Patent ID: 7424515
Filing Date: 2008-09-09
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. System for deferring delivery of an e-mail sent by a sender to a receiver through a data transmission network, wherein a Message Transfer Agent (MTA) associated with the sender is in charge of transmitting over the network any e-mail being sent by the sender, the system comprising: a retention server for storing an e-mail whose delivery is to be deferred; an authorization server for giving the retention server authorization to deliver the stored e-mail to a receiver when predetermined criteria are met; the sender MTA including a retention enabling program for sending the deferred e-mail to the retention server when there is an indication in the e-mail that it is to be deferred, the retention enabling program generating a random and unique key and encrypting the deferred e-mail using the random and unique key before sending the deferred email to the retention server; and the sender MTA further sending a message (ACK), which includes data relating to an invalidation of the random and unique key, to the sender at the same time the sender MTA sends the deferred e-mail to the retention server; wherein the sender can cause the deferred e-mail stored in the retention server to be deleted by sending the ACK message back to the authorization server.