Patent ID: 6018761
Filing Date: 2000-01-25
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
A method of obtaining context information about a sender of an electronic message using a mail processing comprising the steps of:scanning the message, usinig the mail processine program to determine if the message contains a reference in a header portion of the message to at least one feature of the sender's context, wherein the sender's context is information about the sender or the message that is usefiul to the recipient in understanding more about the context in which the sender sent the message;if the message contains such reference, using the mail processing program and such reference to obtain [sender] the context information from a location external to the message;if the message does not contain such reference, using the mail processing program and information present in the message to indirectly obtain the [sender] context information using external reference sources to find a reference to the [sender] context information.