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:
Aug. 05, 2008
Filed:
Mar. 19, 2007
Aleksandr Ingerman, Seattle, WA (US);
Thomas Welles Millett, Seattle, WA (US);
Keith A. Mccall, Sammamish, WA (US);
Aleksandr Ingerman, Seattle, WA (US);
Thomas Welles Millett, Seattle, WA (US);
Keith A. McCall, Sammamish, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
The principles of the present invention provide for categorizing electronic messages based on trust between electronic messaging entities. Messaging servers maintain trust lists indicating levels of trust between electronic messaging entities. Trust lists can be generated from existing trust information, such as, for example, address book entries. Messaging servers also maintain activity stores that indicate messaging activity between messaging entities. Based on information in a trust list and, when appropriate, information in an activity store, a messaging server can categorize an accessed electronic message, such as, for example, as unwanted and/or unsolicited. Messaging servers can securely exchange trust list information to increase the possibility of identifying a level of trust between messaging entities, even between messaging entities that have not previously exchanged electronic messages. Exchanged trust list information increases the possibility that a messaging server will be able to appropriately categorize an accessed electronic message.