US 6,658,456 B1Granted

Electric mail transferring apparatus and electric mail transferring method

AssigneePanasonic Communications Co., Ltd.

InventorHiroyuki Shimoosawa

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A facsimile apparatus is connected to a mail server, and receives an electric tail from a mail box. A header analyzing unit analyzes a header portion of the received electric mail so as to obtain a sender ID. Next, a transfer determination unit matches the obtained sender ID and a content of a sender ID column of a transfer management table. When a match is found, the transfer determination unit reads a content of a transfer destination ID column corresponding to the sender ID column in the transfer management table and a content of a transfer attribute column. An appended file portion is deleted from the electric mail in accordance with the content of the read transfer attribute column, “deletion process.” Thereafter, the electric mail from which the appended file portion is deleted is transferred to a transfer destination registered in the read transfer destination ID column.

Claims8

Dependent claims

An electronic mail transferring apparatus for transferring electronic mail to a designated destination connected to the electronic mail transferring apparatus, the electronic mail transferring apparatus comprising:

an electronic mail receiver that receives an electronic mail capable of including an appended file portion;
a memory configured to store a plurality of destination addresses and transfer attributes, a transfer attribute associated with each destination address, the transfer attributes including discriminators that identify a type of data of the electronic mail, the transfer attributes further including an indicator that an appended file portion is to be deleted, the memory being further configured to associate each discriminator with a processing to be applied to each type of data;
a detector that detects whether or not a destination of the received electronic mail is stored in said memory and whether or not the received electronic mail contains an appended file portion;
a reader that reads the associated transfer attribute from said memory when said detector detects that the destination of the received electronic mail is stored in said memory;
a deletor that, upon detection by said detector that the electronic mail contains an appended file portion, and based upon a determination that the transfer attribute, stored in the memory in association with the destination address, contains the indicator for deletion of the appended file portion, deletes the appended file portion from the electronic mail received by said electronic mail receiver and does not delete the appended file portion from the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiver if the transfer attribute does not contain the indicator for deletion of the appended file portion;
said memory further storing the appended file portion deleted by said deletor;
a transferring mail generator that generates a transferring mail comprising the received electronic mail from which the appended file portion was deleted together with a message indicating that the appended file portion has been deleted;
and
a transmitter that transmits the transferring mail to the designated destination.

6 more elements

A method for transferring electronic mail to a destination, using an electronic transferring apparatus which includes a memory storing a plurality of destination addresses and transfer attributes, a transfer attribute associated with each destination address, the transfer attributes including a discriminator that identifies a type of data of the electronic mail, the transfer attribute further including an indicator that an appended file portion is to be deleted, the memory being configured to associate each discriminator with a processing to be applied to each type of data, the method comprising:

receiving an electronic mail capable of including an appended file portion;
detecting whether or not a destination of the received electronic mail is stored in the memory and whether or not the received electronic mail contains an appended file portion;
reading the associated transfer attribute from the memory when the detecting detects that the destination of the received electronic mail is stored in said memory;
deleting the appended file portion from the received electronic mail, upon detection that the electronic mail contains an appended file portion and based upon the transfer attribute stored in the memory associated and with the destination address contains the indicator for deletion;
storing the deleted appended file portion into the memory and not deleting the appended file portion when the transfer attribute stored in the memory does not contain the indicator for deletion, the deletion of the appended file portion further including extraction of the appended file portion from the received electronic mail, converting the extracted appended file portion to binary data and storing the binary data in the memory;
generating a transferring mail comprising the received electronic mail from which the appended file portion was deleted together with a message indicating that the appended file portion has been deleted;
and
transmitting the transferring mail to the designated destination.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/158,579Filed 22 Sep 1998
Priority: JP 9-28137429 Sep 1997
Granted: 2 Dec 2003
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification22 codes

G06Q 10/107
Office automation; Time management: computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
H04L 51/063
Message adaptation to terminal or network requirements: content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
H04L 51/08
Characterised by the inclusion of specific contents: annexed information, e.g. attachments
H04N 1/00206
With a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server: transmitting or receiving computer data via an image communication…