Method article of manufacture and apparatus for assisting the response to an electronic mail message

• US 7,430,582 B1
• Filed: 05/11/2000
• Issued: 09/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Day, Paul Reuben, Bates, Cary Lee, Santosuosso, John Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): LAFORGIA, CHRISTIAN A
• Application Number:
  US09/569,278
• Time in Patent Office: 3,064 Days
• Field of Search: 345/809, 709/207, 709/206, 379/93, 707/202
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method, article of manufacture and apparatus for assisting an electronic mail (e-mail) response message by providing e-mail messages related to an open e-mail message. Specifically, the method determines whether an available e-mail message is related to the open e-mail message. Available e-mail messages may include unopened, previously opened, or incoming e-mail messages. As such, the user is warned of all relevant e-mail messages before responding with a reply message or a forward message.

Claims

1. A method, implemented by a computer, of identifying related electronic mail messages, comprising:

opening an electronic mail message addressed to a recipient;

opening a reply window in which to prepare a reply to a sender of the opened electronic mail message;

in response to opening a reply window, determining whether one or more available electronic mail messages, also addressed to the recipient, are related to the open electronic mail message, wherein the determining is performed on the basis of the open electronic mail message; and

notifying the recipient of the open electronic mail message if any available electronic mail messages are determined as being related to the open electronic mail message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the notifying step comprises:

displaying a list of the available electronic mail messages determined as related to the open electronic mail message.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining step comprises:

scanning all available electronic mail messages of the recipient of the open electronic message.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the available electronic mail messages comprise at least one of an unopened electronic mail message, a previously opened electronic mail message, and an incoming electronic mail message.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the determining of previously read electronic mail messages is performed in substantially the same manner as the determining of unopened electronic mail messages.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the determining of incoming electronic mail messages is performed in substantially the same manner as the determining of unopened electronic mail messages.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the available electronic mail messages are related to the open electronic mail message if the available electronic mail message has a substantially similar subject line as the open electronic mail message.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the available electronic mail messages are related to the open electronic mail message if the available electronic mail messages have a message identifier that is substantially similar to the message identifier of the open electronic mail message.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the message identifier comprises a user information field.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the message identifier comprises a time information field.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the one or more available electronic mail messages are related to the opened electronic-mail message is done on the basis of control messages associated with the open electronic mail message and the available electronic mail messages.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the available electronic mail messages are related to the open electronic mail message if the available electronic mail message has a substantially similar message or text as the open electronic mail message.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more available electronic mail messages is an incoming electronic mail message and wherein determining is performed in response to receiving the incoming electronic mail message.

14. A computer-implemented method of identifying related email messages to ensure an informed response, comprising:

detecting receipt of an electronic mail message while a user is preparing a response electronic mail message to a previously received electronic mail message;

determining whether the received electronic mail message is related to the previously received electronic mail message, wherein the determining is done on the basis of the received electronic mail message; and

if so, notifying the user of the relationship.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining comprises determining whether the received electronic mail message has a substantially similar content to the previously received electronic mail message.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein determining comprises determining whether the received electronic mail message has a same subject line as the previously received electronic mail message.