EP0964343A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Apparatus, program products and methods utilizing intelligent contact management
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1999-05-19
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2019-05-19
Abstract
Abstract Apparatus, program products, and methods implement various intelligent contact management operations to improve the productivity of users of electronic messaging systems and the like. To perform an intelligent name lockup, for example, a subset of the users in a contact database that meet a predetermined search criteria is identified, and a favored user is selected therefrom based upon a predetermined affinity criteria. Also, the automated addition of new entries to a contact database is supported by accumulating the number of contacts between a first user and a second user, with a new entry associated with the second user added to the contact database associated with the first user in response to the number of contacts between the first and second users exceeding a predetermined threshold. The automated addressing of electronic messages is also supported by determining, in response to a first user addressing an electronic message to a second user, whether the second user is a member of an electronic messaging group that defines a plurality of member users, and if so, to address the electronic message to at least one additional member user in the electronic messaging group. The automated creation of electronic messaging groups is also supported by addressing an electronic message to a plurality of recipient users in response to user input, and automatically creating a new electronic messaging group including the plurality of recipient users. Furthermore, the automated updating of electronic messaging groups is supported by addressing an electronic message to an electronic messaging group including a plurality of member users in response to user input, selectively updating an address list for the electronic message in response to user input, and selectively updating the electronic messaging group based upon the updates to the address list. <IMAGE>
Inventors
- 👤 Cary Lee Bates
- 👤 Paul Rueben Day
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-24 20:28
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06Q; G06Q10/00; G06Q10/10; G06Q10/107; G06F; G06F16/00; G06F16/30; G06F16/33; G06F16/335
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 27
Claim 1
Independent Claim
66 words
A computer-implemented method of locating for a user from a contact
database including a plurality of users, the method comprising: (a) identifying a subset of the plurality of users in the contact
database that meet a predetermined search criteria; (b) selecting a favored user among the subset of users based upon
a predetermined affinity criteria; and (c) displaying a display representation associated with the
favored user.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
56 words
The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined search criteria
includes a character string search term, and wherein identifying the
subset of users that meet the predetermined search criteria includes
comparing the character string search term with a character string stored
in a predetermined field of an entry in the contact database
corresponding to each user.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the subset of users that
meet the predetermined search criteria is performed during a partial name
lookup operation.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
63 words
The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the subset of users is
performed in response to a lookup request from a requesting user, and
wherein selecting the favored user among the subset of users includes
comparing a location or a function identifier associated with the
requesting user with a location or a function identifier associated with
each user in the subset of users.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
56 words
The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the location identifier
associated with the requesting user with the location identifier
associated with each user in the subset of users includes determining if
the location identifier associated with each user identifies a related
location to a predetermined location identified by the location
identifier associated with the requesting user.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 5, further comprising monitoring communications
between first and second locations to determine whether the first and
second locations are related to one another.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
73 words
The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the subset of users is
performed in response to a lookup request from a requesting user, and
wherein selecting the favored user among the subset of users includes
determining a contact affinity between the requesting user and each user
in the subset of users and selecting as the favored user the user among
the subset of users having the greatest contact affinity with the
requesting user.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
45 words
The method of claim 7, further comprising monitoring contacts
between the requesting user and each of the subset of users, wherein
selection of the favored user is based upon the relative number of
contacts between the user and each user in the subset of users.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
50 words
The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a display
representation of at least one additional user from the subset of users,
wherein displaying the display representation associated with the favored
user includes highlighting the display representation of the favored user
relative to the display representation of the additional user.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
63 words
A computer-implemented method of maintaining a contact database,
the method comprising: (a) accumulating a number of contacts between a first user and a
second user; and (b) in response to the number of contacts between the first user
and the second user exceeding a predetermined threshold, adding an
entry associated with the second user to a contact database
associated with the first user.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method of claim 10, wherein adding the entry includes copying
information from a second entry associated with the second user and
stored in a master contact database.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
64 words
The method of claim 11, wherein accumulating the number of contacts
includes at least one of monitoring messages sent by the first user to
the second user, monitoring messages received by the first user from the
second user, monitoring messages sent by the first user that copy the
second user, and monitoring attempts by the first user to retrieve
information about the second user.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
87 words
The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the
number of contacts between the first user and the second user exceed the
predetermined threshold by comparing the predetermined threshold with a
composite number of at least two of the messages sent by the first user
to the second user, the messages received by the first user from the
second user, the messages sent by the first user that copy the second
user, and the attempts by the first user to retrieve information about
the second user.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
91 words
The method of claim 13, wherein determining whether the number of
contacts between the first user and the second user exceed the
predetermined threshold includes determining the composite number by
scaling at least one of the number of messages sent by the first user to
the second user, the number of messages received by the first user from
the second user, the number of messages sent by the first user that copy
the second user, and the number of attempts by the first user to retrieve
information about the second user.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
92 words
The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the
number of contacts between the first user and the second user exceed the
predetermined threshold by separately comparing at least one of the
number of messages sent by the first user to the second user, the number
of messages received by the first user from the second user, the number
of messages sent by the first user that copy the second user, and the
number of attempts by the first user to retrieve information about the
second user, to an individual threshold.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
79 words
A computer-implemented method of preparing an electronic message,
the method comprising: (a) in response to a first user addressing an electronic message
to a second user, determining whether the second user is a member
of an electronic messaging group, the electronic messaging group
defining a plurality of member users; and (b) if the second user is a member of the electronic messaging
group, addressing the electronic message to at least one additional
member user in the electronic messaging group.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
36 words
The method of claim 16, wherein addressing the electronic message
to at least one additional member user in the electronic messaging group
includes adding each additional member user to an address list for the
electronic message.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 17, wherein adding each additional member to
the address list includes adding at least one additional member to a copy
list for the electronic message.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
63 words
The method of claim 16, wherein addressing the electronic message
to at least one additional member user in the electronic messaging group
includes requesting user input from the first user to either accept or
reject addressing to each additional member user in the electronic
messaging group, and in response to the user input, addressing the
electronic message to any accepted additional member users.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
70 words
The method of claim 16, wherein the electronic messaging group is a
first electronic messaging group among a plurality of electronic
messaging groups additionally including a second electronic messaging
group defining a second plurality of member users, and wherein
determining whether the second user is a member of the electronic
messaging group includes determining whether the second user is a member
of any of the plurality of electronic messaging groups.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
75 words
The method of claim 20, wherein, if the second user is a member of
both of the first and second electronic messaging groups, receiving user
input from the first user that selects at least one of the first and
second electronic messaging groups, and wherein addressing the electronic
message to at least one additional member user in the first electronic
messaging group is performed only if the first user selects the first
electronic messaging group.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
37 words
The method of claim 20, further comprising, if the second user is a
member of the second electronic messaging group, addressing the
electronic message to at least one additional member user in the second
electronic messaging group.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
43 words
A computer-implemented method of maintaining electronic messaging
groups, the method comprising: (a) addressing an electronic message to a plurality of recipient
users in response to user input; and (b) automatically creating a new electronic messaging group that
includes the plurality of recipient users.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
86 words
A computer-implemented method of maintaining electronic messaging
groups, the method comprising: (a) addressing an electronic message to an electronic messaging
group including a plurality of member users in response to user
input, including generating an address list for the electronic
message that includes a list entry associated with each member
user; (b) selectively updating the address list for the electronic
message in response to user input; and (c) automatically updating the electronic messaging group based
upon the updates to the address list for the electronic message.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method of claim 23 or 24, wherein automatically creating or
updating the electronic messaging group is performed in response to user
input to send the electronic message.
Claim 26
Independent Claim
29 words
An apparatus, comprising: (a) a memory; and (b) a program, resident in the memory, the program configured to
perform the steps of claims 1, 10, 16, 23 or 24.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
31 words
A computer program product comprising computer program code stored
on a computer readable storage medium comprising a printer means for
performing the steps of claim 1, 10, 16, 23 or 24.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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