Patent ID: 7464139

Claim:
A method for establishing an instant message (IM) conference between a sender and at least one attendee, comprising: receiving a time-sensitive e-mail message, the time-sensitive e-mail message comprising: an IM conference request; an e-mail address associated with each attendee; and a rule set specifying a predefined time limit governing the delivery of the e-mail message; receiving and extracting the rule set and the e-mail address for each attendee; determining the predefined time limit; forwarding the time-sensitive e-mail message to a mailbox for each attendee in accordance with the rule set; determining whether the at least one attendee opened the time sensitive e-mail message within the predefined time limit; if the attendee opened the time-sensitive e-mail message within the predefined time limit, providing the IM conference request to the attendee; and if the attendee did not open the time-sensitive e-mail message within the predefined time limit, not providing the IM conference request to the attendee.