US20080195713A1 - Method and system for transmitting an electronic message - Google Patents
Method and system for transmitting an electronic message Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- US20080195713A1 US20080195713A1 US11/983,798 US98379807A US2008195713A1 US 20080195713 A1 US20080195713 A1 US 20080195713A1 US 98379807 A US98379807 A US 98379807A US 2008195713 A1 US2008195713 A1 US 2008195713A1
- Authority
- US
- United States
- Prior art keywords
- electronic message
- server
- user device
- electronic
- user
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Abandoned
Links
Images
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/38—Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
- G06Q20/08—Payment architectures
- G06Q20/10—Payment architectures specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
- G06Q20/38—Payment protocols; Details thereof
- G06Q20/385—Payment protocols; Details thereof using an alias or single-use codes
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
- G06Q20/38—Payment protocols; Details thereof
- G06Q20/40—Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
- G06Q20/401—Transaction verification
- G06Q20/4014—Identity check for transactions
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q40/00—Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
- H04L51/00—User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
- H04L51/21—Monitoring or handling of messages
- H04L51/212—Monitoring or handling of messages using filtering or selective blocking
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/436—Arrangements for screening incoming calls, i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2201/00—Electronic components, circuits, software, systems or apparatus used in telephone systems
- H04M2201/18—Comparators
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M2203/00—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M2203/20—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges related to features of supplementary services
- H04M2203/2005—Temporarily overriding a service configuration
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/38—Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections
- H04M3/382—Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections using authorisation codes or passwords
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
- H04M3/42025—Calling or Called party identification service
- H04M3/42034—Calling party identification service
Definitions
- aspects of the invention relate to a method and system for transmitting an electronic message in a communication system. More specifically, aspects relate to a method and system for transmitting an electronic message from a first user device to a second user device, the system comprising at least a first server and a second server communicatively connected to each other and to the first and second user device.
- E-mail spam may generally be defined as unsolicited and/or undesired e-mail messages received by an e-mail recipient.
- e-mail spam filters can be installed both on the side of the server and on the side of the client devices to detect and delete e-mail spam messages without troubling the user.
- these filters analyse e-mail messages and match the analysis results against e-mail spam rules in order to recognize e-mail spam.
- e-mail spam rules are designed on the basis of known typical characteristics of e-mail spam messages, such as the number of addressees in the e-mail header or the occurrence of certain words in the e-mail body.
- e-mail spam filters are installed, the filters analyze each individual e-mail message in order to detect e-mail spam messages. As a consequence, message transfer is delayed and resources are wasted.
- a system for transmitting an electronic message from a first user device to a second user device.
- the system comprises at least a first server and a second server communicatively connectable to each other and to the first and second user device respectively.
- the first server is arranged for receiving and storing the electronic message from the first user device and for transmitting a portion of the electronic message to the second server.
- a portion of an electronic message may e.g. comprise one or more fields of the electronic message or a new portion assembled on the basis of fields or characteristics of the electronic message.
- the second server is arranged for receiving said portion of the electronic message from said first server and for presenting the portion of said electronic message to said second user device.
- the first server is arranged for transmitting the electronic message to the second user device upon selection of the portion of said electronic message at the second user device.
- a method for transmitting an electronic message from a first user device to a second user device includes receiving and storing an electronic message from a first user device by a first server and transmitting a portion of the electronic message to a second server.
- the portion of the electronic message is provided to a second user device.
- the electronic message is transmitted from the first server to the second user device in response to selection of the portion of the electronic message at the second user device.
- the applicant also proposes a computer program and a carrier (e.g. computer readable media) containing such a computer program, wherein the computer program contains software code portions or instructions capable of, when installed in and executed by an electronic device, performing the method described in the previous paragraph.
- a carrier e.g. computer readable media
- the portion may e.g. be less than 200 bytes or even less than 100 bytes.
- the bandwidth requirements for the transmission of only such small portions of the electronic message are, therefore, lower and, moreover, mail duplication is not required. Also, filtering of electronic spam messages is not required for these portions. If the addressee has an interest in obtaining the complete electronic message, he may select the portion of the electronic message for retrieving the complete electronic message.
- the portion contains a retrieval key for the complete electronic message at the first server.
- claims 2 , 3 , 18 and 19 define that message duplication is limited or even excluded, resulting in an improved use of the (electronic) resources.
- first and second server may be integrated, either physically or conceptually.
- a single server system connected to multiple addressees of an electronic message may provide the addressees with only a portion of the electronic message before providing the option of retrieving the complete electronic message.
- claims 5 and 21 has the advantage that the ‘mailbox’ of the addressees of the electronic message is built up dynamically from the first server(s) upon a request from the second user device. It should be appreciated, however, that the portion of the electronic message may also be transmitted from the first server to one or more second servers by pushing, i.e. independent of a query.
- the embodiments of claims 6 and 22 allow addressees to inform the system of possible electronic spam.
- the perception of human beings of an electronic message is the best guarantee of spam recognition.
- the spam notification signal received by the system may initiate operations by the system on the electronic message (and possible other previous or future electronic messages), the sender of the electronic message and/or addressee(s) of the electronic message.
- the spam notification signal may be regarded as an order to the server system.
- a (first) reader of the electronic message may qualify an electronic message as spam and, by sending the spam notification signal, restrict access to the electronic message for further addressees. Consequently, (electronic) resources are saved.
- the applicant proposes to use (in one embodiment solely use) one or more spam notification signals from users to detect electronic spam messages and, upon receipt of such one or more spam notification signals, to restrict access to the corresponding electronic message for other (users of) user devices.
- the server system thus allows that addressees of an electronic message themselves determine what electronic messages are spam messages and that the addressees are subsequently able to determine the access (rights) of other addressees to that message.
- the other (users of) user devices may not display or download the electronic message.
- Spam filters using spam recognition rule sets, spam parameters and criteria may be absent in the server system, at least for those electronic messages for which a spam notification signal has been received.
- claims 10 and 26 define that the portion(s) of the electronic message are also deleted, e.g. after having received the spam notification signal. These embodiments may e.g. be applied for restricting access for the user of the second user device to approach the corresponding e-mail.
- the embodiment of claim 11 provides the advantage of establishing a subscriber-only system for electronic message distribution. Since the subscribers are known, e-mail spammers and other abusers of the system can be identified and excluded from participation. Moreover, this embodiment allows identification of users of the server system.
- the embodiment of claim 12 prevents the possibility of sniffing the identity of participants to the system and to transmit e-mail messages under a false identity.
- Secure communication may be realized by one or more known techniques, such as encrypting data or providing secure network connections.
- claims 13 and 27 provide the advantage of enabling users to restrict access to other previous and/or future electronic messages from the same source on the basis of a sender identification of an electronic message for which a spam notification signal was received. Provisions can be made to mitigate the severity of such a measure for the sender on the basis of various parameters, such as the number of offenses of the sender.
- the applicant proposes to restrict access to other electronic messages for addressees of the electronic message for which the at least one spam notification signal was received in dependence of a communication history between said sender and said one or more addressees from which a spam notification signal was received.
- access restriction to other electronic messages may be performed immediately if the sender is unknown to the recipient (e.g. if the sender and recipient have not exchanged electronic messages previously). However, if the sender and recipient know each other, access to other electronic messages is not restricted at once (but possibly only after spam notification signals have been received for different electronic messages).
- the embodiments of claims 14 and 28 provide the possibility of the system sending a warning signal to the sender of the electronic message for which a spam notification signal was received. This allows for providing the sender with information concerning the consequences of further offenses.
- the consequence of restricting access to the system can be obtained by the embodiments of claims 15 and 29 .
- the consequence of no longer giving access to the system may be mitigated.
- the applicant proposes to restrict access to the system for senders of the electronic message for which the at least one spam notification signal was received in dependence of a communication history between said sender and one or more addressees from which the spam notification signal was received.
- access restriction to the system may be performed immediately if the sender is unknown to a recipient (e.g.
- the system may employ spam filters in addition to the functionality described in the present application for reducing the proliferation of electronic message.
- spam filters in addition to the functionality described in the present application for reducing the proliferation of electronic message.
- the operation of the server system as defined above operates independently from the operation of these possible spam filters
- the embodiments of claims 16 and 30 define the application of programmable database(s).
- Programmable databases allow for the programming of predetermined responses in dependence on the type of request received.
- the users are allowed to perform an operation (requests) on a database, wherein the response of the database is e.g. the restriction of access for other addressees of the electronic message, the restriction of access to other electronic messages of the same source and/or the exclusion of the sender from the system.
- a programmable database allows for monitoring relations between several parameters.
- FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a system according to an embodiment of the invention
- FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a system according to an embodiment of the invention.
- FIGS. 3A and 3B show a schematic example of a server of the system according to FIGS. 1 and 2 ;
- FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating a method according to an embodiment of the invention.
- FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a system according an embodiment of the invention.
- FIG. 6 shows a flow chart depicting steps of a method for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages for the communication system of FIG. 5 .
- FIG. 7 shows an exemplary model for a database of a server of a server system according to an embodiment of the invention.
- FIG. 1 shows a system 1 comprising a first server 2 and a second server 3 connected via a network 4 .
- the first server 2 is connected to a first user station I.
- the second server 3 is connected to a second user station II and a third user station III.
- the components of the system 1 are connected by network connections 5 , 6 which are also present in the network 4 .
- the network 4 and the network connections 5 may involve multiple networks, both wired and wireless.
- the connection of the user devices I, II and III is not necessarily direct to the servers 2 and 3 .
- the first, second and third user devices I, II and III are arranged for sending and receiving electronic messages, such as e-mail messages, and may be personal computers, mobile communication devices etc.
- FIG. 2 shows an alternative system 1 , wherein the servers 2 and 3 have been integrated to a single server 2 .
- the processes described below may be internal processes.
- FIGS. 3A and 3B show a schematic example of a server 2 and/or server 3 of the system 1 according to FIGS. 1 and 2 .
- servers 2 and 3 are arranged as described below.
- the server 2 , 3 comprises a processor 10 , a memory 11 , a network adapter 12 for communicating with the first, second and third user devices I, II and III and a database 13 . It should be appreciated that the server 2 , 3 is normally capable of connecting to more than the three user devices I, II and III shown in FIG. 1 .
- server 2 , 3 The specific functions of the server 2 , 3 are schematically illustrated in FIG. 3B and will now be described in further detail. It should be appreciated that the functions may be largely implemented as software code portions of one or more computer programs running on the processor 10 .
- the server 2 , 3 is arranged to receive electronic messages from the first user device I.
- the server 2 , 3 comprises an electronic message receiver 15 arranged for receiving an electronic message or a portion thereof and an electronic message transmitter 16 arranged for transmitting an electronic message or a portion thereof to another server and/or the second user device II and/or third user device III.
- the server 2 , 3 further comprises an instruction signal receiver 17 arranged to receive an instruction signal from the second and third user devices II, III to present received electronic messages at these devices.
- the server 2 , 3 also comprises a query issuer 18 for issuing a query for portions of electronic messages addressed to the addressee from which the instructions signal has been received.
- the query from the query issuer is received by a query receiver 19 arranged to provide a portion of the electronic message on the basis of data from the database 13 as will be described in further detail below.
- the portion(s) of the electronic message may also be pushed instead of being retrieved by via a query.
- the query receiver 19 may be replaced by a portion pusher 19 and the query issuer 18 may be replaced by a portion push receiver 18 .
- the query option is typically more attractive from the perspective of saving electronic resources.
- the server 2 , 3 may also contain a spam notification receiver 20 arranged for receiving a spam notification signal from the second/third user device II, III related to the electronic message or the portion thereof. Also, the server 2 , 3 has an access restrictor 21 arranged for restricting access to the electronic message for the (user of) the third user device III in response to receiving said spam notification signal from the second user device II.
- the server 2 , 3 has a register 22 storing a unique login code comprising a user name and a user specific password required for accessing the system 1 for each user of the user devices I, II and III.
- the server 2 , 3 contains an encrypter 23 for encrypting part or all communications between the system 1 and the first, second and third user devices I, II, and III. It is noted that alternatively, or in addition thereto, the network connections 5 , 6 may be secured. Secure communication prevents or reduces the possibility of sniffing identities of (the users of) the first, second and third user device I, II and III.
- the server 2 , 3 has an electronic mail deleter 24 for deleting the electronic mail and the copies and/or portions thereof, if any, in response to the spam notification signal from the second/third user device II, III.
- the server 2 , 3 has a sender identification storage 25 arranged for storing a sender identification of a sender of the electronic message for which the spam notification signal receiver 15 received a spam notification signal, i.e. the identification of the user of the first user device I in the present case. If other (past of future) electronic messages have been received or are received from this user, the access restrictor 21 may use the sender identification to restrict access to these further electronic messages for the third user device III automatically, i.e. without requiring a further spam notification signal for these further electronic messages.
- the access restrictor 21 may be arranged such that e.g. access is restricted for the (user of the) third user device III for a particular time period or to a part of the other electronic messages. However, the access restrictor 21 may also prevent downloading of the electronic message to said third user device III or prevent display of the electronic message on the third user device III. Of course, the access restrictions for the other electronic messages may also apply directly for the (user of the) second user device II.
- a communication history between a sender and the recipient from which a spam notification signal was received may be taken into account. For example, if the users of the first user device I and the second user device II have not been engaged in electronic message exchange before (i.e. the users don't ‘know’ each other), the receiving of the spam notification signal may immediately result in preventing other addressees from downloading or displaying other past and future electronic messages. However, if the user of the first user device I and the second user device II have been involved in electronic message exchange in the past (i.e. the users ‘know’ each other), consequences of the spam notification signal may be less severe. Another example of users ‘knowing’ each other may be that each of the users have indicated prior to exchange of electronic message that they will accept electronic messages from each other.
- the server 2 , 3 may contain a counter 26 adapted for counting the number of spam notification signals received for electronic messages of a particular sender and/or for counting the number of times access has been restricted for electronic messages of said sender.
- the server 2 , 3 comprises a warning message transmitter 27 adapted for sending a warning message to a sender of the electronic message for which said spam notification signal was received from the second user device II.
- the server 2 , 3 also comprises an access restrictor 28 adapted to restrict access to the system 1 for a sender of the electronic message for which said spam notification signal was received, i.e. the sender using the first electronic device I. Restriction of the access may involve exempting the user of the first device I from further sending of electronic messages via the system 1 .
- the server 2 , 3 may comprise an assessor module 24 arranged to restrict access to the system in dependence on e.g. the number of spam notification signals received for electronic messages of the sender and/or the number of times access has been restricted for electronic messages of the sender.
- a communication history between a sender and the recipient from which a spam notification signal was received may be taken into account. For example, if the users of the first user device I and the second user device II have not been engaged in electronic message exchange before (i.e. the users don't ‘know’ each other), the receiving of the spam notification signal may immediately result in preventing access to the server system 1 for the sender. However, if the user of the first user device I and the second user device II have been involved in electronic message exchange in the past (i.e. the users ‘know’ each other), consequences of the spam notification signal may be less severe for the user of the first user device I. Another example of users ‘knowing’ each other may be that each of the users have indicated prior to exchange of electronic message that they will accept electronic messages from each other.
- the server 2 , 3 may contain a spam filter (not shown) using a spam rule set, spam parameters and/or spam criteria for detecting, and possibly restricting access to, electronic spam messages.
- the server 2 , 3 is capable of restricting access to the electronic message for the (user of the) second/third device II, III and/or to the system for the sender of the electronic spam message independent from the operation of the spam filter, i.e. solely on the basis of one or more spam notification signals.
- the server system 1 contains an approval module 29 adapted to allow exchange of electronic messages between a sender, e.g. the user of the first user device I, and an addressee, e.g. the user of the second/third user device II, III, only if both the sender and the addressee have signaled approval for said exchange to the access module 29 in advance.
- the computer program running on the user devices I, II and III for sending and receiving electronic messages may e.g. comprise a mandatory address book under the control of the access module 29 . Only by using this address book, a sender may address addressees of the electronic message. Entries in the address book can be made only in response to mutual approval of users to exchange electronic messages.
- FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating a method performed in the system 1 of FIG. 1 using servers 2 , 3 as described with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B . It should be noted that the method also applies for the system 1 depicted in FIG. 2 .
- Part A of the timing diagram illustrates the steps for transmitting an electronic message from a first user device I to a second user device II.
- Part B of the timing diagram illustrates steps of a method when the user of the second device II identifies the received electronic message as a spam message.
- the electronic message receiver 15 of server 2 receives an electronic message from the first user device I over the secure network connection 5 .
- the electronic message is addressed to the users of user devices II and III.
- the user of the first user device may have logged in to the system 1 and has been authenticated using the register 22 .
- the electronic message is stored in the server 2 , more particularly in the database 13 , in accordance with the data model shown in FIG. 7 . Generally, this means that the received electronic message is analyzed and that different parts of the electronic message are identified and stored as separate fields in the database 13 . Instead of a complete electronic message, the electronic message may arrive at the server 2 in separate fields.
- step 41 a user of the second user device II, possibly also having logged in to the system 1 using the register 22 , opens his mailbox. In doing so, the second user device II transmits an instruction signal that is received by the instruction signal receiver 17 of the second server 3 .
- a query issuer 18 of the second server 3 issues a query to the first server 2 for portions of electronic messages for which the user of the second user device II is the addressee. This step is illustrated as step 42 in FIG. 4 .
- the query is received by a query receiver 19 of the first server 2 .
- the query is performed in the database 13 to provide a portion of the electronic message received from the first user device I.
- the portion may comprise one or more fields stored in the database 13 relating to the received electronic message from the first user device.
- the portion includes a retrieval key, identifying the location where the complete electronic message can be retrieved from.
- step 43 the electronic message transmitter 16 of the first server 2 transmits the thus provided portion of the electronic message to the second server 3 that displays the portion to the (user of the) second user device II.
- the mailbox of the user of the second user device II is built up dynamically, i.e. substantially each time the user of the second user device II opens his mailbox, the system 1 is queried for portions of electronic messages (which may reside at different servers) addressed to this user and the retrieved portions form the mailbox.
- the query option may be replaced by a push option.
- a portion of the electronic message is transmitted to server 2 automatically.
- the portion of the electronic message is already present at the second server 3 .
- the second user device II decides that the electronic message is of interest to him, he may select the portion of the electronic message.
- the second user device II Upon selection of the portion, the second user device II initiates a selection message in step 44 that is received by a selection message receiver of the first server 2 using the retrieval key of the portion of the electronic message.
- step 45 the complete electronic message is retrieved from the database 13 by the second user device II.
- the first reader e.g. the user of the second user device II
- accepts the electronic message as a desired message a spam notification signal will not be received by the spam notification receiver 20 of the system 1 . Consequently, the user of the third user device III may also access the electronic message.
- the user of the second user device II qualifies the contents of the electronic message as spam, he may transmit a spam notification signal relating to the electronic spam message to the first server 2 .
- the user of the second user device II may e.g. send a spam notification signal by activating a dedicated button on a user interface of the second user device II.
- the spam notification signal is detected by the spam notification signal receiver 20 of the first server 2 in step 50 .
- the system 1 may perform a variety of operations in response to receiving the spam notification signal from the second user device II.
- the e-mail deleter 24 may delete the electronic message from the first server 2 , i.e. delete one or more fields in the database 13 relating to the electronic spam message, and also delete the portion of the electronic message at the second server 3 , indicated by step 51 .
- the access restrictor 28 may restrict access to the system 1 for (the user of) the first user device I for which the spam notification signal was received, as indicated in step 52 . Restriction of the access may involve exempting the user of the first device I from further sending of electronic messages via the system 1 . As such a measure may be harsh on the user of the first user device I, access to the system 1 may be restricted in dependence on e.g. the number of spam notification signals received for electronic messages of the sender and/or the number of times access has been restricted for electronic messages of the sender, using counter 26 . In particular, if the sender and recipient have exchanged electronic messages before, access restriction to the system may be only performed after a certain number of spam notification signals from a recipient, using counter 26 .
- a warning signal may be transmitted to the user of the first user device I by the warning signal transmitter 27 .
- the warning signal may point this user to the consequences of continuing providing electronic spam messages.
- the access restrictor 21 of the first server 2 restricts access for (a user of) the third user device III to the electronic message.
- An example of how such an embodiment would operate is indicated by steps 53 - 55 in FIG. 4 .
- the user of the third user device III opens his mailbox and an instruction signal is received by the instruction signal receiver 17 of the second server. Again a query is issued to the first server 1 , indicated by step 54 .
- a portion of the electronic message may not be retrieved from the database 13 . Therefore, indicated by the cross in step 55 of FIG.
- the portion will not be used for building up the mailbox of the user of the third user device III. Therefore, the user of the third user device III will not be able to retrieve the electronic message. In fact, in the present embodiment, the user of the third user device III will not even be aware of the electronic spam message.
- Another example of the operation of the system 1 in response to receiving a spam notification signal includes the following.
- the user of the first user device I distributing the electronic spam message is known to the system 1 , e.g. by having stored in register 22 a unique login code comprising a user name and a user specific password required for accessing the system 1 .
- the sender identification storage 25 may have stored the identity of the sender of the electronic spam message. If an other electronic message is sent or has been sent (not necessarily an electronic spam message), it is determined that for this sender a spam notification signal has been received. Access to these other (previous or future) messages of the sender may therefore be denied automatically. Consequently, neither the second user device II nor the third user device III will have access to these other electronic messages.
- FIG. 5 shows a system 1 comprising several servers 2 A, 2 B and 2 C in communicative connection with each other.
- the servers 2 A, 2 B and 2 C together form the system 1 .
- the connections 50 connecting the servers 1 A, 1 B and 1 C constitute an inner ring.
- the first, second and third user devices I, II and III may connect to different servers 2 A, 2 B and 2 C of this inner ring, as shown in FIG. 5 , either directly or via further servers (not shown).
- Each of the first, second and third user devices I, II and III may also access the servers 2 B and 2 C; 2 A and 2 C and 2 A and 2 B, respectively without using the inner ring formed by the connections 50 .
- this outer ring, formed by connections 51 is only drawn for the second user device II.
- Communication may be secured in both the inner ring and the outer ring. This may be done by encrypting communication over the inner ring and outer ring and/or by making use of secure connections.
- Each server 2 A, 2 B, 2 C of the system 1 may contain the same functional modules 15 - 29 as described with reference to FIGS. 3A , 3 B. However, the functional modules may also be distributed over the various servers 2 A, 2 B and 2 C.
- the user of the first user device I sends an electronic spam message to the system 1 with the users of user devices II and III as addressees.
- the electronic message receiver 15 of server 2 A receives the electronic spam message and stores the message in the database 13 in step 60 as described above. Briefly, instead of storing the electronic message as done in a conventional e-mail server, individual parts of the electronic message are stored separately as fields in a database model (see FIG. 7 ).
- the electronic message transmitter 16 transmits an electronic message portion from the first server 2 A to the second server 2 B.
- a portion of the electronic message may e.g. comprise a sender-field, a subject-field and a retrieval key for retrieving the complete electronic message.
- the data size of the portion of the electronic message may be less than 200 bytes.
- the complete electronic message is stored only at server 1 A.
- the push option for distributing the portion of the electronic message to servers 2 B and 2 C may also be used.
- step 62 the portion is presented to the user of the second user device II.
- the electronic message itself may be retrieved in step 63 by the second user device II from the first server 2 A over the connections 51 forming the outer ring by selecting the portion of the electronic message provided from the second server 2 B.
- the user of the third device III may access the electronic message as well.
- the third server 2 C queries servers 2 A and 2 B over connections 50 for portions of electronic messages addressed to his account.
- the first server 2 A provides the third server 2 C with the portion and, upon selection of this portion, the complete electronic message may be downloaded to the third user device III (step 64 ).
- the portion may already be available at the third server 2 C if the push option is used.
- the user of the second user device II qualifies the contents of the electronic message as spam, he may transmit a spam notification signal relating to the electronic spam message to the server 2 A.
- the user of the second user device II may e.g. send a spam notification signal by activating a dedicated button on a user interface of the second user device II.
- the spam notification signal is detected by the spam notification signal receiver 20 of the first server 1 A.
- the access restrictor 21 of the server 1 A restricts access for (a user of) the third user device III to the electronic message, indicated by step 55 .
- the e-mail deleter 24 of the server 1 A may e.g.
- the server 2 A stores only a single copy of the electronic message independent of the number of addressees.
- the addressees are notified of the electronic message by means of portions characterizing the electronic message of small size. This saves a large amount of resources, e.g. transmission capacity.
- the system 1 may provide multiple copies of the electronic message if such an approach proves to be more effective. The number of copies of the electronic message is less than the number of addressees of said electronic message.
- the user of the first user device I distributing the electronic spam message may be known to the server system 1 , e.g. by having stored in register 22 of the system 1 a unique login code comprising a user address and a user specific password required for accessing the system 1 .
- the sender identification storage 20 has stored the identity of the sender of the electronic spam message. If a further electronic message is sent (not necessarily an electronic spam message), it is determined that for this sender a previous spam notification signal has already been received. Access to these further messages of the sender may therefore be denied for the users of both devices II and III. Consequently, neither the (user of the) second user device II nor the third user device III will have access to these further electronic messages.
- the register 22 may be shared by multiple servers 1 A, 1 B and 1 C, as well as the sender identification storage 20 for senders of previous electronic spam messages.
- the system 1 may be triggered, using the spam notification signal, to block access for the user of the first user device I to the system 1 (including the milder variants) or the send a warning message.
- the communication history between a sender and a recipient may be a factor in restricting access to other electronic messages and/or to the system 1 .
- the servers 2 A, 2 B and 2 C of the system 1 are preferably not conventional e-mail servers.
- Such e-mail servers store e-mail messages, duplicate the e-mail messages to the number of addressees and provide the e-mail messages upon request for a particular one of those messages.
- the functionality of these mail servers is rather limited.
- Incoming electronic messages are analyzed and predetermined parts are stored in fields of the database(s)
- the use of databases for the servers 1 A, 1 B and 1 C allows monitoring relations between different fields, as shown in FIG. 7 .
- the recipient status and recipient status date are updated. If a single spam notification signal is sufficient for restricting access to the electronic message for other recipients and to restrict access to the server system 1 for a sender, this status will propagate to the message status and the member status, respectively. By adding a messages status date and a member status data to the data model, flexibility is obtained.
- Fields of the box “messages” may be part of the portion of the electronic message that is pushed or queried in the server system. Examples include the message owner/sender, the message subject and the message sent date.
- the message id relates to the retrieval key for retrieving the complete electronic message.
- the box “contacts” may be eliminated in the database model and a link can be established directly from the box “members” to the box “recipients”.
- the server system 1 may contain an approval module 25 .
- the servers system 1 may be so configured for all the participants that any and all information addressed to them as participants cannot reach them and that, prior to the first communication within the system between two participants A and B, the two participants A and B will first have to go through an arrangement/approval protocol.
Abstract
Description
- The present application is a continuation-in-part of and claims priority of International patent application Serial No. PCT/NL2007/000224, filed Sep. 11, 2007, and published in English the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
- The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. Aspects of the invention relate to a method and system for transmitting an electronic message in a communication system. More specifically, aspects relate to a method and system for transmitting an electronic message from a first user device to a second user device, the system comprising at least a first server and a second server communicatively connected to each other and to the first and second user device.
- E-mail spam may generally be defined as unsolicited and/or undesired e-mail messages received by an e-mail recipient.
- The amount of e-mail spam messages has dramatically increased over the last decade. The reason for that may be found in the huge number of addressees that can be reached with an e-mail at negligible costs. This combination of factors together with the obligatory delivery of e-mail has made e-mail or, more generally, electronic messaging an attractive communication medium for advertisement of a variety of products and services. Collections of e-mail addresses of people all over the world can be bought from numerous parties at very low cost. E-mail spam messages now account for more than 90% of all e-mail messages transmitted over the internet. As a consequence, electronic resources are wasted to a serious extent.
- The increase of the amount of e-mail spam messages has triggered others to provide e-mail spam filters. These filters can be installed both on the side of the server and on the side of the client devices to detect and delete e-mail spam messages without troubling the user. Typically, these filters analyse e-mail messages and match the analysis results against e-mail spam rules in order to recognize e-mail spam. These e-mail spam rules are designed on the basis of known typical characteristics of e-mail spam messages, such as the number of addressees in the e-mail header or the occurrence of certain words in the e-mail body.
- However, new forms of spam will not always be recognized and intercepted by these filters, since the e-mail spam rules are not able to recognize these new forms of spam since these spam rules for the new form of e-mail spam message could not yet have been implemented in the spam filter. As a consequence, a continuous race exists between e-mail spammers and spam filter providers, the latter by definition lagging behind the former. On the other hand, solicited and desired e-mail messages are sometimes filtered from the e-mail box of a recipient, because the e-mail message is qualified as spam as dictated by the e-mail spam rule set of the spam filter.
- Furthermore, if e-mail spam filters are installed, the filters analyze each individual e-mail message in order to detect e-mail spam messages. As a consequence, message transfer is delayed and resources are wasted.
- In view of the foregoing, there is an apparent need in the art for a method and system for transmitting electronic messages wasting less resources.
- This Summary and Abstract are provided to introduce some concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary and Abstract are not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor are they intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, the description herein provided and the claimed subject matter should not be interpreted as being directed to addressing any of the short-comings discussed in the Background.
- A system is proposed for transmitting an electronic message from a first user device to a second user device. The system comprises at least a first server and a second server communicatively connectable to each other and to the first and second user device respectively. The first server is arranged for receiving and storing the electronic message from the first user device and for transmitting a portion of the electronic message to the second server. A portion of an electronic message may e.g. comprise one or more fields of the electronic message or a new portion assembled on the basis of fields or characteristics of the electronic message. The second server is arranged for receiving said portion of the electronic message from said first server and for presenting the portion of said electronic message to said second user device. The first server is arranged for transmitting the electronic message to the second user device upon selection of the portion of said electronic message at the second user device.
- Furthermore, a method for transmitting an electronic message from a first user device to a second user device is proposed. The steps include receiving and storing an electronic message from a first user device by a first server and transmitting a portion of the electronic message to a second server. The portion of the electronic message is provided to a second user device. The electronic message is transmitted from the first server to the second user device in response to selection of the portion of the electronic message at the second user device.
- The applicant also proposes a computer program and a carrier (e.g. computer readable media) containing such a computer program, wherein the computer program contains software code portions or instructions capable of, when installed in and executed by an electronic device, performing the method described in the previous paragraph.
- The applicant has realized that the conventional method and system for transmitting electronic messages using mail servers results in a considerable waste of (electronic) resources. Mail servers typically duplicate a received electronic message for each addressee of the electronic message and fill the mailboxes of each of the addressees of the electronic message with copies of the electronic messages. Given that electronic spam messages are typically directed to large numbers of addressees and such spam messages account for a very large part of electronic message traffic, the waste of resources can easily be understood. Resources are wasted in various ways, e.g. requiring larger transmission capacity of network connections and heavy processing by servers for mail duplication. Moreover, spam filters are installed, that need to be updated regularly. Spam filters delay transmission of the electronic message as a result of the filtering process.
- By providing addressees with only a (small) portion of the electronic message instead of the complete electronic message, considerable savings of resources can be obtained. The portion may e.g. be less than 200 bytes or even less than 100 bytes. The bandwidth requirements for the transmission of only such small portions of the electronic message are, therefore, lower and, moreover, mail duplication is not required. Also, filtering of electronic spam messages is not required for these portions. If the addressee has an interest in obtaining the complete electronic message, he may select the portion of the electronic message for retrieving the complete electronic message. The portion contains a retrieval key for the complete electronic message at the first server.
- The embodiments of
claims - The embodiments of
claims - The embodiments of
claims - The embodiments of
claims - The embodiments of claims 7-9 and 23-25 provide an example of such operations. In this embodiment, a (first) reader of the electronic message may qualify an electronic message as spam and, by sending the spam notification signal, restrict access to the electronic message for further addressees. Consequently, (electronic) resources are saved. The applicant proposes to use (in one embodiment solely use) one or more spam notification signals from users to detect electronic spam messages and, upon receipt of such one or more spam notification signals, to restrict access to the corresponding electronic message for other (users of) user devices. The server system thus allows that addressees of an electronic message themselves determine what electronic messages are spam messages and that the addressees are subsequently able to determine the access (rights) of other addressees to that message. As an example, the other (users of) user devices may not display or download the electronic message. Spam filters using spam recognition rule sets, spam parameters and criteria may be absent in the server system, at least for those electronic messages for which a spam notification signal has been received.
- The embodiments of
claims - The embodiment of
claim 11 provides the advantage of establishing a subscriber-only system for electronic message distribution. Since the subscribers are known, e-mail spammers and other abusers of the system can be identified and excluded from participation. Moreover, this embodiment allows identification of users of the server system. - The embodiment of
claim 12 prevents the possibility of sniffing the identity of participants to the system and to transmit e-mail messages under a false identity. Secure communication may be realized by one or more known techniques, such as encrypting data or providing secure network connections. - The embodiments of
claims - The embodiments of
claims 14 and 28 provide the possibility of the system sending a warning signal to the sender of the electronic message for which a spam notification signal was received. This allows for providing the sender with information concerning the consequences of further offenses. The consequence of restricting access to the system can be obtained by the embodiments ofclaims - Of course, the system may employ spam filters in addition to the functionality described in the present application for reducing the proliferation of electronic message. However, the operation of the server system as defined above operates independently from the operation of these possible spam filters
- The embodiments of
claims 16 and 30 define the application of programmable database(s). Programmable databases allow for the programming of predetermined responses in dependence on the type of request received. As an example, for spam notification, the users are allowed to perform an operation (requests) on a database, wherein the response of the database is e.g. the restriction of access for other addressees of the electronic message, the restriction of access to other electronic messages of the same source and/or the exclusion of the sender from the system. Moreover, a programmable database allows for monitoring relations between several parameters. - Hereinafter, embodiments of the invention will be described in further detail. It should be appreciated, however, that these embodiments may not be construed as limiting the scope of protection for the present invention.
- In the drawings:
-
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a system according to an embodiment of the invention; -
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a system according to an embodiment of the invention; -
FIGS. 3A and 3B show a schematic example of a server of the system according toFIGS. 1 and 2 ; -
FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating a method according to an embodiment of the invention; -
FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a system according an embodiment of the invention; -
FIG. 6 shows a flow chart depicting steps of a method for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages for the communication system ofFIG. 5 , and -
FIG. 7 shows an exemplary model for a database of a server of a server system according to an embodiment of the invention. -
FIG. 1 shows asystem 1 comprising afirst server 2 and asecond server 3 connected via anetwork 4. Thefirst server 2 is connected to a first user station I. Thesecond server 3 is connected to a second user station II and a third user station III. - The components of the
system 1 are connected bynetwork connections network 4. Thenetwork 4 and thenetwork connections 5 may involve multiple networks, both wired and wireless. The connection of the user devices I, II and III is not necessarily direct to theservers - The first, second and third user devices I, II and III are arranged for sending and receiving electronic messages, such as e-mail messages, and may be personal computers, mobile communication devices etc.
-
FIG. 2 shows analternative system 1, wherein theservers single server 2. In this case, the processes described below may be internal processes. -
FIGS. 3A and 3B show a schematic example of aserver 2 and/orserver 3 of thesystem 1 according toFIGS. 1 and 2 . Hereinafter it will be assumed that, although not necessary, bothservers - The
server processor 10, amemory 11, anetwork adapter 12 for communicating with the first, second and third user devices I, II and III and adatabase 13. It should be appreciated that theserver FIG. 1 . - The specific functions of the
server FIG. 3B and will now be described in further detail. It should be appreciated that the functions may be largely implemented as software code portions of one or more computer programs running on theprocessor 10. - The
server - The
server electronic message receiver 15 arranged for receiving an electronic message or a portion thereof and anelectronic message transmitter 16 arranged for transmitting an electronic message or a portion thereof to another server and/or the second user device II and/or third user device III. - The
server instruction signal receiver 17 arranged to receive an instruction signal from the second and third user devices II, III to present received electronic messages at these devices. - The
server query issuer 18 for issuing a query for portions of electronic messages addressed to the addressee from which the instructions signal has been received. The query from the query issuer is received by aquery receiver 19 arranged to provide a portion of the electronic message on the basis of data from thedatabase 13 as will be described in further detail below. It should be noted, however, that the portion(s) of the electronic message may also be pushed instead of being retrieved by via a query. In such a case, thequery receiver 19 may be replaced by aportion pusher 19 and thequery issuer 18 may be replaced by aportion push receiver 18. The query option is typically more attractive from the perspective of saving electronic resources. - The
server spam notification receiver 20 arranged for receiving a spam notification signal from the second/third user device II, III related to the electronic message or the portion thereof. Also, theserver access restrictor 21 arranged for restricting access to the electronic message for the (user of) the third user device III in response to receiving said spam notification signal from the second user device II. - The
server register 22 storing a unique login code comprising a user name and a user specific password required for accessing thesystem 1 for each user of the user devices I, II and III. - Communication over the
network connections server encrypter 23 for encrypting part or all communications between thesystem 1 and the first, second and third user devices I, II, and III. It is noted that alternatively, or in addition thereto, thenetwork connections - The
server electronic mail deleter 24 for deleting the electronic mail and the copies and/or portions thereof, if any, in response to the spam notification signal from the second/third user device II, III. - Furthermore, the
server sender identification storage 25 arranged for storing a sender identification of a sender of the electronic message for which the spamnotification signal receiver 15 received a spam notification signal, i.e. the identification of the user of the first user device I in the present case. If other (past of future) electronic messages have been received or are received from this user, theaccess restrictor 21 may use the sender identification to restrict access to these further electronic messages for the third user device III automatically, i.e. without requiring a further spam notification signal for these further electronic messages. - The access restrictor 21 may be arranged such that e.g. access is restricted for the (user of the) third user device III for a particular time period or to a part of the other electronic messages. However, the
access restrictor 21 may also prevent downloading of the electronic message to said third user device III or prevent display of the electronic message on the third user device III. Of course, the access restrictions for the other electronic messages may also apply directly for the (user of the) second user device II. - In particular, a communication history between a sender and the recipient from which a spam notification signal was received may be taken into account. For example, if the users of the first user device I and the second user device II have not been engaged in electronic message exchange before (i.e. the users don't ‘know’ each other), the receiving of the spam notification signal may immediately result in preventing other addressees from downloading or displaying other past and future electronic messages. However, if the user of the first user device I and the second user device II have been involved in electronic message exchange in the past (i.e. the users ‘know’ each other), consequences of the spam notification signal may be less severe. Another example of users ‘knowing’ each other may be that each of the users have indicated prior to exchange of electronic message that they will accept electronic messages from each other.
- The
server counter 26 adapted for counting the number of spam notification signals received for electronic messages of a particular sender and/or for counting the number of times access has been restricted for electronic messages of said sender. - The
server warning message transmitter 27 adapted for sending a warning message to a sender of the electronic message for which said spam notification signal was received from the second user device II. - The
server access restrictor 28 adapted to restrict access to thesystem 1 for a sender of the electronic message for which said spam notification signal was received, i.e. the sender using the first electronic device I. Restriction of the access may involve exempting the user of the first device I from further sending of electronic messages via thesystem 1. However, theserver assessor module 24 arranged to restrict access to the system in dependence on e.g. the number of spam notification signals received for electronic messages of the sender and/or the number of times access has been restricted for electronic messages of the sender. - In particular, a communication history between a sender and the recipient from which a spam notification signal was received may be taken into account. For example, if the users of the first user device I and the second user device II have not been engaged in electronic message exchange before (i.e. the users don't ‘know’ each other), the receiving of the spam notification signal may immediately result in preventing access to the
server system 1 for the sender. However, if the user of the first user device I and the second user device II have been involved in electronic message exchange in the past (i.e. the users ‘know’ each other), consequences of the spam notification signal may be less severe for the user of the first user device I. Another example of users ‘knowing’ each other may be that each of the users have indicated prior to exchange of electronic message that they will accept electronic messages from each other. - It should be noted that the
server server - Finally, the
server system 1 contains anapproval module 29 adapted to allow exchange of electronic messages between a sender, e.g. the user of the first user device I, and an addressee, e.g. the user of the second/third user device II, III, only if both the sender and the addressee have signaled approval for said exchange to theaccess module 29 in advance. The computer program running on the user devices I, II and III for sending and receiving electronic messages may e.g. comprise a mandatory address book under the control of theaccess module 29. Only by using this address book, a sender may address addressees of the electronic message. Entries in the address book can be made only in response to mutual approval of users to exchange electronic messages. -
FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating a method performed in thesystem 1 ofFIG. 1 usingservers FIGS. 3A and 3B . It should be noted that the method also applies for thesystem 1 depicted inFIG. 2 . Part A of the timing diagram illustrates the steps for transmitting an electronic message from a first user device I to a second user device II. Part B of the timing diagram illustrates steps of a method when the user of the second device II identifies the received electronic message as a spam message. - In
step 40, theelectronic message receiver 15 ofserver 2 receives an electronic message from the first user device I over thesecure network connection 5. The electronic message is addressed to the users of user devices II and III. In advance of sending the electronic message, the user of the first user device may have logged in to thesystem 1 and has been authenticated using theregister 22. The electronic message is stored in theserver 2, more particularly in thedatabase 13, in accordance with the data model shown inFIG. 7 . Generally, this means that the received electronic message is analyzed and that different parts of the electronic message are identified and stored as separate fields in thedatabase 13. Instead of a complete electronic message, the electronic message may arrive at theserver 2 in separate fields. - In
step 41, a user of the second user device II, possibly also having logged in to thesystem 1 using theregister 22, opens his mailbox. In doing so, the second user device II transmits an instruction signal that is received by theinstruction signal receiver 17 of thesecond server 3. - In response to receiving the instruction signal, a
query issuer 18 of thesecond server 3 issues a query to thefirst server 2 for portions of electronic messages for which the user of the second user device II is the addressee. This step is illustrated asstep 42 inFIG. 4 . - The query is received by a
query receiver 19 of thefirst server 2. At thefirst server 2, the query is performed in thedatabase 13 to provide a portion of the electronic message received from the first user device I. The portion may comprise one or more fields stored in thedatabase 13 relating to the received electronic message from the first user device. The portion includes a retrieval key, identifying the location where the complete electronic message can be retrieved from. - In
step 43, theelectronic message transmitter 16 of thefirst server 2 transmits the thus provided portion of the electronic message to thesecond server 3 that displays the portion to the (user of the) second user device II. In this way, the mailbox of the user of the second user device II is built up dynamically, i.e. substantially each time the user of the second user device II opens his mailbox, thesystem 1 is queried for portions of electronic messages (which may reside at different servers) addressed to this user and the retrieved portions form the mailbox. - As noted above, the query option may be replaced by a push option. In that situation, after receiving the electronic message, a portion of the electronic message is transmitted to
server 2 automatically. Upon opening the mailbox by the user of the second user device II, the portion of the electronic message is already present at thesecond server 3. - If the user of the second user device II decides that the electronic message is of interest to him, he may select the portion of the electronic message. Upon selection of the portion, the second user device II initiates a selection message in
step 44 that is received by a selection message receiver of thefirst server 2 using the retrieval key of the portion of the electronic message. - In
step 45, the complete electronic message is retrieved from thedatabase 13 by the second user device II. - If the first reader, e.g. the user of the second user device II, accepts the electronic message as a desired message, a spam notification signal will not be received by the
spam notification receiver 20 of thesystem 1. Consequently, the user of the third user device III may also access the electronic message. - If the user of the second user device II qualifies the contents of the electronic message as spam, he may transmit a spam notification signal relating to the electronic spam message to the
first server 2. The user of the second user device II may e.g. send a spam notification signal by activating a dedicated button on a user interface of the second user device II. The spam notification signal is detected by the spamnotification signal receiver 20 of thefirst server 2 instep 50. - The
system 1 may perform a variety of operations in response to receiving the spam notification signal from the second user device II. - The
e-mail deleter 24 may delete the electronic message from thefirst server 2, i.e. delete one or more fields in thedatabase 13 relating to the electronic spam message, and also delete the portion of the electronic message at thesecond server 3, indicated bystep 51. - Alternatively or in addition to
step 51, theaccess restrictor 28 may restrict access to thesystem 1 for (the user of) the first user device I for which the spam notification signal was received, as indicated instep 52. Restriction of the access may involve exempting the user of the first device I from further sending of electronic messages via thesystem 1. As such a measure may be harsh on the user of the first user device I, access to thesystem 1 may be restricted in dependence on e.g. the number of spam notification signals received for electronic messages of the sender and/or the number of times access has been restricted for electronic messages of the sender, usingcounter 26. In particular, if the sender and recipient have exchanged electronic messages before, access restriction to the system may be only performed after a certain number of spam notification signals from a recipient, usingcounter 26. - A warning signal may be transmitted to the user of the first user device I by the
warning signal transmitter 27. The warning signal may point this user to the consequences of continuing providing electronic spam messages. - In response to receiving the spam notification signal, the access restrictor 21 of the
first server 2 restricts access for (a user of) the third user device III to the electronic message. An example of how such an embodiment would operate is indicated by steps 53-55 inFIG. 4 . Instep 53, the user of the third user device III opens his mailbox and an instruction signal is received by theinstruction signal receiver 17 of the second server. Again a query is issued to thefirst server 1, indicated bystep 54. However, since access to the electronic message has been restricted in response to receiving the spam notification message from the second user device II, a portion of the electronic message may not be retrieved from thedatabase 13. Therefore, indicated by the cross instep 55 ofFIG. 4 , the portion will not be used for building up the mailbox of the user of the third user device III. Therefore, the user of the third user device III will not be able to retrieve the electronic message. In fact, in the present embodiment, the user of the third user device III will not even be aware of the electronic spam message. - Another example of the operation of the
system 1 in response to receiving a spam notification signal includes the following. The user of the first user device I distributing the electronic spam message is known to thesystem 1, e.g. by having stored in register 22 a unique login code comprising a user name and a user specific password required for accessing thesystem 1. Using these data, thesender identification storage 25 may have stored the identity of the sender of the electronic spam message. If an other electronic message is sent or has been sent (not necessarily an electronic spam message), it is determined that for this sender a spam notification signal has been received. Access to these other (previous or future) messages of the sender may therefore be denied automatically. Consequently, neither the second user device II nor the third user device III will have access to these other electronic messages. As such a measure may be rather harsh on the sender of the previous electronic spam message, consequences may be mitigated by allowing the access restrictor 21 to restrict access for the (user of the) second user device II and/or the third user device III for a particular time period and/or to only a part of the further electronic messages. In particular, if the sender and recipient have exchanged electronic messages before, access restriction to other electronic message may be only performed after a certain number of spam notification signals from a recipient, usingcounter 21. -
FIG. 5 shows asystem 1 comprisingseveral servers servers system 1. Theconnections 50 connecting the servers 1A, 1B and 1C constitute an inner ring. The first, second and third user devices I, II and III may connect todifferent servers FIG. 5 , either directly or via further servers (not shown). Each of the first, second and third user devices I, II and III may also access theservers connections 50. InFIG. 5 , this outer ring, formed byconnections 51, is only drawn for the second user device II. - Communication may be secured in both the inner ring and the outer ring. This may be done by encrypting communication over the inner ring and outer ring and/or by making use of secure connections.
- Each
server system 1 may contain the same functional modules 15-29 as described with reference toFIGS. 3A , 3B. However, the functional modules may also be distributed over thevarious servers - An embodiment of the operation of the
system 1 in accordance withFIG. 5 will now be described with reference toFIG. 6 . - The user of the first user device I sends an electronic spam message to the
system 1 with the users of user devices II and III as addressees. - The
electronic message receiver 15 ofserver 2A receives the electronic spam message and stores the message in thedatabase 13 instep 60 as described above. Briefly, instead of storing the electronic message as done in a conventional e-mail server, individual parts of the electronic message are stored separately as fields in a database model (seeFIG. 7 ). - If the user of the second user device II opens his mailbox, a query is issued to both the first server 1A and the third server III (possibly in combination with an internal query in the
second server 2B) for portions of electronic messages for which this user is the addressee. Thesystem 1 ofservers connections 50 may technically be regarded as a conceptually single database in this respect. For the electronic message of the user device I, instep 61, theelectronic message transmitter 16 transmits an electronic message portion from thefirst server 2A to thesecond server 2B. A portion of the electronic message may e.g. comprise a sender-field, a subject-field and a retrieval key for retrieving the complete electronic message. The data size of the portion of the electronic message may be less than 200 bytes. The complete electronic message is stored only at server 1A. Of course, the push option for distributing the portion of the electronic message toservers - In
step 62, the portion is presented to the user of the second user device II. The electronic message itself may be retrieved instep 63 by the second user device II from thefirst server 2A over theconnections 51 forming the outer ring by selecting the portion of the electronic message provided from thesecond server 2B. - If the user of the second user device II does not qualify the electronic message as spam, the user of the third device III may access the electronic message as well. In that case, when the user of the third device III opens his mailbox, the
third server 2Cqueries servers connections 50 for portions of electronic messages addressed to his account. Thefirst server 2A provides thethird server 2C with the portion and, upon selection of this portion, the complete electronic message may be downloaded to the third user device III (step 64). Alternatively, the portion may already be available at thethird server 2C if the push option is used. - If the user of the second user device II qualifies the contents of the electronic message as spam, he may transmit a spam notification signal relating to the electronic spam message to the
server 2A. The user of the second user device II may e.g. send a spam notification signal by activating a dedicated button on a user interface of the second user device II. The spam notification signal is detected by the spamnotification signal receiver 20 of the first server 1A. In response to receiving the spam notification signal, the access restrictor 21 of the server 1A restricts access for (a user of) the third user device III to the electronic message, indicated bystep 55. Thee-mail deleter 24 of the server 1A may e.g. delete the electronic spam message, such that the user of the third device III has no access to the electronic spam message at the first server 1C (or will not even be displayed a portion thereof) and the portion atserver 2B (steps 66 and 67). The deletion of the (portions of) the electronic message is instructed over the inner ring ofFIG. 4 . - As mentioned above, the
server 2A stores only a single copy of the electronic message independent of the number of addressees. The addressees are notified of the electronic message by means of portions characterizing the electronic message of small size. This saves a large amount of resources, e.g. transmission capacity. However, thesystem 1 may provide multiple copies of the electronic message if such an approach proves to be more effective. The number of copies of the electronic message is less than the number of addressees of said electronic message. - As for the embodiment of
FIGS. 1 and 2 , the user of the first user device I distributing the electronic spam message may be known to theserver system 1, e.g. by having stored inregister 22 of the system 1 a unique login code comprising a user address and a user specific password required for accessing thesystem 1. Using these data, thesender identification storage 20 has stored the identity of the sender of the electronic spam message. If a further electronic message is sent (not necessarily an electronic spam message), it is determined that for this sender a previous spam notification signal has already been received. Access to these further messages of the sender may therefore be denied for the users of both devices II and III. Consequently, neither the (user of the) second user device II nor the third user device III will have access to these further electronic messages. As such a measure may be rather harsh on the sender of the previous electronic spam message, consequences may be mitigated by allowing theaccess restrictor 21 at thefirst server 2A to restrict access for the (user of the) second user device II for a particular time period and/or to only a part of the further electronic messages. - It should be appreciated that the
register 22 may be shared by multiple servers 1A, 1B and 1C, as well as thesender identification storage 20 for senders of previous electronic spam messages. - Also, as previously described for the embodiment of
FIGS. 1 and 2 , thesystem 1 may be triggered, using the spam notification signal, to block access for the user of the first user device I to the system 1 (including the milder variants) or the send a warning message. - It should be appreciated that, while in the above example a single spam notification signal was sufficient to exclude other addressees from receiving (other) electronic messages and to exclude a sender from participation in the system, another number of spam notification signals may be set before such consequences will apply.
- It should also be appreciated that the communication history between a sender and a recipient may be a factor in restricting access to other electronic messages and/or to the
system 1. - The
servers system 1 are preferably not conventional e-mail servers. Such e-mail servers store e-mail messages, duplicate the e-mail messages to the number of addressees and provide the e-mail messages upon request for a particular one of those messages. The functionality of these mail servers is rather limited. - The applicant proposes to use one or more databases, such as Oracle® databases, for which the response can be programmed in dependence of e.g. the request made to the database. Incoming electronic messages are analyzed and predetermined parts are stored in fields of the database(s)
- The use of databases for the servers 1A, 1B and 1C allows monitoring relations between different fields, as shown in
FIG. 7 . - The functionality as described above can be obtained using the database model of
FIG. 7 . - As an example, if a user issues a spam notification signal, the recipient status and recipient status date are updated. If a single spam notification signal is sufficient for restricting access to the electronic message for other recipients and to restrict access to the
server system 1 for a sender, this status will propagate to the message status and the member status, respectively. By adding a messages status date and a member status data to the data model, flexibility is obtained. - Fields of the box “messages” may be part of the portion of the electronic message that is pushed or queried in the server system. Examples include the message owner/sender, the message subject and the message sent date. The message id relates to the retrieval key for retrieving the complete electronic message.
- It should be noted that when a mandatory address book for addressing addressees of the electronic message is not used, the box “contacts” may be eliminated in the database model and a link can be established directly from the box “members” to the box “recipients”.
- The
server system 1 may contain anapproval module 25. As such, theservers system 1 may be so configured for all the participants that any and all information addressed to them as participants cannot reach them and that, prior to the first communication within the system between two participants A and B, the two participants A and B will first have to go through an arrangement/approval protocol. - Although the subject matter has been described in language directed to specific environments, structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not limited to the environments, specific features or acts described above as has been held by the courts. Rather, the environments, specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
Claims (32)
Applications Claiming Priority (5)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
NL1033356 | 2007-02-08 | ||
NL1033356 | 2007-02-08 | ||
NL1034361 | 2007-09-11 | ||
NLPCT/NL2007/000224 | 2007-09-11 | ||
NL1034361 | 2007-09-11 |
Related Parent Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
NLPCT/NL2007/000224 Continuation-In-Part | 2007-02-08 | 2007-09-11 |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
US20080195713A1 true US20080195713A1 (en) | 2008-08-14 |
Family
ID=39592973
Family Applications (7)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
US11/983,783 Abandoned US20080194234A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | System and method of establishing a telephone connection |
US11/983,799 Active 2030-05-28 US8443424B2 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US11/983,802 Abandoned US20080192918A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for establishing a telephone connection |
US11/983,798 Abandoned US20080195713A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for transmitting an electronic message |
US11/983,809 Abandoned US20080196093A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US11/983,816 Abandoned US20080196094A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for restricting access to an electronic message system |
US11/956,656 Abandoned US20080195515A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-12-14 | Combined payment and communication service method and system |
Family Applications Before (3)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
US11/983,783 Abandoned US20080194234A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | System and method of establishing a telephone connection |
US11/983,799 Active 2030-05-28 US8443424B2 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US11/983,802 Abandoned US20080192918A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for establishing a telephone connection |
Family Applications After (3)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
US11/983,809 Abandoned US20080196093A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US11/983,816 Abandoned US20080196094A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-11-09 | Method and system for restricting access to an electronic message system |
US11/956,656 Abandoned US20080195515A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2007-12-14 | Combined payment and communication service method and system |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
US (7) | US20080194234A1 (en) |
EP (1) | EP1956541A1 (en) |
AR (7) | AR064058A1 (en) |
Cited By (11)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US20080196092A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US20090158403A1 (en) * | 2007-12-14 | 2009-06-18 | Dirk Leonard Benschop | Method and system for permitting or denying service |
US20090178117A1 (en) * | 2008-01-03 | 2009-07-09 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | System and method of retrieving a service contact identifier |
US20090187666A1 (en) * | 2008-01-17 | 2009-07-23 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for controlling a computer application program |
US20100185739A1 (en) * | 2009-01-16 | 2010-07-22 | Gary Stephen Shuster | Differentiated spam filtering for multiplexed message receiving devices |
US20100306853A1 (en) * | 2009-05-28 | 2010-12-02 | International Business Machines Corporation | Providing notification of spam avatars |
US20110276640A1 (en) * | 2010-03-01 | 2011-11-10 | Mary Jesse | Automated communications system |
US9189688B2 (en) | 2009-03-19 | 2015-11-17 | International Business Machines Corporation | Identifying spatial locations of events within video image data |
US9380271B2 (en) | 2009-03-19 | 2016-06-28 | International Business Machines Corporation | Coding scheme for identifying spatial locations of events within video image data |
US9697535B2 (en) | 2008-12-23 | 2017-07-04 | International Business Machines Corporation | System and method in a virtual universe for identifying spam avatars based upon avatar multimedia characteristics |
US9704177B2 (en) | 2008-12-23 | 2017-07-11 | International Business Machines Corporation | Identifying spam avatars in a virtual universe (VU) based upon turing tests |
Families Citing this family (27)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US7398550B2 (en) * | 2003-06-18 | 2008-07-08 | Microsoft Corporation | Enhanced shared secret provisioning protocol |
US8874477B2 (en) | 2005-10-04 | 2014-10-28 | Steven Mark Hoffberg | Multifactorial optimization system and method |
US9733811B2 (en) * | 2008-12-19 | 2017-08-15 | Tinder, Inc. | Matching process system and method |
US8752169B2 (en) * | 2008-03-31 | 2014-06-10 | Intel Corporation | Botnet spam detection and filtration on the source machine |
US8311938B2 (en) * | 2009-02-24 | 2012-11-13 | Doxo, Inc. | Provider relationship management system that facilitates interaction between an individual and organizations |
US8832204B1 (en) * | 2009-09-24 | 2014-09-09 | Sprint Communication Company L.P. | Text message spam solutions |
CN101859426B (en) * | 2010-02-02 | 2013-04-10 | 深圳市国民电子商务有限公司 | Electronic ticket service system and realizing method thereof |
US9294308B2 (en) * | 2011-03-10 | 2016-03-22 | Mimecast North America Inc. | Enhancing communication |
US9251360B2 (en) | 2012-04-27 | 2016-02-02 | Intralinks, Inc. | Computerized method and system for managing secure mobile device content viewing in a networked secure collaborative exchange environment |
US9253176B2 (en) | 2012-04-27 | 2016-02-02 | Intralinks, Inc. | Computerized method and system for managing secure content sharing in a networked secure collaborative exchange environment |
US9148417B2 (en) | 2012-04-27 | 2015-09-29 | Intralinks, Inc. | Computerized method and system for managing amendment voting in a networked secure collaborative exchange environment |
US9553860B2 (en) | 2012-04-27 | 2017-01-24 | Intralinks, Inc. | Email effectivity facility in a networked secure collaborative exchange environment |
US20140279031A1 (en) * | 2013-03-14 | 2014-09-18 | Randy Mersky | Mobile in-store loyalty advertising and marketing system and method |
WO2015073708A1 (en) | 2013-11-14 | 2015-05-21 | Intralinks, Inc. | Litigation support in cloud-hosted file sharing and collaboration |
GB2530685A (en) | 2014-04-23 | 2016-03-30 | Intralinks Inc | Systems and methods of secure data exchange |
CN104506743B (en) * | 2014-12-17 | 2017-11-03 | 百度在线网络技术(北京)有限公司 | A kind of method and device of dynamic interception phone |
US10033702B2 (en) | 2015-08-05 | 2018-07-24 | Intralinks, Inc. | Systems and methods of secure data exchange |
US9911134B2 (en) * | 2016-01-20 | 2018-03-06 | Zipstorm, Inc. | Recipient centric messaging system and protocols to implement it over data networks |
USD852809S1 (en) | 2016-08-30 | 2019-07-02 | Match Group, Llc | Display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface of an electronic device |
USD781311S1 (en) | 2016-08-30 | 2017-03-14 | Tinder, Inc. | Display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface |
USD854025S1 (en) | 2016-08-30 | 2019-07-16 | Match Group, Llc | Display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface of an electronic device |
USD780775S1 (en) | 2016-08-30 | 2017-03-07 | Tinder, Inc. | Display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface of an electronic device |
USD781882S1 (en) | 2016-08-30 | 2017-03-21 | Tinder, Inc. | Display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface of an electronic device |
US10505871B1 (en) * | 2017-11-30 | 2019-12-10 | Sandeep Jain | Future messaging maximizing contextual relevancy and minimizing information overload based distractions |
US11037114B2 (en) | 2018-03-22 | 2021-06-15 | Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated | System and method for financial transactions |
US10977722B2 (en) | 2018-08-20 | 2021-04-13 | IM Pro Makeup NY LP | System, method and user interfaces and data structures in a cross-platform facility for providing content generation tools and consumer experience |
US10497372B1 (en) | 2019-07-18 | 2019-12-03 | Capital One Services, Llc | Voice-assistant activated virtual card replacement |
Citations (57)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5475819A (en) * | 1990-10-02 | 1995-12-12 | Digital Equipment Corporation | Distributed configuration profile for computing system |
US5870473A (en) * | 1995-12-14 | 1999-02-09 | Cybercash, Inc. | Electronic transfer system and method |
US6298383B1 (en) * | 1999-01-04 | 2001-10-02 | Cisco Technology, Inc. | Integration of authentication authorization and accounting service and proxy service |
US20010026609A1 (en) * | 1999-12-30 | 2001-10-04 | Lee Weinstein | Method and apparatus facilitating the placing, receiving, and billing of telephone calls |
US20020095488A1 (en) * | 2000-11-13 | 2002-07-18 | Leonard Primak | System and method for discovering, advertising, and finding networked services using dynamic directory |
US6453327B1 (en) * | 1996-06-10 | 2002-09-17 | Sun Microsystems, Inc. | Method and apparatus for identifying and discarding junk electronic mail |
US6457060B1 (en) * | 1998-04-30 | 2002-09-24 | Openwave Systems Inc. | Method and apparatus for flexibly linking to remotely located content on a network server through use of aliases |
US20020156728A1 (en) * | 2000-08-18 | 2002-10-24 | Rainer Jaschhof | Method and arrangement for the transmission of an electronic sum of money from a credit reserve by wap |
US20020174194A1 (en) * | 2001-05-18 | 2002-11-21 | Eoin Mooney | Providing access to a plurality of message accounts from a single web-based interface |
US20030018721A1 (en) * | 2001-06-29 | 2003-01-23 | Virad Gupta | Unified messaging with separate media component storage |
US20030023873A1 (en) * | 2001-03-16 | 2003-01-30 | Yuval Ben-Itzhak | Application-layer security method and system |
US20030026396A1 (en) * | 2001-08-02 | 2003-02-06 | Alcatel | Method of executing transactions of electronic money amounts between subscriber terminals of a communication network, and communication network, transaction server and program module for it |
US6529943B1 (en) * | 1998-04-24 | 2003-03-04 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Server, client, client server system, method for controlling them and storage medium therefor |
US20030112948A1 (en) * | 2001-12-19 | 2003-06-19 | Wendell Brown | System and method for establishing a connection between parties based on their availability |
US20030154165A1 (en) * | 2000-08-18 | 2003-08-14 | Michael Horn | Method and arrangement for the transmission of an electronic sum of money from a credit reserve |
US6615231B1 (en) * | 1999-12-15 | 2003-09-02 | Microsoft Corporation | System and method for directing requests to specific processing |
US20030172159A1 (en) * | 2002-03-06 | 2003-09-11 | Schuba Christoph L. | Method and apparatus for using client puzzles to protect against denial-of-service attacks |
US20030204719A1 (en) * | 2001-03-16 | 2003-10-30 | Kavado, Inc. | Application layer security method and system |
US20030233318A1 (en) * | 2001-11-26 | 2003-12-18 | King Douglas W. | Systems and methods for fund transfers |
US20040019651A1 (en) * | 2002-07-29 | 2004-01-29 | Andaker Kristian L. M. | Categorizing electronic messages based on collaborative feedback |
US6718389B2 (en) * | 1998-02-19 | 2004-04-06 | Sbc Properties, L.P. | System and method for executing a request from a client application |
US20040176072A1 (en) * | 2003-01-31 | 2004-09-09 | Gellens Randall C. | Simplified handling of, blocking of, and credit for undesired messaging |
US20040205135A1 (en) * | 2003-03-25 | 2004-10-14 | Hallam-Baker Phillip Martin | Control and management of electronic messaging |
US20040213396A1 (en) * | 2003-04-25 | 2004-10-28 | Macnamara John J. | Methods for blocking repeated occurrences of nuisance calls |
US20050021649A1 (en) * | 2003-06-20 | 2005-01-27 | Goodman Joshua T. | Prevention of outgoing spam |
US6889325B1 (en) * | 1999-04-28 | 2005-05-03 | Unicate Bv | Transaction method and system for data networks, like internet |
US20050111648A1 (en) * | 2003-11-26 | 2005-05-26 | Roome William D. | Multi-stage telephone number dialing system and method for providing limited access to a telephone subscriber |
US6952769B1 (en) * | 2000-04-17 | 2005-10-04 | International Business Machines Corporation | Protocols for anonymous electronic communication and double-blind transactions |
US20050249214A1 (en) * | 2004-05-07 | 2005-11-10 | Tao Peng | System and process for managing network traffic |
US20050273857A1 (en) * | 2004-06-07 | 2005-12-08 | Check Point Software Technologies, Inc. | System and Methodology for Intrusion Detection and Prevention |
US20060020692A1 (en) * | 2004-07-21 | 2006-01-26 | Microsoft Corporation | System and method for locating web services |
US7035634B2 (en) * | 2000-04-10 | 2006-04-25 | Honeywell International Inc. | In-flight e-mail system |
US20060168024A1 (en) * | 2004-12-13 | 2006-07-27 | Microsoft Corporation | Sender reputations for spam prevention |
US20060187901A1 (en) * | 2005-02-23 | 2006-08-24 | Lucent Technologies Inc. | Concurrent dual-state proxy server, method of providing a proxy and SIP network employing the same |
US20060224681A1 (en) * | 2005-03-29 | 2006-10-05 | Wurster Charles S | Mobile communications device e-mail message delivery |
US20060239190A1 (en) * | 2005-04-25 | 2006-10-26 | Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. | Policy-based device/service discovery and dissemination of device profile and capability information for P2P networking |
US20060253597A1 (en) * | 2005-05-05 | 2006-11-09 | Mujica Technologies Inc. | E-mail system |
US20060265325A1 (en) * | 2003-12-18 | 2006-11-23 | Fajardo Alfredo C | System and method for facilitating payment via a communications network using value accredited to a customer of the communications network |
US7155001B2 (en) * | 2001-10-24 | 2006-12-26 | Sbc Properties, L.P. | System and method for restricting and monitoring telephone calls |
US20070005716A1 (en) * | 2005-07-01 | 2007-01-04 | Levasseur Thierry | Electronic mail system with pre-message-retrieval display of message metadata |
US20070078929A1 (en) * | 2005-09-30 | 2007-04-05 | Bigfoot Networks, Inc. | Distributed processing system and method |
US20070106734A1 (en) * | 2005-11-10 | 2007-05-10 | Motorola, Inc. | Incentive driven subscriber assisted spam reduction |
US20070124226A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2007-05-31 | Global Personals, Llc | Method for Verifying Data in a Dating Service, Dating-Service Database including Verified Member Data, and Method for Prioritizing Search Results Including Verified Data, and Methods for Verifying Data |
US20070180039A1 (en) * | 2006-02-01 | 2007-08-02 | David Sutidze | Anonymous disposable email addressing system and method of use thereo |
US20080052324A1 (en) * | 2002-08-01 | 2008-02-28 | International Business Machines Corporation | Reducing Data Storage Requirements on Mail Servers by Storing a Shared Copy of a Message |
US20080107101A1 (en) * | 2006-11-02 | 2008-05-08 | Mitac Technology Corp. | Multi-dialing-number VOIP phone call connection method |
US20080137828A1 (en) * | 2006-12-12 | 2008-06-12 | Mazen Chmaytelli | Systems and methods for caller identification customization and remote management of communication devices |
US20080147837A1 (en) * | 2005-02-24 | 2008-06-19 | Amit Klein | System and Method for Detecting and Mitigating Dns Spoofing Trojans |
US20080192918A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for establishing a telephone connection |
US20090012878A1 (en) * | 2005-08-09 | 2009-01-08 | Tedesco Daniel E | Apparatus, Systems and Methods for Facilitating Commerce |
US7500108B2 (en) * | 2004-03-01 | 2009-03-03 | Microsoft Corporation | Metered execution of code |
US7523164B2 (en) * | 2001-08-16 | 2009-04-21 | Sun Microsystems, Inc. | Systems and methods for transaction messaging brokering |
US20090158403A1 (en) * | 2007-12-14 | 2009-06-18 | Dirk Leonard Benschop | Method and system for permitting or denying service |
US20090171821A1 (en) * | 2007-08-07 | 2009-07-02 | Dennis Denker | Systems and methods for providing resource allocation in a networked environment |
US20090178117A1 (en) * | 2008-01-03 | 2009-07-09 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | System and method of retrieving a service contact identifier |
US20090187666A1 (en) * | 2008-01-17 | 2009-07-23 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for controlling a computer application program |
US7840206B2 (en) * | 2005-10-05 | 2010-11-23 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Wireless communication system and authentication method and communication control method in wireless communication system |
Family Cites Families (16)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
FI109505B (en) | 1997-03-24 | 2002-08-15 | Fd Finanssidata Oy | Use of banking services in a digital cellular radio system |
WO2000042748A1 (en) | 1999-01-14 | 2000-07-20 | Tumbleweed Communications Corp. | Web-based delivery of secure e-mail messages |
US20020023132A1 (en) | 2000-03-17 | 2002-02-21 | Catherine Tornabene | Shared groups rostering system |
JP3693951B2 (en) | 2001-11-26 | 2005-09-14 | 日本電気株式会社 | E-mail system and spam mail prevention method |
AU2003235658A1 (en) | 2002-01-17 | 2003-07-30 | Tae-Joon Kim | Method for electronic mail notice and download |
JP2003348162A (en) | 2002-05-24 | 2003-12-05 | Nec Corp | Spam mail prevention method and spam mail prevention system |
EP1552659B1 (en) | 2002-10-16 | 2015-01-14 | Aepona Limited | A service access gateway |
NL1022704C2 (en) | 2003-02-17 | 2004-08-19 | Digipay Nederland N V | Banking method using central transaction server, has accounts on server linked with separate identifying telephone numbers |
WO2004075086A1 (en) | 2003-02-18 | 2004-09-02 | Wang Soo Ryu | Method for providing finance service using phone number and account balance |
FR2851834A1 (en) | 2003-02-28 | 2004-09-03 | France Telecom | Appointment booking system uses client stations linked by network to server offering limited access for patients to make reservations |
US20050081051A1 (en) | 2003-10-09 | 2005-04-14 | International Business Machines Corporation | Mitigating self-propagating e-mail viruses |
US7344787B2 (en) * | 2003-10-29 | 2008-03-18 | General Motors Corporation | Two-stage compression for air supply of a fuel cell system |
WO2005124621A1 (en) | 2004-06-22 | 2005-12-29 | Paysetter Pte Ltd | System and method for transferring credit between subscribers of differing telecommunications carriers |
US7894588B2 (en) | 2004-12-21 | 2011-02-22 | Aol Inc. | Telephone call handling list for multiple users |
US8151116B2 (en) * | 2006-06-09 | 2012-04-03 | Brigham Young University | Multi-channel user authentication apparatus system and method |
EP1956816A1 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-13 | DLB Finance & Consultancy B.V. | System and method of establishing a telephone connection |
-
2007
- 2007-11-09 US US11/983,783 patent/US20080194234A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2007-11-09 US US11/983,799 patent/US8443424B2/en active Active
- 2007-11-09 US US11/983,802 patent/US20080192918A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2007-11-09 US US11/983,798 patent/US20080195713A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2007-11-09 US US11/983,809 patent/US20080196093A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2007-11-09 US US11/983,816 patent/US20080196094A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2007-11-30 AR ARP070105336A patent/AR064058A1/en unknown
- 2007-11-30 AR ARP070105334A patent/AR064056A1/en unknown
- 2007-11-30 AR ARP070105332A patent/AR064054A1/en unknown
- 2007-11-30 AR ARP070105331A patent/AR064053A1/en unknown
- 2007-11-30 AR ARP070105333A patent/AR064055A1/en unknown
- 2007-11-30 AR ARP070105335A patent/AR064057A1/en unknown
- 2007-12-14 US US11/956,656 patent/US20080195515A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 2007-12-14 EP EP07123267A patent/EP1956541A1/en not_active Withdrawn
- 2007-12-28 AR ARP070105949A patent/AR064580A1/en unknown
Patent Citations (61)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5475819A (en) * | 1990-10-02 | 1995-12-12 | Digital Equipment Corporation | Distributed configuration profile for computing system |
US5870473A (en) * | 1995-12-14 | 1999-02-09 | Cybercash, Inc. | Electronic transfer system and method |
US6453327B1 (en) * | 1996-06-10 | 2002-09-17 | Sun Microsystems, Inc. | Method and apparatus for identifying and discarding junk electronic mail |
US6718389B2 (en) * | 1998-02-19 | 2004-04-06 | Sbc Properties, L.P. | System and method for executing a request from a client application |
US6529943B1 (en) * | 1998-04-24 | 2003-03-04 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Server, client, client server system, method for controlling them and storage medium therefor |
US6457060B1 (en) * | 1998-04-30 | 2002-09-24 | Openwave Systems Inc. | Method and apparatus for flexibly linking to remotely located content on a network server through use of aliases |
US6298383B1 (en) * | 1999-01-04 | 2001-10-02 | Cisco Technology, Inc. | Integration of authentication authorization and accounting service and proxy service |
US6889325B1 (en) * | 1999-04-28 | 2005-05-03 | Unicate Bv | Transaction method and system for data networks, like internet |
US6615231B1 (en) * | 1999-12-15 | 2003-09-02 | Microsoft Corporation | System and method for directing requests to specific processing |
US20010026609A1 (en) * | 1999-12-30 | 2001-10-04 | Lee Weinstein | Method and apparatus facilitating the placing, receiving, and billing of telephone calls |
US7035634B2 (en) * | 2000-04-10 | 2006-04-25 | Honeywell International Inc. | In-flight e-mail system |
US6952769B1 (en) * | 2000-04-17 | 2005-10-04 | International Business Machines Corporation | Protocols for anonymous electronic communication and double-blind transactions |
US20020156728A1 (en) * | 2000-08-18 | 2002-10-24 | Rainer Jaschhof | Method and arrangement for the transmission of an electronic sum of money from a credit reserve by wap |
US20030154165A1 (en) * | 2000-08-18 | 2003-08-14 | Michael Horn | Method and arrangement for the transmission of an electronic sum of money from a credit reserve |
US20020095488A1 (en) * | 2000-11-13 | 2002-07-18 | Leonard Primak | System and method for discovering, advertising, and finding networked services using dynamic directory |
US20030023873A1 (en) * | 2001-03-16 | 2003-01-30 | Yuval Ben-Itzhak | Application-layer security method and system |
US20030204719A1 (en) * | 2001-03-16 | 2003-10-30 | Kavado, Inc. | Application layer security method and system |
US20020174194A1 (en) * | 2001-05-18 | 2002-11-21 | Eoin Mooney | Providing access to a plurality of message accounts from a single web-based interface |
US20030018721A1 (en) * | 2001-06-29 | 2003-01-23 | Virad Gupta | Unified messaging with separate media component storage |
US20030026396A1 (en) * | 2001-08-02 | 2003-02-06 | Alcatel | Method of executing transactions of electronic money amounts between subscriber terminals of a communication network, and communication network, transaction server and program module for it |
US7523164B2 (en) * | 2001-08-16 | 2009-04-21 | Sun Microsystems, Inc. | Systems and methods for transaction messaging brokering |
US7155001B2 (en) * | 2001-10-24 | 2006-12-26 | Sbc Properties, L.P. | System and method for restricting and monitoring telephone calls |
US20030233318A1 (en) * | 2001-11-26 | 2003-12-18 | King Douglas W. | Systems and methods for fund transfers |
US20030112948A1 (en) * | 2001-12-19 | 2003-06-19 | Wendell Brown | System and method for establishing a connection between parties based on their availability |
US20030172159A1 (en) * | 2002-03-06 | 2003-09-11 | Schuba Christoph L. | Method and apparatus for using client puzzles to protect against denial-of-service attacks |
US20040019651A1 (en) * | 2002-07-29 | 2004-01-29 | Andaker Kristian L. M. | Categorizing electronic messages based on collaborative feedback |
US20080052324A1 (en) * | 2002-08-01 | 2008-02-28 | International Business Machines Corporation | Reducing Data Storage Requirements on Mail Servers by Storing a Shared Copy of a Message |
US20040176072A1 (en) * | 2003-01-31 | 2004-09-09 | Gellens Randall C. | Simplified handling of, blocking of, and credit for undesired messaging |
US20040205135A1 (en) * | 2003-03-25 | 2004-10-14 | Hallam-Baker Phillip Martin | Control and management of electronic messaging |
US20040213396A1 (en) * | 2003-04-25 | 2004-10-28 | Macnamara John J. | Methods for blocking repeated occurrences of nuisance calls |
US20050021649A1 (en) * | 2003-06-20 | 2005-01-27 | Goodman Joshua T. | Prevention of outgoing spam |
US20050111648A1 (en) * | 2003-11-26 | 2005-05-26 | Roome William D. | Multi-stage telephone number dialing system and method for providing limited access to a telephone subscriber |
US20060265325A1 (en) * | 2003-12-18 | 2006-11-23 | Fajardo Alfredo C | System and method for facilitating payment via a communications network using value accredited to a customer of the communications network |
US7500108B2 (en) * | 2004-03-01 | 2009-03-03 | Microsoft Corporation | Metered execution of code |
US20050249214A1 (en) * | 2004-05-07 | 2005-11-10 | Tao Peng | System and process for managing network traffic |
US20050273857A1 (en) * | 2004-06-07 | 2005-12-08 | Check Point Software Technologies, Inc. | System and Methodology for Intrusion Detection and Prevention |
US20060020692A1 (en) * | 2004-07-21 | 2006-01-26 | Microsoft Corporation | System and method for locating web services |
US20060168024A1 (en) * | 2004-12-13 | 2006-07-27 | Microsoft Corporation | Sender reputations for spam prevention |
US20060187901A1 (en) * | 2005-02-23 | 2006-08-24 | Lucent Technologies Inc. | Concurrent dual-state proxy server, method of providing a proxy and SIP network employing the same |
US20080147837A1 (en) * | 2005-02-24 | 2008-06-19 | Amit Klein | System and Method for Detecting and Mitigating Dns Spoofing Trojans |
US20060224681A1 (en) * | 2005-03-29 | 2006-10-05 | Wurster Charles S | Mobile communications device e-mail message delivery |
US20060239190A1 (en) * | 2005-04-25 | 2006-10-26 | Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. | Policy-based device/service discovery and dissemination of device profile and capability information for P2P networking |
US20060253597A1 (en) * | 2005-05-05 | 2006-11-09 | Mujica Technologies Inc. | E-mail system |
US20070005716A1 (en) * | 2005-07-01 | 2007-01-04 | Levasseur Thierry | Electronic mail system with pre-message-retrieval display of message metadata |
US20090012878A1 (en) * | 2005-08-09 | 2009-01-08 | Tedesco Daniel E | Apparatus, Systems and Methods for Facilitating Commerce |
US20070078929A1 (en) * | 2005-09-30 | 2007-04-05 | Bigfoot Networks, Inc. | Distributed processing system and method |
US7840206B2 (en) * | 2005-10-05 | 2010-11-23 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Wireless communication system and authentication method and communication control method in wireless communication system |
US20070106734A1 (en) * | 2005-11-10 | 2007-05-10 | Motorola, Inc. | Incentive driven subscriber assisted spam reduction |
US20070180039A1 (en) * | 2006-02-01 | 2007-08-02 | David Sutidze | Anonymous disposable email addressing system and method of use thereo |
US20080107101A1 (en) * | 2006-11-02 | 2008-05-08 | Mitac Technology Corp. | Multi-dialing-number VOIP phone call connection method |
US20080137828A1 (en) * | 2006-12-12 | 2008-06-12 | Mazen Chmaytelli | Systems and methods for caller identification customization and remote management of communication devices |
US20070124226A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2007-05-31 | Global Personals, Llc | Method for Verifying Data in a Dating Service, Dating-Service Database including Verified Member Data, and Method for Prioritizing Search Results Including Verified Data, and Methods for Verifying Data |
US20080194234A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | System and method of establishing a telephone connection |
US20080195515A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Combined payment and communication service method and system |
US20080196092A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US20080196094A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for restricting access to an electronic message system |
US20080192918A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for establishing a telephone connection |
US20090171821A1 (en) * | 2007-08-07 | 2009-07-02 | Dennis Denker | Systems and methods for providing resource allocation in a networked environment |
US20090158403A1 (en) * | 2007-12-14 | 2009-06-18 | Dirk Leonard Benschop | Method and system for permitting or denying service |
US20090178117A1 (en) * | 2008-01-03 | 2009-07-09 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | System and method of retrieving a service contact identifier |
US20090187666A1 (en) * | 2008-01-17 | 2009-07-23 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for controlling a computer application program |
Cited By (28)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US20080192918A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for establishing a telephone connection |
US20080196094A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for restricting access to an electronic message system |
US20080196093A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US20080194234A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | System and method of establishing a telephone connection |
US20080196092A1 (en) * | 2007-02-08 | 2008-08-14 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US8443424B2 (en) | 2007-02-08 | 2013-05-14 | Scipioo Holding B.V. | Method and system for reducing the proliferation of electronic messages |
US20090158403A1 (en) * | 2007-12-14 | 2009-06-18 | Dirk Leonard Benschop | Method and system for permitting or denying service |
US8239921B2 (en) | 2008-01-03 | 2012-08-07 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | System and method of retrieving a service contact identifier |
US20090178117A1 (en) * | 2008-01-03 | 2009-07-09 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | System and method of retrieving a service contact identifier |
US20090187666A1 (en) * | 2008-01-17 | 2009-07-23 | Dlb Finance & Consultancy B.V. | Method and system for controlling a computer application program |
US8463921B2 (en) | 2008-01-17 | 2013-06-11 | Scipioo Holding B.V. | Method and system for controlling a computer application program |
US9697535B2 (en) | 2008-12-23 | 2017-07-04 | International Business Machines Corporation | System and method in a virtual universe for identifying spam avatars based upon avatar multimedia characteristics |
US10915922B2 (en) | 2008-12-23 | 2021-02-09 | International Business Machines Corporation | System and method in a virtual universe for identifying spam avatars based upon avatar multimedia characteristics |
US10922714B2 (en) | 2008-12-23 | 2021-02-16 | International Business Machines Corporation | Identifying spam avatars in a virtual universe based upon turing tests |
US9704177B2 (en) | 2008-12-23 | 2017-07-11 | International Business Machines Corporation | Identifying spam avatars in a virtual universe (VU) based upon turing tests |
US20100185739A1 (en) * | 2009-01-16 | 2010-07-22 | Gary Stephen Shuster | Differentiated spam filtering for multiplexed message receiving devices |
US9729834B2 (en) | 2009-03-19 | 2017-08-08 | International Business Machines Corporation | Identifying spatial locations of events within video image data |
US9883193B2 (en) | 2009-03-19 | 2018-01-30 | International Business Machines Corporation | Coding scheme for identifying spatial locations of events within video image data |
US9189688B2 (en) | 2009-03-19 | 2015-11-17 | International Business Machines Corporation | Identifying spatial locations of events within video image data |
US9380271B2 (en) | 2009-03-19 | 2016-06-28 | International Business Machines Corporation | Coding scheme for identifying spatial locations of events within video image data |
US9503693B2 (en) | 2009-03-19 | 2016-11-22 | International Business Machines Corporation | Identifying spatial locations of events within video image data |
US20140137229A1 (en) * | 2009-05-28 | 2014-05-15 | International Business Machines Corporation | Providing notification of spam avatars |
US9338132B2 (en) * | 2009-05-28 | 2016-05-10 | International Business Machines Corporation | Providing notification of spam avatars |
US8656476B2 (en) * | 2009-05-28 | 2014-02-18 | International Business Machines Corporation | Providing notification of spam avatars |
US20100306853A1 (en) * | 2009-05-28 | 2010-12-02 | International Business Machines Corporation | Providing notification of spam avatars |
US20140189028A1 (en) * | 2010-03-01 | 2014-07-03 | Ivy Corp. | Automated communications system |
US9736101B2 (en) * | 2010-03-01 | 2017-08-15 | Ivy Corp. | Automated communications system |
US20110276640A1 (en) * | 2010-03-01 | 2011-11-10 | Mary Jesse | Automated communications system |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
US20080196093A1 (en) | 2008-08-14 |
US20080195515A1 (en) | 2008-08-14 |
US20080196092A1 (en) | 2008-08-14 |
AR064053A1 (en) | 2009-03-11 |
EP1956541A1 (en) | 2008-08-13 |
US20080194234A1 (en) | 2008-08-14 |
US20080196094A1 (en) | 2008-08-14 |
AR064058A1 (en) | 2009-03-11 |
US8443424B2 (en) | 2013-05-14 |
AR064056A1 (en) | 2009-03-11 |
AR064057A1 (en) | 2009-03-11 |
AR064054A1 (en) | 2009-03-11 |
US20080192918A1 (en) | 2008-08-14 |
AR064580A1 (en) | 2009-04-08 |
AR064055A1 (en) | 2009-03-11 |
Similar Documents
Publication | Publication Date | Title |
---|---|---|
US20080195713A1 (en) | Method and system for transmitting an electronic message | |
EP1956776B1 (en) | Method and system for transmitting an electronic message | |
US6779022B1 (en) | Server that obtains information from multiple sources, filters using client identities, and dispatches to both hardwired and wireless clients | |
US8243636B2 (en) | Messaging system and service | |
CN1332333C (en) | E-mail management services | |
US11522823B2 (en) | Method and apparatus for storing email messages | |
EP1887747A2 (en) | Messaging dystem and service | |
US20080114884A1 (en) | Centralized Mobile and Wireless Messaging Opt-Out Registry System and Method | |
US20060271629A1 (en) | Distributed Challenge and Response Recognition System | |
KR101589160B1 (en) | A communication device | |
JP2013516675A (en) | System and method for global directory service | |
US7409206B2 (en) | Defending against unwanted communications by striking back against the beneficiaries of the unwanted communications | |
JPH10275119A (en) | Electronic mail system | |
CN107483323B (en) | Instant messaging method and system | |
EP2227892B1 (en) | System and method of retrieving a service contact identifier | |
CN110134859A (en) | A kind of PIM method and system |
Legal Events
Date | Code | Title | Description |
---|---|---|---|
AS | Assignment |
Owner name: HITD INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY B.V., NETHERLANDS Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:BENSCHOP, DIRK LEONARD;BENSCHOP, HENDERIK REINOUT;REEL/FRAME:020474/0430 Effective date: 20080201 Owner name: DLB FINANCE & CONSULTANCY B.V., NETHERLANDS Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:BENSCHOP, DIRK LEONARD;BENSCHOP, HENDERIK REINOUT;REEL/FRAME:020474/0430 Effective date: 20080201 |
|
STCB | Information on status: application discontinuation |
Free format text: ABANDONED -- FAILURE TO RESPOND TO AN OFFICE ACTION |