Patent ID: 7225230

Claim:
A method for providing a status notification for a message in a communications network comprising: assigning a message identifier for said message; receiving a destination identifier for communicating said status notification; and associating said destination identifier with said message; wherein said destination identifier comprises an address identifier indicating an address to which said status notification is to be sent, said address identifier indicating an address different than an originating address for said message, and a format identifier identifying a format for said status notification, wherein said method further comprises: creating a plurality of disposition identifiers in response to a plurality of disposition event corresponding to a change in message status; associating the plurality of disposition identifiers with said message, wherein disposition identifiers are associated with the message in response to a change in message status; determining whether accessing of said message constitutes a triggering event; and creating said status notification when said accessing of said message constitutes said triggering event, the status notification including disposition identifiers created prior to the triggering event.