Patent ID: 8005900

Claim:
A method for use in a computer system for responding to received electronic messages, the method comprising: (a) receiving, at a computer system, an incoming electronic message addressed to a general message account not assigned to any specific user; (b) identifying, by the computer system, stored fact information that is related to and external to the incoming electronic message such that subsequent analysis of the stored fact information provides an indication of how to route the incoming electronic message, wherein identifying comprises: (i)upon receipt of the incoming electronic message in the computer system, selecting a first meta information from a plurality of meta information portions based on information retrieved from the incoming electronic message, wherein each meta information includes a rule and a fact attribute identified by the rule, wherein: (A) the fact attribute specifies a pre-selected class of stored fact information that is associated with the incoming electronic message, wherein the stored fact information is external to the incoming electronic message, and (B) the rule is associated with an action performed by the computer system with regard to the incoming electronic message when the rule is met by the pre-selected class of stored fact information specified by the fact attribute; (ii) accessing at least the first meta information of the plurality of meta information portions stored in the computer system, the first meta information including a first rule and a first fact attribute; (iii) determining a first pre-selected class of a plurality of classes of stored fact information from the first fact attribute and a first service of a plurality of services from the first fact attribute, wherein the first service is specified by the first fact attribute and includes executable instructions for retrieving at least a first portion of the first pre-selected class of stored fact information; (c) retrieving by the computer system, at least part of the identified store fact information in preparation for the subsequent analysis to determine how to route the incoming electronic message, by retrieving at least the first portion of the stored fact information that is a member of the first pre-selected class using the first service; and (d) storing, by the computer system, the retrieved stored fact information for subsequent analysis to determine how to route the incoming electronic message by storing the first retrieved portion of the stored fact information in a markup language formatted electronic file that is associated with the incoming electronic message, wherein the markup language formatted electronic file is configured to permit the first rule to be subsequently applied to the first retrieved portion to determine how to route the incoming electronic message.