Patent ID: 7386591

Claim:
A method for receiving e-mails, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of e-mails, including a first e-mail and a second e-mail; for at least the first e-mail, performing steps comprising: separating a first e-mail header from a first e-mail message body; storing said first e-mail message body in a first e-mail message body field; separating information contained in said first e-mail header into a plurality of first e-mail header information items; storing information corresponding to said plurality of first e-mail header information items with a plurality of corresponding header information fields; creating a link between (i) information provided with at least a first of said plurality of first e-mail header information fields, (ii) information provided with at least a second of said plurality of first e-mail header information fields; and (iii) the first e-mail message body stored in a first e-mail message body field; and storing linking information sufficient to identify said link between said information provided with said first of said plurality of first e-mail header information fields, information provided with at least said second of said plurality of first e-mail header information fields, and at least a portion of the first e-mail message body; wherein the plurality of header information fields include at least all of the fields in a group consisting of a recipient field, a sender field, and a copied recipient field; wherein the method further includes performing, for at least the second e-mail, steps comprising: separating a second e-mail header from a second e-mail message body; separating information contained in said second e-mail header into a plurality of second e-mail header information items; comparing information provided with at least one of the plurality of second e-mail header information items with information stored with a plurality of header information fields of one or more other e-mails that have previously been received, including information stored with at least one of said first of or said second of the plurality of first e-mail header information fields; and if the compared information matches information stored with one of said first of or said second of the plurality of first e-mail header information fields, linking the second e-mail message body with the matching information stored with one of said first of or said second of the plurality of first e-mail header information fields.