Method and apparatus for propagating address change in an email

• US 9,350,694 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2006
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Farrell, Colm, Ogle, David M., O'Sullivan, Patrick J., Smyth, Hugh P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donabed, Ninos
• Assistant Examiner(s): Richardson, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US11/423,472
• Publication Number:
  US 20070124394A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,634 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

There is provided a system, method and computer program product for managing an email comprising a plurality of email boxes with corresponding email addresses; a first selector for selecting, in one email box, an email that has been sent to at least one addressee; a second selector for selecting an incorrect email address in the sent email corresponding to an incorrect addressee; a change service for changing, in the sent email, the incorrect address to the correct address; and a distributor for making the change service available to at least one recipient box.

Claims

1. A system for managing emails comprising:

a computing system having at least one computer device, including;

a plurality of email boxes with corresponding email addresses;

a first selector for selecting, by a user, an email in one email box that has been sent to a plurality of addressees;

a second selector for selecting, by the user, an incorrect email address in the email corresponding to an incorrect addressee, the incorrect email address being a valid email address for a person other than an intended recipient;

a change service for changing, in the sent email or a corresponding sent email, the incorrect email address to a correct email address;

a seek service for, in response to the changing, seeking other emails in the email box that are linked to the sent email and which include the incorrect addressee and for selectively changing each occurrence of the incorrect email address in each linked email to the correct email address; and

a distributor for, in response to the changing, making available the change service to at least one other email box that received the sent email or a corresponding sent email, or that contains an email linked to the sent email, wherein, on execution of the change service in the other email box, selectively changing each occurrence of the incorrect email address to the correct email address in the sent email, each corresponding sent email, and each linked email.

2. A system according to claim 1 wherein the change service is a change executable for changing, in the sent email or corresponding sent email, the incorrect email address to the correct email address.

3. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a third selector for selecting, on execution of the change service, a correct email address.

4. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a permission service for requesting permission from a recipient email box user before executing the change service at the recipient email box.

5. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a monitor service available to the recipient email box with the change service, wherein, on execution of the monitor service, the monitor service checks for the incorrect addressee in email on the recipient email client and, on detection of the incorrect addressee, initiates the change service.

6. A system according to claim 1 wherein the initiation of the change service is initiated by a recipient of the sent email and made available to the sender of the sent email or it is initiated by a sender of the sent email and made available to at least one addressee email client.

7. A system according to claim 5 wherein the change service and monitor service are made available to recipients located in a central email directory.

8. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a mark service for marking the changed email to indicate that a change has been made.

9. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

an undo service for undoing the change and for making available with the change service whereon execution of the undo service a change is undone.

10. A system according to claim 1 further comprising:

a propagate service for making available the services to the other email addresses.

11. A computer program product comprising non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable code stored thereon for managing an email system comprising a plurality of email boxes with corresponding email addresses, said computer readable code, which when loaded onto a computer system and executed, performs the steps of:

selecting, by a user, an email in one email box that has been sent to a plurality of addressees;

selecting, by the user, an incorrect email address in the email corresponding to an incorrect addressee, the incorrect email address being a valid email address for a person other than an intended recipient;

providing a change service for changing, in the sent email or one or more corresponding sent emails, the incorrect email address to a correct email address;

seeking, in response to the changing, other emails in the email box that are linked to the sent email and which include the incorrect addressee and selectively changing each occurrence of the incorrect email address in each linked email to the correct email address; and

providing, in response to the changing, the change service to at least one other email box that received the sent email or a corresponding sent email, or that contains an email linked to the sent email, wherein, on execution of the change service in the other email box, selectively changing each occurrence of the incorrect email address to the correct email address in the sent email, each corresponding sent email, and each linked email.