Patent ID: 7707624

Claim:
A method of providing a recipient of an email with proof of the transmission, receipt and content of a reply to the email that is manually initiated by the recipient, comprising: receiving a message from a sender at a server displaced from the recipient; assigning a unique identification of the message by the server; storing the unique identification of the message in a database; adding a “mailto” link to the message and also adding an invitation to click on the link if the recipient wishes to receive proof of transmission or delivery of the reply; transmitting the message from the server to the recipient; generating a manually initiated reply to the message at the recipient, the manually initiated reply including a request from the recipient to receive proof of transmission or delivery of the manually initiated reply to the sender by clicking on the “mailto” link included in the message; transmitting the manually initiated reply to the sender through the server; receiving the manually initiated reply at the server; processing the request by the recipient to receive proof of transmission or delivery of the manually initiated reply to the sender; transmitting the manually initiated reply by the recipient to the sender in a manner wherein the server receives an indication that the reply is transmitted or delivered to the sender; and, transmitting the indication that the reply is transmitted or delivered to the sender to the recipient.