Method for receiving and classifying normal e-mail and advertising e-mail

• US 7,519,671 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2005
• Issued: 04/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bo Tai Ho
• Original Assignee: Bo Tai Ho
• Inventors: Ho, Bo Tai
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdullahi; Salad
• Assistant Examiner(s): WOOLCOCK, MADHU
• Application Number:
  US11/084,148
• Publication Number:
  US 20060123091A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,485 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method for receiving and classifying normal e-mail and advertising e-mail is designed to establish a harmony relationship between the advertising-mail sender and the e-mail user, the method comprises: setting up a “normal inbox” and a “advertising inbox” in a mail-receiving-and-sending software for receiving the normal e-mail and the advertising e-mail respectively; making a design to make the “normal inbox” only accept e-mails with addresses which are listed on a list of permissible addresses beforehand by the user, and make “advertising inbox” only accept e-mails which are solicited by the user beforehand. Advertising-mail sender should classify the advertising e-mail thereof according to a “classification list”, and attach identifying information to the advertising e-mail to be sent for enabling the public mail server to distinguish, an advertising e-mail without such identifying information is regarded as normal mail.

Claims

1. A method for receiving and classifying normal e-mail and advertising e-mail, comprising the steps of:

(a) classifying e-mails into normal e-mail and advertising e-mail;

(b) setting up a “

normal inbox” and

an “

advertising inbox”

in a mail-receiving-and-sending software for receiving the normal e-mail and the advertising e-mail respectively;

(c) causing the “

normal inbox”

to only accept e-mail with addresses which are listed on a list of permissible addresses beforehand by a user, and causing the “

advertising inbox”

to only accept e-mails which are solicited by the user beforehand;

(d) upon clicking a right mouse button on the “

normal inbox”

, causing an item of “

permissible addresses”

to appear, and upon clicking the right mouse button on the “

permissible addresses”

, further causing a frame on which the user can make a list of permissible addresses to appear, wherein only the e-mails with the addresses included on the list of the permissible addresses will be received, and when the user receives e-mail through the internet, the content of the “

permissible addresses”

will be automatically uploaded to and stored in a public mail server, the public mail server having a function of sending the e-mails with the permissible addresses to the “

normal in box”

for the user, and other e-mails will not be sent to the “

normal inbox;

(e) upon clicking the fight mouse button on the “

advertising inbox”

, causing a classification list including different business items to appear for the user to choose, wherein the user can tick a box adjacent to an interested business item to indicate that the advertising e-mail belonging to the selected business item is acceptable, and the advertising e-mails belonging to unselected business items will be blocked, and when the user receives e-mail through the internet, the content of the “

classification list”

will be automatically uploaded to and stored in the public mail server, the public mail server having a function of sending the advertising e-mail belonging to the selected business item to the “

advertising inbox”

for the user, and other advertising e-mails belonging to the unselected business items will not be sent to the “

advertising inbox”

;

(f) asking an advertising e-mail sender to classify the advertising e-mail thereof according to the above-mentioned “

classification list”

, and to attach identifying information to the advertising e-mail to be sent, so as to enable the public mail server to distinguish a classification of the advertising e-mail to determine whether the advertising e-mail'"'"'s classification is listed in the classification list, and regarding an advertising e-mail without such identifying information as normal e-mail;

(g) if the user fails to make a list of “

permissible addresses”

, causing the public mail server to accept all e-mails that have arrived in a mail box of the user, and to reject all advertising e-mails if the user fails to select an item on the “

classification list”

.

2. The method for receiving and classifying normal e-mail and advertising e-mail as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of causing the public mail server to block unsolicited mail by making use of the “

permissible addresses” and

the classification list”

previously defined and uploaded by the user when the user is not online.

3. The method for receiving and classifying normal e-mail and advertising e-mail as claimed in claim 1, wherein steps (d), (e), and (g) are carried out by the mail-receiving-and-sending software, so that the e-mails will be received, classified and blocked by a personal computer of the user.