Patent ID: 7801979

Claim:
An electronic device comprising: a first determination system that, upon receiving an e-mail message that includes e-mail addresses and contents other than the e-mail addresses, determines whether an e-mail address of the e-mail message transmitted to a mail server coincides with a predetermined common e-mail address, the predetermined common e-mail address being commonly assigned to and shared by a plurality of the electronic devices; a second determination system that determines whether the e-mail message addressed to the predetermined common e-mail address is directed to the electronic device to which said second determination system belongs in accordance with the contents of the e-mail message addressed to the predetermined common e-mail address; and a processing system that executes a procedure corresponding to the e-mail message when said second determination system determines that the e-mail message is directed to the electronic device to which said second determination system belongs, wherein the plurality of electronic devices are part of a communication system having the mail server and the plurality of electronic devices connected with a network, wherein the e-mail message has attached data to be processed, and [wherein processing of the attached data including printing of the attached data, wherein each of said plurality of electronic devices has a data type obtaining system that obtains a data type of the attached data from the contents of the e-mail message, and wherein said second determination system determines whether the e-mail message is directed to the electronic device to which said second determination system belongs based on whether the attached data can be processed by said electronic device.