System for policing junk e
Contents
1. 700 206 5 999 932 A 12 1999 Paul 5 999 957 A 1271999 Sundsted 6 003 070 A 12 1999 Krantz 6 023 723 A 2 2000 MeCormick et al Continued OTHER PUBLICATIONS Microsoft Carporation Microsoft Mai User s Guide Windows and Presentation Manager Version 1992 7 pages TSW Inc TSW s User Manual 1997 13 pages Continued Primary Examiner Minh Chau Nguyen 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Stolowitz Ford Cowger LLP 57 ABSTRACT A system for policing an unsolicited e mail communication The system has plurality of clients each coupled together using a wide area network of computers such as the Internet or an interne Each of the clients is adapted to send an indi cation of an unsolicited e mail message through an e mail device for a display The system also has a policing server coupled to each of the plurality of clients through the wide area network of computers The policing server is adapted to receive the indication from at least one of the clients The e mail device compnses a SPAM icon on the display The SPAM icen is adapted to send the indication from the client to the policing server 20 Claims 11 Drawing Sheets es GroupWise 4 1 F ile Edit View Send Tools Window Hal Bs Pr inler fre ies Rules EE My Eelsndor Send Mail Schedule Assign lask BU B fa fw eu e Nae ling sl Tack a3 Notice Wrile Kole Phono2. 101 103A a 103 a 107 FIG 1 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 2 of 11 US 8 219 627 B2 200 210 E MONITOR RANDOM PROCESSOR ACCESS DISK DRIVE MEMORY NETWORK USER INPUT INTERFACE DEVICE KEYBOARD FIG 2 US 8 219 627 B2 Sheet 3 of 11 Jul 10 2012 U S Patent 4 801 0N EL A afossay 2uogd 3 0N 211 xso ubissy 8 npauos poy puss JOpUDIDS N Zal soo 1 21 Dip ason ES 00 29 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 4 of 11 US 8 219 627 B2 405 403 File Edit View Send Actions Tools Windows NO SPAM PO jFrom j Subec j Date Megan NZ11exam_ INnOut Reply Nick 18 gVictoria eduThank you f Anna_Tee_Uni NZ RE Hi LauraT spam_emai What s up Izzy 7 Wellingon go Joke e Julia_Tee reunion subject PinotNoir tasting Daven Kilimanjaro g No subject intergr BS Gua GoongGSegam My New Personal E mail Ad 05 04 P jokes Jagen kKilimanjaro g No Subject 05 01 Siok MikeSell com new email 05 08 Christine Fideliti co More email updates 05 08 Tee aracle com Jerry Jerry Forwarded 05 23 V_Laura Dayton org Fwd FW Yellow Rock Roa 05 28 VickieH UofMiami e 06 02 GuaMa Segamat go Hello from Yan Yan 06 07 Stefanie H Random Lost your keys Forwar 06 18 V LIE Selected 1 Total 44 FIG 4 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 5
3. f Rule message Declare RuleSubject Rule Subject Declare RuleName i Rule name Declare RuleMessage Text j Rule filters text in message Declare ReplySubject ic Rule Subject ReportToID SPAM policing server UserID SYP f for test purposes ur test JP test Rule reply subject line P RuleName spamfilter RuleMessageText spam RuleSubject REMOVE H ist You have not honored that request and thus are in violation of USC you are being reported to Federal and State Authorities f ReplySubject REMOVE emRead f SourceMessageID ItemMessageIDFrom View SpammerID ItemGetText SourceMessageID From JE f RuleName SubStr SpammerID 1 6 emReply ReplyTo Sender IncludeText No ReplyMessageID ItemMessageIDFromView I8 Open message in in box report to SPAM policing server RuleMessage Sender has previously requested removal from your e mail distribution gt as well as other Federal Regulations You are subject to 500 fine for this violation and Message for rule filter Set Source ID Source of message use truncated sender name as Reply to message Set Reply ID if if H TextSetSubject ReplySubject True emSend emArchive SourceMessageID emDeleteOpenltem 1 RuleAddActionArchive RuleName RuleAd erID f RuleAddActionArchive RuleName RuleAddActionEm
4. spammers Unlike regular mail advertisers spammers do not pay for the privilege to send SPAM to recipients e mail boxes SPAM has become a significant problem because the vol ume of SPAM is large As a courtesy and under the threat of possible legislation restricting SPAM many distributors of SPAM now send SPAM with instructions to the recipients of the SPAM on how to be removed from the SPAM distribution list In most cases however e mail messages often do not include such instructions on how to remove a recipient from a junk e mail distribution list In the cases where instructions are provided many draw backs exist As merely an example some of the ways to be removed from the mailing lists is time consuming to the recipient Additionally there are simply no standards on how recipients may be removed from such mailing lists Further more the techniques that are available to the recipient often require the recipient to perform time consuming tasks such as sending a reply e mail to the junk e mail message and spe cifically typing a request to be removed from the mailing list forwarding the e mail message to another e mail address and typing a request with specified text requesting removal con necting to a particular web site and following instructions for removal incidentally benefiting the SPAM web site by pro viding an advertising hit for the web site and the like Filters have also been used or proposed to remove
5. generating the previous request and transmitting the previous request to the e mail source 16 system comprising a database configured to store a plurality of requests asso ciated with a receipt of unwanted e mail communica tions and a processing device configured to identify a first request initiated by one or more recipi ents and transmitted to an e mail source to remove the one or more recipients from a distribution list of the e mail source wherein the first request is associ ated with a first unwanted e mail communication from the e mail source US 8 219 627 B2 19 20 store the first request in the database wherein the first 18 The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is fur request identifies the e mail source as being associ ther configured to ated with the first unwanted e mail communication receive an e mail communication associated with the identify a second request initiated by one or more recipi e mail source and ents and transmitted to the e mail source to remove 5 inhibit the e mail communication from being transmitted the one or more recipients from the distribution list of to a recipient based at least in part on the determination the e mail source wherein the second request is asso thatthe number of violations exceeds the threshold num ciated with a second unwanted e mail communication ber from the e mail source store the second request in the database wherein the second request identi
6. Massoge Page 4 of 5 CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION continued 8 219 627 B2 U S Patent Sheet 3 of 11 Jul 10 2012 IZE abossay suo 3 0N JILA yso ubissy a npau2s oH puas itpusiD3 AW joo Pua mala HPJ sl gp asimi E cor CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION continued U S Patent Jul 10 2012 718 START 717 POSITION CURSOR ON ICON 718 SEND REMOVE REPLY TO SENDER TRANSMIT 723 REPLY TO SENDER WITH REMOVE Page 5 of 5 Sheet 7 of 11 8 219 627 B2 611 E Q a RECEIVE b REMOVE FROM REPLY REMOVE 731 REPLY E MAIL FROM DISTRIBUTION 733 735 RECEIVE ACK 737 FIG 7
7. box 303 and a trash can 305 As shown the in box out box and trash can be accessed by way of a mouse cursor posi tioned over a respective icon which allows entry The e mail also has a main menu 309 and a lower group of icons for accessing a calendar 311 a send mail program 313 a sched ule program 315 a task program 317 a note program 319 and a phone message program 321 Details of these particular features can be found in one of many conventional e mail systems such as for example GroupWise by Novell as well as other e mail systems The present invention allows for easy viewing and removal of junk e mail messages SPAM by first entering the in box 301 The in box is entered by clicking a cursor by way of a mouse onto the in box icon Once the in box is accessed a graphical user interface such as the one 400 shown in FIG 4 is displayed The in box user interface includes a variety of elements such as a root directory 403 which is in the name of Stephen for example The root directory includes a variety of sub directories such as friend for example As shown the friend directory is highlighted by way of an outline The friend directory is also open as shown by the opened file folder The friend directory receives a variety of e mail mes sages which are sent to the main directory or directly to the friend directory As shown the e mail messages come from real friends of the user or receiver such as the names l
8. cess then stops step 737 An alternative embodiment is shown by FIG 8 The pro cess begins with start 801 as shown in FIG 8 Among other processes a user of the computer may perform a variety of operations These operations include word processing spread sheets and others The user also checks his her e mail step 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 803 Inthe present embodiment this may include running an e mail client program accessing a web based e mail page opening a subscription e mail account or the like In the present embodiment the user selects one of many functions that are available on e mail In some embodiments the e mail has an in box and an out box In a preferred embodiment the user opens or enters the in box step 805 In particular the user positions a cursor over an icon and clicks on the icon The icon opens the in box Alternatively the user uses a hot key to open the in box Other techniques can also be used to open the in box Once the in box is opened The user typically views the pending e mails In most embodiments the user views step 807 lines of e mails that have been sent to the user e mail address The lines of e mail contain both legitimate e mail messages from friends family and business Other e mail messages include unsolicited advertisements junk mail and the like which are called SPAM The user opens desired e mail messages and disposes of them For ex
9. e mail providers such as America On Line AOL Com puserve Prodigy Microsoft Network MSN or the like Still other embodiments may run with existing e mail filtering software such as Spam Wall from Bright Light and the like Many other systems such as MacOS from Apple Cor poration running upon G3 based microprocessors or Solaris from Sun Microsystems or UNIX running upon a SPARCstation and the like can also be used The system above discloses examples of configurations that embody the present invention It will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that many system types configurations and combinations of the above devices are suitable for use in light of the present disclosure Of course the types of system elements used depend highly upon the application In one embodiment of the present invention a text parsing routine can be implemented and included In such an embodi ment the text parsing routine automatically parses the junk e mail message and determines the specified method for removal from the mailing list For example the text parsing routine can determine that a junk e mail message should be replied to with the text remove unsubscribe or the like in the subject line in the body of the e mail message and the like As another example the text parsing routine can deter mine that a junk e mail message should be forwarded to a specified e mail address again with special text s
10. filed Jul 14 1999 which claims priority to 60 093 120 filed Jul 15 1998 hereby incorporated for all purposes COPYRIGHT NOTICE A portion of the disclosure of this patent document con tains material which is subject to copyright protection The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduc tion by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatso ever BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to telecommunica tion techniques More particularly the present invention pro vides a novel technique including computer codes to reduce unwanted e mail messages from a personal computer work station or the like These unwanted e mail messages that were unsolicited are commonly referred to as SPAM SPAM includes junk mail or junk e mail messages including get rich quick schemes advertisements adult web site infor mation donation requests political campaign information and the like A variety of techniques have been used to transmit written messages from one geographic location to another In the early days people or messengers were the sole means used to carry written information from one person to another person Although effective and still used today messengers were limited by their physical abilities That is some messengers could not travel over roug
11. possibly the same as the SPAM policing server The infor mation automatically sent may include the relevant portions from log 1070 Because it is envisioned that there is wide acceptance and use of embodiments of the present invention it is contemplated that the database server would serve as a central clearing house of junk e mail data For example which senders of junk e mail are the most prolific or ignore the Remove requests which ISPs provide havens for junk e mail senders which ISPs do not stop junk e mail senders and the like Such a database can provide valuable informa tion to ISPs local state and federal law enforcement authori ties netizens and the like The database server may hosted by an organization a service provider such as AOL Hotmail Earthlink Bright Light Technologies and the like In one embodiment of the present invention the SPAM policing server determines data files that can be used in con junction with e mail filter tools as illustrated above In one embodiment end users may download updated data files via the Internet for example and in another embodiment the SPAM policing server may periodically send updated data files for the filtering software to subscribers or users Such filtering tools may be an integral part of the e mail program as in the case of GroupWise and Outlook alternatively the filtering tools may also work in conjunction with such pro grams Embodiments of the filteri
12. user ofthe computer can receive many e mail messages from a large number of servers These servers can send desirable advertisements as well as many undesirable advertisements As merely an example the advertisement can be for a car a book or other consumer products Additionally the adver tisement can be for sensitive material such as an adult Web Site or other materials The present invention provides a tech nique to remove these unwanted e mail messages in an effi cient way Before discussing details of the present invention details of a computer according to the present invention are shown by way of FIG 2 below FIG 2 is a simplified block diagram of a system 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention This diagram is merely an illustration and should not limit the scope ofthe claims herein The system 200 includes a monitor 210 a computing system 220 a user input device 230 a network interface 240 and a keyboard 250 Computing sys tem 220 preferably includes familiar components such as a processor 260 and memory storage devices such as a random access memory RAM 270 a fixed disk drive 280 and a system bus 290 interconnecting the above components User input device 230 may include a mouse a trackball a key board a keypad a joystick a digitizing tablet a wireless controller a microphone or other input devices RAM 270 and fixed disk drive 280 are mere examples of tangible media for storage of compu
13. via the wide area network of computers or Internet By way ofthe present process the user can click onto an icon to remove the SPAM to send a remove reply to the sender to permanently remove the name of the user from a junk mail e mail distribution list and to send the SPAM to a SPAM policing server The spammer or sender receives the remove reply message step 929 via the wide area network of computers or Internet The sender generally receives such remove reply via e mail message or other technique The sender then removes step 930 the name of the user from the e mail distribution list or the like from memory of a server for example This occurs manually or automatically according to a specific process Once the user name is removed an acknowledgment or con firmation message step 933 can be sent to the user by way of e mail The e mail message traverses through the wide area network of computers or Internet and ends up in the users e mail box The present process then stops step 935 Process ing by the SPAM policing server will be described below The present methods can be implemented in computer codes where the codes can be separated or combined with others Additionally the methods can be in the form of com puter software and or hardware The software can be sepa US 8 219 627 B2 11 rated or combined Additionally the software can be com bined with hardware which can be combined or separated As merely an example the p
14. wherein the operations further comprise receiving a further request to remove the recipient from the distribution list wherein the identity of the e mail source is compared with the list of sources in response to receiving the further request 3 The memory device of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise determining a number of violations associated with the e mail source and reporting the e mail source to be in violation of the further request to remove the recipient from the distribution list in response to determining that the number of violations exceeds a threshold number 4 The memory device of claim 3 wherein the operations further comprise inhibiting a second e mail communication associated with the e mail source from being sent to a second recipient based at least in part on the determination that the number of violations exceeds the threshold number 5 The memory device of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise receiving the first unwanted e mail communication wherein the first unwanted e mail communication is addressed to the recipient and in response to receiving the first unwanted e mail commu nication transmitting the previous request to the e mail source 6 The memory device of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise transmitting the previous request to the e mail source and storing the previous request in a database comprising other requests associated with the list of
15. 0 4 clients through the wide area network of computers The policing server is adapted to receive the indication from at least one of the clients The e mail device comprises a SPAM icon on the display The SPAM icon is adapted to send the indication from the client to the policing server Numerous advantages are achieved by way of the present invention over conventional techniques As merely an example the present invention provides an easy to use method to remove unwanted or unsolicited e mail messages In some embodiments the present invention is relatively easy to implement using pre existing computer software The present invention also is time efficient and relatively cost efficient The computer codes also allows a user to perma nently remove unwanted e mail messages from a distribution list Depending upon the embodiment one or more of the advantages are achieved These and other advantages are described throughout the present specification and more par ticularly below These and other embodiments of the present invention as well as its advantages and features are described in more detail in conjunction with the text below and attached BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a simplified block diagram of an e mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention FIG 2 is a simplified block diagram ofa display according to an embodiment of the present invention FIG 3 5 are simplified user interfaces accor
16. 030 includes a mail server 1040 and a log 1050 computer system 1000 includes a mail client 1060 and alog 1070 and ISP 1020 includes a log 1080 Sender 1010 is typically coupled to ISP 1020 by any typical network connection such as a dial up connection dedicated ISDN line cable connection satellite link and other wireless links and the like Computer system 1000 is also coupled to recipient ISP 1030 by any conventional network connection mentioned above as well as other methods that become con ventional in the future Recipient ISP 1030 is coupled to ISP 1020 by the Internet typically through a number of interme diary machines ISP 1020 and recipient ISP 1030 are typically companies that hold themselves out as Internet service providers ISPs However it should be understood that ISP 1020 and recipient ISP 1030 refer to any computers that provide e mail services to senders or recipients For example subscription service providers such as America On Line AOL Prodigy Microsoft Network MSN and the like are considered ISP within the scope of embodiments of the present invention Application A1 WPOffice Default US Declare SourceMessageID i ID of read message Declare ReplyMessageID i ID of reply message Declare SpammerID i String of message source Declare UserID is String of user s ID Declare ReportToID f String of reporting address Declare DocName i Save File Name truncated Declare RuleMessage
17. A E 309 5 Arrange e Schedule le Assign Task Write Note Phone Message 321 313 s 48 si LAM Mail Meeting 4 While You US 8 219 627 B2 Page 2 6 028 602 6 167 434 6 189 026 6 199 102 6 249 805 6 421 709 6 453 327 6 493 007 7 127 680 7 275 082 7 685 242 7 779 080 2002 00 16824 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS A 2 2000 Weidenfiller et al A 12 2000 Pang Bl 2 2001 Birrell et al B1 3 2001 Cobb Bl 6 2001 Fleming III 7 2002 McCormick et al B1 9 2002 Nielsen BI 12 2002 Pang B2 10 2006 Pang B2 9 2007 Pang B2 3 2010 Pang B2 8 2010 Pang Al 2 2002 Leeds OTHER PUBLICATIONS Courtney Macavinta FTC searches for spam solution Jun 12 1997 CNET News com pp 1 2 http news cnet com FTS searches for spam solution 2100 1023 3 200486 html d s 709 206 Dennis Sheridan et al Spam Hater Freeware Helps You Flame Junk Mailers PC World Apr 1997 1 page e 709 206 Paul Heltzel A New Line of Defense Against Spam PC World T 709 206 Online May 22 1997 1 page Cheri Paquet CompuServe Offers Junk E mail Filters IDG News Service PC World Online Sep 24 1997 1 page Stolowitz Ford Cowger LLP Listing of Related Cases Mar 20 2012 2 pages ee 709 207 cited by examiner U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 1 of 11 US 8 219 627 B2 105 x 103 pst m T udi
18. LICATION NO 12 729186 DATED July 10 2012 INVENTOR S Pang It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below On the Title page illustrative fig s 3 should be deleted and substitute therefor the attached title page consisting of illustrative fig s On the Title Page in Column 1 under Related U S Application Data Line 1 delete 60 and insert 63 therefor On the Title Page in the Figure above Tag 311 Line 1 delete My Calandar and insert My Calendar therefor In the Drawings The drawing sheets 3 and 7 of 11 consisting of fig s 3 and 7 should be deleted and substitute therefor the attached drawing sheets 3 and 7 of 11 consisting of fig s 3 and 7 In Fig 3 Sheet 3 of 11 above Tag 311 Line 1 delete My Calandar and insert My Calendar therefor In Fig 7 Sheet 7 of 11 for Tag 731 adjust the text in the box In the Specifications In Column 1 Line 7 delete 11 862 195 and insert U S application Ser No 11 862 195 therefor In Column 1 Line 11 delete 11 862 195 and insert U S application Ser No 11 862 195 therefor In Column 1 Line 48 delete time and insert time therefor Signed and Sealed this Thirtieth Day of April 2013 Oo of iba po y be E Teresa Stanek Rea Acting Director of the United States Patent and T
19. M icon but is not limited The present invention merely provides an easy to use technique for removing SPAM removing the user s name of a spammer s e mail distribution list and for reporting the SPAM to a SPAM policing server Details with regard to specific methods according to embodiments of the present invention are shown below III Present Methods FIGS 6 9 are simplified flow diagrams according to embodiments of the present invention These diagrams are merely illustrations and should not limit the scope of the claims herein One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations modifications and alternatives In one embodiment the process 600 begins with start 601 as shown in FIG 6 Among other processes a user of the computer may perform a variety of operations These opera tions include word processing spread sheets and others The user also checks his her e mail box step 603 In the present US 8 219 627 B2 9 embodiment this may include running an e mail client pro gram accessing a web based e mail page opening a sub scription e mail account or the like Next the user selects one of many functions that are avail able on e mail In some embodiments the e mail has an in box and an out box In a preferred embodiment the user opens or enters the in box step 605 In particular the user positions a cursor over an icon and clicks on the icon The icon opens the in box Alternatively the user u
20. MOVE SPAM 813 FIG 8 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 915 POSITION ON SPAM ICON 919 CLICK ON ICON SEND REMOVE TRANSMIT REMOVE Sheet 9 of 11 US 8 219 627 B2 900 929 RECEIVE REMOVE REMOVE NAME gt FROM LIST SEND ACK STOP FIG 9 US 8 219 627 B2 Sheet 10 of 11 Jul 10 2012 U S Patent Ol Old S3AH3S JjSsvaviva VARS ANAF dali Hali NW DOT U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 11 of 11 US 8 219 627 B2 ee RECEIVE JUNK E MAIL 1110 ONE TOUCH REMOVAL OF JUNK E MAIL d 1120 LOG CHARACTERISTICS OF JUNK E MAIL Lo 1130 LOG REMOVAL REQUEST d 1140 SEARCH LOG FOR MATCH 1170 NOTIFY RECIPIENT NOTIFY JUNK E MAIL NOTIFY ISP OF ISP OF VIOLATION VIOLATION NOTIFY ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES FIG 11 US 8 219 627 B2 1 SYSTEM FOR POLICING JUNK E MAIL MESSAGES CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of 11 862 195 filed Sep 27 2007 which is a continuation of U S application Ser No 11 841 883 filed Aug 20 2007 which is a continuation of 0 8 application Ser No 10 656 502 filed Sep 4 2003 and 11 862 195 is a divisional of U S application Ser No 10 656 502 filed Sep 4 2003 which is a continuation of U S appli cation Ser No 09 353 537
21. Sep 4 2003 now Pat No 7 275 082 and a continuation of 57 ABSTRACT application No 11 841 883 filed on Aug 20 2007 D 2 now Pat No 7 779 080 which is a continuation of A system for policing an unsolicited e mail communication application No 10 656 502 filed on Sep 4 2003 now The system has a plurality of clients each coupled together Pat No 7 275 082 which is a continuation of using a wide area network of computers such as the Internet application No 09 353 537 filed on Jul 14 1999 now or an interne Each of the clients is adapted to send an indi abandoned d ji an V RE e mail d LA an e mail pr X evice for a display The system also has a policing server 60 Provisional application No 60 093 120 filed on Jul coupled to each of the plurality of clients through the wide area network of computers 1 he policing server 1s adapted to 15 1998 k of The polici is adapted receive the indication from at least one of the clients The 51 Int CI e mail device comprises a SPAM icon on the display The G06F 15 16 2006 01 SPAM icon is adapted to send the indication from the client to 52 US CL iion oio Renee rote eerte teet oce 709 206 the policing server 58 Field of Classification Search 709 206 See application file for complete search history 7 pre 20 Claims 11 Drawing Sheets GroupWise 4 10 File Edit View Send Tools Window Help EE
22. a specific sequence of steps It would be recognized that other variations can exist For example the sequence of steps can be changed in order Additionally a step in the sequence of steps can be removed For example as described above reporting of SPAM may occur the first bite of the SPAM apple not only when the spammer takes the second bite of the SPAM apple If as is expected world wide usage of the inventions dis closed in this application occurs hundreds of millions of users will be able to quickly and easily identify and report occurrences of SPAM being sent with a single click of a button In an alternative embodiment a reduced number of users will have the ability to directly report to the SPAM servers In such embodiments a sampling of SPAM messages may be taken regional SPAM policing servers may be set up particular power users may be selected and the like to reduce the SPAM reporting data load In a timely manner a SPAM policing server can then receive the SPAM notice process the SPAM update the filter out data files and update e mail filters almost immediately Because of the timeliness of the SPAM detection turn around time it is expected that there is less of an incentive for spam mers to continue their spamming Alternatively steps in the sequence can be combined Fur thermore an additional step or steps can be inserted These and other combinations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill
23. ample the user can delete the desired e mail messages archive the messages forward the messages reply to the messages or perform other functions In a preferred embodiment the user also opens the SPAM e mail message step 809 Here the user can read the SPAM and determine if it is desirable to keep the SPAM or permanently remove it In a typical household the user finds that the SPAM is an adult Web Site a get rich quick scheme or the like Next the user or recipient removes the SPAM step 811 Depending upon the embodiment the SPAM can be removed by way of a variety of ways The process ends at step 813 which is STOP Processing by the SPAM policing server will be described below In a specific embodiment the present invention provides a process for removing SPAM as shown by the flow diagram 900 of FIG 9 The process begins with start step 915 After the user views the SPAM message the user positions a cursor in from of an icon 917 which can be a SPAM icon or the like such as the ones described herein but can be others The user clicks onto the icon step 919 which begins a process to remove the SPAM remove the user s name from an e mail distribution list reports the SPAM to a SPAM policing server as well as perform other functions In particular the process sends step 921 an e mail message to the spammer or dis tributor with a remove request The e mail message is trans mitted step 923 to the spammer
24. az United States Patent US008219627B2 10 Patent No US 8 219 627 B2 Pang 45 Date of Patent Jul 10 2012 54 SYSTEM FOR POLICING JUNK E MAIL 56 References Cited MESSAGES U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 75 Inventor Stephen Y F Pang Menlo Park CA 5 619 648 A 4 1997 Canale et al US 5 742 769 A 4 1998 Lee etal 5 757 669 A 5 1998 Christie et al 73 Assignee Fortune Communications L L C 5 771 354 A 6 1998 Crawford Dover DE US 5 838 923 A 11 1998 Lee uS 5 864 684 A 1 1999 Nielsen Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this 5 905 495 A 5 1999 Tanaka et al patent is extended or adjusted under 35 i o Plank etal esee 709 206 292 aul U S C 154 b by 77 days 5 999 967 A 12 1999 Sundsted p 6 003 070 A 12 1999 Frantz is subject to a terminal dis 6 023 723 A 2 2000 McCormick et al Continued 21 Appl No 12 729 186 OTHER PUBLICATIONS 22 Filed Mar 22 2010 Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Mail User s Guide Windows and P ET Presentation Manager Version 1992 7 pages 65 En Data TSW Inc TSW s eFilter User Manual 1997 13 pages US 2010 0325728 A1 Dec 23 2010 Continued ontinue Related U S Application Data E Primary Examiner Minh Chau Nguyen 60 Continuation of application No 11 862 195 filed on 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Stolowitz Ford Cowger Sep 27 2007 now Pat No 7 685 242 which is a LLP division of application No 10 656 502 filed on
25. be removed from the spammer s distribution list Other forms of requests are envisioned such as entering remove or similar term on a subject line or in a body of an e mail message or the like 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 In this embodiment an e mail message may also be sent to a SPAM policing server to indicate the receipt ofa SPAM by the recipient By way of the present user interface the SPAM is removed without even opening it The present user interface is easy to use by way of a simple position and click and permanently removes the receivers name from the SPAM distribution list Accordingly the receiver will not receive SPAM from the SPAM mailing list of Tridoc2020 aol com as long as the user s name is permanently removed from the distribution list In an alternative embodiment the receiver of SPAM reads the SPAM message before removing it by way of a novel graphical user interface 500 or window shown in FIG 5 This graphical user interface includes a variety of features such as atool bar 503 sender field 505 receiver field 507 subject line 509 and e mail message 511 which is SPAM The interface also includes icons for closing the window 513 replying to the sender 514 forwarding the e mail 515 information 517 deleting the e mail 519 and others The interface also includes an icon labeled NO SPAM for permanently removing the SPAM The NO SPAM button removes the e mail
26. ch as Earthlink GeoCities and the like subscrip tion services such as AOL Compuserve Prodigy and the like Further the techniques for filtering may be applied to the e mail services described above in addition to SPAM filter ing software such as provided by Bright Light Technologies and others Therefore the above description and illustrations should not be taken as limiting the scope ofthe present inven tion which is defined by the appended claims What is claimed is 1 memory device having instructions stored thereon that in response to execution by a processing device cause the processing device to perform operations comprising receiving an e mail communication addressed to a recipi ent wherein the e mail communication is sent from an e mail source comparing an identity of the e mail source to a list of sources associated with sending unwanted e mail com munications identifying a previous request initiated by the recipient to remove the recipient from a distribution list ofthe e mail source wherein the previous request was transmitted to the e mail source in response to receiving a first unwanted e mail communication from the e mail source and detecting the e mail communication as a second unwanted e mail communication associated with the e mail source based at least in part on the identification of the previ ous request to remove the recipient from the distribution list 2 The memory device of claim 1
27. demonstrate whether the requests for removal have been respected If a junk e mail source repeatedly ignores removal requests the logs may provide grounds for ISPs to terminate junk e mail sender s accounts may provide evidence to governmental authorities and the like In still another embodiment the logs may be forwarded to the policing server for further action Inlightofthe disclosed embodiments enhancements to the present invention are envisioned For example it is envi sioned that users will be able to define custom actions and assign such actions to custom icons for display on the e mail system Some examples of custom user interfaces are shown below US 8 219 627 B2 7 II User Interfaces FIG 3 5 are simplified user interfaces according to embodiments of the present invention These diagrams are merely illustrations and should not limit the scope of the claims herein One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations modifications and alternatives As merely an example FIG 3 shows a graphical user interface 300 for an e mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention The graphical user interface 300 is one of many if not the first window for the e mail system The user interface includes a variety of features such as a tool bar 307 that has at least features directed to File Edit View Send Tools Win dow and Help prompts Additionally the interface includes an in box 301 an out
28. ding to embodiments of the present invention FIGS 6 9 are simplified flow diagrams according to embodiments of the present invention and FIGS 10 11 are simplified diagrams according to other embodiments of the present invention DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS I System Hardware FIG 1 is a simplified block diagram of an e mail system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention This diagram is merely an illustration and should not limit the scope of the claims herein One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations modifications and alterna tives Among other features the system 100 is a wide area network of computers such as for example the Internet The network of computers includes workstations or computer terminals 103 which can be IBM compatible personal com puters i e PCs workstations network computers 1 NCs remote computing devices television sets set top boxes or other computer like devices These computers are coupled through lines 105 to the Internet 101 which includes a variety of servers and other computers As merely an example one of the servers is shown as server 107 Server 107 can be any suitable server that distributes unso licited advertisements such as junk mail Server 107 is coupled to the Internet through line 109 which can be through an Internet service provider which is commonly known as an ISP Server 107 often includes sufficient memory to st
29. e mail in violation ofthe ISP s terms ofservice and use until an e mail is sentto ISP 1020 notifying them that sender 1020 has not been honoring the remove request The present embodiment is also useful where there is hijacking of an ISP address is known in the industry 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 16 hijacking or spoofing occurs when senders 1010 use an ISP s address as a source of the unwanted e mail messages although the ISP is not senders 1010 true ISP In such a case typically when the unwanted e mail message is replied to the reply e mail will bounce because the sender is not at the ISP s address Thus in the present embodiment when an ISP begin receiving messages indicating that sender 1010 has not heeded recipients requests for removal the ISP is then on notice of the address hijacking or spoofing As a result the ISP will typically determine the true ISP or the sender in order to protect their on line reputation In other embodiments of the present invention the reply to address of e mail message is not used but instead the true address is used In the situation where there is a high degree of hijacking or spoofing occurring embodiments of the present invention can be implemented to automatically trace the true ISP address of the junk e mail sender based upon the e mail header information Although the above invention has been described using
30. fies the e mail source as being associated with the second unwanted e mail commu nication determine a number of violations associated with the e mail source and report that the e mail source is in violation of sending the unwanted e mail communications in response to determining that the number of violations exceeds a threshold number 17 The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is fur 19 The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is fur 10 ther configured to receive the first request from a first recipient associated with the first unwanted e mail communication and receive the second request from a second recipient associ ated with the second unwanted e mail communication 15 20 The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is fur ther configured to receive the second request from a first recipient receive an e mail communication addressed to a second recipient and 20 inhibit the e mail communication from being transmitted ther configured to _ NE to the second recipient based at least in part on the receive an e mail communication associated with the determination that the number of violations exceeds the e mail source and threshold number delete the e mail communication based at least in part on the determination that the number of violations exceeds the threshold number ko k UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO 8 219 627 B2 Page 1 of 5 APP
31. h terrain such as rocks jungles and other landscapes Large bodies of water were also difficult to cross Additionally messengers generally could not travel over long distances in a short period of time A human mes senger could only travel a few miles or tens of miles during a typical day Accordingly messengers were replaced at least in part by carrier pigeons More particularly carrier pigeons were used to move small pieces of papers having written information thereon from one geographic location to another Carrier pigeons were quite efficient in some applications but could not generally travel over substantial distances Accordingly a relay of ponies and human riders was used for long distance travel across the North American continent This relay of ponies was called the Pony Express The Pony Express carried written communication in the form of mail on leather pouches carried on the relay of ponies across the United States Although all of these techniques were somewhat effec tive they were often costly unreliable and difficult to achieve In the modern day world a combination of transportation techniques are used in the postal system These techniques include among others human carriers e g mailmen 0 20 25 40 45 50 65 2 motorized vehicles such as cars or trucks and airplanes jets and the like to physically transport mail throughout the United States Conventional postal systems are
32. her comprising receiving with the processing device the first unwanted e mail communication and in response to receiving the first unwanted e mail commu nication transmitting the previous request to the e mail source 10 The method of claim 8 further comprising receiving with the processing device the previous request to remove the recipient from the address list and in response to receiving the previous request transmitting the previous request to the e mail source 11 The method of claim 8 further comprising inhibiting with the processing device the e mail communication from being sent to the recipient based at least in part on the identification of the previous request to remove the recipient from the distribution list 12 The method of claim 8 further comprising reporting with the processing device the e mail source to be in viola tion of the previous request to remove the recipient from the address list 13 The method of claim 8 further comprising receiving with the processing device a further request to remove the recipient from the distribution list wherein the identity ofthe e mail source is compared with the list of sources in response to receiving the further request 14 The method of claim 8 further comprising receiving the previous request and in response to receiving the previous request transmitting the previous request to the e mail source 15 The method of claim 8 further comprising
33. in the art In light of the disclosed embodiments enhancements to the present invention include additional icons within an e mail program can be provided to reply in other ways to e mail messages in general For example in office environments commonly meetings are scheduled by e mail Such e mail messages often request recipients of the message to reply to the message or to send an e mail message to a third party so there can be a head count for seating purposes for providing the correct amount of refreshments for printing the enough meeting materials and the like Such e mail messages require the user to perform time consuming tasks such as determining who a reply e mail message must be sent to typing in a message calling a person by telephone and the like In this example a standardized method for replying to such meeting invitations can be accomplished by providing an confirm icon on the users e mail system In such an embodiment when the user sees such a request by simply clicking upon the confirm icon the user confirms their attendance While the above is a full description of the specific embodi ments various modifications alternative constructions and equivalents may be used For example the above techniques US 8 219 627 B2 17 for removal may be applied towards e mail server programs such as Groupwise Outlook and the like web based e mail services such as HotMail Yahoo Excite and the like ISP providers su
34. ing web site http www cauce org FIG 11 illustrates a flow diagram of an embodiment of the present invention The description of FIG 11 incorporates references found in FIG 10 but should not be limiting Ini tially a unwanted e mail message is received by a recipient on computer system 1000 step 1100 The recipient then utilizes the above described embodiment of the present invention to efficiently request removal from the e mail mailing list step 1110 Next characteristic features of the e mail message such as the header information the senders name address etc the subject line and the like are stored in log 1070 step 1120 The date for request for removal and or the reply message is also stored in log 1070 step 1130 Subsequently log 1070 is searched for previous instances of the same e mail message the same sender same header information and the like step 1140 If there is a match in log 1070 the recipient is notified step 1150 In addition or alternatively as disclosed above an e mail message is sent to ISP 1020 detailing how sender 1010 has ignored the recipi ent s previous requests step 1160 In addition or alterna tively as disclosed above an e mail message is also sent to ISP 1030 with similar information step 1170 In one aspect the present embodiment is also useful where sender 1010 is violating ISP s 1020 terms of use conditions Forexample ISP 1020 may not realize sender 1010 is sending outunwanted
35. isted including Rosa S Kim Diane H Elzingre and others Addi tionally the friend directory includes junk mail non solicited mail or SPAM as shown by the line item corresponding to What s up 407 which is from Tridoc2020 aol com The SPAM has not been opened but can be easily identified by the user or recipient by the unknown e mail name and message In the present embodiment the user can remove the SPAM by simply clicking on the NO SPAM icon 405 which is disposed around the periphery of the graphical user interface The periphery of the graphical user space is outside of the region for the main text or body of the e mail message In some embodiments the periphery of the graphical user inter face is a portion of a tool bar for example which is easy to access but substantially out of the way of the text In still another embodiment the user may have the option to select a NO SPAM function by right clicking upon the e mail mes sage Here the icon is displayed simultaneously with the many lines of e mail messages including titles and senders The NO SPAM button removes the e mail message or dis poses the e mail message into the trash In the present embodiment the NO SPAM button also sends a reply to the sender which is Tridoc2020 aol com The reply sends a message such as a remove term or similar term or terms which indicates that the receiver of the SPAM or Stephen in the present example would like to
36. junk e mail messages from a recipients e mail In fact various programs have been developed in an attempt to filter out junk e mail messages from in boxes Such programs appear to focus upon the email address host source the format of the message the content and the like Typically such programs are programmed by the user to detect junk e mail and to automatically delete them so the useris not bothered by them or automatically put into a junk folder A drawback to such programs is that the user is forced to determine the criteria for filtering a complicated task for the average user Another drawback to such programs is that the filters defined by the user or pre set may filter out legitimate bulk e mail messages that are of interest to the user for example e mail messages US 8 219 627 B2 3 from special interest groups product recall and product warn ing notices valuable product promotions from legitimate businesses complementary upgrade notices and bug patches for software programs freebees and the like One company developing products to enhance the use of filtering techniques has been Bright Light Technologies in San Francisco The Bright Light system appears to disclose providing a central clearing house of identified SPAM mes sages Bright Light appears to use the SPAM data to form data files which are downloaded to Bright Light subscribers The subscribers utilize the data files to create filters within their e mail pr
37. ly obtain large numbers of mailing addresses which become targets for their advertisements and other unsolicited mes sages Mere passive accounts would thus not have the same exposure to such mass marketers as would e mail accounts of real live web users As a result a reduced number of SPAM e mail messages may be sent to such dummy or probe accounts From the above it is seen that an improved technique for removing and preventing repeat junk e mail messages is highly desired SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention a technique for remov ing junk e mail messages from a system of computers over a wide area network is provided In an exemplary embodiment the present invention provides a technique for easily viewing and removing SPAM without opening it The technique can permanently remove the SPAM in some embodiments The technique also provides for enforcement and reporting of SPAM to SPAM policing servers In a specific embodiment the present invention provides a system for policing an unsolicited e mail communication The system has a plurality of clients each coupled together using a wide area network of computers such as the Internet or an interne Each of the clients is adapted to send an indi cation of an unsolicited e mail message or forward the e mail message through an e mail device for a display The system also has a policing server coupled to each of the plurality of a 5 25 40 45 5
38. message or disposes the e mail message into the trash The NO SPAM button also sends a reply to the sender which is meesaocai2 earthlink net 501 The reply may send a mes sage such as a remove term which indicates that the receiver of the SPAM or Stephen would like to be removed from the spammer s distribution list using meesaocai2 earthlink net In this embodiment an e mail message may also be sent to a SPAM policing server to indicate the receipt ofa SPAM by the recipient By way of the present user interface the SPAM is removed after opening it The present user interface is easy to use by way of a simple position and click and permanently removes the receivers name from the SPAM distribution list In another embodiment the user may have the option to select a NO SPAM function by right clicking upon the e mail message Accordingly the receiver will not receive SPAM from the SPAM mailing list of meesaocai2 earthlink net 501 if the spammer permanently removes the receives name from the distribution list and if the SPAM police server updates its filter data files Although the above embodiments are shown by way of specific user interfaces the present invention is much broader In particular the present invention can be applied to other e mail systems and other types of interfaces The inven tion can also be added to pre existing systems without sig nificant limitations or the like The invention is shown in part by the SPA
39. ng tools may also be applied to web based and subscription base e mail systems In another embodiment of the present invention it is con templated that although the SPAM policing server maintains a permanent record of junk e mail senders and the like the data files for the e mail filters are drawn from a particular time window For example spammer may be identified in the data files for the most recent three months for the most recent four weeks and the like Further some junk e mail senders may be seasonal thus filtering data files will include such seasonal e mail senders during particular times of the year Such an embodiment prevents the filtering data files and e mail filter ing software from getting too large and unwieldy Because some junk e mail senders and ISPs are fly by night orga US 8 219 627 B2 15 nizations the time window where some junk e mail is sent is limited to reduce stale spammers In one embodiment when a threshold number of reports regarding the same SPAM spammer or the like are received by the SPAM policing server only then will the SPAM spam mer or the like be transferred to the filter out data file A threshold may be determined by number of reports geo graphic area of such reports and the like Such an embodi ment would reduce the chance of a small group of disgruntled e mail recipients to brand legitimate e mail messages as SPAM In another embodiment of the present invention da
40. o any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 77 days This patent is subject 10 a terminal dis claimer 21 Appl No 12 729 186 22 Filed Mar 22 2010 65 Prior Publication Data US 2010 0325728 A1 Dee 23 2010 Related U S Application Data 60 Continuation of application No 11 862 195 filed un Sep 27 2007 now Pat No 7 685 242 which is a division of application No 10 656 502 filed on Sep 4 2003 now Pat 7 275 082 and a continuation of application No 11 841 883 filed on Aug 20 2007 now Pat No 7 779 080 which is a continuation of application No 10 656 502 filed on Sep 4 2003 now Pat No 7 275 082 which is a continua on of application No 09 353 537 filed on Jul 14 1999 naw abandoned 60 Provisional application No 60 093 120 filed on Jul 15 1998 51 Int Ch G GF 15 16 2006 01 52 US C aucuns Atrei eei etie M 709 206 58 Field of Classification Seareh 709 206 See application file for complete search history Page 3 of 5 10 Patent No 45 Date of Patent US 8 219 627 B2 ful 10 2012 56 References Cited 118 PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 619 648 A 4 1907 Canale el al 5 742 759 A 4 1998 Lee etal 5 757 669 A 5 1998 Christie et al 5 711 334 A 6 1998 Crawford 5 838 923 A 11 1998 Lee 5 864 684 1 1900 Nielsen 5 905 495 A 5 1999 Tanaka et al 5 078 566 A 11 1990 Plank etal
41. of 11 US 8 219 627 B2 501 503 E 900 Mail From meesacai2Qearthinknet _ 0O X File Edit View Send Actions Tools Windows From lt meesaocai2 earthlink CC j 505 To townsend gwai mercha Close 513 507 Subject Get It Out There 509 TOUTTHERE e WHERE PEOPLE CAN SEE IT 914 The greatest way of marketing this centruy is undoubtedly direct e mail The ability to promote your product service website or MLM Network Marketing 915 opportunity to millions instantly is what advertisers have been dreaming of for over 100 years And the greatest part about it is that it s completely affordable We e mail your promotion to a list of our general e i mail addresses for the following prices Attach S 519 Date 06 24 98 10 52pm 521 FIG 5 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet6Gof11 US 8 219 627 B2 601 800 uec START j qq 603 OPEN E MAIL 605 ENTER IN BOX VIEW i INCOMING MAIL 609 OPEN OESIRED MAIL U S Patent Jul 10 2012 POSITION CURSOR ON ICON SEND REMOVE REPLY TO SENDER TRANSMIT REPLY TO SENDER WITH REMOVE Sheet 7 of 11 US 8 219 627 B2 611 RECEIVE REMOVE FROM REPLY REPLY E MAIL FROM DISTRIBUTION RECEIVE ACK FIG 7 U S Patent Jul 10 2012 Sheet 8 of 11 US 8 219 627 B2 803 OPEN E MAIL 805 ENTER IN BOX 807 VIEW INCOMING MAIL 609 OPEN SPAM RE
42. of sender s 1010 failure to comply with the recipient s request as described above using e mail filters Such a noti fication is typically through e mail A benefit to this action is that recipient need not perform any special action besides selecting the one button removal embodiment of the present invention If sender 1010 is deliberately ignoring recipients requests ISP 1020 is immediately made aware of this action by presumably the large number of reply e mail messages from recipients ISP s 1020 incentive to take action for example suspending sender s 1010 account and the like includes being labeled as a junk e mail ISP In yet another embodiment the notification goes to a gov ernment authority or a SPAM policing server This SPAM policing server keeps logs and keeps track of each notifica tion When a spammer or a sender violates a rule that has been set up the SPAM policing server provides an additional noti ficationto the sender In some embodiments the SPAM polic ing server also sends information out to governmental authorities for enforcement In still further embodiments the SPAM policing server sends out information to the ISP 1020 to terminate the sender s account Still further the SPAM policing server may utilize software tools that disable ISP an 5 25 30 40 45 50 14 1020 or the spammer s ability to send e mail messages Depending upon the embodiment one or more of the above may
43. often reliable and cost efficient They are so efficient that they are often subject to many undesirable influences One of these influ ences is the routine transmission of unsolicited advertise ments information and the like to many households across the United States On any typical day an average household receives at least one if not more than one unsolicited adver tisement As merely an example the advertisement can be for carpet cleaning credit cards and other goods or services that are routinely sent by companies in an attempt to secure a purchase from the household In many cases these unsolic ited advertisements often burden the postal system although the advertisers at least pay for the service Additionally households are burdened by the advertisements which are thrown away These unsolicited advertisements are also termed as Junk Mail Unfortunately junk mail is not limited to use in only the conventional postal systems In many wide area computer networking applications junk mail is commonly sent to users in large groups often thousands or perhaps millions of users For instance a user of a well known wide area network of computers which is known as the Internet often receives numerous lines of junk mail which has been coined as SPAM In fact SPAM refers to such unsolicited advertise ments that come to the user by way of electronic mail also known as e mail The senders of SPAM are often termed
44. ograms that then filter out SPAM messages Bright Light appears to gather SPAM data by setting up dummy or probe e mail accounts with e mail providers for example Juno com Excite com or the like When these dummy accounts receive e mail messages Bright Light appear to automatically or manually determine whether the e mail is SPAM If the e mail message is determined to be SPAM characteristics of the e mail message such as sender and the subject text appear to be entered into the SPAM data file One drawback with the current Bright Light technique is that automatic determination of SPAM may require a high level of AI programming and programming resources Another drawback is that manual determination of SPAM may require round the clock hiring of personnel and person nel resources Yet another drawback with the current Bright Light tech nique is that use of such dummy or probe e mail accounts are passive do not receive SPAM as would active e mail accounts Itis well known that electronic mass marketers use a variety oftechniques for obtaining e mail address lists than just who has an e mail account For example marketers obtain e mail address from user posts on various Internet sites such as news group sites chat room sites or directory services sites mes sage board sites mailing lists and identifying mailto address links provided on web pages Using these and other similar methods electronic mass marketers may effective
45. ore information such as advertisements and the like The memory can also store an e mail distribution list The memory can be based on a hard drive a floppy drive tape or other storage media Of course the type of memory used depends upon the application The e mail distribution list can include e mail addresses to one ofa plurality of computers 103A 103B 103C and 103D which can correspond to users The e mail distribution list is US 8 219 627 B2 5 often compiled from other e mail distribution lists that are often accumulated from other servers or even purchased The e mail distribution list can also be formed by adding the e mail addresses of users of selected sites E mail distribution lists can often range in hundreds thousands or even millions of users As merely an example a typical e mail distribution list is often about thousands or even millions of e mail names and greater Of course the type of e mail distribution list depends upon the application Each of these computers can be at a user site such as a home corporate address or remote location Periodically each of these computers receives an unsolicited e mail mes sage such as an advertisement from server 107 or a plurality of servers Literally hundreds thousands or even millions of unsolicited e mail messages can be sent to one or more ofthe computers by way of the Internet from one or more servers Given the efficiency of the e mail system of the Internet the
46. ptyItem RuleName Generate removal request e mail subject line Sends the reply e mail Save a copy ofthe spam Delete the spam Next we set a new rule in response to the SpammerID Creates new rule lActionReply RuleName ToSender ReportToID RuleSubject RuleMessage Us Rule creates automatic reply e mail f f if archival desired Rule deletes repeat spam US 8 219 627 B2 13 Typically a recipient at computer system 1000 receives an unwanted e mail message using mail client 1060 Mail client 1060 receives this e mail message from mail server 1040 resident on recipient ISP 1030 Recipient ISP 1030 receives the e mail message originated from ISP 1020 and sender 1010 through well known methods Using the above described embodiment of the present invention in response to the unwanted e mail message the recipient requests removal from the e mail mailing list with a single user input such as a click of an icon by voice com mand and the like In response to the request the present embodiment logs the e mail message and the removal request In some embodiments of the present invention the log may store and or archive the entire message the e mail address of the sender a portion of the message the date and the like In alternative embodiments of the present invention other distinguishing features ofthe unwanted e mail can also be logged such as the address of ISP 1020 and the like The date when the user reques
47. rademark Office CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION continued Page 2 of 5 U S Pat No 8 219 627 B2 In Column 2 Line 55 delete recipients and insert recipient s therefor In Column 2 Line 58 delete and insert e mail therefor In Column 4 Line 21 delete attached and insert attached therefor In Column 4 Line 36 delete DESCRIPTION and insert DETAILED DESCRIPTION therefor In Column 8 Line 36 delete receivers and insert receiver s therefor In Column 8 Line 41 delete receives name and insert receiver s name therefor In Column 9 Line 60 delete ACKNOWLEDGE and insert an ACKNOWLEDGE therefor In Column 10 Line 37 delete from and insert front therefor In Column 15 Line 11 delete SPAM and insert SPAM therefor In Column 15 Line 42 delete unwanted and insert an unwanted therefor In Column 16 Line 61 delete confirm and insert a confirm therefor In Column 17 Line 2 delete Groupwise and insert Group Wise therefor In Column 17 Line 38 in Claim 3 delete 1 and insert 2 therefor CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION continued a United States Patent Pang 54 SYSTEM FOR POLICING JUNK E MAIL MESSAGES 75 Inventar Stephen Y EF Pang Menlo Park CA US 73 Assignee Fortune Communications L L C Dover OE US Notice Subject t
48. resent invention can use for example computer code in the form of macros from an e mail program such as Group Wise for example The macros can be shown below Application A1 WPOffice Default US ItemReply ReplyTo Sender IncludeText No FocusSet Place Subject DeleteWordRight Type Text REMOVE ItemSend ItemDeleteOpenlItem The codes shown above are merely examples and should not limit the scope ofthe claims herein One of ordinary skill intheart would recognize other variations modifications and alternatives In another embodiment of the present invention the com puter code is also in the form of macros from an e mail program such as GroupWise for example The following macro illustrates deletion of the SPAM sending of a remove request to the spammer and updating of the user s built in e mail filtering capability In particular sets the e mail filter to filter out e mail messages from the same sender The mac ros can be shown below 20 12 The codes shown above are merely examples and should not limit the scope ofthe claims herein One of ordinary skill intheart would recognize other variations modifications and alternatives IV Reporting Embodiments FIG 10 illustrates a simplified reporting embodiment of the present invention FIG 10 illustrates a recipient at com puter system 1000 sender 1010 of unwanted e mail a sender ISP 1020 anda recipient ISP 1030 Recipient ISP 1
49. rocess to remove the SPAM from the user s in box removes the user s name from an e mail distribution list reports the SPAM to a SPAM policing server as well as other functions In particular the process generates step 721 an e mail reply to the spammer or distributor of the e mail with aremove request The e mail reply is transmitted step 723 to the sender via the wide area network of computers or Internet By way of the present process the user can click onto an icon to remove the SPAM send a remove reply to the sender to permanently remove the name of the user from a junk mail e mail distribution list and report the SPAM Once the spammer or sender receives the remove reply message step 729 via the wide area network of computers or Internet The sender generally receives such remove reply via e mail message or other technique The sender then removes step 731 the name of the user or recipient from the e mail distribution list or the like from memory in a server for example This occurs manually or automatically according to a specific process In this embodiment once the user name is removed an acknowledgment message step 733 can be sent to the user by way of e mail The e mail message traverses through the wide area network of computers or Internet and ends up in the users e mail box Here the user receives step 735 the acknowledgment which can be a ACKNOWLEDGE REMOVE language or other information The present pro
50. ses a hot key to open the in box Other techniques can also be used to open the in box Once the in box is opened The user typically views the pending e mails by sender and subject In most embodiments the user views step 607 lines of e mails that have been sent to the user e mail address The lines of e mail contain both legitimate e mail messages from friends family and busi ness Other e mail messages include unsolicited advertise ments junk mail and the like which are referred herein as SPAM The user opens desired e mail messages step 609 and disposes of them For example the user can delete the e mail messages archive the messages forward the mes sages reply to the messages or perform other functions Further based upon the subject and or the sender the user may determine that the e mail message is SPAM and remove the SPAM step 611 before even opening it In a specific embodiment the SPAM is removed Depending upon the embodiment the SPAM can be removed by way of a variety of ways as will be described below The process ends at step 613 which is STOP In a specific embodiment the present invention provides a process for removing SPAM as shown by the flow diagram 611 of FIG 7 After the user selects the SPAM the user positions a cursor in front of an icon 717 which can be a NO SPAM SPAM remove icon or the like such as the ones shown above The user then clicks the icon step 719 which begins a p
51. sources wherein the identity of the e mail source is compared to the list of sources based at least in part on a comparison of the previous request to the other requests stored in the data base 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 18 7 The memory device of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise inhibiting a second e mail communication associated with the e mail source from being sent to a second recipient based at least in part on the identification of the previous request 8 A method comprising receiving with a processing device an e mail communi cation addressed to a recipient wherein the e mail com munication is associated with an e mail source comparing with the processing device an identity of the e mail source to a list of sources associated with unwanted e mail communications identifying with the processing device a previous request initiated by the recipient to remove the recipient from a distribution list of the e mail source wherein the previ ous request was transmitted to the e mail source in response to receiving a first unwanted e mail communi cation from the e mail source and detecting with the processing device the e mail commu nication as a second unwanted e mail communication associated with the e mail source based at least in part on the identification of the previous request to remove the recipient from the distribution list 9 The method of claim 8 furt
52. ta files for e mail filters may be based upon frequency of complaints from e mail recipients preferably based upon the log com paring techniques described above For example the top 100 500 1000 junk e mail senders or ISPs can be identified in the data files and filtered out by e mail recipients In other embodiments of the present invention combinations of the above techniques can be used to determine what junk e mail senders and the like should be filtered out In general when implemented world wide it is contemplated that database server identifies junk e mail senders and ISPs that do not adhere to etiquette of the Internet and to local state and federal laws An additional action includes automatically notifying ISP 1030 of sender s 1010 failure to comply with the recipient s request along with a relevant portion of log 1070 If ISP 1030 determines there is a pattern of non compliance from certain ISPsore mail senders ISP 1030 may approach governmental authorities with such information post such information on their web site or send such information to a clearing house of such information as described above In the latter two cases ISPs or e mail senders may become persona non grata blacklisted on the Internet and or e mail from these sources are filtered out by recipients An example of one such clearing house of information related to junk e mail or unsolicited commercial e mail UCE is found at the follow
53. take place In one embodiment notification of SPAM to the SPAM policing server may occur when the first SPAM is sent not necessarily when SPAM from the same source or the like is detected In such an embodiment earlier notice of SPAM may be possible In one embodiment e mail filtering tools can be included in the present invention to filter out e mail messages from junk e mail ISPs If it is determined that a threshold number even one of e mail messages are from a particular ISP and or particular ISP s are not taking action in response to repeated removal requests by their senders in one embodi ment the user may be prompted to place a particular ISP ona filter out list as illustrated above In such a situation future e mails from that ISP will be automatically filtered out of a recipient s in box Alternatively placement of a particular ISP on a filter out list may occur automatically if the thresh old number is exceeded As an enhancement it is contem plated that such subsequent e mail messages are automati cally replied to also with remove requests and the like The subsequent e mail messages and remove requests are typi cally also logged for evidentiary purposes In one embodiment of the present invention when a thresh old number of e mail messages from a junk e mail sender or ISP are received despite the removal request this informa tion is forwarded to a central junk e mail database server
54. ter programs e mail messages audio and or video data and code implementing embodiments ofthe present invention Othertypes oftangible media include SRAM floppy disks optical storage media such as CD ROMs and bar codes semiconductor memories such as flash memories stick memories read only memories ROMs ASICs battery backed volatile memories and the like Network interface 240 may be any type of interface to a computer network For example network interface 240 may be a cable DSL telephone modem an Ethernet or fast Ether net interface a Local Talk connection or the like As disclosed above the computer network may be any type of network such as the Internet an Intranet an IPX network private tunnel local area network LAN WAN and the like In a preferred embodiment computing system 220 includes a microprocessor such as a PentiumllI from Intel Corporation a K 7 processor from Advanced Microdevices or the like running Windows98 operating system from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond Wash BeOS LINUX or the like The embodiment may include an electronic mail e mail client application such as Netscape Messenger Group Wise Eudora Microsoft Outlook Pegasus Mail or another typical e mail program for reading and managing e mail The 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 embodiment may also utilize web based e mail providers such as Hotmail Yahoo Excite or the like subscriber based
55. ts removal is also typically logged although not necessary since the junk e mail message is already logged In the present embodiment logging infor mation is maintained in log 1070 a database in computer system 1000 alternatively in separate files within a particular directory and the like When subsequent e mail messages are Removed using embodiments ofthe present messages these e mail messages are compared to previous e mail messages stored in log 1070 For example comparison can be on the basis of sender name e mail address telephone number mail address and the like Ifa match is found meaning sender 1010 has failed to respect the recipients previous request to be removed from the send ers e mail list several different courses of action may be taken One action includes notifying the recipient at computer system 1000 of the violation In such a situation log 1070 would provide evidence that the recipient previously requested removal from the e mail mailing list but was still sent another e mail With such evidence the recipient can contact ISP 1020 for example to notify ISP 1020 that sender 1010 failed to comply with the recipients request ISP 1020 may then terminate sender s 1010 account or request that sender 1010 complies with requests for removal as a condi tionof continued service Typically the relevant portion oflog 1070 may be attached to the e mail Another action includes automatically notifying ISP 1020
56. uch as delete please remove and the like included therein As merely another example the routine can determine that a specific web site should be contacted using a web browser and specific acts performed such as clicking on a button on the web site Other types of actions are contemplated in alterna tive embodiments of the present invention and can depend upon the type of removal instructions specified by the junk e mail message In one embodiment as will be described below when the user clicks upon the SPAM icon the junk e mail message is not only replied to using the user s e mail program but is also deleted or purged from the user s in box The e mail message may also be forwarded to a centralized clearing house of SPAM messages called a SPAM policing server or policing server Thus with a single click of the remove icon a request for removal from the e mail mailing list is generated and the message is deleted In some embodiments the e mail mes sage is transferred to trash In another embodiment when a junk e mail has been removed by selecting the SPAM command or by clicking on the SPAM icon a log is maintained of the incoming junk e mail message the source of the junk e mail message the product advertised in the e mail message or the like Further alog is maintained as to when the reply e mail to whom the reply e mail is sent to actions taken or the like Such logs are valuable as to tracking junk e mails and to
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