Electronic mail software with modular integrated authoring/reading software components including methods and apparatus for controlling the interactivity between mail authors and recipients
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. An electronic mail client system, comprising:
- a) a mail handling component for sending and receiving electronic mail; and
b) an authoring/reading component for creating electronic mail messages and for reading electronic mail messages,said authoring/reading component having at least two modes of authoring,said modes being selectable by said authoring/reading component when creating an electronic mail message, whereinone mode causes the electronic mail message to be displayed with all of the information in the message visible when read by the recipient'"'"'s authoring/reading component and another mode causes the electronic mail message to be displayed with only a subset of the information in the message visible when read by another recipient'"'"'s authoring/reading component.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Electronic mail software includes a main email component and a number of installable components which communicate bidirectionally with the email component through an application programming interface (API). The installable components include authoring/reading components and a mailbox browser/editor component. The main email component provides an underlying graphical user interface (GUI) for functions directly associated with the storage and transfer of electronic mail messages and also handles all data bundling and unbundling that may be required to transform a message created by an authoring component into a fully MIME compliant message. In addition, the main email component includes “hooks” (an application programming interface or API) for the attachment of the installable components. The authoring/reading components each provide functionality particular to the type of document the component is designed to create/display. Some modular components, or messages created by them, have assigned “roles” whereby senders and recipients of certain email documents are provided different kinds of access to the documents.
185 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An electronic mail client system, comprising:
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a) a mail handling component for sending and receiving electronic mail; and b) an authoring/reading component for creating electronic mail messages and for reading electronic mail messages, said authoring/reading component having at least two modes of authoring, said modes being selectable by said authoring/reading component when creating an electronic mail message, wherein one mode causes the electronic mail message to be displayed with all of the information in the message visible when read by the recipient'"'"'s authoring/reading component and another mode causes the electronic mail message to be displayed with only a subset of the information in the message visible when read by another recipient'"'"'s authoring/reading component. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An electronic mail system, comprising:
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a) a first electronic mail client having a first authoring/reading component for creating and reading electronic mail messages; and b) a second electronic mail client having a second authoring/reading component for creating and reading electronic mail messages, wherein said first authoring/reading component creates messages in a first mode and a second mode, and said second authoring/reading component reads messages in the second mode, a message read in said second mode allows a recipient of the message to see only a subset of the information contained in the message, and said message read in said first mode allows another recipient to see all information in the message. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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11. An electronic mail client system, comprising:
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a) a plurality of authoring/reading components for creating and viewing representations of information; b) encoding means for automatically encoding representations created with said authoring/reading components into an Internet compatible email message; and c) decoding means for automatically decoding said representations encoded by said encoding means, wherein at least one of said authoring/reading components is responsive to a role mode encoded in an email message whereby said role mode determines how much information in said email message will be displayed. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of corresponding by electronic mail, comprising:
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a) creating a representation of information; b) encoding the representation into an Internet-compatible email message; c) sending the email message to an email client; and d) decoding the email message at the email client, wherein the email client is responsive to a role mode encoded in the email message whereby the role mode determines how much information in said email message will be displayed by the email client, and the sender of the message controls the role mode. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification