Method, article of manufacture and apparatus for deleting electronic mail documents

• US 6,772,397 B1
• Filed: 06/12/2000
• Issued: 08/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bates, Cary Lee, Santosuosso, John Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Blackwell, James H
• Application Number:
  US09/591,982
• Time in Patent Office: 1,513 Days
• Field of Search: 715/526, 715/513, 715/512, 713/201, 710/5, 709/313, 709/245, 709/207, 709/206
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for deleting electronic mail (e-mail) documents. Specifically, the method selects a first e-mail document having a primary message and at least one contained message, determines whether a second e-mail document is substantially similar to one of the contained messages, and deletes the first e-mail document and the second e-mail document that is substantially similar to one of the contained messages. As such, the method not only deletes the selected e-mail document but also e-mail documents that are substantially similar to one of the contained messages.

Claims

1. A method for deleting electronic mail documents addressed to, and received by, a recipient, comprising:

receiving a first electronic mail document having a primary message and at least one contained message;

opening the first electronic mail document;

initiating a deletion routine configured to ensure deletion of related e-mails with respect to the opened first electronic mail document, the routine comprising;

determining whether a second electronic mail document, also addressed to and received by the recipient includes a primary message that is substantially similar to the at least one contained message; and

deleting the first electronic mail document, and the second electronic mail document if the primary message of the second electronic mail document is substantially similar to the at least one contained message;

wherein the primary messages are the current messages of the respective electronic messages and the at least one contained a message is a historical message of the first electronic mail document.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining and deleting are repeated for each of the contained messages of the first electronic mail document.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining and deleting are recursively performed on the second electronic mail document if the second electronic mail document comprises at least one contained message.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining comprises identifying the primary message of the second electronic mail document that is substantially similar to the at least one contained message.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the identifying occurs if the primary message of the second electronic mail document has a substantially similar identifier field as the at least one contained message.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the identifier field comprises at least one from the group of user information, subject information and timestamp information.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining comprises parsing the first electronic mail document into the at least one contained message.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the determining is performed for each of the at least one contained message of the first electronic mail document.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the second electronic mail document comprise at least one electronic mail document from the group of previously opened, unopened and previously sent electronic mail messages.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the deletion routine is initiated in response to an election, by a user, to delete the first electronic mail document.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the deleting comprises:

marking the first electronic mail document and the second electronic mail document that is substantially similar to the at least one contained message; and

deleting the marked electronic mail documents upon confirmation from a user.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the marked electronic mail documents are displayed on a list.

13. An apparatus for deleting electronic mail documents comprising:

a memory for storing (i) a plurality of received electronic mail documents addressed to a recipient and (ii) a delete routine; and

a processing unit, coupled to the memory, for executing the delete routine retrieved from the memory, selecting a first electronic mail document having been received and opened by the recipient and having a primary message and at least one contained message, identifying other electronic mail documents that are also addressed to the recipient and that include primary messages that are substantially similar to the at least one contained message, and deleting the first electronic mail document and the identified electronic mail documents;

wherein the primary messages are the current messages of the respective electronic mail documents and the at least one contained message is a historical message of the first electronic mail document.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising a display unit, coupled to the processing unit, for displaying the first electronic mail document and a list of the identified electronic mail documents.

15. A computer readable medium storing a software program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method comprising:

selecting a first electronic mail document addressed to and opened by a recipient and having a primary message and at least one contained message;

determining whether a second electronic mail document, also addressed to and received by the recipient, includes a primary message that is substantially similar to the at least one contained message; and

deleting the first electronic mail document, and the second electronic mail document if the primary message of the second electronic mail document is substantially similar to the at least one contained message;

wherein the primary messages are the current messages of the respective electronic mail documents and the at least one contained message is a historical message of the first electronic mail document.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the determining and deleting are repeated for each of the contained messages of the first electronic mail document.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the determining and deleting are recursively performed on the second electronic mail document if the second electronic mail document comprises at least one contained message.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the determining comprises identifying the primary message of the second electronic mail document that is substantially similar to the at least one contained message.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18 wherein the identifying occurs if the primary message of the second electronic mail document has a substantially similar identifier field as the at least one contained message.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the identifier field comprises at least one from the group of user information, subject information and timestamp information.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the determining comprises parsing the first electronic mail document into the at least one contained message.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the determining is performed for each of the at least one contained message of the first electronic mail document.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the second electronic mail document comprise at least one electronic mail document from the group of previously opened, unopened and previously sent electronic mail messages.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the selecting comprises opening the first electronic mail document.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the method is initiated in response to an election, by a user, to delete the first electronic mail document.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the deleting comprises:

marking the first electronic mail document and the second electronic mail document that is substantially similar to the at least one contained message; and

deleting the marked electronic mail documents upon confirmation from a user.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26 wherein the marked electronic mail documents are displayed on a list.