Electronic mail system with aggregation and integrated display of related messages

• US 7,870,204 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Appriver Canada, ULC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: 0733660 Bc Ltd.
• Inventors: Astudillo, Esteban, McLean, Matt, Chen, Kung Ming, LeVasseur, Thierry, Rasmussen, Jeremy, Houg, Derek
• Primary Examiner(s): Follansbee; John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Nghi V
• Application Number:
  US11/427,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20070005715A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,656 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/207
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/68 Special signature format, e.g. XML format
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 : the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 : above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/306 : intercepting packet switched data communications, e.g. Web, Internet or IMS communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 : using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 : involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 : involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. Embodiments of the system may include various features, including but not limited to: (1) secure transfer of e-mail messages, without the need for users to replace existing e-mail clients or to change e-mail addresses; (2) tracking of all actions performed in connection with an e-mail transmission; (3) the ability for a recipient to view information about an e-mail message, optionally including information about how other addressees have responded to it, before deciding whether to retrieve the e-mail message; (4) the aggregation of entire e-mail conversations into a single threaded view; (5) the ability to include both private and public messages in a single e-mail communication; (6) sender control over downstream actions performed in connection with an e-mail message; (7) flexible control over cryptographic methods used to encrypt emails messages for storage.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating viewing of e-mail messages, comprising:

receiving, at a server system, an original e-mail message for sending, from a sender to a plurality of recipients, the original e-mail message associated with a unique message ID that is assigned by the server system;

receiving, at the server system, a plurality of reply messages addressed to the sender from each of the plurality of recipients, where the plurality of reply messages are each associated with a parent message ID that is the unique message ID of the original e-mail message, and where the plurality of reply messages are associated with the original e-mail message without analyzing subject line text or other message text of the original e-mail message and the plurality of reply messages;

storing the reply message at the server system in association with the parent message ID;

combining the plurality of reply messages from the plurality of recipients into a single e-mail inbox entry that represents the plurality of reply messages, the combining being based on the association of the parent message ID with the plurality of reply messages; and

in response to a request initiated by the sender in connection with the single e-mail inbox entry;

retrieving the plurality of reply messages from the server system based on the parent message ID;

for a logical threading mode, displaying the plurality of reply messages to the senders as part of a single logical e-mail message;

wherein a first subset of reply messages received from a first recipient is displayed in a first selectable tab of a tabbed display, and a second subset of reply messages received from a second recipient is displayed in a second selectable tab of the tabbed display, and wherein the single logical e-mail message is displayed in a third selectable tab of the tabbed display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the plurality of reply messages comprises displaying a plurality of tabs, each of which is selectable to view a corresponding one of the plurality of reply messages.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the single logical e-mail message additionally includes the original e-mail message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the single inbox entry additionally represents at least one reply to one of the plurality of reply messages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the plurality of reply messages to the sender as part of a single logical e-mail message is performed, at least in part, by an e-mail client plug-in that communicates with the server system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of displaying the plurality of reply messages to the sender as part of a single logical e-mail message is performed, at least in part, by a web-based e-mail interface.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising including in the single logical e-mail message at least one e-mail message generated by a user by forwarding the original e-mail message or one of the reply messages.

8. An e-mail system, comprising the server system having a processor and code executable by the processor to perform the method of claim 1.

9. The method of claim 1, where at least one of the reply messages does not include the original e-mail message.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before receiving the original e-mail message for sending;

receiving a request from the sender to send the original e-mail message using a secure e-mail service at the server system, and

authorizing the sender to send the original e-mail message using the secure e-mail service,

where the authorizing is based on the sender being subscribed to the secure e-mail service.

11. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

assigning a first identifier to an original e-mail message sent from a sender to plurality of recipients;

receiving a plurality of reply messages associated with the first unique identifier from the plurality of recipients, said plurality of reply messages including reply messages from at least two different recipients of the original e-mail message and said plurality of reply messages being associated with the first unique identifier without analyzing subject line text or other message text of the original e-mail message and the plurality of reply messages;

assigning a second unique identifier to one of the plurality of reply messages;

receiving at least one reply to the one of the plurality of reply messages, the at least one reply associated with the second unique identifier;

storing the original e-mail message and the plurality of reply messages to said original e-mail message on a sever system in association with said first unique identifier of the original e-mail message;

storing the at least one reply on the server system in association with the second unique identifier of the one of the plurality of reply messages; and

automatically aggregating at least the original e-mail message, the plurality of reply messages, and the at least one reply of an e-mail conversation into a threaded display using the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier, the threaded display being displayed in a tabbed interface;

wherein a first subset of reply messages received from a first recipient is displayed in a first selectable tab of a tabbed display, and a second subset of reply messages received from a second recipient is displayed in a second selectable tab of the tabbed display, and wherein the single logical e-mail message is displayed in a third selectable tab of the tabbed display.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method comprises automatically arranging the messages in the threaded display in chronological order.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising representing at least the plurality of reply messages as a single entry in an inbox of the sender.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising including in the threaded display a separate tab for each of the plurality of recipients, each tab being selectable view only the e-mail messages sent by that recipient.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises dividing the conversation into sub-conversations, each of which comprises multiple e-mail messages, and displaying each sub-conversation as a respective message thread.

16. A computer-implemented method of facilitating viewing of an e-mail conversation, comprising:

identifying a plurality of e-mail messages of an e-mail conversation, said plurality of e-mail messages including, at least, an originating e-mail message sent to a plurality of recipients, reply messages from at least two of the recipients, and at least one reply to one of said reply messages,

Wherein the reply messages from the at least two of the recipients each have a first parent message ID that is a unique message ID of the originating e-mail messages, where the reply messages are associated with the originating e-mail message without analyzing subject line text or other message text of the originating e-mail message and the reply messages,

wherein the at least one reply to one of said reply messages has a second parent message ID that is a unique reply message ID of the one of the reply messages from the at least two of the recipients, where the at least one reply to the one of said reply messages is associated with the one of said reply messages without analyzing the subject line text or other message text of the one of said reply messages and the at least one reply to the one of said reply messages, and

wherein identifying the plurality of e-mail messages of the e-mail conversation includes identifying that one of the reply messages is part of the e-mail conversation based on the first parent message ID and identifying that the at least one reply to one of said reply messages is part of the e-mail conversation based on the second parent message ID; and

wherein a first subset of reply messages received from a first recipient is displayed in a first selectable tab of a tabbed display, and a second subset of reply messages received from a second recipient is displayed in a second selectable tab of the tabbed display, and wherein the single logical e-mail message is displayed in a third selectable tab of the tabbed display;

identifying a plurality of sub-conversations of the e-mail conversation based on one or more of the first parent message ID and the second parent message ID, where a first sub-conversation includes a different respective sequence of e-mail messages than a second sub-conversation; and

generating a separate, chronological display of each sub-conversation.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising displaying, for each sub-conversation, a set of controls for filtering the display to reply messages from a particular recipient.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating a separate inbox entry for each sub-conversation in an inbox of a sender of the originating e-mail message.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon an executable computer program that embodies the method of claim 16.