Patent ID: 6658454
Filing Date: 2003-12-02
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, a method for processing a predefined mailing list used for specifying distribution of an e-mail message to multiple recipients, the method comprising:receiving at the system an e-mail message specifying delivery to a predefined mailing list that specifies e-mail addresses for a plurality of recipients, the e-mail message specifying message content for the e-mail in a message body; passing the e-mail message to a mailing list manager for processing the mailing list, said mailing list manager in communication with a plurality of message transfer agents available for processing e-mail addresses and in communication with a fallback message transfer agent for processing e-mail addresses that have been rejected by all of the other available message transfer agents; for each given recipient of the mailing list, passing the given recipient's e-mail address to successive ones of the available message transfer agents until that recipient's e-mail address has been successfully processed or all of the other available message transfer agents have been exhausted, and in the event that the given recipient's e-mail address cannot he successfully processed by one of said plurality of available message transfer agents, passing the given recipient's e-mail address to the fallback message transfer agent for processing; and handing off the message body for the e-mail message only after all of the addresses of the recipients have been assigned to message transfer agents.