Patent ID: 7818385

Claim:
A computer implemented method for forwarding an email message, the computer implemented method comprising: receiving a request to forward the email message to form an email message to be forwarded; automatically determining, by a processing unit, whether the email message to be forwarded was a reply email message, wherein automatically determining that the email message to be forwarded is a reply email message comprises: determining that the email message to be forwarded was previously sent in response to an original email message; and determining that the email message to be forwarded was only sent to a sender of the original email message; responsive to a determination that the email message to be forwarded was the reply email message, determining whether the original email message was previously sent to a plurality of recipients; responsive to a determination that the original email message was previously sent to the plurality of recipients, automatically inserting email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients of the original email message and an email address associated with the sender of the original email message into a recipient field of the email message to be forwarded; automatically identifying the email address associated with the sender of the original email message to form an identified email address, wherein the email message to be forwarded is unsent to the identified email address and wherein the identified email address remains part of the recipient field of the email message to be forwarded; and sending the email message to be forwarded to the email addresses associated with each of the plurality of recipients of the original email message excluding the identified email address to form a forwarded email message.