Patent ID: 7133898

Claim:
A method of sorting e-mail, comprising: receiving an e-mail from an e-mail source; identifying whether the e-mail has a vendor registration code for identifying a vendor from whom the e-mail was forwarded; identifying whether the e-mail has a vendor registration purpose code for identifying the purpose of the e-mail, wherein the vendor registration purpose code includes one or more classes of purposes related to the e-mail, the classes including at least one of the following: promotions, billing, and advertising; if the e-mail has a vendor registration code that was previously assigned to the e-mail source and the e-mail has a vendor registration purpose code that was previously assigned by a recipient to the e-mail source, presenting the e-mail with other e-mails having vendor registration codes; and if the e-mail does not have a vendor registration code that was previously assigned to the e-mail source or the e-mail does not have a vendor registration purpose code that was previously assigned by the recipient to the e-mail source, sending a message to the e-mail source.