System and method for integrating electronic mail accounts
First Claim
1. A system for integrating a plurality of active electronic mail (email) accounts, comprising:
- a preferred email service to send and receive electronic messages over a wide area network;
a plurality of secondary email services to send and receive electronic messages over the wide area network;
an email integration service coupled to the wide area network to receive and store account 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
a polling agent that is configured by the email integration service using the stored account information to configure a polling agent;
the polling agent using the stored account 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.
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A system for integrating a plurality of active electronic mail (email) accounts, comprising:
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a preferred email service to send and receive electronic messages over a wide area network; a plurality of secondary email services to send and receive electronic messages over the wide area network; an email integration service coupled to the wide area network to receive and store account 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 a polling agent that is configured by the email integration service using the stored account information to configure a polling agent; the polling agent using the stored account 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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A system for integrating a plurality of active electronic mail (email) accounts, comprising:
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a preferred email service to send and receive electronic messages over a wide area network; a plurality of secondary email services to send and receive electronic messages over the wide area network; an email integration service coupled to the wide area network to receive and store account 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), the email integration service using the stored account 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. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
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10. A method of integrating a plurality of secondary email services that manage active email accounts and a preferred email service that manages an active email account:
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receiving account information at an 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 information; and the email integration service using the stored account 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; wherein electronic messages sent to the secondary accounts are forwarded to the primary account by the email integration service. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of integrating a plurality of secondary email services that manage active email accounts and a preferred email service that manages an active email account:
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receiving account information at an 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 information; and the email integration service using the stored account information for the secondary accounts to establish a polling agent, the polling agent being configured to use the stored account 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; wherein electronic messages sent to the secondary accounts are forwarded to the primary account by the email integration service. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification