Mechanism for Managing Email Markups

• US 20110106899A1
• Filed: 01/06/2011
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tamiras Per Pte Ltd LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Rajkumar R. Madnani
• Inventors: Madnani, Rajkumar R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,051,138 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• 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: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A mechanism is disclosed for generating a composite email for an email conversation. The composite email includes content automatically extracted from a plurality of the emails in the email conversation, and may be generated in response to a user accessing just one of the emails in the email conversation. A mechanism is also disclosed for discovering and recovering lost emails in an email conversation. A mechanism is further disclosed for automatically moving emails from one container to another after an email has been read. These and other advantageous email generating, manipulation, and organization mechanisms are disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A machine implemented method, comprising:

receiving user input from a user;

in response to the user input, accessing a plurality of electronic mail messages (emails), including a certain email, that are part of an email conversation;

extracting content from each of the accessed emails, including the certain email;

automatically generating a composite email which includes the content extracted from each of the accessed emails;

obtaining a set of markup information indicating one or more markups that were previously made to the content of the certain email, wherein the set of markup information is separate from the content of the certain email; and

applying the one or more markups to the content of the certain email to derive a marked up version of the content of the certain email in the composite email.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more markups include one or more of the following:

(a) highlighting of one or more portions of the content of the certain email;

(b) underlining of one or more portions of the content of the certain email;

(c) strike through of one or more portions of the content of the certain email.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more markups include one or more comments or notations that have been associated with at least a portion of the content of the certain email.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more markups include one or more reminders that have been associated with at least a portion of the content of the certain email.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more markups include hiding of one or more portions of the content of the certain email from view.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a set of markup information indicating one or more markups that were previously made to the content of the certain email comprises:

receiving a markup side mail from a participant of the email conversation, wherein the markup side mail includes a set of markup information indicating one or more markups made by that participant of the email conversation to the content of the certain email; and

extracting the markup information from the markup side mail.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the markup side mail does not include the content of the certain email.

8. A machine implemented method, comprising:

receiving user input from a user;

in response to the user input, accessing a plurality of electronic mail messages (emails), including a certain email, that are part of an email conversation;

extracting content from each of the accessed emails, including the certain email;

automatically generating a composite email which includes the content extracted from each of the accessed emails;

receiving further user input indicating one or more markups made to the content of the certain email in the composite email to give rise to a marked up version of the content of the certain email; and

storing a set of markup information indicative of the one or more markups made to the content of the certain email, wherein the markup information is stored separate from the content of the certain email, and wherein the markup information is applicable to the content of the certain email to reproduce the marked up version of the content of the certain email.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more markups include one or more of the following:

(a) highlighting of one or more portions of the content of the certain email;

(b) underlining of one or more portions of the content of the certain email;

(c) strike through of one or more portions of the content of the certain email.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more markups include one or more comments or notations that have been associated with at least a portion of the content of the certain email.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more markups include one or more reminders that have been associated with at least a portion of the content of the certain email.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more markups include hiding of one or more portions of the content of the certain email from view.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein a set of participants are participating in the email conversation, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication that the user wishes to send a markup side mail to a set of side mail participants, wherein the set of side mail participants comprises at least a subset of the participants of the email conversation; and

sending a markup side mail to the set of side mail participants, wherein the markup side mail includes the markup information, and wherein the markup information enables each side mail participant to reproduce the one or more markups on their version of the content of the certain email to derive the marked up version of the content of the certain email.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the markup side mail includes information referencing the certain email, but does not include the content of the certain email.

15. A machine readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the operations of:

receiving user input from a user;

in response to the user input, accessing a plurality of electronic mail messages (emails), including a certain email, that are part of an email conversation;

extracting content from each of the accessed emails, including the certain email;

automatically generating a composite email which includes the content extracted from each of the accessed emails;

obtaining a set of markup information indicating one or more markups that were previously made to the content of the certain email, wherein the set of markup information is separate from the content of the certain email; and

applying the one or more markups to the content of the certain email to derive a marked up version of the content of the certain email in the composite email.

16. The machine readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more markups include one or more of the following:

(a) highlighting of one or more portions of the content of the certain email;

(b) underlining of one or more portions of the content of the certain email;

(c) strike through of one or more portions of the content of the certain email.

17. The machine readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more markups include one or more comments or notations that have been associated with at least a portion of the content of the certain email.

18. The machine readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more markups include one or more reminders that have been associated with at least a portion of the content of the certain email.

19. The machine readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more markups include hiding of one or more portions of the content of the certain email from view.

20. The machine readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein obtaining a set of markup information indicating one or more markups that were previously made to the content of the certain email comprises:

receiving a markup side mail from a participant of the email conversation, wherein the markup side mail includes a set of markup information indicating one or more markups made by that participant of the email conversation to the content of the certain email; and

extracting the markup information from the markup side mail.

21. The machine readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the markup side mail does not include the content of the certain email.

22. A machine readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the operations of:

receiving user input from a user;

in response to the user input, accessing a plurality of electronic mail messages (emails), including a certain email, that are part of an email conversation;

extracting content from each of the accessed emails, including the certain email;

automatically generating a composite email which includes the content extracted from each of the accessed emails;

receiving further user input indicating one or more markups made to the content of the certain email in the composite email to give rise to a marked up version of the content of the certain email; and

storing a set of markup information indicative of the one or more markups made to the content of the certain email, wherein the markup information is stored separate from the content of the certain email, and wherein the markup information is applicable to the content of the certain email to reproduce the marked up version of the content of the certain email.

23. The machine readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the one or more markups include one or more of the following:

(a) highlighting of one or more portions of the content of the certain email;

(b) underlining of one or more portions of the content of the certain email;

(c) strike through of one or more portions of the content of the certain email.

24. The machine readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the one or more markups include one or more comments or notations that have been associated with at least a portion of the content of the certain email.

25. The machine readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the one or more markups include one or more reminders that have been associated with at least a portion of the content of the certain email.

26. The machine readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the one or more markups include hiding of one or more portions of the content of the certain email from view.

27. The machine readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein a set of participants are participating in the email conversation, and wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to further perform the operations of:

receiving an indication that the user wishes to send a markup side mail to a set of side mail participants, wherein the set of side mail participants comprises at least a subset of the participants of the email conversation; and

sending a markup side mail to the set of side mail participants, wherein the markup side mail includes the markup information, and wherein the markup information enables each side mail participant to reproduce the one or more markups on their version of the content of the certain email to derive the marked up version of the content of the certain email.

28. The machine readable storage medium of claim 27, wherein the markup side mail includes information referencing the certain email, but does not include the content of the certain email.