Message center system
US6442592B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 11, 1998 |
| Grant date | Aug 27, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 11, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04M2203/551
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A message center server retrieves e-mail messages from one or more e-mail accounts and intelligently distributes them among a plurality of agents handling the messages. Messages received from the same originator regarding the same subject matter are treated as transactions and assigned a unique transaction identifier. When a message initiating a new transaction is forwarded to an agent, the agent's login is associated with the transaction identifier for that message. Thereafter, messages retrieved from the e-mail account(s) are scanned for a transaction identifier. If found, the message—a continuance of the transaction—is placed in the appropriate agent queue. The same agent thus handles all messages from the originator regarding a specific transaction, avoiding the need to relearn a transaction history. If no transaction identifier is found, the message is forwarded to an appropriate pool of new messages.Agents retrieve messages from a pool by a fetch request, which includes a fetch count or minimum number of messages desired. Agents may thus retrieve a number of messages, prepare responses, and send the prepared responses back to the message center server. Messages fr…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.