need help invalidating email patent application

[joe]

Folks,

I've been asked to help invalidate an email patent application (a task
that should be dear to heart for many here). I believe that the
application in question should be covered by prior-art that is around
15 years old. I also believe that ancient versions of Eudora and lotus
notes should serve as prior-art.

The gist of the application:

provide mechanism whereby the mail client user (mail recipient) can
assign email messages to categories.

a) category assignment can be performed manually
b) category assignment can be performed automatically according to
simple rules mapping the sender address to a category

I need concrete references to detailed product descriptions, or
screenshots, or application binaries that are still available and can
run on WinXP (DOS mode of course).

The older the better,

any pointers to online resources that would help me track this down
much appreciated.

regards,

joe

[Alan Connor]

On 14 Sep 2003 18:01:45 -0700, joe <joe_p...@hotmail.com> wrote:

This is for *Windoze* ?

If so, could not care less.

Alan C

--

take control of your mailbox ----- elrav1 ----- http://tinyurl.com/l55a

[Jem Berkes]

> The gist of the application:
>
> provide mechanism whereby the mail client user (mail recipient) can
> assign email messages to categories.
>
> a) category assignment can be performed manually
> b) category assignment can be performed automatically according to
> simple rules mapping the sender address to a category
>
> I need concrete references to detailed product descriptions, or
> screenshots, or application binaries that are still available and can
> run on WinXP (DOS mode of course).

Does the example of prior art have to work on Windows? I don't see how the
operating system matters much.

There is some real old Internet mail software out there for non-PCs.
There's UCLA/Mail, don't exactly know what it does but I found a 1984
usenet post on google. * Definitely hunt in groups.google.com

[Sam]

Johann Koenig writes:

> 'comp.mail.misc.' In *.linux.*, this might be inappropriate. Not here. I
> suppose so many people have you /ignore'd (irc syntax, forgot usenet
> syntax) that no one notices you anyway.

The usenet equivalent would be /plonk.

[Mark Crispin]

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003, joe wrote:
> provide mechanism whereby the mail client user (mail recipient) can
> assign email messages to categories.
>
> a) category assignment can be performed manually
> b) category assignment can be performed automatically according to
> simple rules mapping the sender address to a category

The IMAP protocol (RFC 3501), first published in 1988 (RFC 1064) has a
functionality called keywords which can do (a). This exported a
capability that had been in TOPS-20 mail for many years.

The TOPS-20 MM program was able, by means of commands in a startup file,
to set keywords for all messages based on email address, e.g.
keyword flames new from fla...@example.com

This is from 20+ years ago.

I don't know if that's close enough for the patent.

> I need concrete references to detailed product descriptions, or
> screenshots, or application binaries that are still available and can
> run on WinXP (DOS mode of course).

Well, you could run VMWare under XP and get a Linux, and from there run
the PDP-10 emulator, and from there boot TOPS-20, and from there run MM.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

[joe]

I gave the wrong impression. The OS doesn't matter. But I don't have a
VAX or solaris box handy, so I can't check out clients for those OSs
first hand.

regards,

joe

Jem Berkes <j...@users.pc9.org> wrote in message news:<Xns93F6E7D4935...@130.179.16.24>...

[joe]

Thanks for the info.

regards,

joe

Mark Crispin <m...@CAC.Washington.EDU> wrote in message news:<Pine.LNX.4.60.03...@shiva0.cac.washington.edu>...