Systems, methods and computer program products for electronic information transfer by a sender

• US 7,756,934 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2006
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Starr, Robert, Liu, Jerry, Carter, Sharon E., Silver, Edward M., Moore, Darryl C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thieu; Benjamin M
• Application Number:
  US11/377,048
• Publication Number:
  US 20070220095A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,580 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207, 709/200, 709/229, 709/201, 709217-219
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method for electronic information transfer by a sender. The method includes composing an electronic message on a sender terminal. At least one announcement file is associated with an attribute of the electronic message, the announcement file configured for playing at a recipient terminal upon the recipient terminal receiving the electronic message. The electronic message and the association to the announcement file is sent over a network to a recipient at the recipient terminal. Embodiments include a computer program product for implementing the method.

Claims

1. A method for electronic information transfer by a sender comprising:

composing an electronic message on a sender terminal, the sender terminal storing announcement files;

associating at least one announcement file with an attribute of the electronic message, the announcement file configured for playing at a recipient terminal upon the recipient terminal receiving the electronic message, the announcement file configured to be played indicating to the recipient that an email has arrived and the recipient standard new email notification being suppressed, wherein associating an attribute of the electronic message with the announcement file includes using message urgency, a sender address and a subject of the electronic message to associate the message with the at least one announcement file;

wherein the announcement file includes a first bit indicating whether the announcement file is a directly accessed announcement file or an address to an announcement file, two second bits, indicating the type of the announcement file and whether the announcement file is compressed, a two third bits, indicating the types of indirect paths to the announcement file;

sending the electronic message and the announcement file as an attachment to the electronic message over a network to a recipient at the recipient terminal;

wherein the attaching the announcement file to the electronic message includes defining an announcer identifier in a message header, the announcer identifier including a first bit to indicate the presence of an announcement file, two second bits indicating the number of announcement files associated with the message.

2. The method for electronic information transfer as set forth in claim 1 wherein the announcement file is one of a set of downloaded announcements files, the downloaded announcement files having a common theme.

3. The method for electronic information transfer as set forth in claim 1 wherein the associating includes associating at least one of an audio file or a video file with an attribute of the electronic message.

4. The method for electronic information transfer as set forth in claim 1 wherein the associating includes associating at least one link to the announcement file.

5. The method for electronic information transfer as set forth in claim 4 wherein the link to the announcement file is a hyperlink to an announcement file stored on a third-party server.

6. The method for electronic information transfer as set forth in claim 5 wherein the link to the announcement file is a hyperlink to a codec used to play the announcement file.

7. A system for electronic information transfer by a sender, the system comprising:

a sender terminal, said sender terminal comprising;

an email application for composing an electronic message on said sender terminal and attaching an announcement file;

an associated announcement file library including a plurality of announcement files and a matrix of announcement associations associating at least one announcement file with an attribute of the electronic message, the announcement file configured for playing at a recipient terminal upon the recipient terminal receiving the electronic message, the announcement file configured to be played indicating to the recipient that an email has arrived and the recipient standard new email notification being suppressed;

an association function matching attributes of the electronic message with the announcement associations to associate at least one announcement file with the electronic message, wherein associating an attribute of the electronic message with the announcement file includes using message urgency, a sender address and a subject of the electronic message to associate the message with the at least one announcement file;

wherein the announcement file includes a first bit indicating whether the announcement file is a directly accessed announcement file or an address to an announcement file, two second bits. indicating the type of the announcement file and whether tile announcement file is compressed, a two third bits, indicating the types of indirect paths to the announcement file;

wherein the attaching the announcement file to the electronic message includes defining an announcer identifier in a message header, the announcer identifier including a first bit to indicate the presence of an announcement file, two second bits indicating the number of announcement files associated with the message.

8. A computer program product for electronic information transfer by a sender, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for facilitating a method comprising;

composing an electronic message on a sender terminal, the sender terminal storing announcement files;

associating at least one announcement file with an attribute of the electronic message, the announcement file configured for playing at a recipient terminal upon the recipient terminal receiving the electronic message, the announcement file configured to be played indicating to the recipient that an email has arrived and the recipient standard new email notification being suppressed, wherein associating an attribute of the electronic message with the announcement file includes using message urgency, a sender address and a subject of the electronic message to associate the message with the at least one announcement file;

wherein the announcement file includes a first bit indicating whether the announcement file is a directly accessed announcement file or an address to an announcement file, two second bits, indicating the type of the announcement file and whether the announcement tile is compressed, a two third bits, indicating the types of indirect paths to the announcement file;

sending the electronic message and the announcement file as an attachment to the electronic message over a network to a recipient at the recipient terminal;

wherein the attaching the announcement file to the electronic message includes defining an announcer identifier in a message header, the announcer identifier including a first bit to indicate the presence of an announcement file, two second bits indicating the number of announcement files associated with the message.

9. A method for electronic information transfer by a sender comprising:

composing an electronic message on a sender terminal;

associating at least one announcement file with an attribute of the electronic message, the announcement file configured for playing at a recipient terminal upon the recipient terminal receiving the electronic message, the announcement file configured to be played indicating to the recipient that an email has arrived and the recipient standard new email notification being suppressed;

sending the electronic message and the association to the announcement file over a network to a recipient at the recipient terminal;

wherein associating the announcement file includes associating the announcement file in response to identity of the recipient of the message;

wherein associating the announcement file includes associating the announcement file in response to the urgency of the message, the size of the message and the subject matter of the content of the message;

wherein associating the announcement file includes associating the announcement file in response to a sender email address;

wherein associating the announcement file includes associating the announcement file in response to a recipient email address;

wherein the attaching the announcement file to the electronic message includes setting an announcer identifier bit in a message header to indicate the presence of an announcement file;

wherein the associating includes associating at least one link to the announcement file;

wherein the link to the announcement file is a hyperlink to an announcement file stored on a third-party server;

wherein the link to the announcement file is a hyperlink to a codec used to play the announcement file.