Recipient changes in email threads

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9230244-B2
Application number	US-201213433832-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2012
Priority date	Mar 29, 2012
Publication date	Jan 5, 2016
Grant date	Jan 5, 2016

Abstract

A tool for notifying a recipient of an email message, belonging to an email thread, that a recipient address has been added to or dropped from the thread. Address fields of the email message received are compared to the address fields of the most recent prior email message in the thread. Addressed that are determined to be added or dropped are stored in the metadata of the email message received so the added or dropped recipient addresses can be accessed to notify recipients of subsequent emails in the email thread. The metadata of previous email messages in the email thread are accessed to notify the recipient of recipient addresses added or dropped between any two consecutive email messages in the thread.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for notifying a recipient of an email message that one or more other designated recipients of the email message have been changed from designated recipients of one or more previous email messages related to the email message, the method comprising the steps of:
a computer system receiving an email message belonging to a chain of related email messages;
the computer system comparing recipient addresses in the email message to recipient addresses of a most recent prior email message belonging to the chain of related email messages to determine one or more recipient addresses contained in either the email message but not the most recent prior email message or the most recent prior email message but not the email message;
the computer system notifying a recipient of the email message of the one or more recipient addresses;
the computer system storing the one or more recipient addresses in metadata of the email message; and
the computer system accessing metadata of the most recent prior email message to notify the recipient of one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the most recent prior email message, wherein the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the most recent prior email message are one or more recipient addresses contained in either the most recent prior email message but not an email message sequentially before the most recent prior email message or the email message sequentially before the most recent prior email message but not the most recent prior email message.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
the computer system receiving a subsequent email message belonging to the chain of related email messages;
the computer system comparing recipient addresses in the subsequent email message to recipient addresses of the email message to determine one or more recipient addresses contained in either the subsequent email message but not the email message or the email message but not the subsequent email message;
the computer system notifying a recipient of the subsequent email message, of the one or more recipient addresses contained in either the subsequent email message but not the email message or the email message but not the subsequent email message;
the computer system storing the one or more recipient addresses in metadata of the subsequent email message; and
the computer system accessing metadata of the email message to notify the recipient of the subsequent email message of one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the email message.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:
the computer system scanning a body portion of the email message for one or more names of possible intended recipients of the email message, wherein the one or more names correspond to one or more respective recipient addresses in a directory of recipient addresses; and
the computer system determining whether a recipient address corresponding to one of the one or more names matches one of the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the email message, wherein the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the email message is indicated as a recipient address that has been dropped.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising the step of the computing system, in response to determining that the recipient address corresponding to one of the one or more names matches one of the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the email message, notifying the recipient of the email message of the recipient address corresponding to the one of the one or more names.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising the steps of the computer system determining whether a second recipient address corresponding to one of the one or more names matches one of the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the most recent prior email message, wherein the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the most recent prior email message is indicated as a recipient address that has been dropped.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of the computer system, in response to determining that the second recipient address corresponding to one of the one or more names matches one of the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the most recent prior email message, notifying the recipient of the email message of the recipient address corresponding to the one of the one or more names.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a recipient address is located in a to field, a carbon copy field, a blind carbon copy field, a from field or any combination thereof, of the email message.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification includes recipient addresses in the email message but not the most recent prior email message notified in a first color and recipient addresses in the most recent prior email message but not the email message notified in a second color.

9. A computer program product for notifying a recipient of an email message that one or more other designated recipients of the email message have been changed from designated recipients of one or more previous email messages related to the email message, the computer program product comprising:
one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to receive an email message belonging to a chain of related email messages;
program instructions to compare recipient addresses in the email message to recipient addresses of a most recent prior email message belonging to the chain of related email messages to determine one or more recipient addresses contained in either the email message but not the most recent prior email message or the most recent prior email message but not the email message;
program instructions to notify a recipient of the email message of the one or more recipient addresses;
program instructions to store the one or more recipient addresses in metadata of the email message; and
program instructions to access metadata of the most recent prior email message to notify the recipient of one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the most recent prior email message, wherein the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the most recent prior email message are one or more recipient addresses contained in either the most recent prior email message but not an email message sequentially before the most recent prior email message or the email message sequentially before the most recent prior email message but not the most recent prior email message.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , further comprising program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to scan a body portion of the email message for one or more names of possible intended recipients of the email message, wherein the one or more names correspond to one or more respective recipient addresses in a directory of recipient addresses; and
program instructions to determine whether a recipient address corresponding to one of the one or more names matches one of the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the email message, wherein the one or more recipient addresses in the metadata of the email message is indicated as a recipient address that has been dropped.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, in response to program instructions to determine that the recipient address corresponding to

Assignees

• Patil Sandeep R
• Ramanathan Sri
• Sanap Vikram B
• Sivakumar Gandhi
• Trevathan Matthew B
• IBM

Inventors

• Patil Sandeep R
• Ramanathan Sri
• Sanap Vikram B
• Sivakumar Gandhi
• Trevathan Matthew B

Classifications

• H04L51/24

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q10/107 Primary

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title

• H04L51/224

  providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages · CPC title