System and method for electronic mail attachment processing, offloading, retrieval, and grouping
First Claim
1. A method for processing the file attachments of electronic mail messages, comprising:
- receiving an electronic mail message with an attachment, the electronic mail message being addressed to at least one recipient;
determining if a copy of the attachment exists in local or remote storage; and
if a copy of the attachment exists in local or remote storage,removing the attachment and replacing it with a means for accessing the copy of the attachment from local or remote storage; and
forwarding the electronic mail message with the means for accessing the copy of the attachment from local or remote storage to the at least one recipient.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Method, system, and software for the processing, offloading, retrieval, and efficient grouping of electronic mail message file attachments. Software processes and methods are disclosed that are used in server software, client software, and algorithms to process electronic mail attachments, store them to a local computer or remote server and to retrieve such attachments. Additionally, processes for automatically and logically grouping related attachments together according to a variety of heuristics are disclosed, as well as processes for automatically deleting or archiving attachments in response to detection that electronic mail messages are deleted.
31 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A method for processing the file attachments of electronic mail messages, comprising:
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receiving an electronic mail message with an attachment, the electronic mail message being addressed to at least one recipient; determining if a copy of the attachment exists in local or remote storage; and if a copy of the attachment exists in local or remote storage, removing the attachment and replacing it with a means for accessing the copy of the attachment from local or remote storage; and forwarding the electronic mail message with the means for accessing the copy of the attachment from local or remote storage to the at least one recipient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method, comprising:
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detecting a request from an e-mail client to access the file attached to an electronic message, the request containing database lookup indicia; performing a database query with the database lookup indicia, the database query returning a storage location of a copy of the file; retrieving a copy of the file from the storage location; returning the copy of the file to the e-mail client; and updating the database to indicate a most-recent time for which access to the file was requested. - View Dependent Claims (9)
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10. A method for processing the file attachments of electronic mail messages, comprising:
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receiving an electronic mail message with an attached file; determining if the attached file is a similar to an existing file stored locally or remotely in a sub-directory; and if the attached file is similar to a file stored locally or remotely, storing the attached file in the same sub-directory as the existing file. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. A method for processing the file attachments of electronic mail messages, comprising:
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receiving an electronic mail message with an attachment, the electronic mail message being addressed to a plurality of recipients; storing a copy of the attachment to at least one of local or remote storage; removing the attachment and replacing it with a means for accessing the copy of the attachment from local or remote storage; forwarding the electronic mail message with the means for accessing the copy of the attachment from local or remote storage to each of the plurality of recipients; detecting that each of the plurality of recipients have deleted their copy of the electronic mail message; and
, in response thereto,deleting the copy of the attachment from at least one of local and remote storage. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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Specification