Method and apparatus for forwarding emails to previous recipients

• US 7,818,385 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2007
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Naick, Indran, Wilson, Jeff K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Ashok B
• Assistant Examiner(s): GAZDA, JOSEPH P
• Application Number:
  US11/940,058
• Publication Number:
  US 20090125596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,070 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

The illustrative embodiments of the present invention described herein provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for forwarding a reply email message. The process dynamically inserts email addresses associated with a plurality of recipients of an original email message and with an email address associated with the sender of the original email message into a recipient field of the reply email message. The email address associated with the sender of the original email message is identified to form an identified email address, wherein a copy of the reply email message is unsent to the identified email address. However, the identified email address remains part of the recipient field. In response to receiving a send command, the reply email message is sent to the email addresses associated with the recipient field excluding the identified email address.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for forwarding an email message, the computer implemented method comprising:

receiving a request to forward the email message to form an email message to be forwarded;

automatically determining, by a processing unit, whether the email message to be forwarded was a reply email message, wherein automatically determining that the email message to be forwarded is a reply email message comprises;

determining that the email message to be forwarded was previously sent in response to an original email message; and

determining that the email message to be forwarded was only sent to a sender of the original email message;

responsive to a determination that the email message to be forwarded was the reply email message, determining whether the original email message was previously sent to a plurality of recipients;

responsive to a determination that the original email message was previously sent to the plurality of recipients, automatically inserting email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients of the original email message and an email address associated with the sender of the original email message into a recipient field of the email message to be forwarded;

automatically identifying the email address associated with the sender of the original email message to form an identified email address, wherein the email message to be forwarded is unsent to the identified email address and wherein the identified email address remains part of the recipient field of the email message to be forwarded; and

sending the email message to be forwarded to the email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients of the original email message excluding the identified email address to form a forwarded email message.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending an update email message to the identified email address.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2 wherein the update email message requests authorization to update a list of recipients associated with the reply email message that was previously sent only to the sender of the original email message.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

responsive to receiving the authorization, locating, on a data processing system associated with the sender of the original email message, the reply email message that was previously sent to the sender of the original email message; and

updating the list of recipients in the reply email message that was previously sent to the sender of the original email message with the email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining if a chain of emails is associated with the reply email message that was previously sent to the sender, wherein the chain of emails are emails that were sent in response to the reply email message that was previously sent to the sender prior to the step of updating the list of recipients associated with the reply email message; and

responsive to a determination that the chain of emails exist, forwarding the chain of emails to the email addresses associated with the plurality of recipients.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

requesting authorization to forward the chain of emails to the email addresses associated with the plurality of recipients prior to the step of forwarding the chain of emails.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying text associated with the reply email message prior to sending.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining if the email message is a reply email message is performed prior to the step of receiving a request to forward the email message.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the email message is not a reply email address, disabling a command associated with the request to forward the email message.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the recipient field associated with the reply email prior to sending, wherein modifying adds or deletes email addresses to the recipient field.

11. A computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium including computer usable program code for forwarding an email message, the computer program product comprising;

computer usable program code for receiving a request to forward the email message to form an email message to be forwarded;

computer usable program code for automatically determining whether the email message to be forwarded was a reply email message, wherein automatically determining that the email message to be forwarded was a reply email message comprises;

computer usable program code for determining that the email message to be forwarded is an email message that was previously sent in response to an original email message; and

computer usable program code for determining that wherein the email message to be forwarded was only sent to a sender of the original email message;

computer usable program code for determining whether the original email message was previously sent to a plurality of recipients in response to a determination that the email message to be forwarded was the reply email message;

computer usable program code for automatically inserting email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients of the original email message and an email address associated with the sender of the original email message into a recipient field of the email message to be forwarded in response to a determination that the original email message was previously sent to the plurality of recipients;

computer usable program code for automatically identifying the email address associated with the sender of the original email message to form an identified email address, wherein the email message to be forwarded is unsent to the identified email address and wherein the identified email address remains part of the recipient field of the email message to be forwarded; and

computer usable program code for sending the email message to be forwarded to the email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients of the original email message excluding the identified email address to form a forwarded email message.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

computer usable program code for sending an update email message to the identified email address.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the update email message requests authorization to update a list of recipients associated with the reply email message that was previously sent only to the sender of the original email message.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

computer usable program code for locating, on a data processing system associated with the sender of the original email message, the reply email message that was previously sent to the sender of the original email message in response to receiving the authorization; and

computer usable program code for updating the list of recipients in the reply email message that was previously sent to the sender of the original email message with the email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

computer usable program code for determining if a chain of emails is associated with the reply email message that was previously sent to the sender, wherein the chain of emails are emails that were sent in response to the reply email message that was previously sent to the sender prior to the step of updating the list of recipients associated with the reply email message; and

computer usable program code for forwarding the chain of emails to the email addresses associated with the plurality of recipients in response to a determination that the chain of emails exist.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

requesting authorization to forward the chain of emails to the email addresses associated with the plurality of recipients prior to the step of forwarding the chain of emails.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

computer usable program code for modifying text associated with the reply email message prior to sending.

18. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the computer usable program code for determining if the email message is a reply email message is performed prior to the computer usable program code for receiving a request to forward the email message.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

computer usable program code for disabling a command associated with the request to forward the email message in response to a determination that the email message is not a reply email address.

20. An apparatus comprising:

a bus system;

a communications system connected to the bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes computer usable program code; and

a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code to;

receive a request to forward the email message to form an email message to be forwarded;

automatically determine whether the email message to be forwarded was a reply email message, wherein to automatically determine that the email message to be forwarded was a reply email message comprises the processing unit executes the computer usable program code to;

determine that the email message to be forwarded was previously sent in response to an original email message; and

determine that the email message to be forwarded was only sent to a sender of the original email message;

determine whether the original email message to be forwarded was previously sent to a plurality of recipients in response to determination that the email message was the reply email message;

automatically insert email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients of the original email message and an email address associated with the sender of the original email message into a recipient field of the email message to be forwarded in response to a determination that the original email message was previously sent to the plurality of recipients;

automatically identify the email address associated with the sender of the original email message to form an identified email address, wherein the email message to be forwarded is unsent to the identified email address and wherein the identified email address remains part of the recipient field of the email message to be forwarded; and

send the email message to be forwarded to the email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients of the original email message excluding the identified email address to form a forwarded email message.