Patent ID: 7730140

Claim:
A system for processing an electronic mail message, the system comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory communicatively coupled to said at least one processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions configured to implement a message transfer agent, the instructions further configuring the system to: a) receive and store the electronic mail message, the electronic mail message comprising a content and an envelope, the content including a body and the envelope including a plurality of recipient addresses; b) determine a count of the plurality of recipient addresses; c) if the count exceeds a value: determine a first subset of recipient addresses, the first subset including two or more addresses from the plurality of recipient addresses and being less than the plurality of recipient addresses; generate and return a first bifurcated electronic mail message, the first bifurcated electronic mail message comprising the body from the electronic mail message and the first subset of recipient addresses; generate and store a first modified list of recipient addresses, the first modified list comprising said plurality of recipient addresses less the first subset of recipient addresses; determine a second subset of recipient addresses, the second subset including at least a portion of the first modified list of recipient addresses; generate and return a second bifurcated electronic mail message, the second bifurcated electronic mail message comprising the body from the electronic mail message and the second subset of recipient addresses; d) process the first bifurcated electronic mail message to form a first processed electronic mail message; e) receive an error condition associated with the first processed electronic mail message; and f) in response to the error condition, compare a processed body of the first processed electronic mail message with the body of the stored electronic mail message, and if the comparison does not match, replace the first processed electronic mail message with the stored electronic mail message and return to generate and return the first bifurcated electronic mail message.