Patent ID: 7685239

Claim:
An image communicating apparatus which is connected to a network capable of performing E-mail communication, comprising: a central processing unit (CPU) and a memory medium; a transmitting unit, adapted to send E-mail data accompanied by an image file; a receiving unit, adapted to receive E-mail data; a requesting unit, adapted to add, selectively, information for requesting a message disposition notification to the E-mail data to be sent to a receiver by the transmitting unit; a communication managing unit, adapted to manage transmission management information of the sent E-mail data; a determining unit, adapted to determine whether E-mail data received by the receiving unit is the message disposition notification to the E-mail data that the transmitting unit has sent; an analyzing unit, adapted to analyze how the sent E-mail data to which information for requesting the message disposition notification was added is processed by the receiver in a case where the determining unit has determined that the E-mail received by the receiving unit is the message disposition notification, by analyzing the message disposition notification included in the E-mail data received by the receiving unit and capable of representing plural kinds of processed results as processed results for the sent E-mail by the receiver; a judgment unit, adapted to judge whether or not a result of the transmission of the sent E-mail data to which the information for requesting the message disposition notification was added was successful, based on an analysis result by the analyzing unit, wherein the judgment unit classifies three or more processed results that the message disposition notification is capable of representing into two kinds of judged results concerning whether or not the result of the transmission of the sent E-mail was successful; and a notifying unit, adapted to notify a user of the image communicating apparatus based on the transmission management information managed by the communication managing unit, wherein the communication managing unit updates the transmission management information by information showing whether or not the transmission of the sent E-mail data succeeded, on the basis of a judged result provided by the judgment unit, and wherein the notifying unit notifies the user of the image communicating apparatus whether or not the transmission of the sent E-mail data succeeded, on the basis of the updated transmission management information, so that the user of the image communicating apparatus can confirm whether or not the transmission of the sent E-mail data succeeded, without reading the message disposition notification.