Patent ID: 8219623

Claim:
A system for applying one or more rules to an email prior to transport, the email having multiple recipients, said system comprising: a rules engine applying the one or more rules to the email prior to transport, said email addressed to at least two email recipients, and bifurcating said email into at least two email instances prior to transport while applying the one or more rules to the email on a per-rule basis, wherein the one or more rules are formatted according to a specified schema having the following XML syntax: <rule> <condition> <(mc1)><(rc1)>... <(mc)> ... <(rc)> </condition> <action/> </rule> wherein mc is a message condition and rc is a recipient condition and wherein mc 1 is a message condition and rc 1 is a recipient condition corresponding to mc 1 , wherein the recipient conditions and the message conditions are mixed in a single condition element within the specified schema; a processor configured to execute the rules engine, wherein the rules engine comprises computer-executable instructions to: apply a formatted rule of the one or more rules to said email addressed to the at least two email recipients prior to transport, such that the rules engine identifies a message condition in the email as indicated by the formatted rule, the message condition having a corresponding action, wherein the rules engine identifies a recipient condition in the email, said recipient condition corresponding to the message condition, the recipient condition specifying at least one email, wherein the result of the analysis with respect to message conditions is maintained in a cache for use in conjunction with evaluating each recipient condition; when the email addressed to the at least two email recipients meets the identified message condition of the formatted rule and meets the identified recipient condition of the formatted rule, bifurcate the email into at least two email instances prior to transport and execute the corresponding action on the email instances as indicated by the formatted rule prior to transport; proceed to a next formatted rule of the one or more rules prior to transport if a next formatted rule exists for the email instances; and thereafter transport each of the at least two email instances to each of the at least two email recipients.