Processing electronic messages

• US 9,176,970 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2013
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sanebox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sanebox, Inc.
• Inventors: Roseman, Stuart, Lange, Kristoffer, Gloudon, Jason, Yanowitz, Jason, Kovacs, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Waldron, Scott A
• Application Number:
  US13/968,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20150052177A1
• Time in Patent Office: 809 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for processing electronic messages. The system includes a communications module configured to interoperate with a plurality of email servers and coupled to a message processing module. The message processing module is configured to identify inbound messages and process such messages based on statistical analysis, user training, and shared rules. The system is compatible with most existing email clients and servers. The invention also relates to methods for processing messages and methods for training message processing systems.

Claims

1. A method for processing electronic messages, comprising:

connecting, with an application, to an email account located upon a remote message server, wherein the email account is associated with a user;

determining one or more sent folders located upon the remote message server and associated with the email account, wherein the one or more sent folders comprise messages sent by the user;

retrieving, from the remote message server, header information for one or more sent messages located within the sent folders;

determining a recipient for each of the sent messages using the respective header information;

storing, to a database, training information comprising a mapping between one or more of the sent message recipients and importance levels, wherein the importance level associated with a given recipient is determined based upon a number of messages sent to the given recipient;

determining a source folder located upon the remote message server and associated with the email account;

retrieving, from the remote message server, header information for one or more unprocessed messages located within the source folder;

determining a sender for each of the unprocessed message using the respective header information;

determining, for at least one of the unprocessed messages, target folder located upon the remote message server using training information associated with the respective sender, wherein the database includes training information associated with the respective sender; and

issuing a command to the remote message server to move the at least one unprocessed message from the source folder to the respective target folder, wherein the source folder is a different folder than the target folder.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

issuing a command to the remote message server to delete one or more of the unprocessed messages from the source folder.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing a processed message record in a database, the processed message record having a message identifier for the at least one unprocessed message and a folder identified for the target folder.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

fetching a user account record from a database, the account record having a plurality of authentication tokens; and

authenticating with the message server using the plurality of authentication tokens.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein at least one of the plurality of authentication tokens is encrypted.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein connecting to an email account located upon a remote message server comprises connecting to a remote email server using Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a notification from the remote message server in response to a message being delivered to the source folder.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting that the target folder was renamed upon the remote message server,

wherein issuing a command to the remote message server to move the at least one unprocessed message from the source folder to the respective target folder comprises issuing a command having a new target folder name.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein detecting that the target folder was renamed comprises:

fetching a plurality of folder records from a database, each folder record having a last known folder identifier;

retrieving a plurality of current folder identifiers from the remote message server, and

comparing the plurality of last known folder identifiers to the plurality of current folder identifiers.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the at least one unprocessed message was moved from the target folder to a second folder located upon the remote message server; and

updating the stored training information to change the importance level associated with a sender of the at least one unprocessed message.

11. A computer system, comprising:

a microprocessor; and

an application configured to execute on the microprocessor and to;

connect, with an application, to an email account located upon a remote message server, wherein the email account is associated with a user;

determine one or more sent folders located upon the remote message server and associated with the email account, wherein the one or more sent folders comprise messages sent by the user;

retrieve, from the remote message server header information for one or more sent messages located within the sent folder;

determine a recipient for each of the sent messages using the respective header information;

store, to a database, training information comprising a mapping between one or more of the sent message recipients and importance levels, wherein the importance level associated with a given recipient is determined based upon a number of messages sent to the given recipient;

determine a source folder located upon the remote message server and associated with the email account;

retrieve, from the remote message server, header information for one or more unprocessed messages located within the source folder;

determine a sender for each of the unprocessed messages using the respective header information;

determine, for at least one of the unprocessed messages, a target folder located upon the remote message server using training information associated with the respective sender, wherein the database includes training information associated with the respective sender; and

issue a command to the remote message server to move the at least one unprocessed message from the source folder to the respective target folder, wherein the source folder is a different folder than the target folder.

12. The system of claim 11, herein the application configured to connect to an email account located upon a remote email server using Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the application is further configured to detect that the target folder was renamed upon the remote message server.

14. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer medium, the computer program product comprising instructions for:

connecting, with an application, to an email account located upon a remote message server, wherein the email account is associated with a user;

determining one or more sent folders located upon the remote message server and associated with the email account, wherein the one or more sent folders comprise messages sent by the user;

retrieving, from the remote message server, header information for one or more sent messages located within the sent folders;

determining a recipient for each of the ent messages using the respective header information;

storing, to a databases, training information comprising a mapping between one or more of the sent message recipients and importance levels, wherein the importance level associated with a given recipient is determined based upon a number of messages sent to the given recipient;

determining a source folder located upon the remote message server and associated with the email account;

retrieving, from the remote message server, header information for one or more unprocessed messages located within the source folder;

determining a sender for each of the unprocessed messages using the respective header information;

determining, for at least one of the unprocessed messages, a target folder located upon the remote message server using training information associated with the respective sender, wherein the database includes training information associated with the respective sender; and

issuing a command to the remote message server to move the at least one unprocessed message from the source folder to the respective target folder, wherein the source folder is a different folder than the target folder.

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

detecting that the target folder was renamed upon the remote message server,

wherein issuing a command to the remote message server to move the at least one unprocessed message from the source folder to the respective target folder comprises issuing a command having a new target folder name.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising instructions for:

determining that the at least one unprocessed message was moved from the target folder to a second folder located upon the remote message server; and

updating the stored training information to change the importance level associated with a sender of the at least one unprocessed message.