Patent ID: 8171159

Claim:
In a digital message system, a method for processing a plurality of digital messages that are being sent to recipients at a plurality of destination domains, the method comprising: (A) determining, using the digital message system, a digital policy for each respective domain in a plurality of domains, wherein the digital message policy for each respective domain in the plurality of domains dictates a manner in which digital messages are to be sent to the respective domain; (B) establishing a plurality of profiles, using the digital message system, wherein each respective profile in the plurality of profiles is for handling digital messages to an associated domain in the plurality of destination domains and wherein each respective profile in the plurality of profiles comprises a set of parameters at least one of which is specified by the digital policy of the associated domain obtained by the determining (A) from the associated domain; (C) receiving after the determining (A) and the establishing (B), at the digital message system, a request from a remote computer system to process for transfer a plurality of outbound digital messages, each digital message specifying delivery to at least one recipient at a particular domain; and (D) for each respective outbound digital message in the plurality of outbound digital messages, processing the respective outbound digital message using the digital messages system by: determining a destination domain for the respective outbound digital message; reading a respective profile, in the plurality of profiles, associated with the determined destination domain of the respective outbound digital message and, based on at least one parameter in the respective profile: (i) sending the respective outbound digital message to the associated determined destination domain in accordance with the respective profile when permitted by the at least one parameter in the respective profile, or (ii) holding the respective outbound digital message without sending the respective outbound digital message to the determined destination domain when required by the at least one parameter in the respective profile, wherein a parameter in the respective profile for the respective outbound digital message is a quota on a number of digital messages or a maximum amount of data that may be sent from the digital message system to the determined destination domain in a given period of time and wherein the digital message is not sent to the determined destination domain by the digital message system during a time when the quota is exceeded; (E) receiving a message notification from the determined destination domain in response to the sending of the respective outbound digital message to the determined destination domain by the digital message system; and (F) updating the respective profile for the determined destination domain in response to the message notification.