Method for automatically finding postal addresses from e-mail addresses

• US 5,944,787 A
• Filed: 04/21/1997
• Issued: 08/31/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sift, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sift, Inc.
• Inventors: Zoken, Jack M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DINH, KHANH Q
• Application Number:
  US08/840,574
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.36, 395/200.3, 395/200.62, 382/115, 705/26, 345/357, 345/329, 345/349, 358/402, 358/400, 358/407, 379/88.18, 709/206, 709/207, 709/208, 709/234
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

An email mapper to identify sender'"'"'s U.S. postal address by detecting in the sender'"'"'s email address, email message, or the sender'"'"'s posting whether the sender'"'"'s name and address are identifiable in the signature line of the sender'"'"'s email and searching one or more electronic white pages to identify the sender'"'"'s name and postal address. Wherein if no signature line is detected in the sender'"'"'s email further filtering the sender'"'"'s email to identify the geographic locale of the sender and then searching against one or more electronic datases, such as a business database, an ISP database, an electronic whitepage, or email mapper'"'"'s generated relational database, to identify and generate a list of one or more USPS addresses associated with the sender'"'"'s email address, name and locale of the sender.

Claims

1. A method using a computer for mapping a sender'"'"'s email address to the sender'"'"'s postal address, the method comprising:

receiving a sender'"'"'s email as an input to the computer; and

determining whether the sender'"'"'s name and address are identifiable in the input email, wherein;

if the sender'"'"'s name or the sender'"'"'s address are identifiable, then searching one or more electronic name and address databases to locate one or more U.S. postal addresses associated with the identified sender'"'"'s name; and

if the sender'"'"'s name is not identifiable, then filtering the sender'"'"'s email to identify the geographic locale of the sender, and then searching the one or more electronic name and address databases under the identified sender'"'"'s geographic locale to generate one or more U.S. postal addresses associated with the sender'"'"'s email address.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining whether the sender'"'"'s name and address are identifiable in the sender'"'"'s email comprises detecting whether there is a signature line in the sender'"'"'s email and parsing that signature line.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of filtering the sender'"'"'s email comprises detecting whether a second level domain name in the sender'"'"'s email address identifies the sender'"'"'s geographic locale.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of filtering the sender'"'"'s email comprises detecting whether one or more levels other than the second level domain name in the sender'"'"'s email address identifies the sender'"'"'s geographic locale.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of filtering the sender'"'"'s email comprises detecting whether an nntp host path encodes geographic information that identifies the sender'"'"'s geographic locale.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of filtering the sender'"'"'s email comprises detecting whether a regional newsgroup is identified in the sender'"'"'s email address indicating the geographic locale of the sender.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of filtering the input email comprises detecting whether the sender'"'"'s email address comprises an organization name mapping to a geographic locale of the sender.

8. A method using a computer for mapping a sender'"'"'s email address to the sender'"'"'s postal address, the method comprising:

receiving a sender'"'"'s email as an input to the computer; and

determining whether the sender'"'"'s name and address are identifiable in the input email, by detecting whether there is a signature line in the sender'"'"'s email and parsing that signature line, wherein if there is a signature line in the sender'"'"'s email then parsing that signature line and searching one or more electronic name and address databases to locate one or more U.S. postal addresses associated with the identified sender'"'"'s name; and

if the sender'"'"'s name is not identifiable, then filtering the sender'"'"'s email to identify the geographic locale of the sender and then searching the one or more electronic name and address databases under the identified sender'"'"'s geographic locale to generate one or more U.S. postal addresses associated with the sender'"'"'s email address, wherein the step of filtering the sender'"'"'s email comprises one or more of the following steps;

detecting whether an ISP is identified in the sender'"'"'s email address;

detecting whether a second level domain name in the sender'"'"'s email address identifies the sender'"'"'s geographic locale;

detecting whether one or more levels other than the second level domain name in the sender'"'"'s email address identifies the sender'"'"'s geographic locale;

detecting whether an nntp host path encodes geographic information that identifies the sender'"'"'s geographic locale;

detecting whether a regional newsgroup is identified in the sender'"'"'s email address indicating the geographic locale of the sender; and

detecting whether the sender'"'"'s email address comprises an organization name mapping to a geographic locale of the sender.

9. A method using a computer for mapping a sender'"'"'s email address to the sender'"'"'s postal address, the method comprising:

receiving a sender'"'"'s email as an input to the computer; and

determining whether the sender'"'"'s name and address are identifiable in the input email, wherein;

if the sender'"'"'s name or the sender'"'"'s address are identifiable, then searching one or more electronic name and address databases to locate one or more U.S. postal addresses associated with the identified sender'"'"'s name;

if the sender'"'"'s name is not identifiable, then filtering the sender'"'"'s email to identify the geographic locale of the sender, and then searching the one or more electronic name and address databases under the identified sender'"'"'s geographic locale to generate one or more U.S. postal addresses associated with the sender'"'"'s email address; and

wherein the step of filtering the sender'"'"'s email comprises detecting whether an ISP is identified in the sender'"'"'s email address.