Patent ID: 8402096

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving an incoming message; determining the incoming message is part of a conversation thread comprising a plurality of stored messages; associating the incoming message with the conversation thread by assigning the incoming message with a conversation identifier for the conversation thread; creating a conversation rule for the conversation thread, the conversation rule being established once for the conversation thread; storing the conversation rule for the conversation thread in a conversation action table, the conversation action table comprising a plurality of columns, the plurality of columns comprising at least a conversation identifier, a Boolean parameter to indicate whether the conversation rule is applied to the conversation identifier, information needed to implement the conversation rule, the information comprising at least a category name, and an expiration date and time to indicate when the conversation rule is to remain in force; determining that the conversation rule is associated with the conversation thread; applying the conversation rule to the incoming message; and automatically applying the conversation rule to the plurality of stored messages in the conversation thread.