Patent Issued for Systems and methods for caching emails for subsequent delivery (USPTO 11652779): United Services Automobile Association

2023 JUN 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Kwak, Victor (Frisco, TX, US), Lopez, Mark Anthony (Helotes, TX, US), Lyle, Ruthie D. (Durham, NC, US), Meyer, Gregory Brian (San Antonio, TX, US), Russell, Christopher (The Colony, TX, US), Russell, Ryan Thomas (The Colony, TX, US), Serrao, Nolan (Plano, TX, US), filed on June 16, 2022, was published online on May 16, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11652779 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “When a group of users who are often all the recipients of the same email from a particular source all log on to the same local area network (LAN) at approximately the same time, the emails may download relatively slowly simply due to the temporary congestion on the LAN. The congestion and consequent slow delivery occurs because the LAN has to distribute the emails to everyone in the group at roughly the same time. For example, a group of office workers all working in the same field or on the same project may all receive the same emails from their management, from their supervisor, or from another colleague. The delivery of these multiple-recipient emails may occur at the same time, for example they may occur when the office workers start their day by logging on to the office server and start opening up their email applications (such as Microsoft Outlook, for example). This surge in demand at the beginning of the workday may strain the resources of the office system, thus causing the emails to download very slowly for each of the office workers. The same issue may also cause slow email downloads in other environments, such as in universities, hospitals, volunteer organizations and other institutions.

“For these reasons, there is a need for systems and methods that reduce the email download time for recipients of multiple-recipient messages such as emails and text messages, for example.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, embodiments include a system for delivering multi-recipient emails to a group of personal computers. The system has a server in communication with the group of personal computers over a local area network. Each of the personal computers in the group of personal computers has an email cache, and the server is configured to download all multi-recipient emails into the email cache of the personal computer that is first used to read emails at a beginning of a particular day. This personal computer is also configured to then distribute the multi-recipient emails over a personal area network to each of the addressees’ personal computers as each of the addressees’ personal computers is used to read emails.

“In another aspect, embodiments include a method for distributing emails to a group of persons who are users of personal computers that are in direct communication with each other over a personal area network. The process starts by receiving at a server a number of multi-recipient emails addressed to at least one person in the group. The server then monitors the status of the personal computers, starting at a predetermined time early in a workday, and identifies which personal computer was first used on the workday to access an email account. The server then also distributes the multi-recipient emails to the identified personal computer that was first used on the workday to access the email account. Then that personal computer distributes the multi-recipient emails over the personal area network to each of the addressees of the multiple-recipient emails when each such addressee logs in to an email account. The server then distributes the multi-recipient emails to any addressees of the multi-recipient emails who are not among the persons who are the users of the personal computers. This step may be performed any time after the receipt of the multi-recipient emails.

“In another aspect, a method for reducing email download time for persons working on personal computers that are in communication with each other over a personal area network includes receiving multi-recipient emails from a server at a first one of the personal computers that is the first one of the personal computers that is used to access emails, then storing the multi-recipient emails in an email cache in the first one of the personal computers. The first one of the personal computers then monitors the status of the other personal computers that are in communication with each other over the personal area network, and successively distributes each of the multi-recipient emails to their addressees as those addressees access their email accounts.

“Other systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be, or will become, apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description and this summary, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for distributing emails to a group of persons who are users of personal computers that are in direct communication with each other over a personal area network, comprising: a processor; a server in communication with the personal computers; wherein the server is configured to: receive a number of multi-recipient emails addressed to at least one person in the group; send a first set of the multi-recipient emails classified as being at least one of confidential and restricted directly to their intended recipients; monitor the status of the personal computers, starting at a first predetermined time; identify an identified personal computer that was first used to access an email account, wherein the identified personal computer is configured to preclude a user of the identified personal computer from accessing emails that do not include that user as an addressee; distribute a second set of remaining multi-recipient emails to the identified personal computer, the identified personal computer then distributing the multi-recipient emails of the second set over the personal area network to each of the addressees of the multiple-recipient emails when each such addressee logs in to an email account; and wherein the multi-recipient emails classified as being at least one of confidential and restricted that are encrypted are distributed with the second set.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further configured to distribute the multi-recipient emails of the second set to any addressees of the multi-recipient emails who are not among the group of persons who are users of the personal computers that are in direct communication with each other over the personal area network.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified personal computer grants priority access to computing resources to applications actually being executed on that particular personal computer, other than any applications being used to distribute the multi-recipient emails.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified personal computer includes first applications that distribute the multi-recipient emails and second applications that are different than first applications, and wherein priority access to computing resources is granted to the second applications.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified personal computer is configured to preclude the user of the identified personal computer from seeing emails that do not include that user as an addressee.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein an email cache of the identified personal computer is cleared of multi-recipient emails that have already been delivered to their recipients at a second predetermined time.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is also configured to download any multi-recipient emails received after the first predetermined time into an email cache of one of the personal computers for subsequent distribution.

“8. A method for distributing emails to a group of personal computers that are in communication with each other over a personal area network, the method comprising: receiving, at a server, a number of multi-recipient emails addressed to at least one person in the group; sending, by the server, a first set of the multi-recipient emails classified as being at least one of confidential and restricted directly to their intended recipients; monitoring, by the server, the status of the personal computers, starting at a first predetermined time; identifying, by the server, an identified personal computer among the group of personal computers that was first used to access an email account; wherein the identified personal computer precludes an associated user from accessing any of the multi-recipient emails that do not list the associated user as an addressee; distributing, by the server, a second set of multi-recipient emails to the identified personal computer, the identified personal computer then distributing the second set of multi-recipient emails using the personal area network to each of the addressees of the multiple-recipient emails when each such addressee logs in to an email account; and wherein the second set of multi-recipient emails includes encrypted multi-recipient emails classified as being at least one of confidential and restricted.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the distributing, by the server, the multi-recipient emails of the second set to any addressees of the multi-recipient emails who are not among the group of persons who are users of the personal computers that are in direct communication with each other over the personal area network may be performed any time after the receipt of the multi-recipient emails.

“10. The method of claim 8, wherein the server distributes the second set of multi-recipient emails to a second group of personal computers that is different than the group of personal computers.

“11. The method of claim 8, wherein the identified personal computer precludes the associated user from seeing any of the multi-recipient emails that do not list the associated user as an addressee.

“12. The method of claim 8, wherein the identified personal computer distributing the multi-recipient emails to each of the addressees of the multiple-recipient emails stores the multiple-recipient emails in an email cache.

“13. The method of claim 8, further comprising downloading, by the server, any multi-recipient emails received after the first predetermined time into an email cache of one of the personal computers for subsequent distribution.

“14. The method of claim 8, wherein the identified personal computer includes first applications that distribute the multi-recipient emails and second applications that are different than first applications, and wherein priority access to computing resources is granted to the second applications.

“15. The method of claim 8, wherein any multi-recipient emails that have not already been distributed are distributed at a second predetermined time after the first predetermined time.

“16. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by at least one computer, which, upon such execution, cause the at least one computer to perform a method for distributing emails to a group of personal computers that are in communication with each other over a personal area network, the method comprising: receiving, at a server, a number of multi-recipient emails addressed to at least one person in the group; sending, by the server, a first set of the multi-recipient emails classified as being at least one of confidential and restricted directly to their intended recipients; monitoring, by the server, the status of the personal computers, starting at a first predetermined time; identifying, by the server, an identified personal computer that was first used to access an email account; and distributing, by the server, a second set of remaining multi-recipient emails to the identified personal computer, the identified personal computer then distributing the second set of multi-recipient emails using the personal area network to each of the addressees of the multiple-recipient emails after each such addressee logs in to an email account; wherein the multi-recipient emails classified as being at least one of confidential and restricted that are encrypted are distributed with the second set; and wherein a person who is a user of the identified personal computer is precluded from accessing any of the multi-recipient emails that do not list the person who is the user of the identified personal computer as an addressee.

“17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the identified personal computer includes first applications that distribute the multi-recipient emails and second applications that are different than first applications, and wherein priority access to computing resources is granted to the second applications.

“18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the server is also configured to download any multi-recipient emails received after the first predetermined time into an email cache of one of the personal computers for subsequent distribution.

“19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the identified personal computer precludes an associated user from seeing any of the multi-recipient emails that do not list the person who is the user of the identified personal computer as an addressee.

“20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises distributing, by the server, the multi-recipient emails of the second set to any addressees of the multi-recipient emails who are not among the group of persons who are users of the personal computers that are in direct communication with each other over the personal area network, wherein this step may be performed any time after the receipt of the multi-recipient emails.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Kwak, Victor. Systems and methods for caching emails for subsequent delivery. U.S. Patent Number 11652779, filed June 16, 2022, and published online on May 16, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11652779)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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