digest of a body of the e-mail message; and
processing at least a portion of the request to determine the result includes encrypting the request to determine the result,wherein;
the indication of the e-mail address associated with the recipient includes a digest of the recipient associated e-mail address in combination with a salt.
- e-mail”
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119. A method of handling an electronic mail (“
- e-mail”
) message, comprising;
a) at a sender'"'"'s side, providing to a service a request comprising information regarding the e-mail message;
b) at the service, b1) processing at least a portion of the request to determine a result; and
b2) providing the result to the sender'"'"'s side;
c) at the sender'"'"'s side, c1) incorporating the result into the e-mail message, and c2) transmitting the result-incorporated e-mail message via an e-mail system;
d) at the receiver'"'"'s side, d1) receiving an e-mail message which is nominally the result-incorporated e-mail message;
d2) processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message, wherein;
the request further comprises sender verification information; and
the method further comprises at the service, processing the sender verification information,wherein;
at least a portion of the request includes an indication of a characteristic associated with an intended recipient of the e-mail message. - View Dependent Claims (120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131)
- e-mail”
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142. A device that provides an authority regulated e-Mail messaging application over a public network to a plurality of mailers and addressees, the device:
- transmitting at least one e-Mail message through at least one e-Mail account configured for a specific class of service;
creating transaction records relevant to a specific class of service based upon details of completed transactions;
obtaining electronic postmarks to authenticate transaction records;
sending authenticated transaction records to the mailer;
embedding a unique identifier of an electronic postmark in the e-Mail message, and sending to at least one addressee the e-Mail message incorporating the unique identifier,wherein authenticated e-Mail messages and transaction records are created and protected from undetectable modification. - View Dependent Claims (143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157)
- transmitting at least one e-Mail message through at least one e-Mail account configured for a specific class of service;
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158. A system that provides an authority regulated e-Mail messaging application over a public network to a plurality of mailers and addressees, the system:
- transmitting at least one e-Mail message through at least one e-Mail account configured for a specific class of service;
creating transaction records relevant to the specific class of service based upon details of completed transactions;
obtaining electronic postmarks to authenticate transaction records, sending authenticated transaction records to the mailer;
embedding a unique identifier of an electronic postmark in the e-Mail message, and sending to at least one addressee the e-Mail message incorporating the unique identifier, wherein authenticated e-Mail messages and transaction records are created and protected from undetectable modification. - View Dependent Claims (159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173)
- transmitting at least one e-Mail message through at least one e-Mail account configured for a specific class of service;
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174. A computer readable medium that stores an authority regulated e-Mail messaging application operated over a public network for a plurality of mailers and addressees, the medium comprising at least one source code segment that:
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transmits at least one e-Mail message through at least one e-Mail account configured for a specific class of service;
creates transaction records relevant to the specific class of service based upon details of completed transactions;
obtains electronic postmarks to authenticate transaction records;
sends authenticated transaction records to the mailer;
embeds a unique identifier of an electronic postmark in the e-Mail message; and
sends to at least one addressee the e-Mail message incorporating the unique identifier,wherein authenticated e-Mail messages and transaction records are created and protected from undetectable modification. - View Dependent Claims (175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189)
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190. A method for providing an authority regulated e-Mail messaging application over a public network to a plurality of mailers and addressees, the method comprising:
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transmitting at least one e-Mail message through at least one e-Mail account configured for a specific class of service;
creating transaction records relevant to the specific class of service based upon details of completed transactions;
obtaining electronic postmarks to authenticate transaction records;
sending authenticated transaction records to the mailer;
embedding a unique identifier of an electronic postmark in the e-Mail message; and
sending to at least one addressee the e-Mail message incorporating the unique identifier, wherein authenticated e-Mail messages are created and protected from undetectable modification. - View Dependent Claims (191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205)
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206. A device that provides an authority regulated e-Mail messaging over a public network to a plurality of mailers and addressees, the device:
- transmitting at least one e-Mail message through at least one e-Mail account established for a mailer whose identity has been verified by one of an authority and an agent of the authority;
obtaining electronic postmarks to authenticate transaction records;
sending to the mailer a Certificate of Mailing providing proof that a message was submitted to an e-Mail server outside the control of the mailer;
sending to the mailer a Certificate of Delivery providing proof that a message was delivered to an e-Mail system where the addressee is capable of receiving e-Mail;
embedding a unique identifier of an electronic postmark in the e-Mail message as a graphical image in which the electronic postmark is embedded using stegonography, and sending to at least one addressee the e-Mail message incorporating the unique identifier,wherein authenticated e-Mail messages and corresponding transaction records are created and protected from undetectable modification; and
wherein each party may later present authenticated e-Mail messages and transaction records for validation, the validation comprising submitting at least one of the message and the transaction record to a verifier and returning details of the verification to the presenting party. - View Dependent Claims (207, 208, 209, 210, 211)
- transmitting at least one e-Mail message through at least one e-Mail account established for a mailer whose identity has been verified by one of an authority and an agent of the authority;
Specification