Patent ID: 6021427
Filing Date: 2000-02-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
An electronic mail (e-mail) message processing system comprising:a plurality of remote stations and means for sending e-mail messages between the stations, wherein at least one of said e-mail messages comprises one or more levels of embedded messages;an intelligent agent corresponding to a source user and responding to the receipt of e-mail message from said stations, said agent facilitating automatic delivery of said e-mail messages from said corresponding user to at least one predetermined target user in accordance with a set of rules provided to said agent by the user; said agent inserting an automatic forwarding tag into said e-mail messages to identify that said e-mail messages is being forwarded automatically by said agent;means, in communication with said agent, for preventing said e-mail messages from being sent from said source user to said target user more than once so as to prevent e-mail maelstrom loops, comprising:means for detecting if said e-mail messages received by said agent has said one or more levels of embedded messages:wherein if said one or more levels of embedded messages are not detected, then any said e-mail messages containing said automatic forwarding tag that corresponds to said source user are not forwarded to said target user; andwherein if said one or more levels of embedded messages are detected, then each of said one or more levels of embedded messages is sequentially checked so that when an automatic forwarding tag is found and said automatic forwarding tag corresponds to said source user, said e-mail messages are not forward to said target users.