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:
May. 28, 2002
Filed:
May. 14, 1996
Jonathan Isaac Helfman, Gillette, NJ (US);
Charles Lee Isbell, Cambridge, MA (US);
AT&T Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
The invention concerns an improved electronic mail system, wherein incoming mail is automatically sorted into mailboxes, based on criteria defined by the user. In addition, the user can rank the mailboxes in order of importance, and the mailboxes are presented to the user in the order of rank. The user can also establish thresholds for any measurable characteristic of a mailbox. For example, one measurable characteristic may be the total number of unread messages. The user may choose to be informed when the total number of unread messages exceeds a threshold. If the threshold is set to ten, for example, then, when the eleventh message is received, the system triggers an alarm, notifying the user. The system also includes an interface which displays multiple windows to the user simultaneously, showing not only the contents of mail messages, but also other information about the user's mail, such as the ranking of the mailboxes and the criteria for triggering alarms.