Email filtering methods and systems

• US 7,072,942 B1
• Filed: 02/04/2000
• Issued: 07/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Maller, Steven T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dharia, Rupal
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shingles, Kristie D.
• Application Number:
  US09/497,992
• Time in Patent Office: 2,342 Days
• Field of Search: 709/209, 709/206, 709/207, 709/219, 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

Various embodiments of the invention address two critical problems that current email service providers face. First, there is the problem of maintaining high levels of customer service when email server systems are inundated with spam. Second, there is the problem of reducing the system-wide impact that spam has on the email delivery system. Current embodiments are directed to determining whether an email message is an unwanted bulk email message without necessarily considering the message that is conveyed by any portion of the email message. Through analyses of patterns of delivery of these email messages, profiles are built that allow an email server to ascertain whether there is a likelihood that any one particular email message constitutes an unwanted email message. If an email message is determined to likely constitute an unwanted email message, then memory-saving measures are implemented. In preferred embodiments, one copy of the email message is saved at a central, shared location that can be accessed by each of the intended recipients. This avoids having to replicate the email message across the system for each of the recipients.

Claims

1. An email screening method comprising:

defining an index having values that are assigned to various degrees of desirability that an email message can have, wherein the degrees of desirability extend from a low degree of desirability to a high degree of desirability;

associating a plurality of parameters having parameter values with the various degrees of desirability, wherein at least some of the parameters do not depend on any message that is conveyed by any content of an email message;

establishing a user interface through which a user can adjust individual parameter values that, in turn, establish a degree of desirability, and index values that themselves establish a degree of desirability that email messages must have in order to be saved to dedicated user storage locations; and

evaluating, using a computing device comprising part of an email system in which, for at least some users of the system, a client user interface email environment is generated through use of HTML or web pages that are sent to client devices, incoming email messages against the index value that is defined by the user.

2. The email screening method of claim 1, wherein the parameter values are adjustable.

3. The email screening method of claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is associated with the number of specified recipient addresses.

4. The email screening method of claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is associated with a percentage of invalid specified recipient addresses.

5. The email screening method of claim 1, wherein one of the parameters is associated with the size of an email message.