E-Mail Handling System and Method

• US 20100153325A1
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Macwan, Sanjay, Craine, Ari, Amoroso, Edward G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,935,190 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A message processing system and method that recommends actions for incoming messages based upon past historical email behavior information. The historical email behavior information represents a user'"'"'s behavior for a plurality of past messages and an action is recommended based on a comparison of the incoming messages to the historical email behavior information.

Claims

1. A message processing system comprising:

a collection and storage database containing historical email behavior information; and

a classification system, the classification system classifying an incoming message based on a comparison of the incoming message to the historical email behavior information.

2. The message processing system of claim 1 wherein the classification system recommends a suitable action for the incoming message based upon the results of the comparison.

3. The message processing system of claim 1 wherein the classification system operates on a demand basis.

4. The message processing system of claim 1 wherein the classification system operates at regularly scheduled intervals.

5. The message processing system of claim 1 wherein the historical email behavior information includes information related to past inbound messages and how the past inbound messages were processed, handled and responded to.

6. The message processing system of claim 1 wherein the historical email behavior information is updated on a continuous basis.

7. The message processing system of claim 2 further comprising:

a processor for determining a suitable action for the incoming message.

8. The message processing system of claim 7 wherein the processor includes a heuristic algorithm for comparing the incoming message to the historical email behavior information.

9. The message processing system of claim 8 wherein the algorithm calculates a conditional probability between the incoming message to the historical email behavior information.

10. The message processing system of claim 9 further comprising:

a personal assistant client for presenting the suitable action to a user.

11. The message processing system of claim 10 further comprising:

a confirmation component for confirming that the suitable action is appropriate.

12. The message processing system of claim 11 further comprising:

a task manager for performing the suitable action.

13. A method for processing messages comprising:

classifying an incoming message based on comparing an incoming message to historical email behavior information.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of:

recommending suitable actions for the incoming message based upon the results of the comparing step.

15. The email processing system of claim 13 wherein the method is performed on a demand basis.

16. The email processing system of claim 13 wherein the method is performed at regularly scheduled intervals.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the historical email behavior information includes information related to past inbound messages and how the past inbound messages were processed, handled and responded to.

18. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of:

updating the historical email behavior information on a continuous basis.

19. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:

confirming that the suitable action is appropriate.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of:

performing the suitable action.