UNIVERSAL MESSAGING SYSTEM PROVIDING INTEGRATED VOICE, DATA AND FAX MESSAGING SERVICES TO PC/WEB-BASED CLIENTS, INCLUDING A CONTENT MANAGER FOR RECEIVING INFORMATION FROM CONTENT PROVIDERS AND FORMATTING THE SAME INTO MULTIMEDIA CONTAINERS FOR DISTRIBUTION TO WEB-BASED CLIENTS
First Claim
1. A Universal Messaging system, comprising:
- (a) a messaging platform; and
(b) a content manager application, operatively coupled to said messaging platform, for receiving information from a content provider and formatting said information into multimedia containers to be distributed to remote clients via a wide area communications network operatively coupled to said messaging platform, wherein said multimedia containers are characterized by a message portion and an attachment portion, said attachment portion comprising a plurality of fields each of which is used in a predefined manner.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A Universal Messaging system provides e-mail, voice-mail and fax-mail services to subscribers that may utilize the Internet to access their messages. The system integrates an e-mail messaging system with a voice/fax messaging system on a messaging platform computer. E-mail messages are stored in an e-mail message store, and voice and/or fax messages are stored in a separate store controlled, e.g., by a Voice Mail Message Manager (VMMM). Subscribers can access messages from a personal computer via the Internet using a standard Web browser with an applet that present each subscriber with a “universal inbox” that displays all of that subscriber'"'"'s voice, fax, and e-mail messages. A Web platform controls the Web browser interface to the messaging platform, accepting requests from the Web browser (such as a request to read an e-mail or listen to a voice mail) and passing prescribed types of information back to the Web browser. The Web platform interfaces with the messaging platform via a generic TCP/IP interface/router. A Session Manager application manages the Web browser'"'"'s “session” with the messaging system. A CMC layer in the messaging platform provides the “glue” to enable communication and control between and among the different message stores. The CMC layer provides an industry standard mechanism for providing a standard API through which access to proprietary message stores can be made.
164 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A Universal Messaging system, comprising:
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(a) a messaging platform; and
(b) a content manager application, operatively coupled to said messaging platform, for receiving information from a content provider and formatting said information into multimedia containers to be distributed to remote clients via a wide area communications network operatively coupled to said messaging platform, wherein said multimedia containers are characterized by a message portion and an attachment portion, said attachment portion comprising a plurality of fields each of which is used in a predefined manner. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
an applet server for providing software applets to said remote client; and
an Internet server operatively coupled to said messaging platform.
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4. A Universal Messaging system, comprising:
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(a) a messaging platform supporting an e-mail messaging system and a voice/fax messaging system; and
(b) content manager means, operatively coupled to said messaging platform, for receiving information from a content provider and formatting said information into multimedia containers to be distributed to remote clients via a wide area communications network operatively coupled to said content manager means;
wherein said content manager means provides multimedia containers for delivering multimedia content to one or more clients, wherein each of said containers comprises;
(1) a message portion; and
(2) an attachment portion having associated title, type and filename fields, each of which is used in a predefined manner. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A Universal Messaging system, comprising:
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(a) a messaging platform supporting an e-mail messaging system and a voice/fax messaging system; and
(b) content manager means, operatively coupled to said messaging platform, for receiving information from a content provider and formatting said information into multimedia containers to be distributed to remote clients via a wide area communications network operatively coupled to said content manager means;
wherein said content manager means provides multimedia containers for delivering multimedia content to clients, wherein each of said containers comprises a message portion and an attachment portion having associated title, type and filename fields;
wherein said message portion is characterized by a message type field and a corresponding predefined set of message type definitions, a predefined use of a subject field, and a predefined structure for a text-note field;
wherein said text-note field is used for communication between the content manager means and the clients;
wherein all content is carried in the attachment portion via a pointer in the filename field;
wherein only one type of content is used per attachment;
wherein the filename field is used to contain pointers to objects; and
wherein the text-note field of the message portion is used to carry instructions relating to presentation and management of the content, and the actual content is referenced by pointers using attachment structures.- View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. In a Universal Messaging system, a method for delivering multimedia information to remote clients, comprising the steps of:
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receiving information from a content provider;
formatting said information into multimedia containers; and
distributing said multimedia containers to the remote clients via a wide area network operatively coupled to said Universal Messaging system;
wherein each of said multimedia containers comprises a message portion and an attachment portion having associated title, type and filename fields, each of which is used in a predefined manner. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification