System and method for processing encoded messages

• US 8,335,823 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2004
• Issued: 12/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Brown, Michael K., Brown, Michael S., Little, Herbert A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Salad, Abdullahi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Keehn, Richard G
• Application Number:
  US10/916,098
• Publication Number:
  US 20050071508A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,051 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0442 wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for public-key encryption H04L9/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/168 above the transport layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/106 Packet or message integrity

Abstract

Systems and methods for processing encoded messages within a wireless communication system. A server within the wireless communication system provides one or more indications to a mobile device as to certain conditions existing with respect to an encoded message. The mobile device performs a different message processing function based upon whether the indication is provided. The indications may include indicating whether a message exceeds a message size threshold and/or may indicate whether a partial message is being sent.

Claims

1. A method for handling an encoded message provided by a sender to a server, comprising:

receiving at the server a first message, the first message being the encoded message, wherein the encoded message comprises a secure message;

wherein the server removes any attachment data from the encoded message;

determining at the server whether a second message, which is a portion of the encoded message that is less than the entire encoded message of the sender, or a third message, which is the entire encoded message of the sender, is to be sent to a wireless mobile communications device;

generating at the server a message status indication about the received encoded message;

wherein the message status indication also indicates if an attachment has been removed from the encoded message;

determining a message size of the encoded message after any and all attachments are removed from the encoded message; and

sending the message status indication and message data in separate transmissions to the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein the message data sent to the wireless mobile communications device is either the second message or the third message;

wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device that an encoding-related operation is not to be performed by the wireless mobile communications device when the second message is sent to the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device that the encoding-related operation is to be performed by the wireless mobile communications device when the third message is sent to the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein the encoding-related operation is a secure message-related operation;

wherein based upon the message size of the encoded message, the wireless mobile communications device does not perform the secure message-related operation upon the message data provided by the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message received by the server from the sender comprises the entire encoded message of the sender.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message received by the server from the sender comprises only a portion of the entire encoded message of the sender.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the provided information about the message size indicates that the size of the encoded message did not satisfy the message size criterion,

wherein the wireless mobile communications device attempts to perform the secure message-related operation if the message status indication is not provided by the server or if the message status indication indicates that the message size satisfied the message size criterion.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the message data is a signed message, wherein the message data comprises only a first portion of the encoded message because of the size of the encoded message;

wherein the server sends the message status indication to the wireless mobile communications device in a first encoded message portion which indicates that the encoded message is too large for digital signature verification by the wireless mobile communications device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the generated message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device that the digital signature of the encoded message has already been verified by the server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the wireless mobile communications device authenticates the encoded message after the server has provided enough of the encoded message to the wireless mobile communications device for the wireless mobile communications device to authenticate the encoded message.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the wireless mobile communications device that receives the first message portion is notified that the wireless mobile communications device cannot verify the signature on the wireless mobile communications device, thereby obviating the wireless mobile communications device from repeatedly requesting an additional encoded message portion in an attempt to verify the received message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoded message was encoded through one or more of the following techniques:

an S/MIME technique, a PGP technique, an OpenPGP, or a digital signing technique.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device to delay performing the secure message-related operation until enough of the encoded message has been provided to the wireless mobile communications device for the wireless mobile communications device to perform the secure message-related operation upon the encoded message.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the message data sent to the wireless mobile communications device comprises a first portion of the encoded message;

wherein the server sends the message status indication to the mobile device indicating that the encoded message is too large for digital signature verification by the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein the first message portion is made available for display on the wireless mobile communications device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated message status indication provided by the server to the wireless mobile communications device indicates that only a portion of the entire encoded message has been sent to the wireless mobile communications device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device to delay performing the secure message-related operation until enough of the encoded message has been provided to the wireless mobile communications device for the wireless mobile communications device to perform the secure message-related operation upon the encoded message.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the server provides additional portions of the encoded message as the encoded message is provided to the server.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless mobile communications device is provided with only a portion of the encoded message sent from the sender;

wherein the wireless mobile communications device partially populates one or more software objects with the information contained in the provided portion of the encoded message.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more partially populated software objects are used in displaying the provided portion of the encoded message on the wireless mobile communications device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the wireless mobile communications device displays additional portions of the encoded message as additional message portions are provided by the server.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the message status indication indicates to a computing device that the secure message-related operation is not to be performed upon the encoded message;

providing the message status indication and at least a portion of the encoded message to the computing device.

19. A method for handling encoded messages by a wireless mobile communications device, comprising the steps of:

receiving at a server a first message, the first message being the encoded message, wherein the encoded message comprises a secure message;

wherein the server removes any attachment data from the encoded message;

determining at the server whether a second message, which is a portion of the encoded message that is less than the entire encoded message of the sender, or a third message, which is the entire encoded message of the sender, is to be sent to a wireless mobile communications device;

generating at the server a message status indication about the received encoded message;

wherein the message status indication also indicates if an attachment has been removed from the encoded message;

wherein the server determines a message size of the encoded message after any and all attachments are removed from the encoded message;

receiving from the server the message status indication and message data in separate transmissions at the wireless mobile communications device;

using the message status indication to determine whether an encoding-related operation is to be performed upon the portion of the encoded message received by the wireless mobile communications device,

wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device that an encoding-related operation is not to be performed by the wireless mobile communications device when the second message is sent to the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device that the encoding-related operation is to be performed by the wireless mobile communications device when the third message data is sent to the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein the encoding-related operation is a secure message-related operation;

wherein based upon the message size of the encoded message, the wireless mobile communications device does not perform the secure message-related operation upon the message data provided by the server;

generating a notification to communicate the message status indication to the wireless mobile communications device display; and

displaying on the wireless mobile communications device the received second or third message.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device to delay performing a secure message-related operation until enough of the encoded message has been provided to the wireless mobile communications device for the wireless communications device to perform the secure message-related operation upon the encoded message.

21. An apparatus for handling an encoded message provided by a sender to a server, comprising:

a processor;

processor executable instructions for receiving at the server a first message, the first message being an encoded message, wherein the encoded message is a secure message;

processor executable instructions for the server to remove any attachment data from the encoded message;

processor executable instructions for determining whether a second message, which is a portion of the first message that is less than the entire first message, or a third message, which is the entire first message, is to be sent to a wireless mobile communications device;

processor executable instructions for generating at the server a message status indication about the received encoded message; and

processor executable instructions wherein the message status indication also indicates if an attachment has been removed from the encoded message;

processor executable instructions for determining a message size of the encoded message after any and all attachments are removed from the encoded message;

processor executable instructions for sending the message status indication and message data in separate transmissions to the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein the message data sent to the wireless mobile communications device is either the second message or the third message;

wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device that an encoding-related operation is not to be performed by the wireless mobile communications device when the second message is sent to the wireless mobile communications device;

wherein the message status indication indicates to the wireless mobile communications device that the encoding-related operation is to be performed by the wireless mobile communications device when the third message is sent to the wireless mobile communications device,

wherein the encoding-related operation is a secure message-related operation;

wherein based upon the message size of the encoded message, the wireless mobile communications device does not perform the secure message-related operation upon the message data provided by the server.