JP6485870B2 - Mail management apparatus, mail management system, mail management method and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a mail management apparatus, a mail management system, a mail management method, and a program.

  When sending the same electronic mail to two or more mail addresses, a mailing list may be used. However, when an e-mail transmitted using a mailing list is received, the recipient may think that another person registered in the mailing list will reply and neglect the reply.

  For example, it is assumed that an electronic mail including inquiry contents is transmitted to a mailing list serving as an inquiry window regarding maintenance services for electronic devices and the like. At that time, the recipient of the e-mail may neglect to answer because it is considered that another person registered in the mailing list answers the inquiry. As a result, each recipient may not be answered to the query as a result of expecting a response by another person.

  In Patent Literature 1, incoming mail is monitored, and if the source mail address of the incoming mail is the destination mail address of the previously sent electronic mail, the incoming mail is regarded as a reply and the monitoring process is terminated. The technology is described. In the technique described in Patent Document 1, if there is no e-mail from the destination e-mail address of the e-mail sent earlier after monitoring for a certain period, the e-mail system issues an instruction to the private branch exchange. Furthermore, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, a private branch exchange automatically sends an email to a transmission partner registered in advance based on an instruction.

  Patent Document 2 describes a technique for storing a message ID (Identification) and a destination in a notification condition table when a multi-address electronic mail (broadcast mail) is received. In the technique described in Patent Document 2, when a new e-mail is received, the new e-mail is a reply mail for all of the e-mails (broadcast mails) of the stored message ID. Determine whether or not. Furthermore, in the technique described in Patent Document 2, when the received e-mail is a reply mail for all of the broadcast mail, a new e-mail is sent to the user included in the address of the broadcast mail. Receive email notification.

JP 2002-271406 A JP 2013-149200 A

  Each disclosure of the above prior art documents is incorporated herein by reference. The following analysis has been made from the viewpoint of the present invention.

  As described above, with respect to an electronic mail transmitted using a mailing list, a recipient of the electronic mail may think that another person registered in the mailing list returns. However, as a result, there is a case where no reply is made to the electronic mail delivered via the mailing list.

  In the technique described in Patent Document 1, the presence / absence of a reply mail is determined based on the presence / absence of an e-mail from the mail address of the other party that sent the e-mail. That is, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, the presence / absence of a reply mail is determined based on whether or not the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail matches the transmission source mail address of the reply mail.

  However, when an e-mail is sent to the mailing list, the recipient's e-mail address is the representative e-mail address of the mailing list, but in reality, the e-mail delivery address is the e-mail address of the member registered in the mailing list It is. When a member registered in the mailing list transmits an electronic mail, the transmission source mail address of the electronic mail is the mail address of the member who transmits the electronic mail. For this reason, when a member registered in the mailing list replies an electronic mail, the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail does not match the transmission source mail address of the reply mail. Therefore, when an e-mail is transmitted to the mailing list, it is impossible to determine whether or not there is a reply using the technique described in Patent Document 1.

  In the technique described in Patent Literature 2, it is determined whether or not the reply is to the previously sent broadcast mail by using the message ID. Therefore, in the technique described in Patent Document 2, it is necessary to assign a message ID to each electronic mail. For this reason, the technique described in Patent Document 2 may limit the format (form) of an e-mail header or the like. Furthermore, when an e-mail is transmitted via two or more mail server devices, etc., if the mail server device changes information for identifying the e-mail (that is, a message ID) during the transfer of the e-mail, There is a possibility that the technique described in Patent Document 2 cannot be applied. That is, the technique described in Patent Document 2 may limit the application range.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a mail management device, a mail management system, a mail management method, and a program that contribute to appropriately managing the presence / absence of replies regarding electronic mail delivered via a mailing list.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a mail management device is provided. The mail management apparatus includes a mail information acquisition unit that acquires mail information of an electronic mail. Further, the mail management apparatus includes a mail management information extracting unit that extracts mail management information including at least a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, and a transmission date and time from the mail information. Further, the mail management device determines whether or not the first electronic mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail. A determination unit is provided. Further, the mail management apparatus transmits a second e-mail in which the first e-mail is a received e-mail delivered via a mailing list, and a transmission destination address of the first e-mail is a transmitted e- mail. If it is different from the original address, the second electronic mail is a reply to the first electronic mail based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail and the mail management information of the second electronic mail. A second determination unit is provided for determining whether the message is mail.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a mail management system is provided. The mail management system includes a mail server device and a mail management device connected to the mail server device. The mail server device includes a server communication unit that controls transmission and reception of electronic mail. The mail management apparatus includes a mail information acquisition unit that acquires e-mail mail information from the mail server apparatus. Further, the mail management apparatus includes a mail management information extracting unit that extracts mail management information including at least a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, and a transmission date and time from the mail information. Further, the mail management device determines whether or not the first electronic mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail. A determination unit is provided. Further, the mail management apparatus transmits a second e-mail in which the first e-mail is a received e-mail delivered via a mailing list, and a transmission destination address of the first e-mail is a transmitted e- mail. If it is different from the original address, the second electronic mail is a reply to the first electronic mail based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail and the mail management information of the second electronic mail. A second determination unit is provided for determining whether the message is mail.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a mail management method is provided. The mail management method includes a step in which a mail management device acquires mail information of an electronic mail. Further, the mail management method includes a step in which the mail management apparatus extracts mail management information including at least a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, and a transmission date / time from the mail information. Further, in the mail management method, the mail management apparatus determines whether the first electronic mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail. A step of determining. Further, in the mail management method, the first electronic mail is a received mail that is delivered via a mailing list, and the transmission destination address of the first electronic mail is a second electronic mail that is a transmitted mail. If it is different from the original address, the second electronic mail is a reply to the first electronic mail based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail and the mail management information of the second electronic mail. The mail management apparatus includes a step of determining whether the mail is a mail.
Note that this method is connected to a specific machine called a mail management apparatus that connects to a network and acquires e-mail information.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program that is executed by a computer that controls a mail management apparatus. The program causes the computer to execute processing for acquiring e-mail information. Further, the program causes the computer to execute processing for extracting mail management information including at least a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, and a transmission date / time from the mail information. Further, the program executes processing for determining whether the first electronic mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail. Let it run. Further, the program is a received mail that the first electronic mail delivers via a mailing list, and a transmission source address of the second electronic mail in which a transmission destination address of the first electronic mail is a transmission mail. The second e-mail is a reply mail to the first e-mail based on the mail management information of the first e-mail and the mail management information of the second e-mail. The computer is caused to execute processing for determining whether or not there is.
The program can be recorded on a computer-readable storage medium. The storage medium may be non-transient such as a semiconductor memory, a hard disk, a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, or the like. The present invention can also be embodied as a computer program product.

  According to each aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mail management device, a mail management system, a mail management method, and a program that contribute to appropriately managing the presence or absence of a reply for an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list.

It is a figure for demonstrating the outline | summary of one Embodiment. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of a mail management device 1. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of the mail management apparatus 1 which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process which judges the presence or absence of the reply with respect to a received mail. It is a figure which shows an example of the mail management information extracted from a received mail. It is a figure which shows an example of the mail management information extracted from a transmission mail. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of the mail management apparatus 1 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the mail management information extracted from a transmission mail. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of the mail management apparatus 1 which concerns on 3rd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the mail management information extracted from a transmission mail. It is a figure which shows an example of the whole structure of the mail management system 3 which concerns on 4th Embodiment.

  First, an outline of an embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Note that the reference numerals of the drawings attached to the outline are attached to the respective elements for convenience as an example for facilitating understanding, and the description of the outline is not intended to be any limitation.

  As described above, there is a demand for a mail management apparatus that contributes to appropriately managing the presence or absence of replies regarding electronic mail delivered via a mailing list.

  Therefore, as an example, the mail management apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 is provided. The mail management apparatus 100 includes a mail information acquisition unit 101, a mail management information extraction unit 102, a first determination unit 103, and a second determination unit 104.

  The mail information acquisition unit 101 acquires e-mail information. The mail information means information related to an electronic mail including an electronic mail envelope, a mail header, and a mail text.

  The mail management information extraction unit 102 extracts mail management information including the transmission source mail address, the transmission destination mail address, and the transmission date and time from the mail information acquired by the mail information acquisition unit 101.

  The first determination unit 103 assumes that the mail management information extraction unit 102 has extracted mail management information of a predetermined electronic mail (hereinafter referred to as a first electronic mail). In that case, the first determination unit 103 determines whether or not the first electronic mail is delivered via the mailing list based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail.

  When the first e-mail is delivered via the mailing list, the second determination unit 104 selects the second e-mail based on the e-mail management information of the first e-mail and the e-mail management information of the second e-mail. It is determined whether or not the e-mail is a reply e-mail to the first e-mail.

  Specifically, it is assumed that the first determination unit 103 determines that the first electronic mail is delivered via the mailing list. In this case, the second determination unit 104 determines that the second e-mail is a reply e-mail to the first e-mail based on the mail management information of the first e-mail and the mail management information of the second e-mail. It is determined whether or not. Note that the second e-mail is an e-mail transmitted after the e-mail information acquisition unit 101 acquires the e-mail information of the first e-mail.

  For example, it is assumed that the mail management apparatus 100 acquires mail information of an e-mail requesting a reply (the above-described first e-mail) (for example, an e-mail inquiring about products, services, etc.) to the mailing list. In that case, the mail management apparatus 100 extracts the transmission source mail address, the transmission destination mail address, the transmission date and time, etc. as mail management information from the email of the inquiry.

  Then, it is assumed that the mail management apparatus 100 receives the inquiry e-mail (the first e-mail) and then transmits the e-mail (the second e-mail). In that case, the mail management apparatus 100 extracts a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, a transmission date and time, and the like as mail management information from the transmitted electronic mail (the second electronic mail described above). Then, the mail management device 100 sends an email sent after receiving the inquiry email based on the email management information of the inquiry email and the email management information of the sent email as a reply email to the inquiry email. It is determined whether or not.

  Here, in the mail management apparatus 100, it is not necessary to add special information (for example, the message ID described in Patent Document 2) to the e-mail. Further, the mail management apparatus 100 determines whether or not there is a reply to the e-mail based on a plurality of information such as the received mail and the transmission source mail address, the transmission destination mail address, the transmission date and time of the transmission mail. As described above, the mail management apparatus 100 contributes to appropriately managing the presence / absence of a reply with respect to the electronic mail delivered via the mailing list.

  In addition, it is possible to manage the presence / absence of a reply to a transmitted mail using the mail management apparatus 100. For example, it is assumed that the mail management apparatus 100 receives an e-mail (the above-mentioned second e-mail) after transmitting an e-mail (the above-mentioned first e-mail) that is desired to be returned. In that case, the mail management apparatus 100 extracts a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, a transmission date and time, and the like as mail management information from the received electronic mail (the second electronic mail described above). Then, based on the mail management information of the transmitted email and the email management information of the received email, the email management apparatus 100 determines whether the email received after sending the email is a reply email to the sent email. Determine whether.

[First Embodiment]
The first embodiment will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the first electronic mail is referred to as “received mail”. In the following description, the second electronic mail is referred to as “sent mail”. Further, in the following description, the representative mail address of the mailing list is referred to as “mailing list mail address”. However, this is not intended to limit the first electronic mail and the second electronic mail to the received mail and the transmitted mail, respectively.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an internal configuration of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. The mail management device 1 includes a mail information acquisition unit 110, a storage unit 120, a display unit 130, and a control unit 140. For simplicity, FIG. 2 mainly describes modules related to the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.

  The mail management device 1 is assumed to include the function of the mail server device. Here, the mail server device means an information processing device (computer) that controls or relays transmission / reception of electronic mail.

  Note that each module (processing means) of the mail management apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 2 may be realized by a computer program that causes a computer constituting the mail management apparatus 1 to execute each process using its hardware.

  Hereinafter, each module of the mail management apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 2 will be described in detail.

  The mail information acquisition unit 110 controls or relays transmission / reception of mail information. Specifically, the mail information acquisition unit 110 is connected to the network 2 and acquires mail information as an e-mail. More specifically, the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires mail information of received mail and mail information of transmitted mail. The network 2 may be the Internet or an intranet, and the details thereof are not limited. There are various implementation methods of the network 2, and it is assumed that the network 2 is appropriately selected according to the implementation form of the mail management apparatus 1.

  The storage unit 120 stores information necessary for the operation of the mail management apparatus 1. The storage unit 120 stores mail management information extracted from the mail information. The storage unit 120 is realized by a magnetic disk device, an optical disk device, or a semiconductor memory. The semiconductor memory is, for example, an SSD (Solid State Drive), which uses a flash memory, or a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory). good.

  The display part 130 is comprised including a liquid crystal panel, an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) panel, etc., and displays information so that a user can visually recognize. For example, the display unit 130 may display a message for notifying a reply to the management target received mail.

  In addition, the display unit 130 may be a display lamp (such as a rotation display lamp or a blinking display lamp). In that case, the control unit 140 may notify the user that the management target received mail has not been replied by turning on the indicator lamp.

  The control unit 140 controls processing for operating the mail management apparatus 1. In addition, the control unit 140 accesses the storage unit 120 and controls reading and writing of mail management information in the storage unit 120. The control unit 140 may be realized by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or may operate according to a computer program.

  The control unit 140 includes a mail management information extraction unit 141, a first determination unit 142, a second determination unit 143, and a notification control unit 144.

  The mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts mail management information including a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, and a transmission date and time from the mail information of the received mail and the mail information of the transmission mail. The mail management information means information necessary for sending / receiving and managing electronic mail. The details of the mail management information are not particularly limited as long as they are information necessary for sending and receiving and managing electronic mail, including information described in the following description.

  For example, when the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the received mail, the mail management information extraction unit 141 uses the mail information of the received mail to transmit the source mail address, the destination mail address, and the transmission of the received mail. Date and time are extracted as mail management information. Further, when the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the received mail, the mail management information extraction unit 141 may add the date and time when the mail information acquisition unit 110 receives the received mail to the mail management information. .

  In addition, when the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the transmission mail, the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts the transmission source mail address, the transmission destination mail address, the transmission date and time of the transmission mail from the mail information of the transmission mail. Etc. are extracted as mail management information.

  For example, the mail management information extracting unit 141 may read a predetermined character string (“From”, “To”, “Date”, etc.) from the mail header of an electronic mail (received mail and transmitted mail). Then, the mail management information extracting unit 141 may extract a character string following the read predetermined character string (“From”, “To”, “Date”, etc.) as mail management information. Then, the mail management information extraction unit 141 stores the extracted mail management information in the storage unit 120 in a predetermined data format such as a table format.

  In the following description, a predetermined character string read from the mail header is called a management identifier. Of course, a delimiter (“: (colon)” or the like) may be added to the end of the management identifier. In that case, the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts a character string following the delimiter at the end of the predetermined character string as mail management information from the mail header. It is assumed that the management identifier is registered in advance.

  The management identifier corresponding to the e-mail source mail address is, for example, “From”. The management identifier corresponding to the e-mail destination mail address is, for example, “To”. The management identifier corresponding to the transmission date and time of the e-mail is, for example, “Date”. In addition, the management identifier corresponding to the reception date and time of the e-mail is, for example, “Received”. The management identifier corresponding to the subject of the e-mail is, for example, “Subject”.

  Further, the management identifier corresponding to the mail address for contacting the administrator of the mailing list is, for example, “list-Owner”. The management identifier corresponding to the mailing list management mail address is, for example, “list-Post”. In addition, the management identifier illustrated above is an example, and the management identifier in the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is not intended to be limited to the above illustration.

  When the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts the mail management information of the received mail, the first determination unit 142 determines whether the received mail is an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list.

  For example, when the destination mail address of the received mail matches the mail address of the mailing list registered in advance, the first determining unit 142 determines that the received mail is an email delivered via the mailing list. Also good.

  Further, it is assumed that the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts a management identifier (for example, “list-Owner”, “list-Post”, etc.) related to the mailing list from the mail header of the received mail. In that case, the first determination unit 142 may determine that the received mail is an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list.

  The second determination unit 143 determines whether a reply mail for the received mail has been transmitted. Specifically, it is assumed that the first determination unit 142 determines that the received mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list. In that case, based on the mail management information of the received mail and the mail management information of the transmitted mail, the second determining unit 143 determines whether the transmitted mail is a reply mail to the received mail. Here, it is assumed that the outgoing mail is an electronic mail that is sent after obtaining the mail information of the received mail.

  More specifically, it is assumed that the received mail is delivered via the mailing list, and the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the transmitted mail after acquiring the mail information of the received mail. In that case, the second determination unit 143 collates the transmission source mail address of the received mail with the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail, and the transmission mail is a reply mail to the reception mail based on the comparison result. Determine whether or not.

  For example, assume that the first determination unit 142 determines that the first e-mail is an e-mail delivered via a mailing list. In this case, the second determination unit 143 collates the transmission source mail address of the received mail and the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail. Then, if the source mail address of the received mail matches the destination mail address of the transmitted mail, the second determining unit 143 determines that the transmitted mail is a reply mail to the received mail. good. On the other hand, if the source mail address of the received mail does not match the destination mail address of the transmitted mail, the second determining unit 143 may determine that the transmitted mail is not a reply mail for the received mail. .

  If the reply mail for the received mail is not transmitted after a predetermined time, the notification control unit 144 notifies that the received mail is not replied.

  For example, the notification control unit 144 performs at least one of display, printing on the display unit 130, and transmission of an e-mail to a predetermined mail address as a process for notifying that the received mail has not been replied. May be executed. And the notification control part 144 may notify at least any one information among the transmission origin mail address of a received mail, the transmission date and time of a received mail, the date and time when the mail information acquisition part 110 received a received mail, etc. .

  Specifically, when the received mail has not been replied after a predetermined time, the notification control unit 144 may output information indicating non-reply to the display unit 130. For example, when the mail management apparatus 1 includes a display as the display unit 130, the second determination unit 143 may cause the display unit 130 to display a message or the like indicating unanswered. Alternatively, when the mail management apparatus 1 includes an indicator lamp as the display unit 130, the second determination unit 143 may turn on the indicator lamp to notify that the received mail has not been replied.

  Alternatively, the notification control unit 144 may notify that the received mail has not been replied to the destination mail address of the received mail using an electronic mail.

  For example, the notification control unit 144 may execute a process of notifying a received mail that it has not been replied when a reply mail is not transmitted beyond a predetermined time from the received date and time of the received mail.

  Alternatively, after the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the received mail, whether or not the transmission mail is a reply mail to the received mail for the transmission mail transmitted after a predetermined time elapses. The determination unit 143 may determine. In other words, after the e-mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires e-mail information of the received e-mail, if a reply e-mail is not transmitted within a predetermined time after elapse of a predetermined time, the notification control unit 144 does not process You may perform the process which notifies that it is a reply.

  Further, the second determination unit 143 may repeatedly determine whether or not there is a reply mail within a predetermined time after notifying that it has not been replied. When the second determination unit 143 determines that the received mail has not been replied, the notification that it has not been replied may be repeated.

  Next, the operation of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described in detail.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. The mail management device 1 executes the process shown in FIG. 3 for each received mail. That is, the mail management device 1 executes the processes shown in FIG. 3 in parallel each time it receives the mail information of the received mail (step S1 shown in FIG. 3).

  In step S1, the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the received mail as an e-mail.

  In step S2, the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts mail management information from the mail information of the received mail. For example, the mail management information extraction unit 141 may extract a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, a transmission date and time, and the like from the mail header of the received mail.

  In step S3, the control unit 140 stores the mail management information of the received mail in the storage unit 120.

  In step S4, the first determination unit 142 determines whether the received mail is an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list. For example, the first determination unit 142 may determine whether the received mail is addressed to the mailing list. If the received mail is not an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list (No branch in step S4), the process for determining whether or not there is a reply for the received mail received in step S1 is terminated.

  Here, it is assumed that the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the outgoing mail. In that case, the mail management information extraction unit 141 may pass the mail management information extracted from the transmitted mail to the second determination unit 143. Alternatively, when the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the transmission mail, the mail management information extraction unit 141 may store the mail management information extracted from the transmission mail in the storage unit 120. Then, the second determination unit 143 may acquire the mail management information of the outgoing mail from the storage unit 120.

  On the other hand, if the received mail is an e-mail delivered via the mailing list (Yes branch in step S4), after waiting for a predetermined time (step S5), whether or not a reply mail is transmitted to the received mail. Is determined by the second determination unit 143 (step S6). For example, when the destination mail address of the received mail is the mail address of the mailing list, the first determination unit 142 may determine that the received mail is an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list.

  When the second determination unit 143 determines that a reply mail has been transmitted with respect to the received mail (Yes branch in step S6), the presence / absence of a reply is determined for the received mail received in the process of step S1. To finish the processing. On the other hand, when the second determination unit 143 determines that the reply mail is not transmitted with respect to the received mail (No branch of step S6), the notification control unit 144 notifies that it has not been replied. (Step S7). And the process which judges the presence or absence of a reply is complete | finished regarding the received mail received by the process of step S1. The notification method includes various methods such as alarm output to the display unit 130, printing a message indicating non-reply, etc., sending an e-mail to the destination mail address of the received mail, but the details are not limited.

  Next, processing for determining whether or not there is a reply to the received mail will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of processing for determining whether or not there is a reply to the received mail.

  First, it is assumed that the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts the mail management information of the received mail, and the control unit 140 stores the extracted mail management information in the storage unit 120 (step S3 shown in FIG. 3). In that case, the first determination unit 142 determines whether the received mail is an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list (step S101). If the received mail is not an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list (No branch in step S101), the process of determining whether or not there is a reply is completed for the received mail received in the process of step S1 shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, when the received mail is an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list (Yes branch in step S101), the process waits for a predetermined time (step S102). Then, after receiving the received mail, the second determining unit 143 determines whether or not an e-mail has been transmitted (step S103). That is, after the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the received mail, the second determination unit 143 determines whether the mail information of the transmission mail has been acquired.

  For example, it is assumed that the mail management information extraction unit 141 reads the management identifier from the mail header and extracts the mail management information. In that case, in the process of step S103, the second determination unit 143 includes the date and time (reception date and time) indicated by the management identifier “Received” of the received mail, the date and time (transmission date and time) indicated by the management identifier “Date” of the transmission mail Compare When the date and time indicated by the management identifier “Date” of the outgoing mail is later than the date and time indicated by the management identifier “Received” of the incoming mail, the second determination unit 143 receives the incoming mail and then transmits the mail. You may judge that

  If the e-mail has not been transmitted after receiving the received mail (No branch in step S103), the process returns to step S102 and the process is continued. On the other hand, when an e-mail is transmitted after receiving the received mail (Yes branch of step S103), the process proceeds to step S104.

  In step S104, the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts mail management information from the mail information of the outgoing mail. And it changes to step S105. Here, when two or more electronic mails are transmitted after receiving the received mail, the mail management information extracting unit 141 extracts the mail management information from the mail information of each transmitted mail.

  In step S105, the second determination unit 143 determines whether or not the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail matches the transmission source mail address of the reception mail. When two or more e-mails are transmitted after receiving the received mail, a second determination is made as to whether or not the destination mail address of at least one transmitted mail matches the source mail address of the received mail. The unit 143 determines.

  When the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail matches the transmission source mail address of the reception mail (Yes branch in step S105), the second determination unit 143 determines that the reply mail is transmitted to the reception mail. Judgment is made (step S106). And the process which judges the presence or absence of a reply is complete | finished regarding the received mail received by the process of step S1 shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, when the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail does not match the transmission source mail address of the reception mail (No branch of step S105), the notification control unit 144 notifies that it is not notified (step S107). . And the process which judges the presence or absence of a reply is complete | finished regarding the received mail received by the process of step S1 shown in FIG.

  Alternatively, the notification control unit 144 may notify that it has not been notified (step S107), and then return to step S102 to continue the process. Then, the presence or absence of a reply to the received mail may be monitored for a predetermined time (repetition of the presence or absence of a reply) may be monitored. When there is no reply to the received mail, the notification control unit 144 may repeatedly notify that it has not been replied. Then, the notification control unit 144 monitors whether or not there is a reply to the received mail. When a predetermined time has elapsed, the notification control unit 144 ends the process of determining whether or not there is a reply with respect to the received mail received in step S1 shown in FIG. To do.

  In addition, as described above, the second determination unit 143 sets the outgoing mail to the received mail for the outgoing mail transmitted after the elapse of a predetermined time after the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the received mail. It may be determined whether it is a reply mail.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of mail management information extracted from the received mail and stored in the storage unit 120. Specifically, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the mail management information in a table format. The table shown in FIG. 5 is a table in which received mail identification information, a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, a subject, a transmission date / time, a reception date / time, and a mail text are associated with each other. The identification information of the received mail is a number assigned for each received mail. For example, the identification information of the received mail may be a number indicating the reception order as shown in FIG. In the following description, it is assumed that the mail address “g@e.com” shown in FIG. 5 is a mail address of a mailing list registered in advance.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of mail management information extracted from a transmitted mail. Specifically, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the mail management information of each outgoing mail in a table format. The table shown in FIG. 6 is information in which transmission mail identification information, a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, a subject name, a transmission date and time, and a mail text are associated with each other. The sent mail identification information is a number assigned to each sent mail. For example, the identification information of the transmission mail may be a number indicating the transmission order as shown in FIG. In the following description, since the identification information of the outgoing mail is as described above, the description is omitted below.

  Here, with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, it is examined whether a reply mail is transmitted for the received mail having the identification information “1” shown in FIG. 5.

  First, the first determination unit 142 determines whether or not the received mail having the identification information “1” shown in FIG. 5 is delivered via the mailing list. As described above, the destination mail address “g@e.com” of the received mail is the mail address of the mailing list registered in advance. Therefore, the first determination unit 142 determines that the received mail having the identification information “1” shown in FIG. 5 is an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list.

The second determination unit 143 transmits the received mail after the received date and time “Wed, 23 Sep 2015 09:00:00” (that is, Wednesday, September 23, 2015, 9:00:00). Select email as the decision target. In that case, referring to FIG. 6, the second determination unit 143
Transmission mail of identification information “2”: transmission date and time “Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:00:00” (that is, Wednesday, September 23, 2015, 12:00:00) and transmission mail of identification information “3” : Transmission date and time "Fri, 25 Sep 2015 15:00:00" (that is, Friday, September 25, 2015, 15:00:00)
Is selected as a judgment target.

  Then, the second determination unit 143 collates the transmission source mail address “a@c.com” of the received mail with the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail. In this case, referring to FIG. 6, the transmission source mail address of the received mail and the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail of the identification information “2” are “a@c.com” and match. Therefore, the second determination unit 143 determines that the transmission mail having the identification information “2” illustrated in FIG. 6 is transmitted as a reply mail to the reception mail having the identification information “1” illustrated in FIG.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, it is examined whether or not a reply mail has been transmitted for the received mail having the identification information “2” shown in FIG.

  First, the second determination unit 143 receives the electronic mail transmitted after the received date and time “Fri, 25 Sep 2015 14:00:00” (that is, Friday, September 25, 14: 00: 0). Select email as a decision target. In that case, referring to FIG. 6, second determination unit 143 selects the transmission mail having identification information “3” as a determination target.

  Then, the second determination unit 143 collates the transmission source mail address “b@d.com” of the received mail with the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail. In that case, referring to FIG. 6, there is no outgoing mail that is a destination mail address that matches the source mail address of the received mail. Therefore, the second determination unit 143 determines that a reply mail for the received mail having the identification information “2” illustrated in FIG. 5 has not been transmitted. Therefore, the notification control unit 144 notifies that the received mail with the identification information “2” shown in FIG.

[Modification 1]
As a first modification of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, a predetermined rule may be set in advance such as identifying information (number or the like) in the subject of an e-mail, the mail text, good. Then, the second determination unit 143 determines whether a received mail that satisfies the predetermined rule and a transmitted mail are transmitted and received. Then, when there is a received mail that satisfies the predetermined rule and a transmitted mail, the second determining unit 143 may determine that a reply has been transmitted to the received mail.

[Modification 2]
As a second modification of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the received mail may be replaced with a sent mail, and the sent mail may be replaced with a received mail, and the technical idea of the present invention may be applied. In that case, the mail management apparatus 1 determines whether or not there is a reply to the transmitted mail that is delivered via the mailing list. When the second determination unit 143 determines that the reply mail for the transmission mail is not received, the notification control unit 144 uses the e-mail as the transmission source mail address of the transmission mail and does not reply to the transmission mail. You may notify that it is.

  In the second modification of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the notification control unit 144 does not respond to a transmitted mail when a reply mail is not received after a predetermined time from the transmission date / time of the transmitted mail. You may perform the process which notifies that it is a reply. Alternatively, for the received mail received after elapse of a predetermined time after the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information of the transmitted mail, whether or not the received mail is a reply mail to the transmitted mail is determined as the second The determination unit 143 may determine.

  As described above, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment determines the presence or absence of a reply mail for an e-mail based on the e-mail transmission source e-mail address, transmission destination e-mail address, transmission / reception date and time, and the like. If the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment determines that a reply mail has not been transmitted, the mail management apparatus 1 notifies that it has not been replied. Therefore, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment contributes to appropriately managing the presence / absence of a reply regarding an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list.

  For example, it is assumed that an e-mail requesting a reply (for example, an e-mail for inquiries regarding products, services, etc.) is sent to the mailing list. In that case, by using the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, it is possible to monitor the presence / absence of a reply mail for an inquiry e-mail or the like. Furthermore, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment notifies that a reply mail is not replied when a reply mail is not transmitted over a predetermined time. Therefore, the mail management device 1 according to the present embodiment contributes to preventing omission of response to the inquiry mail transmitted to the mailing list.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  In this embodiment, when the mail information of the received mail is quoted in the mail information of the transmitted mail, the presence or absence of a reply is determined based on the information quoted in the mail information of the transmitted mail. In the description of the present embodiment, the description of the same part as the above embodiment is omitted. Further, in the description of the present embodiment, the same components as those of the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. In the description of the present embodiment, the description of the same operational effects as those of the above-described embodiment is also omitted.

  The internal configuration of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is as shown in FIG.

  The mail management information extraction unit 141 according to the present embodiment uses the citation as a part of the mail management information of the outgoing mail when the mail information of the outgoing mail includes at least a part of the mail management information of the received mail as the citation information. Extract information. Specifically, the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts the source mail address, destination mail address, reception date / time, transmission date / time, subject, and the like of the received mail quoted from the transmission mail from the mail information of the transmission mail. To do. In the following description, information that quotes the received mail included in the mail information of the sent mail is referred to as “sent information of the sent mail”.

  The second determination unit 143 according to the present embodiment collates the transmission date and time included in the citation information of the transmitted mail with the transmission date and time of the received mail, and based on the collation result, the transmitted mail is a reply to the received mail. Determine if it is an email.

  For example, it is assumed that the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts the date and time of transmission of the quoted received mail from the mail header of the sent mail based on the management identifier “Date” of the quoted received mail. In that case, the second determination unit 143 determines whether or not the transmission date and time of the received mail quoted matches the transmission date and time of the received mail stored in the storage unit 120. If the sent date / time of the received mail quoted matches the sent date / time of the received mail stored in the storage unit 120, the second determining unit 143 determines that the sent mail is a reply mail to the received mail. .

  Next, the operation of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described in detail.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.

  First, it is assumed that the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts the mail management information of the received mail, and the control unit 140 stores the extracted mail management information in the storage unit 120 (step S3 shown in FIG. 3). In that case, the process of step S201 shown in FIG. 7 is executed. In addition, since the process of step S201-step S203 is the same as the process of step S101-103 shown in FIG. 4, description is abbreviate | omitted.

  If the e-mail is transmitted after receiving the received mail (Yes branch of step S203), the mail management information extracting unit 141 extracts the mail management information from the mail information of the transmitted mail (step S204). Here, as described above, when the citation information is included in the mail information of the outgoing mail, the mail management information extracting unit 141 extracts the citation information as a part of the mail management information from the mail information of the outgoing mail. .

  In step S205, the second determination unit 143 determines whether or not the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail matches the transmission source mail address of the reception mail. When the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail does not match the transmission source mail address of the reception mail (No branch in step S205), the notification control unit 144 notifies that it has not been replied (step S206). And the process which judges the presence or absence of a reply is complete | finished regarding the received mail received by the process of step S1 shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, when the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail matches the transmission source mail address of the reception mail (Yes branch of step S205), the transmission date / time included in the citation information of the transmission mail, the transmission date / time of the reception mail, The second determination unit 143 determines whether or not match (step S207).

  When the transmission date / time included in the citation information of the transmitted mail matches the transmission date / time of the received mail (Yes branch in step S207), the second determination unit 143 transmits a reply mail to the received mail. It is determined that it has been done (step S208). And the process which judges the presence or absence of a reply is complete | finished regarding the received mail received by the process of step S1 shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, when the transmission date and time included in the citation information of the transmitted mail does not match the transmission date and time of the received mail (No branch of step S207), the notification control unit 144 notifies that it has not been replied (step S207). S206). And the process which judges the presence or absence of a reply is complete | finished regarding the received mail received by the process of step S1 shown in FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of mail management information extracted from a transmission mail. Specifically, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing mail management information extracted from each outgoing mail in a table format. The table shown in FIG. 8 is a table in which identification information of a transmission mail, a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, a subject, a transmission date and time, a mail text, and quotation information are associated with each other. Further, the citation information shown in FIG. 8 includes a source mail address of the received mail, a destination mail address of the received mail, and a transmission date and time of the received mail.

  Here, with reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 8, it is examined whether or not a reply mail is transmitted for the received mail having the identification information “1” shown in FIG. 5.

  First, the first determination unit 142 determines whether or not the received mail with the identification information “1” shown in FIG. 5 is an electronic mail delivered via the mailing list. As a result, as described in the first embodiment, the first determination unit 142 determines that the received mail having the identification information “1” illustrated in FIG. 5 is delivered via the mailing list.

  The second determination unit 143 transmits the received mail after the received date and time “Wed, 23 Sep 2015 09:00:00” (that is, Wednesday, September 23, 2015, 9:00:00). Select email as the decision target. In that case, referring to FIG. 8, the second determination unit 143 selects the transmission mail with the identification information “1” and the transmission mail with the identification information “2” as determination targets.

  Furthermore, the second determination unit 143 collates the transmission source mail address “a@c.com” of the received mail with the identification information “1” with the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail. In this case, the mail address of the transmission mail with the identification information “1” and the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail with the identification information “2” match the transmission mail address of the reception mail.

  Then, the second determination unit 143 sends the received mail transmission date and time “Tue, 22 Sep 2015 14:00:00” (that is, Tuesday, September 22, 2015, 14:00:00) Check the transmission date and time included in the information. In this case, the transmission date / time included in the citation information of the transmission mail of the identification information “2” matches the transmission date / time of the reception mail. Therefore, the second determination unit 143 determines that the transmitted mail with the identification information “2” illustrated in FIG. 8 is transmitted as a reply mail to the received mail with the identification information “1” illustrated in FIG.

[Modification 1]
As a first modification of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the received mail may be replaced with a transmitted mail, and the transmitted mail may be replaced with a received mail, and the technical idea of the present invention may be applied. In that case, the second determination unit 143 collates the transmission date / time included in the citation information of the received mail with the transmission date / time of the transmitted mail, and based on the collation result, the received mail is a reply mail to the transmitted mail. Judge whether there is.

  As described above, when the second e-mail quotes the first e-mail, the mail management device 1 according to the present embodiment is configured to send a reply e-mail based on the transmission date and time of the first e-mail quoted. Judgment is made. The mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment refers to the citation information of the second e-mail, so that the e-mail (unrelated to the first e-mail) is sent to the sender e-mail address of the first e-mail ( When an e-mail that is not a reply e-mail is transmitted, the e-mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment determines that the transmitted e-mail is not a reply to the first e-mail received or transmitted first. it can.

  Therefore, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment can more appropriately determine whether or not the second electronic mail is a reply to the first electronic mail. Therefore, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment contributes to more appropriately managing the presence / absence of a reply to an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list.

[Third Embodiment]
Next, a third embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  In the present embodiment, when the mail information of the received mail is quoted in the mail information of the transmitted mail, the presence or absence of a reply is determined based on the subject included in the quoted information of the transmitted mail. In the description of the present embodiment, the description of the same part as the above embodiment is omitted. Further, in the description of the present embodiment, the same components as those of the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. In the description of the present embodiment, the description of the same operational effects as those of the above-described embodiment is also omitted.

  The internal configuration of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is as shown in FIG.

  The second determination unit 143 according to the present embodiment collates the subject included in the citation information of the transmitted mail with the subject of the received mail, and based on the collation result, the transmitted mail is a reply mail to the received mail. Judge whether there is.

  In addition, the second determination unit 143 determines whether or not the transmission mail corresponds to the reception mail based on whether or not the subject included in the citation information of the transmission mail matches the subject of the reception mail exceeding a predetermined number of characters. It may be determined whether it is a reply mail. For example, it is assumed that the mail management information extraction unit 141 extracts the subject of the cited received mail from the mail header of the transmitted mail based on the management identifier “Subject” of the cited received mail. In that case, the second determination unit 143 determines whether or not the subject of the received mail quoted matches the subject of the received mail stored in the storage unit 120 beyond a predetermined number of characters.

  Next, the operation of the mail management apparatus 1 according to this embodiment will be described in detail.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment.

  The difference between the flowchart shown in FIG. 7 and the flowchart shown in FIG. 9 is that the process in step S207 shown in FIG. 7 is different from the process in step S307 shown in FIG. The processes in steps S301 to S306 and S308 shown in FIG. 9 are the same as the processes in steps S201 to S206 and S208 shown in FIG. In the following description, the process of step S307 shown in FIG. 9 will be described.

  Here, it is assumed that the second determination unit 143 determines that the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail matches the transmission source mail address of the reception mail (Yes branch in step S305). In that case, the second determination unit 143 determines whether or not the subject included in the citation information matches the subject of the received mail (step S307). If the subject included in the citation information matches the subject of the received mail (Yes branch in step S307), the second determining unit 143 determines that the reply mail has been transmitted in response to the received mail ( Step S308). On the other hand, if the subject included in the citation information does not match the subject of the received mail (No branch in step S307), the notification control unit 144 notifies that it has not been replied (step S306).

  Note that the above description is not intended to limit the conditions for determining the presence or absence of a reply mail to the above conditions. For example, the second determination unit 143 may determine that the reply mail has been transmitted when both the conditions of step S207 shown in FIG. 7 and the conditions of step S307 shown in FIG. 9 are satisfied. It is.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of mail management information extracted from a transmission mail. Specifically, FIG. 10 is a diagram showing mail management information extracted from each outgoing mail in a table format. The table shown in FIG. 10 is a table in which identification information of a transmission mail, a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, a subject, a transmission date and time, a mail text, and quotation information are associated with each other. Further, the citation information shown in FIG. 10 includes the source mail address of the received mail, the destination mail address of the received mail, and the subject of the received mail.

  With reference to FIG. 5 and FIG. 10, it is examined whether or not a reply mail is transmitted for the received mail having the identification information “1” shown in FIG. First, the second determination unit 143 is transmitted after the received date and time of received mail “Wed, 23 Sep 2015 09:00:00” (that is, Wednesday, September 23, 2015, 9:00:00). Select email as the decision target. In that case, referring to FIG. 10, the second determination unit 143 selects the transmission mail with the identification information “1” and the transmission mail with the identification information “2” as determination targets.

  Then, the second determination unit 143 collates the source mail address “a@c.com” of the received mail with the identification information “1” shown in FIG. 5 with the destination mail address of the transmitted mail. In this case, the mail address of the transmission mail with the identification information “1” and the transmission destination mail address of the transmission mail with the identification information “2” match the transmission source mail address of the reception mail.

  Then, the second determination unit 143 collates the subject “inquiry” of the received mail with the subject included in the citation information of the transmitted mail. The subject included in the sent mail citation information with the identification information “2” matches the subject of the received mail. Therefore, the second determination unit 143 determines that the transmission mail having the identification information “2” illustrated in FIG. 10 is transmitted as a reply mail to the reception mail having the identification information “1” illustrated in FIG.

[Modification 1]
As a first modification of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the received mail may be replaced with a transmitted mail, and the transmitted mail may be replaced with a received mail, and the technical idea of the present invention may be applied. In that case, the second determination unit 143 collates the subject included in the citation information of the received mail with the subject of the transmitted mail, and based on the collation result, whether the received mail is a reply mail to the transmitted mail. Judge whether or not.

  As described above, when the second electronic mail quotes the first electronic mail, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment determines whether there is a reply mail based on the subject of the first electronic mail quoted. Judging. The mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment refers to the citation information of the second e-mail, and an e-mail unrelated to the received e-mail is transmitted to the e-mail address of the first e-mail. In this case, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment can determine that the transmitted e-mail is not a reply to the first e-mail received or transmitted previously.

  Therefore, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment can more appropriately determine whether or not the second electronic mail is a reply to the first electronic mail. Therefore, the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment contributes to more appropriately managing the presence / absence of a reply to an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list.

[Fourth Embodiment]
Next, a fourth embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  The present embodiment is a form of a mail management system including a mail server device and a mail management device. In the description of the present embodiment, the description of the same part as the above embodiment is omitted. Further, in the description of the present embodiment, the same components as those of the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. In the description of the present embodiment, the description of the same operational effects as those of the above-described embodiment is also omitted.

  FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of the mail management system 3 according to the present embodiment. The mail management system 3 includes a mail management device 1 and a mail server device 4. FIG. 11 mainly describes modules related to the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment for the sake of simplicity.

  The mail management device 1 and the mail server device 4 are connected via the network 2. The mail server device 4 means an information processing device (computer) that controls or relays transmission / reception of electronic mail. As described above, the network 2 may be the Internet or an intranet, and the details thereof are not limited.

  The internal configuration of the mail management apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is the same as that of the mail management apparatus 1 shown in FIG.

  The mail server device 4 includes a server communication unit 41. The server communication unit 41 is connected to the network 2 and controls or relays transmission / reception of electronic mail.

  The mail information acquisition unit 110 according to the present embodiment acquires mail information transmitted and received by the mail server device 4. For example, the mail information acquisition unit 110 according to the present embodiment may access the mail server device 4 at a predetermined time interval and monitor transmission / reception of electronic mail. When the mail server device 4 transmits or receives mail information, the mail information acquisition unit 110 may acquire the mail information.

  Alternatively, the mail server device 4 may notify the mail management device 1 that the mail information has been transmitted or received. When the notification is received from the mail server device 4, the mail information acquisition unit 110 may access the mail server device 4 and acquire the mail information. There are various methods by which the mail information acquisition unit 110 acquires the mail information from the mail server device 4, but the details thereof do not matter.

  As described above, in the mail management system 3 according to the present embodiment, the mail server device 4 that controls transmission / reception of electronic mail and the mail management device 1 that manages reply of received mail are different devices. Therefore, in the mail management system 3 according to the present embodiment, the mail management apparatus 1 having the above-described functions can be easily realized without changing the existing mail server apparatus 4.

  In the above description, the mail management device 1 has been described with respect to the form of acquiring the transmission destination mail address, the transmission source mail address, and the like from the mail header. However, it goes without saying that the mail management device 1 may acquire the transmission destination mail address, the transmission source mail address, and the like from the envelope of the electronic mail.

  A part or all of the above-described embodiment can be described as in the following supplementary notes, but is not limited thereto.

  (Appendix 1) Same as the mail management apparatus according to the first aspect.

  (Supplementary Note 2) The second determination unit collates a transmission source mail address of the first electronic mail with a transmission destination mail address of the second electronic mail, and based on the verification result, The mail management apparatus according to appendix 1, wherein it is determined whether the second electronic mail is a reply mail to the first electronic mail.

  (Supplementary note 3) When the mail information of the second e-mail includes at least part of the mail management information of the first e-mail as citation information, the e-mail management information extraction unit includes the citation information. The mail management device according to appendix 1 or 2, which is extracted as a part of the mail management information of the second electronic mail.

  (Supplementary Note 4) The second determination unit collates the transmission date and time included in the citation information of the second electronic mail with the transmission date and time of the first electronic mail, and based on the collation result, The mail management apparatus according to appendix 3, wherein the second electronic mail is determined whether or not it is a reply mail to the first electronic mail.

  (Additional remark 5) The said 2nd judgment part collates the subject contained in the said quotation information of said 2nd electronic mail, and the subject of said 1st electronic mail, Based on the said collation result, said 2nd The mail management apparatus according to appendix 3 or 4, wherein the second e-mail is determined to be a reply mail to the first e-mail.

  (Supplementary Note 6) The second determination unit may determine whether the subject included in the citation information matches the subject of the first e-mail exceeding a predetermined number of characters. The mail management device according to any one of appendices 3 to 5, wherein the electronic mail is determined as a reply mail to the first electronic mail.

  (Additional remark 7) When the reply mail with respect to said 1st electronic mail is not transmitted exceeding predetermined time, it is further provided with the notification control part which notifies that it has not responded with respect to said 1st electronic mail. The mail management device according to any one of appendices 1 to 6.

  (Supplementary Note 8) The first determination unit may be configured such that the mail management information of the first e-mail includes information indicating a representative mail address of a mailing list, information indicating a contact address for the mailing list manager, and management of the mailing list. The mail management apparatus according to any one of appendices 1 to 7, wherein when at least one of information indicating an address is included, the first electronic mail is determined to be an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list.

  (Supplementary Note 9) Same as the mail management system according to the second aspect.

  (Additional remark 10) It is as the mail management method concerning the said 3rd viewpoint.

  (Additional remark 11) The transmission source mail address of the said 1st electronic mail is collated with the transmission destination mail address of the said 2nd electronic mail, Based on the said collation result, the said 2nd electronic mail is the said 1st electronic mail. The mail management method according to appendix 10, wherein the mail management apparatus determines whether the reply mail is a reply mail to one electronic mail.

  (Supplementary Note 12) When the mail information of the second e-mail includes at least a part of the mail management information of the first e-mail as citation information, the citation information is included in the second e-mail. The mail management method according to appendix 10 or 11, wherein the mail management apparatus extracts the mail management information as part of the mail management information.

  (Supplementary note 13) The transmission date and time included in the citation information of the second electronic mail is compared with the transmission date and time of the first electronic mail, and based on the verification result, the second electronic mail is The mail management method according to appendix 12, wherein the mail management apparatus determines whether or not the reply mail is a reply mail to the first electronic mail.

  (Supplementary Note 14) The subject included in the citation information of the second email is collated with the subject of the first email, and based on the collation result, the second email is 14. The mail management method according to appendix 12 or 13, wherein the mail management apparatus determines whether the reply mail is a reply mail to one electronic mail.

  (Supplementary Note 15) Based on whether or not the subject included in the citation information and the subject of the first electronic mail are in excess of a predetermined number of characters, the second electronic mail is the first electronic mail The mail management method according to any one of appendices 12 to 14, wherein the mail management apparatus determines whether the reply mail is a reply mail to the electronic mail.

  (Supplementary Note 16) When the mail management device does not transmit a reply mail to the first electronic mail after a predetermined time, a process of notifying that the first electronic mail has not been replied The mail management method according to any one of appendices 10 to 15, further including:

  (Supplementary Note 17) The mail management information of the first electronic mail is at least one of information indicating a representative mail address of a mailing list, information indicating a contact address for the mailing list manager, and information indicating a mailing list management address The mail management method according to any one of appendices 10 to 16, wherein the mail management apparatus determines that the first electronic mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list.

  (Additional remark 18) It is as the program which concerns on the said 4th viewpoint.

  (Supplementary note 19) The transmission source mail address of the first electronic mail and the transmission destination mail address of the second electronic mail are collated, and based on the collation result, the second electronic mail is 19. The program according to appendix 18, which causes the computer to execute processing in which the mail management apparatus determines whether the reply mail is a reply mail for one electronic mail.

  (Supplementary note 20) When the mail information of the second e-mail includes at least a part of the mail management information of the first e-mail as citation information, the citation information is included in the second e-mail. The program according to appendix 18 or 19, which causes the computer to execute processing to be extracted as part of the mail management information.

  (Supplementary note 21) The transmission date and time included in the citation information of the second electronic mail and the transmission date and time of the first electronic mail are collated, and based on the collation result, the second electronic mail is The program according to appendix 20, which causes the computer to execute a process of determining whether or not it is a reply mail to the first electronic mail.

  (Supplementary Note 22) The subject included in the citation information of the second email is collated with the subject of the first email, and based on the collation result, the second email is The program according to appendix 20 or 21, which causes the computer to execute a process of determining whether or not it is a reply mail for one electronic mail.

  (Supplementary Note 23) Based on whether the subject included in the citation information and the subject of the first electronic mail are in excess of a predetermined number of characters, the second electronic mail is the first electronic mail The program according to any one of appendices 20 to 22, which causes the computer to execute a process of determining whether or not the reply mail is a reply mail to the electronic mail.

  (Supplementary Note 24) When the mail management information of the first e-mail includes information indicating an address for contacting a mailing list administrator, a process of determining that the first e-mail is delivered via the mailing list The program according to any one of appendices 18 to 23, which is executed by the computer.

  (Supplementary Note 25) When a reply mail for the first electronic mail is not transmitted after a predetermined time, the computer is caused to execute a process of notifying that the first electronic mail is not replied The program according to any one of appendices 18 to 24.

  (Supplementary note 26) When the mail management information of the first electronic mail includes at least one of information indicating a mailing list representative mail address, information indicating a mailing list management address, and information indicating a mailing list management address The program according to any one of appendices 18 to 25, which causes the computer to execute processing for determining that the first electronic mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list.

  Note that the mail management apparatus according to the form shown in the above supplementary note 9 can be expanded to the forms shown in the supplementary notes 2 to 8 in the same manner as the form shown in the supplementary note 1.

  It should be noted that the disclosure of each of the above patent documents is incorporated herein by reference. Within the scope of the entire disclosure (including claims) of the present invention, the embodiment can be changed and adjusted based on the basic technical concept. Further, various combinations or selections of various disclosed elements (including each element of each claim, each element of each embodiment, each element of each drawing, etc.) are possible within the framework of the entire disclosure of the present invention. is there. That is, the present invention of course includes various variations and modifications that could be made by those skilled in the art according to the entire disclosure including the claims and the technical idea. In particular, with respect to the numerical ranges described in this document, any numerical value or small range included in the range should be construed as being specifically described even if there is no specific description.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,100 Mail management apparatus 2 Network 3 Mail management system 4 Mail server apparatus 41 Server communication part 101,110 Mail information acquisition part 102,141 Mail management information extraction part 103,142 1st judgment part 104,143 2nd judgment Unit 120 storage unit 130 display unit 140 control unit 144 notification control unit

Claims (10)

An e-mail information acquisition unit for acquiring e-mail information;
A mail management information extracting unit that extracts mail management information including at least a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, and a transmission date and time from the mail information;
A first determination unit that determines whether the first electronic mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail;
When the first e-mail is a received mail delivered via a mailing list, and the transmission destination address of the first e-mail is different from the transmission source address of the second e-mail that is a transmission mail, Based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail and the mail management information of the second electronic mail, it is determined whether or not the second electronic mail is a reply mail to the first electronic mail. A second determination unit;
A mail management device comprising:   The second determination unit collates a transmission source mail address of the first electronic mail with a transmission destination mail address of the second electronic mail, and based on the verification result, the second electronic mail The mail management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not a reply mail for the first electronic mail.   When the mail information of the second e-mail includes at least a part of the mail management information of the first e-mail as citation information, the mail management information extraction unit extracts the citation information as the second information. The mail management apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the mail management apparatus extracts the mail management information as part of the mail management information.   The second determination unit further collates the transmission date and time included in the citation information of the second electronic mail with the transmission date and time of the first electronic mail, and based on the collation result, the second The mail management apparatus according to claim 3, wherein it is determined whether or not the e-mail is a reply mail to the first e-mail.   The second determination unit further collates the subject included in the citation information of the second electronic mail with the subject of the first electronic mail, and based on the collation result, the second electronic mail The mail management apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the mail is determined whether or not the mail is a reply mail to the first electronic mail.   The second determination unit determines whether the second e-mail is based on whether the subject included in the citation information and the subject of the first e-mail match a predetermined number of characters. The mail management apparatus according to claim 5, wherein it is determined whether or not the reply mail is a reply mail to the first electronic mail.   2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a notification control unit that notifies that the first e-mail has not been replied when a reply e-mail to the first e-mail is not transmitted after a predetermined time. 6. The mail management device according to any one of 6. A mail management system including a mail server device and a mail management device connected to the mail server device,
The mail server device
A server communication unit that controls transmission and reception of e-mails.
The mail management device
A mail information acquisition unit for acquiring e-mail information from the mail server device;
A mail management information extracting unit that extracts mail management information including at least a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, and a transmission date and time from the mail information;
A first determination unit that determines whether the first electronic mail is an electronic mail delivered via a mailing list based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail;
When the first e-mail is a received mail delivered via a mailing list, and the transmission destination address of the first e-mail is different from the transmission source address of the second e-mail that is a transmission mail, Based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail and the mail management information of the second electronic mail, it is determined whether or not the second electronic mail is a reply mail to the first electronic mail. A second determination unit;
E-mail management system with Mail management device
A process of obtaining e-mail information;
Extracting email management information including at least a transmission source email address, a transmission destination email address, and a transmission date and time from the email information;
Determining whether the first email is an email delivered via a mailing list based on the mail management information of the first email;
When the first e-mail is a received mail delivered via a mailing list, and the transmission destination address of the first e-mail is different from the transmission source address of the second e-mail that is a transmission mail, Based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail and the mail management information of the second electronic mail, it is determined whether or not the second electronic mail is a reply mail to the first electronic mail. And a process of
Mail management method including Processing to obtain email information of email,
A process of extracting mail management information including at least a transmission source mail address, a transmission destination mail address, a transmission date and time from the mail information;
A process of determining whether the first email is an email delivered via a mailing list based on the mail management information of the first email;
When the first e-mail is a received mail delivered via a mailing list, and the transmission destination address of the first e-mail is different from the transmission source address of the second e-mail that is a transmission mail, Based on the mail management information of the first electronic mail and the mail management information of the second electronic mail, it is determined whether or not the second electronic mail is a reply mail to the first electronic mail. Processing to
For causing a computer that controls the mail management apparatus to execute

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