Patent ID: 7996470
Filing Date: 2011-08-09
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for initiating an instant messaging session, the method comprising: receiving a rule for handling a received email message from user input being provided in a markup language, the rule defining first criteria and second criteria, the rule further defining an action to be performed when both the first criteria and the second criteria are satisfied by the received email message, wherein the first criteria specifies that the received email message is from a given Internet domain and the second criteria specifies that the sender of the received email message is currently present at an instant messaging account; determining whether the received email message is from the given Internet domain; determining whether the sender of the received email message is currently present at the instant messaging account; determining whether the sender of the received email message is a contact of a recipient of the received email message; in response to determining that the received email message is from the given Internet domain and the sender of the received email message is currently present at the instant messaging account and in response to determining that the sender of the received email message is the contact of the recipient of the received email message, automatically launching an instant messaging session with the sender and bypassing spam filtering of the received email message; and in response to determining that both the first criteria and the second criteria are not met, executing a spam filter on the received email message.