Method and system for displaying email thread information
First Claim
1. A method for displaying an email-thread chart of senders and recipients, in an electronic communications system, comprising:
- providing an electronic device having an email application and a display;
retrieving an email message from the email application;
determining that the email message contains an email thread;
retrieving the email thread;
identifying fields in the email thread containing sender information;
retrieving the sender information;
identifying fields in the email thread containing recipient information;
retrieving the recipient information;
identifying fields in the email thread containing additional information associated with sending-and-receiving (“
transactions”
);
retrieving the additional information;
creating an email-thread chart including the sender information, the recipient information, and the additional information; and
displaying the email-thread chart on the display.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for discerning and displaying an email-thread chart of senders and recipients (“senders/recipients”) included in an email thread, are disclosed. The email-thread chart may include the senders/recipients arranged in chronological order matching the order in which individual related emails, included in the email thread, were sent and received (the sending/receiving of related emails is hereinafter referred to as “transactions”). The email-thread chart may further include the date-and-time-stamp of the transactions and the labeling of the transactions by transaction type (e.g. “Cced”, “forwarded”, “replied”, etc.) The senders/recipients may be discerned from the body of the email. The body of the email may contain quoted text containing the email thread. The email-thread chart may be displayed automatically in response to a user'"'"'s attempt to send the email to a remote user, or in automatic response to any other user action. The email-thread chart may include a graphical user interface (“GUI”) and may allow the user to select one of the senders/recipients displayed, and to perform numerous functions related to the selected senders/recipients (e.g. delete all references to the selected sender/recipient from the email thread, etc.)
72 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for displaying an email-thread chart of senders and recipients, in an electronic communications system, comprising:
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providing an electronic device having an email application and a display; retrieving an email message from the email application; determining that the email message contains an email thread; retrieving the email thread; identifying fields in the email thread containing sender information; retrieving the sender information; identifying fields in the email thread containing recipient information; retrieving the recipient information; identifying fields in the email thread containing additional information associated with sending-and-receiving (“
transactions”
);retrieving the additional information; creating an email-thread chart including the sender information, the recipient information, and the additional information; and displaying the email-thread chart on the display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for allowing a user to review and modify an email prior to its transmission, comprising:
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providing an electronic device having an email application that is coupled to a network and contains an email which includes an email thread; detecting the invocation of an email transmission-related function in the email application; suspending transmission of the email; creating an email-thread chart; displaying the email-thread chart to the user; receiving user input; determining the user input is a selection to resume the transmission of the email; and resuming the transmission of the email; - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for displaying select content of an email thread, comprising:
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providing a set of key words and rules used to delimit sender, recipient and transaction information within an email; receiving an email thread; using the key words and rules to parse out select content from the email thread; and displaying the parsed content. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification