System for recalling declined meetings

• US 7,519,663 B1
• Filed: 04/08/2008
• Issued: 04/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ganci, John Michael Jr., Wenk, David Scott, Bostick, James Edward, Kaemmerer, John Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue; Larry D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pollack; Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US12/099,151
• Time in Patent Office: 371 Days
• Field of Search: 709203-207, 709/219, 705/8, 705/9, 708/112, 715/739, 715/753, 715/963
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment

Abstract

A calendar system enables a user to display both accepted and declined invitations to events in a same or any time slot. Declined invitations can be later recalled and have their status changed to accepted. To recall a previously declined invitation for acceptance, the declined event displayed on the calendar is opened, the status changed from declined to accepted, and the updated accepted status is sent to the sender to indicate that a previously declined event has now been accepted. Declined events are differentiated from accepted events on the calendar display by displaying the declined events on the calendar in a different color, automatically inserting and displaying a keyword such as “DECLINED” in the subject line, displaying a subject line of declined events indented from a subject line of accepted events in the same or different time slot, displaying a different icon in front of the calendar event time slot when the event has been declined, and/or configuring the declined events with various font formats.

Claims

1. A method for recalling a declined event in an electronic calendar application, said method comprising:

receiving one or more invitations to one or more events from at least one sender;

marking the received invitations as either accepted or declined;

sending a status message to the invitation sender for the received invitation, indicating an accepted or declined invitation status;

displaying the accepted invitations on the recipient calendar as accepted events in corresponding event time slots;

displaying the declined invitations on the recipient calendar, within the grid, as declined events in corresponding event time slots, where the displayed declined events differentiate in format from a format of the accepted events by one or more of displaying the declined events on the calendar in a different color, automatically inserting and displaying a keyword “

DECLINED”

in a subject line, displaying a subject line of declined events indented from a subject line of accepted events in the same time slot, displaying a different icon in front of the calendar event time slot when the event has been declined, and/or configuring the declined events with various font formats; and

,

recalling a previously declined event for acceptance by opening the declined event displayed on the recipient calendar grid, changing the status of the declined event from declined to accepted, and sending an updated status message to the sender indicating that a previously declined event has now been accepted.