Patent ID: 7558826
Filing Date: 2009-07-07
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for defining an electronic address, comprising: selecting a preferred domain name; selecting one or more additional domain names in addition to the preferred domain name; selecting a preferred address format; selecting one or more additional address formats in addition to the preferred address format; and retaining the preferred domain name, the one or more additional domain names, the preferred address format, and the one or more additional address formats to define the electronic address, wherein the preferred domain name and the one or more additional domain names include an Internet domain name selected from one or more of the following domain names: “.com,” “.edu,” “.org,” “.gov,” “.bus,” “.pro,” and a country domain, wherein the preferred address format and the one or more additional address formats are separated from the preferred domain name and the one or more additional domain names by a delimiter and the preferred address format and the one or more additional address formats uniquely identifies a handle to a resource within an environment defined by the Internet domain name, and wherein the electronic address is used to route and to deliver messages over the Internet to the resource defined by the electronic address, and wherein the electronic address is defined as variable electronic characters that define permissible types of electronic characters that are permissible within the email address, and wherein the email address is resolved within an email system using a directory service to acquire attributes for the resource that populate values for the variable electronic characters to define the email address for the resource, and wherein the preferred domain name and the one or more additional domain names are explicit string values populated to portions of the variable electronic characters, and wherein the preferred domain name is inherited within a directory from a parent node of the directory.