Patent ID: 6658456
Filing Date: 2003-12-02
Classification: G06Q,H04L,H04N

Abstract:
An electronic mail transferring apparatus for transferring electronic mail to a designated destination connected to the electronic mail transferring apparatus, the electronic mail transferring apparatus comprising:an electronic mail receiver that receives an electronic mail capable of including an appended file portion; a memory configured to store a plurality of destination addresses and transfer attributes, a transfer attribute associated with each destination address, the transfer attributes including discriminators that identify a type of data of the electronic mail, the transfer attributes further including an indicator that an appended file portion is to be deleted, the memory being further configured to associate each discriminator with a processing to be applied to each type of data; a detector that detects whether or not a destination of the received electronic mail is stored in said memory and whether or not the received electronic mail contains an appended file portion; a reader that reads the associated transfer attribute from said memory when said detector detects that the destination of the received electronic mail is stored in said memory; a deletor that, upon detection by said detector that the electronic mail contains an appended file portion, and based upon a determination that the transfer attribute, stored in the memory in association with the destination address, contains the indicator for deletion of the appended file portion, deletes the appended file portion from the electronic mail received by said electronic mail receiver and does not delete the appended file portion from the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiver if the transfer attribute does not contain the indicator for deletion of the appended file portion; said memory further storing the appended file portion deleted by said deletor; a transferring mail generator that generates a transferring mail comprising the received electronic mail from which the appended file portion was deleted together with a message indicating that the appended file portion has been deleted; and a transmitter that transmits the transferring mail to the designated destination.