System and method for integrating electronic mail accounts

• US 7,730,136 B2
• Filed: 08/13/2003
• Issued: 06/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Snow, Robert J., Smith, Christopher D., Lee, Albert, Kruis, David P., Vitorino, Diana G., Manuel, Arsel, Visnjic-Obucina, Snezana
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee; John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Madamba; Glenford
• Application Number:
  US10/640,449
• Publication Number:
  US 20040122905A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,484 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/225, 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for integrating a plurality of electronic mail (email) accounts. A plurality of email services may be used to send and receive electronic messages over a wide area network, one of the email services being a preferred email service and another of the email services being a secondary email service. An email integration service may be used that is coupled to the wide area network and that is independent of the plurality of email services. The email integration service may be operable to receive account information regarding the preferred email service and the secondary email service and use the account information to configure a means for forwarding electronic messages from the preferred email service to the secondary email service.

Claims

1. A system for integrating a plurality of active electronic mail (email) accounts, comprising:

a preferred email service associated with a mobile device and operable to send and receive electronic messages over a wide area network;

a plurality of secondary email services operable to send and receive electronic messages over the wide area network;

a user interface configured to receive account login information regarding an active email account;

an email integration service coupled to the wide area network and independent of the preferred and secondary email services, the email integration service being configured to receive and store in a computer-readable medium account login information regarding an active email account managed by the preferred email service (primary account) and active email accounts managed by the secondary email services (secondary accounts), and the email integration service being further configured to use the stored account login information to configure a polling agent; and

the polling agent configured to use the stored account login information to communicate periodically with the secondary email services to determine if electronic messages have been received by the secondary accounts since the polling agent last communicated with the secondary email services and, if so, to retrieve the received messages from the secondary email services and forward the retrieved messages to the primary account;

wherein the account login information regarding each of the primary account and the secondary accounts includes a password;

wherein electronic messages sent to the secondary accounts are forwarded to the primary account by the email integration service.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the secondary email services is an Internet service provider (ISP) email service.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the secondary email services is a webmail service.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the email integration service configures the secondary email services to transmit a new mail notification to the polling agent.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the polling agent retrieves an email message from one or more of the secondary accounts in response to receiving the new mail notification.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a user may adjust an interval controlling how frequently the polling agent communicates with the secondary email services to retrieve electronic messages from the secondary accounts and forward the retrieved messages to the primary account.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein forwarding of electronic messages from the secondary accounts to the primary account permits a user associated with the primary account and the secondary accounts to receive electronic messages sent to either the primary account or the secondary accounts by accessing only the primary account.

7. A system for integrating a plurality of active electronic mail (email) accounts, comprising:

a preferred email service associated with a mobile device and operable to send and receive electronic messages over a wide area network;

a plurality of secondary email services operable to send and receive electronic messages over the wide area network;

a user interface configured to receive account login information regarding an active email account;

an email integration service coupled to the wide area network and independent of the preferred and secondary email services, the email integration service being configured to receive and store in a computer-readable medium account login information regarding an active email account managed by the preferred email service (primary account) and active email accounts managed by the secondary email services (secondary accounts), and the email integration service being further configured to use the stored account login information to configure a forwarding rule; and

the forwarding rule maintained by the secondary email services and configured to cause the secondary email services to automatically redirect electronic messages sent to the secondary accounts to the primary account;

wherein the account login information regarding each of the primary account and the secondary accounts includes a password;

wherein electronic messages sent to the secondary accounts are forwarded to the primary account by the email integration service.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a polling agent configured to communicate periodically with one or more of the secondary email services using the stored account login information to retrieve electronic messages sent to the secondary accounts and to forward the retrieved electronic messages to the primary account;

wherein the email integration service configures the polling agent if it is determined that one or more of the secondary email services do not support email forwarding.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the email integration service automatically configures the polling agent if the secondary email services do not support email forwarding, without requiring any action by a user.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein forwarding of electronic messages from the secondary accounts to the primary account permits a user associated with the primary account and the secondary accounts to receive electronic messages sent to either the primary account or the secondary accounts by accessing only the primary account.

10. A method of integrating a plurality of secondary email services that manage active email accounts and a preferred email service associated with a mobile device that manages an active email account, the method being performed by an email integration service that is independent of said preferred and secondary email services and comprising:

receiving account login information at the email integration service regarding the active email account managed by the preferred email service (primary account) and the active email accounts managed by the secondary email services (secondary accounts);

storing the account login information in a computer-readable medium;

determining if the secondary email services will accept forwarding rules;

if the secondary email services will accept forwarding rules, then the email integration service using the stored account login information for the secondary accounts to establish forwarding rules maintained by the secondary email services, the forwarding rules being configured to cause the secondary email services to automatically redirect electronic messages sent to the secondary accounts to the primary account;

if one or more of the secondary email services will not accept forwarding rules, then determining if a polling agent may retrieve electronic messages from the one or more secondary email services;

if one or more of the secondary email services will not accept forwarding rules and electronic messages may be retrieved from the one or more secondary email services by the polling agent, then the email integration service using the stored account login information for the secondary accounts to establish the polling agent, the polling agent being configured to use the stored account login information to communicate periodically with the one or more secondary email services to determine if electronic messages have been received by the secondary accounts since the polling agent last communicated with the one or more secondary email services and, if so, to retrieve the received messages from the one or more secondary email services and forward the retrieved messages to the primary account; and

delivering messages forwarded to the primary account to the mobile device;

wherein the polling agent is independent of the mobile device;

wherein the account login information regarding each of the primary account and the secondary accounts includes a password;

wherein electronic messages sent to the secondary accounts are forwarded to the primary account by the email integration service.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

contacting the secondary email services and authenticating the account login information.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

establishing a sent-from email address to be included as a sender address in email messages transmitted by the preferred email service.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the sent-from address is selected by a user of the preferred email service.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein if the email message being transmitted from the preferred email service relates to a previous email message received by one of the secondary accounts and forwarded to the primary account, then the sent-from address being dynamically set by the preferred email service to correspond with the one of the secondary accounts.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein forwarding of electronic messages from the secondary accounts to the primary account permits a user associated with the primary account and the secondary accounts to receive electronic messages sent to either the primary account or the secondary accounts by accessing only the primary account.