The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 13, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 14, 1997
Akira Kamakura, Kawasaki, JP;
Hideki Tanaka, Tokyo, JP;
Fujitsu Limited, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
An electronic mail processing system for distributing an e-mail message from a sender to recipients, which encourages the recipients to open, read, and reply to the e-mail message sent from the sender. An original e-mail message sent from a sender via a sender terminal is stored in an outgoing message storage unit. An outgoing mail information registration unit stores a list of recipients to whom the e-mail message should be delivered, as well as storing information on bonus points. A message sending unit encloses bonus point information in the e-mail message and distributes it to the recipients included on the list. Upon receipt of a reply message from one of the recipients, a reception process unit gives a predetermined number of bonus points to the recipient. Each recipient's bonus points are accumulated in a recipient information storage unit, and he/she can redeem his/her bonus points for gifts depending on the accumulated points. This structural arrangement encourages the recipients to open the sender's message and write reply messages thereto in expectation of the redeemable bonus points, thus allowing the original message sender to collect more reply messages from the recipients than normally expected.