Methods, systems and data structures for assigning categories to electronic mail
First Claim
1. A method for assigning electronic mail (email) categories, comprising:
- associating a sender category identification with the email as assigned by an original sender of the email, wherein the sender category identification is unique with respect to the original sender; and
maintaining the sender category identification as the email is transferred between the original sender and an original receiver, and wherein the original sender has access to the sender category identification when the email is transferred back to the original sender from the original receiver, and wherein the sender category identification is assigned to a different field of the email which is different from a subject field, and wherein the different field is just modifiable by the original sender, and wherein the sender category identification is viewable by and maintained by the original sender independent of receiver categories that the original receiver may subsequently assign to the email and independent of any subsequent categories that subsequent senders may assign to the email.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods, systems, and data structures are provided for assigning categories to electronic mail (email). An email includes a category identification field, a sender category identification field, and a receiver category identification field. When the email is transmitted any sender assigned category identification being made by the sender is placed in the sender category identification field, and any previous value contained in the sender category identification field is moved to the category identification field and the receiver category identification field. In some embodiments, the sender category identification field and the receiver category identification field can include distribution lists associated with multiple senders and multiple receivers of the email. When the email is received any value included in the category identification field is presented with the email.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for assigning electronic mail (email) categories, comprising:
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associating a sender category identification with the email as assigned by an original sender of the email, wherein the sender category identification is unique with respect to the original sender; and maintaining the sender category identification as the email is transferred between the original sender and an original receiver, and wherein the original sender has access to the sender category identification when the email is transferred back to the original sender from the original receiver, and wherein the sender category identification is assigned to a different field of the email which is different from a subject field, and wherein the different field is just modifiable by the original sender, and wherein the sender category identification is viewable by and maintained by the original sender independent of receiver categories that the original receiver may subsequently assign to the email and independent of any subsequent categories that subsequent senders may assign to the email. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for assigning electronic mail (email) categories, comprising:
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receiving category identifications from recipients and senders of the email; maintaining a distinctive category identification from the category identifications for each recipient and sender included within the recipients and senders, wherein each category identification in the category identifications is unique to a particular one of the recipients or one of the senders and is viewable by that particular recipient or sender; and presenting the distinctive category identification with the email as the email is received by a recipient associated with the distinctive category identification and the distinctive category is unique to the recipient, and wherein the category identifications are associated with different fields of the email that are different from a subject field of the email, and wherein the category identifications are just modifiable and viewable by a party that created them. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An electronic mail (email) category assigning system, comprising:
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an email; a plurality of category identifications; and wherein the email is associated with the plurality of category identifications, each category identification is uniquely associated with a different recipient of the email, if an assigned category identification was previously designated by one of the recipients, and wherein the plurality of category identifications are associated with one or more different fields of the email that are different from a subject field of the email, and wherein each category identification is just modifiable by a party that created it, and wherein each category identification is just viewable by the party that created it and different parties to the email have their own unique selection from the category identifications. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An electronic mail (email) data structure residing on a computer readable medium associated with categories, comprising:
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a sender category identification field implemented within the computer readable medium; a receiver category identification field implemented within the computer readable medium; and wherein when a sender assigns a sender category identification value to the email, the sender category identification value is placed in the sender category identification field and any previous receiver category identification value contained in the sender category identification field is moved to the receiver category identification field before the email is sent by the sender to a receiver, the sender category identification field is unique to just the sender and viewable by just the sender and receiver category identification field is unique to just the receiver and viewable by just the receiver, and wherein the sender and receiver category identification fields are associated with one or more different fields of the email that are different from a subject field of the email, and wherein the sender category identification value is just modifiable by the sender and the receiver category identification value is just modifiable by the receiver. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification