Patent ID: 7730145

Claim:
An anti-UCE certificate system accessible via a network, the system comprising: at least one storage media having stored therein a plurality of certificates, each of the plurality of certificates having a class that identifies a different type of e-mail, each class having different terms of service defining e-mail transmission limitations for the class; a certificate issuance module configured to issue certificates from the plurality of certificates to specific e-mail users, the issued certificates configured to sign e-mails generated by the respective users; and a certificate status module configured to accept requests for the status of the certificates from signed e-mails, enforce the terms of service of each certificate by accumulating metrics for each certificate, and suspend or revoke a certificate if it is used in violation of its terms of service, wherein the certificate status module is configured to determine if a number of e-mails signed with a certificate in a predefined time period exceeds a threshold number of e-mails allowed in the predefined time period for the certificate's class.