Patent ID: 7747689

Claim:
A method for transmitting messages in a network via data terminals connected thereto, comprising: sending a message to be relayed from a sender data terminal to an assigned first mail processing device assigned to the sender data terminal; assigning a unique identifier to the message that indicates that a message to be relayed is on the sender data terminal, or in the first mail processing device, wherein the identifier comprises a plurality of subidentifiers, each of which is assigned to at least one message element contained in a relayed message; sending a test message including the subidentifiers from the first mail processing device to a second mail processing device assigned to a recipient address data terminal; evaluating in the second mail processing device the test message sent by the first mail processing device, the evaluating configured to process each subidentifier in the test message relative to data present in the second mail processing device indicative of respective message elements previously relayed to the recipient address data terminal; sending an evaluation-result of the test message from the second mail processing device to the first mail processing device, said evaluation-result of the test message indicating to the first mail processing device to transmit message elements, evaluated as not previously relayed to the recipient address data terminal, to the second mail processing device, and further indicating to block message elements, evaluated as previously relayed to the recipient address data terminal, from being transmitted to the second mail processing device; transmitting or blocking a transmission of respective ones of the message elements to the second mail processing device in response to the evaluation-result of the test message, wherein said transmitting or blocking of respective ones of the message elements in response to the evaluation-result of the test message is configured to suppress a duplicative reception by the recipient address data terminal of a message element present in a message previously received by the recipient address data terminal, and is further configured to ensure that an amended message element of a message element present in the previously received message is transmitted to the recipient address data terminal, wherein a notification of the blocked transmission is forwarded to the sender data terminal and/or recipient address data terminal if the transmission is blocked on the basis of the evaluation results; and relaying to the recipient address data terminal respective message elements transmitted from the first mail processing device to the second mail processing device.