Address book for integrating email and instant messaging (IM)

• US 20040186896A1
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Published: 09/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uber Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Daniell, W. Todd, Friedman, Lee G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,707,254 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• 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 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

Systems and methods for integrating instant messaging (IM) services and email services are described. In one embodiment, the email services and IM services are integrated through an address book database. The address book database correlates email information of a contact with a reference identifier (ID). Additionally, one or more IM addresses of the contact are also correlated to the reference ID, thereby permitting further correlation of a contact'"'"'s IM information with the contact'"'"'s email information.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving an instant messaging (IM) address of a contact;

receiving an email address of a contact;

correlating the IM address to a single reference identifier (ID), the single reference ID being adapted to identify the individual contact; and

correlating the email address to the single reference ID.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an email address of the individual contact; and

correlating the email address of the individual contact to the reference ID.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlating the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference ID.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an address of the individual contact; and

correlating the address of the individual contact to the reference ID.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving personal information of the individual contact; and

correlating the personal information of individual contact to the reference ID.

6. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving user input, the user input comprising multiple instant messaging (IM) addresses of an individual contact, the multiple IM addresses comprising IM addresses from different IM accounts, each of the different IM accounts being adapted to transmit and receive IM messages using a different IM protocol; and

correlating each of the multiple IM addresses to a single reference identifier (ID), the single reference ID being adapted to identify the individual contact.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an email address of the individual contact; and

correlating the email address of the individual contact to the reference ID.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlating the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference ID.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an address of the individual contact; and

correlating the address of the individual contact to the reference ID.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

receiving personal information of the individual contact; and

correlating the personal information of individual contact to the reference ID.

11. A system comprising:

receive logic configured to receive user input, the user input comprising multiple instant messaging (IM) addresses of an individual contact, the multiple IM addresses comprising IM addresses from different IM accounts, each of the different IM accounts being adapted to transmit and receive IM messages using a different IM protocol; and

correlate logic configured to correlate each of the multiple IM addresses to a single reference identifier (ID), the single reference ID being adapted to identify the individual contact.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

receive logic configured to receive an email address of the individual contact; and

correlate logic configured to correlate the email address of the individual contact to the reference ID.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving an email address of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the email address of the individual contact to the reference ID.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

receive logic configured to receive a telephone number of the individual contact; and

correlate logic configured to correlate the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference ID.

15. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving a telephone number of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the telephone number of the individual contact to the reference ID.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

receive logic configured to receive an address of the individual contact; and

correlate logic configured to correlate the address of the individual contact to the reference ID.

17. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving an address of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the address of the individual contact to the reference ID.

18. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

receive logic configured to receive personal information of the individual contact; and

correlate logic configured to correlate the personal information of individual contact to the reference ID.

19. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving personal information of the individual contact; and

means for correlating the personal information of individual contact to the reference ID.