System for Integrated Electronic Communications
First Claim
1. A method for communicating comprising:
- storing, at a first access service, outbound message rules that are defined by a sending subscriber of the first access service, at least some of the outbound message rules controlling whether messages are transferred from one access service to another access service;
receiving, at the first access service, a message that is sent by the sending subscriber;
applying at least one of the outbound message rules for the sending subscriber to the message received at the first access service;
transferring the message from the first access service to a second access service in accordance with at least one of the outbound message rules;
reformatting the message at the second access service based on at least one of the outbound message rules; and
storing the reformatted message at the second access service for retrieval by a receiving subscriber.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system is disclosed for integrating electronic mail, voice mail, and fax mail in a universal mailbox. Message receivers may access their messages with a telephone or a computer regardless of the communication medium used by the message sender. Using a telephone, message receivers may playback voice mail, redirect fax mail, and “listen” to e-mail through a text-to-speech conversion process. Using a computer and modem, message receivers may playback voice mail, view fax mail, and read e-mail by accessing the universal mailbox via connection software. Message senders and receivers may choose from a variety of filter and forward options that allow them to manage their communications via the universal mailbox. Forwarding and conversion of messages is performed automatically. The options are used to define a set of rules to be applied to inbound and outbound messages so that messages are sent and received in accordance with the preferences of the senders and receivers.
146 Citations
29 Claims
-
1. A method for communicating comprising:
-
storing, at a first access service, outbound message rules that are defined by a sending subscriber of the first access service, at least some of the outbound message rules controlling whether messages are transferred from one access service to another access service;
receiving, at the first access service, a message that is sent by the sending subscriber;
applying at least one of the outbound message rules for the sending subscriber to the message received at the first access service;
transferring the message from the first access service to a second access service in accordance with at least one of the outbound message rules;
reformatting the message at the second access service based on at least one of the outbound message rules; and
storing the reformatted message at the second access service for retrieval by a receiving subscriber. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A computer program for communicating, the computer program embodied in a computer-readable medium and comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform operations including:
-
storing, at a first access service, outbound message rules that are defined by a sending subscriber of the first access service, at least some of the outbound message rules controlling whether messages are transferred from one access service to another access service;
receiving, at the first access service, a message that is sent by the sending subscriber;
applying at least one of the outbound message rules for the sending subscriber to the message received at the first access service;
transferring the message from the first access service to a second access service in accordance with at least one of the outbound message rules;
reformatting the message at the second access service based on at least one of the outbound message rules; and
storing the reformatted message at the second access service for retrieval by a receiving subscriber. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. A system comprising:
-
means for storing, at a first access service, outbound message rules that are defined by a sending subscriber of the first access service, at least some of the outbound message rules controlling whether messages are transferred from one access service to another access service;
means for receiving, at the first access service, a message that is sent by the sending subscriber;
means for applying at least one of the outbound message rules for the sending subscriber to the message received at the first access service;
means for transferring the message from the first access service to a second access service in accordance with at least one of the outbound message rules;
means for reformatting the message at the second access service based on at least one of the outbound message rules; and
means for storing the reformatted message at the second access service for retrieval by a receiving subscriber.
-
Specification