Abstract:
Methods and apparatus for regulating the transmission of electronic mail message are provided. The amount of funds necessary to transmit the electronic mail message to its destination is calculated and the sender&#39;s account is queried to ensure sufficient funds exist. If so, the electronic mail message is sent to its destination and the amount of the funds are deducted from the sender&#39;s account. If not, the electronic mail message is held and the user is allowed to deposit sufficient funds to allow for delivery. In determining the necessary amount of funds, variables can include the geographic location of the destination and the size of the electronic mail message and its attachments.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    Not Applicable 
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
       [0002]    Not Applicable 
       THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
       [0003]    Not Applicable 
       INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC 
       [0004]    Not Applicable 
       SEQUENCE LISTING 
       [0005]    Not Applicable 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0007]    The present invention relates to electronic mail (e-mail) and, more specifically, to an improved method and apparatus for regulating the transmission of e-mail based on verification of available funds for transmission. 
         [0008]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0009]    E-mail is the electronic evolution of traditional paper-based letters, notes, and memoranda. Modern e-mail is widely used to communicate between individuals worldwide. It can contain text, audio, video, or any combination thereof. Two of e-mail&#39;s advantages over paper-based communications include nearly instantaneous delivery time and relatively low cost. It is these advantages that have led to wide adoption in both the business and private sectors. Unfortunately, these advantages are having the two-fold effect of causing a decline in revenue for the United States Postal Service (USPS) and requiring greater expenditures on computer hardware in order to keep up with increasing e-mail demands. With e-mail use constantly on the rise, it is very likely that fees or charges will someday be imposed to offset the decline in USPS revenue and to help compensate e-mail providers for the cost of maintaining and improving electronic infrastructure. There is very strong need to charge for e-mails and to develop a method and apparatus for assessing whether an e-mail sender possesses sufficient funds to transmit an e-mail to its intended recipient. 
         [0010]    Currently, e-mail users can send messages of varying size to anyone in the world for extremely low cost. Many services exist that provide free e-mail accounts to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Not only can users send text-based communications, but they can send multimedia e-mails containing photographs, audio recordings, and even video as attachments or embedded directly in the e-mail message. These multimedia e-mails can be exponentially larger than text-based messages and can place much greater demands on network infrastructure. The bandwidth required to transmit multimedia e-mails and the storage space required to store them are much greater than for text-based messages. One e-mail containing video can consume as much hardware resources during transmission as hundreds or thousands of text-based e-mails. Despite the continued proliferation of multimedia e-mails, users can still send unlimited numbers of them nearly free of charge. With many other services it is traditional for people to pay in proportion to the amount of goods or services they consume. It is thus an object of a preferred embodiment of the present invention to meet the need of charging senders of e-mails proportionally to the size of the e-mail they send. 
         [0011]    Unlike paper-based letters, e-mail messages can be sent to anyone anywhere in the world nearly instantaneously. Generally, users need only have an operational e-mail account, an e-mail client, and a connection to their e-mail server. Like paper-based letters, the greater the geographic distance between sender and receiver, the greater the number of resources needed to complete delivery. This is because e-mail messages are rarely transmitted directly from origination to destination. Instead, e-mails usually travel through one or more “hops” before reaching their destination. Hops are intermediate computers designed to receive, route, and forward messages onto the next hop or its final destination. Between each hop are connections that include copper wires, fiber optic cables, or wireless connections such as cell phone links or satellite signal relays. As the distance between sender and recipient increases, more of these connections are needed to communicate the message. When a message is sent intercontinentally, particularly between points that are separated by an ocean, that message travels along communication lines that are very expensive to construct and maintain. Contemporary e-mail messaging services do not require the sender to pay fees based on the geographic location of the recipient. It is thus an object of a preferred embodiment of the present invention to determine the relative geographic location of the recipient so that the amount of funds required to transmit the e-mail may be adjusted accordingly. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0012]    It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for regulating the transmission of electronic messages based on verification of available funds for e-mail transmission. 
         [0013]    It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for determining the size of the e-mail message, including attachments, so that the amount of funds required to transmit the e-mail may be adjusted accordingly. 
         [0014]    It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for determining the geographic location of an e-mail so that the amount of funds required to transmit the e-mail may be adjusted accordingly. 
         [0015]    In one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, e-mail messages are received at an e-mail server running Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), extended SMTP (ESMTP), or any equivalent service intended for the transmission of e-mails across a computer network. The e-mail server may read the e-mail destination domain then send a request to a Domain Name Server (DNS), or equivalent service intended to assign domain names to numerical identifiers associated with networking equipment, for the purpose of locating and addressing computers, services, or any resource connected to a private network or the internet worldwide. The DNS server, or its equivalent, returns the location of the e-mail&#39;s destination to the e-mail server. Before being transmitted from the e-mail server to the first hop, or to the e-mail&#39;s destination, a funds calculation is performed to determine the amount required for transmitting the e-mail. An account containing the sender&#39;s available e-mail transmission funds is queried to see if the sender has sufficient funds for transmission. If the user has sufficient funds, the e-mail is transmitted from the e-mail server. 
         [0016]    In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when e-mail is received at an e-mail server, the total message size, including attachments, is determined and may be used as part of the funds calculation. Messages would be assessed a size-based pro-rata amount before being sent to their destination. 
         [0017]    In yet another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the required funds calculation may include information about the recipient&#39;s geographic location. Determining the recipient&#39;s geographic location can be done through any number of methods including using DNS addresses, internet protocol (IP) addresses, or through any other protocol or service capable of providing geographic information about e-mail recipients. The greater the physical distance between the sender and recipient, the more resources the e-mail must make use of in order to reach its destination. Messages could be assessed a location-based amount that may be used in the calculation of the funds required to transmit the e-mail to its destination. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) 
         [0018]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary internet network system with a method or apparatus for regulating the transmission of e-mails through funds verification as according to one embodiment of the invention; 
           [0019]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary intranet network system with a method or apparatus for regulating the transmission of e-mails through funds verification as according to one embodiment of the invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method for regulating the transmission of e-mails through funds verification as according to one embodiment of the invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary processor-based apparatus that may be used to execute the exemplary machine readable instructions of  FIG. 5 ; 
           [0022]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart representative of exemplary machine readable instructions that may be used to regulate the transmission of e-mails through funds verification as according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0023]    In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It is to be understood that the various embodiments of the invention, although different, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Furthermore, a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described herein in connection with one embodiment may be implemented within other embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, it is to be understood that the location or arrangement of individual elements within each disclosed embodiment may be modified without departing from the scope of the invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims, appropriately interpreted, along with the full range of equivalents to which the claims are entitled. In the drawings, like numerals refer to the same or similar functionality throughout the several views. 
         [0024]    The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. Likewise, the terms “embodiment(s) of the invention”, “alternative embodiment(s)”, and “exemplary embodiment(s)” do not require that all embodiments of the method, system and apparatus include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation. The following description of the preferred embodiment is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses. 
         [0025]    Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is shown an exemplary internet network system  100  for regulating e-mail transmission through funds verification. An e-mail sender  101  and an e-mail recipient  108  may use any e-mail access device to access their e-mail accounts including, but not limited to, a web-enabled phone, a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a terminal, a tablet computer, a web-based e-mail service, or any other medium configured to communicate with an e-mail server  105 . When the sender  101  sends an e-mail  102  to the recipient  108 , the e-mail  102  is first communicated to the e-mail server  105 . The e-mail server  105  is configured to read destination information from the e-mail  102  and can send a request to a geographic information lookup server  103  to determine the recipient&#39;s  108  geographic location. The geographic information lookup server  103  can return the e-mail&#39;s  102  geographic location to the e-mail server  105 . The geographic information lookup server  103  could be a domain name server, an IP lookup server, or any other device that associates geographic location with information retrieved from the e-mail  102 . 
         [0026]    The e-mail server  105  may be further configured to determine the size of the e-mail  102 , including attachments, and may use that information, along with the geographic location information, to calculate the required funds for transmitting the e-mail  102  to its destination. Once the required funds have been calculated, the e-mail server  105  may query the e-mail sender&#39;s account  109  to determine whether sufficient funds exist for the e-mail&#39;s  102  transmittal. If the sender&#39;s account  109  contains sufficient funds, then the e-mail server  105  transmits the funded e-mail  104  through zero or more intermediate hops  106  to the e-mail recipient&#39;s e-mail server  107 . If the sender&#39;s account  109  does not contain sufficient funds, the e-mail server  105  could send the e-mail sender  101  a notification message requesting they deposit additional funds. The intermediate hops  106  are usually e-mail relay servers designed to forward e-mail messages  104  along physical links between such servers until the message reaches the destination e-mail server  107 . Once the e-mail message arrives at the recipient&#39;s e-mail server  107  the recipient  108  retrieves the e-mail  104  using any device or medium intended for communicating with an e-mail server. 
         [0027]    Referring now to  FIG. 2  there is shown an exemplary intranet system  200  for regulating e-mail transmission through funds verification. An e-mail sender  201  and an e-mail recipient  203  may use any e-mail access device to access their e-mail accounts including, but not limited to, a web-enabled phone, a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a terminal, a tablet computer, a web-based e-mail service, or any other medium configured to communicate with an intranet e-mail server  202 . In the intranet system  200  the e-mail server  202  serves both the sender  201  and the recipient  203 . When the sender  201  sends an e-mail  102  to the recipient  203 , the e-mail  102  is first communicated to the e-mail server  202 . The e-mail server  202  may be configured to read destination information from the e-mail  102 . The e-mail server  202  may calculate the amount of funds required for delivering the e-mail  102  to the recipient  203 . Once the amount of required funds have been calculated, the e-mail server  202  may query the sender&#39;s e-mail account  109  to determine whether sufficient funds exist for the e-mail&#39;s  102  delivery. If the sender&#39;s account  109  contains sufficient funds, then the e-mail server  202  may deliver the funded e-mail  104  to the recipient  203 . If the sender&#39;s account  109  does not contain sufficient funds, the e-mail server  202  could send the e-mail sender  201  a notification message requesting they deposit additional funds. 
         [0028]    Referring now to  FIG. 3  there is shown a flowchart diagram of an exemplary method for regulating the transmission of e-mails through funds verification. An e-mail sender  300  sends an e-mail to a recipient and that e-mail is received at an e-mail server  301 . The e-mail server may be configured to read destination information from the e-mail and may use that information in calculating the amount of funds required  305  for transmittal of the e-mail. One component of the payment calculation  305  could be to lookup the geographic information  302  related to the e-mail&#39;s destination and to adjust the payment amount accordingly. Another component of the payment calculation could be to determine the size of the e-mail and its attachments  303  and adjust the payment amount accordingly. Yet another component of the payment calculation could be to determine what rate  304  applies to the e-mail and to adjust the amount of required funds accordingly. 
         [0029]    After the required funds calculation  305  has been performed, the sender&#39;s funds account is queried  306  to determine whether sufficient funds exist for transmission of the e-mail. If available funds  308  do not exist, the sender may be notified  309  of the deficiency. If the sender is not notified  309  then the e-mail may be discarded  311 . If the sender is notified  309  the e-mail could be held  307  for a time period sufficient enough to allow the sender to deposit sufficient funds into their funds account. After the time period for holding the e-mail has expired the sender&#39;s funds account could be queried  306  to determine if sufficient funds have been deposited. The steps of notifying the sender  309 , holding the e-mail  307  and querying the funds account  306  could be repeated for as many times as permitted by system policies. The system policies could provide for a set number of notification cycles for all users, or could specify a variable number of notification cycles for different users. 
         [0030]    Once the available fund determination  308  has been made, the amount of the required funds could be deducted  310  from the sender&#39;s funds account. 
         [0031]    The e-mail server may then transmit  312  the e-mail to its final destination  313  or to a first hop  314 . The e-mail&#39;s final destination can include another e-mail server, an e-mail client, an e-mail box, or any device or medium intended for the communication of the e-mail to the e-mail recipient. Hops, as referred to in this  FIG. 3 , are generally other e-mail servers linked by physical connections that relay or forward e-mails to their destinations. Since the sender&#39;s e-mail server and the recipient&#39;s e-mail server are rarely directly connected, especially in the context of internet-based e-mail systems, it is necessary for intermediate hops to route and forward e-mails along network infrastructure until they reach their destination. 
         [0032]    Referring now to  FIG. 4 , there is shown a block diagram of an exemplary processor-based apparatus for regulating the transmission of e-mails through funds verification that may be used to execute the exemplary machine readable instructions of  FIG. 5 . In the illustrated example, the example process-based apparatus is implemented using an e-mail server  105  ( FIG. 1 ),  202  ( FIG. 2 ). The example processor-based apparatus may alternatively be implemented in a manner that is separate from an e-mail server  105 ,  202 . The example processor-based apparatus may be implemented in hardware, software, or any desired combination thereof. Each block of the example processor-based apparatus may be implemented using instructions, code, or other software or hardware implementations stored on a machine accessible medium that, when communicatively coupled with the other blocks of the exemplary processor-based apparatus, execute the exemplary machine readable instructions of  FIG. 5 . 
         [0033]    The exemplary processor-based apparatus includes a processor  400  that is connected to a system bus  401 . The processor  400  may be any central processing unit, general processing unit, or any other suitable processing unit that is capable of executing the exemplary machine readable instructions of  FIG. 5 . The processor  400  may also be a single processor, multiple processors or a processor with multiple cores that are connected to the system bus  401 . 
         [0034]    The processor  400  is communicatively coupled, by way of the system bus  401 , to an input/output (I/O) controller  402  that performs functions to enable the processor  400  to access an I/O device  404  and a network interface  406 . The I/O device  404  allows the processor  400  to interface with any desirable peripheral devices including keyboards, monitors, a computer mouse, printers, etc. The network interface  406  allows the processor to communicate with other processor-based devices or systems and may be a cable modem, digital subscriber line modem, Ethernet device, wireless network device, cellular modem, etc. 
         [0035]    The processor  400  is also communicatively coupled, by way of the system bus  401  to a memory controller  403  that performs functions to enable the processor  400  to access system memory  407  and e-mail storage  408 . The I/O controller  402  is communicatively coupled to the I/O device  404  and the network interface  406  by way of a second system bus  405 . The memory controller  403  is communicatively coupled to the system memory  407  and the e-mail storage  408  by way of the second system bus  405 . 
         [0036]    The system memory  407  may be any type of random access memory, read only memory, dynamic random access memory, static random access memory, flash memory, volatile or non-volatile memory, or any other memory used in a processor-based device. The e-mail storage  408  may be any mass storage memory including hard disks, flash drives, solid-state drives, optical drives, tape storage, or any other memory used to store e-mail messages. 
         [0037]    Referring now to  FIG. 5 , there is shown a flowchart representative of exemplary machine readable instructions that may be used to regulate the transmission of e-mails through funds verification. The instruction set may begin after any action resulting in an e-mail server  105  ( FIG. 1) and 202  ( FIG. 2 ) receiving an e-mail  500 . The e-mail  102  ( FIGS. 1 and 2 ) may be stored in an e-mail storage device  501  and the destination address may retrieved from the e-mail  502 . Once the destination address has been retrieved  502 , the geographic location information may be determined  503  by using relevant information contained within the e-mail. The relevant information can include an IP address, a DNS address or any other information that allows for the identification of the e-mail&#39;s geographic destination. 
         [0038]    After the geographic location information is determined  503 , the size of the e-mail, including its attachments may be determined  504 . The size of the e-mail and its attachments  504  could be used with the geographic location information to calculate the funds required to transmit the e-mail to its destination  505 . 
         [0039]    The identity of the sender may be retrieved from the e-mail  506  and the sender&#39;s e-mail account may be queried  507  to determine if it contains sufficient funds  508  for delivery of the e-mail message. If the account contains sufficient funds, the e-mail message may be transmitted from the e-mail server on to its final destination or to a first hop  512  and the instruction set ends. If the sender&#39;s account does not contain sufficient funds, the e-mail server could generate an insufficient funds message and transmit the message to the sender  509 . If the time to make sufficient funds available in the sender&#39;s account has not expired  510 , the e-mail server could hold the message and re-query the sender&#39;s account to determine if sufficient funds have been made available. If the time to make sufficient funds available has expired, the e-mail server could delete the e-mail from the e-mail storage device  511  and the instruction set ends. 
         [0040]    Of course, persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the order, size, and proportions of the memory illustrated in the example systems may vary. Additionally, although this patent discloses example systems including, among other components, software or firmware executed on hardware, it should be noted that such systems are merely illustrative and should not be considered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or all of these hardware and software components could be embodied exclusively in hardware, exclusively in software, exclusively in firmware or in some combination of hardware, firmware and/or software. Accordingly, persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that the above described examples are not the only way to implement such systems. 
         [0041]    At least some of the above described example methods and/or apparatus are implemented by one or more software and/or firmware programs running on a computer processor. However, dedicated hardware implementations including, but not limited to, an ASIC, programmable logic arrays and other hardware devices can likewise be constructed to implement some or all of the example methods and/or apparatus described herein, either in whole or in part. Furthermore, alternative software implementations including, but not limited to, distributed processing or component/object distributed processing, parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also be constructed to implement the example methods and/or apparatus described herein. 
         [0042]    It should also be noted that the example software and/or firmware implementations described herein are optionally stored on a tangible storage medium, such as: a magnetic medium (e.g., a disk or tape); a magneto-optical or optical medium such as a disk; or a solid state medium such as a memory card or other package that houses one or more read-only (non-volatile) memories, random access memories, or other re-writable (volatile) memories; or a signal containing computer instructions. A digital file attachment to e-mail or other self-contained information archive or set of archives is considered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storage medium. Accordingly, the example software and/or firmware described herein can be stored on a tangible storage medium or distribution medium such as those described above or equivalents and successor media. 
         [0043]    To the extent the above specification describes example components and functions with reference to particular devices, standards and/or protocols, it is understood that the teachings of this disclosure are not limited to such devices, standards and/or protocols. Such systems are periodically superseded by faster or more efficient systems having the same general purpose. Accordingly, replacement devices, standards and/or protocols having the same general functions are equivalents which are intended to be included within the scope of the accompanying claims. 
         [0044]    Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.