System and method for presence enabled e-mail delivery

• US 7,698,367 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2003
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Unify Inc. (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Communications Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Mason, Andrew, Beyda, William J., Caspi, Rami
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Kenny S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoang, Hieu T
• Application Number:
  US10/384,206
• Publication Number:
  US 20040177119A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,595 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/207
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting

Abstract

A telecommunications system includes a network (102), a destination multimedia server (104), and a destination presence server (215) operably coupled to the network. A plurality of multimedia clients (122) are also operably coupled to the network. The multimedia clients (122) include a presence option (128) and are adapted to be able to select whether the option is to be activated. In operation, when a client sends an e-mail to another client, the destination multimedia server (104) receives the e-mail and determines if the recipient supports presence. If so, the destination multimedia server (104) sends a query to the destination presence server (215) to check the recipient'"'"'s presence. If the recipient is present, the message can be delivered. If not, the message can be held on the server until the recipient is present.

Claims

1. A telecommunications method, comprising:

identifying an e-mail at a mail server as requesting a presence determination of a recipient prior to delivery, said identifying including identifying from the e-mail if a presence determination of said recipient has been requested by a sender of the e-mail;

querying a presence server for a presence of said recipient;

determining if said recipient is a client of a presence service supported by the presence server;

sending a message to said sender asking whether the e-mail should be delivered if said recipient is not a client of a presence service supported by the presence server, and delivering said e-mail to said recipient if said sender indicates, responsive to said message, that the e-mail should be delivered;

if said recipient is a client of the presence service, and said presence server indicates that said recipient is present, delivering the e-mail to said recipient;

else

if said presence server indicates that said recipient is not present, storing said e-mail at said mail server until said presence server indicates that said recipient is present.

2. A telecommunications method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising temporarily adding said recipient to a buddy list of the sender.

3. A telecommunications method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising said mail server periodically querying said presence server to determine if said recipient is present.

4. A telecommunications method in accordance with claim 1, wherein said mail server is added as a phantom member of one or more buddy lists, a phantom member being one which is tracked, but is not typically viewable by parties to whose buddy lists the presences are added.

5. A telecommunications method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising sending a test message to determine if a recipient supports presence service for e-mail.

6. A telecommunications server, comprising:

a processing system including a storage medium containing computer executable components of;

an e-mail presence module adapted to receive an e-mail and determine therefrom whether a recipient of said e-mail is a client of a presence service and if a presence of the recipient is to be determined as requested by a sender of the e-mail, wherein said telecommunications server is adapted to send a message to the sender of said e-mail asking whether the e-mail should be delivered if said recipient is not a client of the presence service, and deliver said e-mail to said recipient if said sender indicates that the e-mail should be delivered; and

a presence module responsive to controls from said e-mail presence module and adapted to determine said presence of said recipient of said e-mail;

if said recipient is a client of the presence service, and said presence module indicates that said recipient is present, said telecommunications server adapted to deliver the e-mail to said recipient;

else

if said presence module indicates that said recipient is not present, said telecommunications server adapted to store said e-mail until said presence module indicates that said recipient is present.

7. A telecommunications server in accordance with claim 6, said e-mail presence module adapted to read one or more function commands in said e-mail message to determine whether to check a presence of said recipient.

8. A telecommunications server in accordance with claim 6, said presence module adapted to determine a presence of a recipient using an Instant Messaging buddy list.

9. A telecommunications server in accordance with claim 8, wherein said recipient is temporarily added to a sender'"'"'s buddy list.

10. A telecommunications server in accordance with claim 8, wherein a plurality of user buddy lists are combined into a super buddy list.

11. A telecommunications server in accordance with claim 8, wherein said server is added to one or more users'"'"' buddy lists.

12. A telecommunications system, comprising:

a plurality of electronic messaging clients;

at least one messaging server, said at least one messaging server comprising;

a processing system including a storage medium containing computer executable components of;

an e-mail presence module adapted to receive an e-mail and determine therefrom whether a recipient of said e-mail is a client of a presence service and if a presence of the recipient is to be determined as requested by a sender of the e-mail, wherein said messaging server is adapted to send a message to the sender of the e-mail asking whether the e-mail should be delivered if said recipient is not a client of the presence service, and deliver said e-mail to said recipient if said sender indicates that the e-mail should be delivered; and

a presence module responsive to controls from said e-mail presence module and adapted to determine the presence of the recipient of said e-mail;

if said recipient is a client of the presence service, and said presence module indicates that said recipient is present, adapting said messaging server to deliver the e-mail to the recipient;

else

if said presence module indicates that said recipient is not present, adapting said messaging server to store said e-mail until said presence module indicates that said recipient is present.

13. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 12, said e-mail presence module adapted to read one or more function commands in said e-mail message to determine whether to check a presence of said recipient.

14. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 12, said presence module adapted to determine a presence of a recipient using an Instant Messaging buddy list.

15. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 14, wherein said recipient is temporarily added to a sender'"'"'s buddy list.

16. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 14, wherein a plurality of user buddy lists are combined into a super buddy list.

17. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 14, wherein said server is added to one or more users'"'"' buddy lists.

18. A method for providing a telecommunications server, comprising:

providing an e-mail presence module adapted to receive an e-mail and determine therefrom whether a recipient of said e-mail is a client of a presence service and if a presence of the recipient is to be determined as requested by a sender of the e-mail;

adapting said telecommunications server to send a message to the sender of the e-mail asking whether the e-mail should be delivered if said recipient is not a client of the presence service, and deliver said e-mail to said recipient if said sender indicates that the e-mail should be delivered; and

providing a presence module responsive to controls from said e-mail presence module and adapted to determine the presence of the recipient of said e-mail;

if said recipient is a client of the presence service, and said presence e-mail module indicates that said recipient is present, adapting said telecommunications server to deliver the e-mail to the recipient;

else

if said e-mail presence module indicates that said recipient is not present, adapting said telecommunications server to store said e-mail until said presence module indicates that said recipient is present.

19. A method in accordance with claim 18, said e-mail presence module adapted to read one or more function commands in said e-mail message to determine whether to check a presence of said recipient.

20. A method in accordance with claim 18, said presence module adapted to determine a presence of a recipient using an Instant Messaging buddy list.

21. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein said recipient is temporarily added to a sender'"'"'s buddy list.

22. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein a plurality of user buddy lists are combined into a super buddy list.

23. A method in accordance with claim 20, wherein said server is added to one or more users'"'"' buddy lists.

24. A telecommunications method, comprising:

providing a plurality of electronic messaging clients;

providing at least one messaging server, said at least one messaging server comprising;

an e-mail presence module adapted to receive an e-mail and determine therefrom whether a recipient of said e-mail is a client of a presence service and if a presence of the recipient is to be determined as requested by a sender of the e-mail; and

a presence module responsive to controls from said e-mail presence module and adapted to determine the presence of the recipient of said e-mail; and

adapting said messaging server to send a message to the sender of the e-mail asking whether the e-mail should be delivered if said recipient is not a client of the presence service, and deliver said e-mail to said recipient if said sender indicates that the e-mail should be delivered;

if said recipient is a client of the presence service, and said presence module indicates that said recipient is present, adapting said messaging server to deliver the e-mail to the recipient;

else

if said presence module indicates that said recipient is not present, adapting said messaging server to store said e-mail until said presence module indicates that said recipient is present.

25. A method in accordance with claim 24, said e-mail presence module adapted to read one or more function commands in said e-mail message to determine whether to check a presence of said recipient.

26. A method in accordance with claim 25, said presence module adapted to determine a presence of a recipient using an Instant Messaging buddy list.

27. A method in accordance with claim 26, wherein said recipient is temporarily added to a sender'"'"'s buddy list.

28. A method in accordance with claim 26, wherein a plurality of user buddy lists are combined into a super buddy list.

29. A telecommunications system in accordance with claim 26, wherein said server is added to one or more users'"'"' buddy lists.