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:
Dec. 04, 2007
Filed:
Jul. 20, 2001
James M. Mathewson, Ii, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Keith A. Rafferty, Wake Forest, NC (US);
James M. Mathewson, II, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Keith A. Rafferty, Wake Forest, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Methods, systems, and computer program products for enabling message senders and event creators to convey time-sensitivity of their messages and events (such as electronic mail messages, electronic calendar entries, and 'to-do' items), and for handling such messages and events at a receiver. A message sender marks messages as to whether they are time-sensitive, and may also identify a starting and ending time and/or date during which the time-sensitive status applies. When such a message arrives at a recipient, it is evaluated and if the time-sensitive period has been reached, the message is automatically displayed to the recipient. Preferably, the recipient must handle the displayed message before continuing on to other messages. The disclosed techniques enable messages to be viewed in a timely manner, according to the sender's representation of the time-sensitivity of the message. As a result of these improvements, communication between senders and receivers may become more effective.