Patent ID: 8135786

Claim:
A method for sharing distribution list contents comprising: prior to transmission, embedding distribution list data associated with at least one user-defined distribution list within an electronic message, wherein recipients of the electronic message comprise at least one user-defined distribution list, wherein said recipients are members of an electronic communications system, and, wherein the distribution list data comprises a reference to a destination storage location of the contents of the at least one user-defined distribution list, wherein the contents of the at least one user-defined distribution list comprise user identifiers of members of the at least one distribution list, wherein the embedding of the distribution list data comprises: i) retrieving contents of the at least one user-defined distribution list from a source storage location; ii) copying the retrieved contents of the at least one user-defined distribution list to the destination storage location, wherein the destination storage location is accessible by the recipients; and iii) generating the reference for the copied contents of the at least one user-defined distribution; conveying the electronic message to the recipients; in response to a user-selection of a user-defined distribution list during presentation of the electronic message within a user interface of an electronic messaging application, presenting the recipient with at least one distribution list option for the user-selected user-defined distribution list within the user interface, wherein the at least one distribution list option represents an action performed upon the contents of the user-selected user-defined distribution list; and prior to execution of a user-selected distribution list option, accessing the contents of the user-selected user-defined distribution list utilizing the reference to the destination storage location of the conveyed electronic message.