Discussion association for e-mail

• US 20070198639A1
• Filed: 02/26/2004
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Magnolia Licensing LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Litwin, Louis, Pandit, Purvin
• Granted Patent: US 7,725,443 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/917 Text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/922 Communications

Abstract

A system and method for allowing users to associate various e-mails within at least one of the user'"'"'s mailboxes under a common discussion topic or “thread” for organizational purposes. This user-controlled organization may be carried out regardless if the e-mails which are desired to be associated are from different senders and/or have different subject headings. An e-mail message may be associated to/designated under a user-defined discussion topic or associated to another e-mail. At the user'"'"'s discretion, information about the e-mail'"'"'s associated discussion topic and/or associated e-mails may be stored and kept locally with the user'"'"'s mailbox, or alternatively, information about the e-mail'"'"'s associations may be transmitted when that e-mail is sent to a recipient user.

Claims

1. A method for organizing e-mail messages comprising the steps of:

indicating at least one first e-mail message in a user mailbox;

associating the at least one first e-mail with a second e-mail by user-enablement of an association option; and

forming an associated group in the user mailbox comprising at least two or more associated e-mails.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating further comprises the steps of:

enabling an options list to appear with respect to the at least one first e-mail message;

selecting an associate option on the options list; and

indicating the second e-mail;

wherein the second e-mail is caused to be automatically associated to the at least one first e-mail to form the associated group.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of providing a show associations and a hide associations option on the options list.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of showing the associated e-mails of a sent e-mail message to a recipient when the show associations option is selected.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of hiding the associated e-mails of a sent e-mail message from a recipient when the hide associations option is selected.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing a collapsability and expandability feature for the associated group.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of providing a first graphical indicator for indicating when the associated group is expanded and a second graphical indicator for indicating when the associated group is collapsed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing e-mail operations for performing on the associated group of e-mails.

9. A method for organizing e-mail messages comprising the steps of:

creating a user-defined discussion topic heading, said discussion topic

heading appearing as an entry in at least one of the user'"'"'s mailboxes; and

associating at least one e-mail message to the user-created discussion topic via user-enablement of an association option to form an associated e-mail-to-topic group.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of associating further comprises the steps of:

enabling an options list to appear with respect to the user-defined discussion topic heading;

selecting an associate option on the options list; and

indicating at least one e-mail message;

wherein the at least one e-mail is caused to be automatically associated to the discussion topic heading to form the associated e-mail-to-topic group.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of providing a show associations and a hide associations option on the options list.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of showing at least one of the discussion topic heading and associated e-mails of a sent e-mail message to a recipient when the show associations option is selected.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of hiding at least one of the discussion topic heading and associated e-mails of a sent e-mail message to a recipient when the hide associations option is selected.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of providing a collapsability and expandability feature for the associated e-mail-to-topic group.

15. An e-mail system comprising:

e-mail software for providing e-mail capabilities to a user; and

an associate feature for providing interactive e-mail organization capabilities to the user by organizing e-mail messages according to user input to form at least one of an associated group of e-mails or an associated e-mail-to-topic group in at least one of the user'"'"'s mailboxes.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising an options list with respect to each e-mail message, said options list comprising said associate feature.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the associated group of e-mails is formed by causing the options list to appear with respect to at least one first e-mail message, selecting the associate feature from said options list, and indicating a second e-mail, wherein the second e-mail is caused to be automatically associated to the at least one first e-mail to form the associated group of e-mails.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the associated e-mail-to-topic group is formed by creating a user-defined discussion topic heading, causing the options list to appear with respect to at least one e-mail message, selecting the associate feature from said options list, and indicating the discussion topic heading, wherein the at least one e-mail is caused to be automatically associated to the discussion topic to form the associated e-mail-to-topic group and said discussion topic heading appears as an additional field in said at least one e-mail message.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising a show associations feature and a hide associations feature on the options list.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising an auto-process feature for automatically parsing a received e-mail to search for an existing discussion thread, wherein if an existing discussion thread is found, the received e-mail is automatically associated to the discussion thread.