WO2014102762A1

WO2014102762A1 - An email system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2014102762A1
Application number: PCT/IL2012/050560
Authority: WO
Inventors: Igal ATIA
Original assignee: Atia Igal
Priority date: 2012-12-30
Filing date: 2012-12-30
Publication date: 2014-07-03

Abstract

In one aspect, the present invention is directed to an email system comprising: an ensuring module, for ensuring that the username of an email address of the email system is identical to the international telephone number of the user thereof. According to one embodiment of the invention, the international telephone number is composed οΐ'· the local telephone number of the owner of the email address as known in the country thereof! and the telephone country code of the country. The local telephone number may, but does not have to, include the leading zeros.

Description

AN EMAIL SYSTEM AND METHOD

Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the field of electronic mail. More particularly, the invention relates to an email system and method.

Background of the Invention

Electronic mail, generally known as "e-mail" or "email", is an internationally popular method of exchanging digital messages. Email systems are based on a store-and-forward model enabling email computer server systems to accept, forward, deliver and store messages for users.

An email address identifies the location to which email messages can be directed, delivered and received. A typical email address via today's Internet for example, reads much like this: ismith@example.com. Earlier email systems sometimes had different formats for email addresses. Modern email systems being partially based on and compatible with these older systems, exact formatting of the email address is largely complex and not widely understood.

Email addresses, such as the example earlier used, jsmith@example.com, are comprised of two parts. To the left of the "@" sign is the username (j smith). To the right of the "@" sign is the domain name (example.com). Naturally, while the domain name reflects the email system thereof, a username is determined only by the individual user, this generally being subject to rules set by the email system. Some systems require, for example, that the first character of a username be a letter, rather than a digit or other character.

In contrast, other systems allow user names composed entirely of digits. This enables a username to use personal numeric information such an ID number, social security number and cellular telephone number.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved email system that supports employing the user's telephone number as username in an email address.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Summary of the Invention

In one aspect, the present invention is directed to an email system comprising: an ensuring module, for ensuring that the username of an email address of the email system is identical to the international telephone number of the user thereof.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the international telephone number is composed οΐ^'·

- the local telephone number of the owner of the email address as known in the country thereof, including the leading zeros; and

^■ the telephone country code of the country.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the international telephone number is composed οΐ^'·

- the local telephone number of the owner of the email address as known in the country thereof, from which the leading zero is removed; and

^■ the telephone country code of the country.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the ensuring module comprises ^'■

■ a server managing a database of users and their associated international telephone numbers!

- a module for sending short messaging messages to a cellular telephone number;

^■ a Web site having a registration Web page; ^■ adaptations for registering a user by the steps of:

. while a user browses the Web page, providing by the user to the server an acceptance to service terms, and his telephone number;

. if the telephone number is not registered in the database, sending a code, via a short messaging message, by the module for sending short messaging messages, to the telephone number;

. upon providing the code, by the user, via the Web page, to the server, registering the user to the service.

The short messaging message may be in form of SMS, MMS, and so on.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the system informs the user on receiving an email message addressed to him by sending a short messaging message to the telephone number. The information sent by the message may include the entire message, only the subject and the identity of sender thereof, and so on.

The system may further comprise a module for changing a format of an email message to a format of a short messaging message.

The system may further comprise a module for changing a format of a short messaging message to a format of an email message. The system may further comprise a module for allowing sending an email message to a cellular telephone number via short messaging message.

The system may further comprise a module for sending a short messaging message to an email address.

In another aspect, the present invention is directed to a method for ensuring that an email account in a form of a telephone number is issued only to the owner of this telephone number, the method comprises the steps οΐ^'·

- applying by the user to an email system for opening a new account in a form of an international telephone number;

- verifying that the user is indeed the owner of the international telephone number; and

- if the verification is positive, then opening by the email system the email account.

The foregoing embodiments of the invention are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems and methods thereof, which are meant to be merely illustrative, and not limiting. Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments and features of the present invention are described herein in conjunction with the following drawings^

Fig. 1 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a registration process to an email service, according to one embodiment of the invention. Fig. 2 schematically illustrates a communication channel between the mailbox of the cellular telephone of a user, and his mailbox at the ECELL email system, according to one embodiment of the invention. It should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments

The present invention will be understood from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which are meant to be descriptive and not limiting. For the sake of brevity, some well-known features, methods, systems, procedures, components, circuits, and so on, are not described in detail.

Employing a telephone number as the username of an email address provides substantial benefits^ ^■ As there are only 10 digits, in contrast to 26 (English) letters, pronouncing digits sounds clearer to the listener, and therefore providing an email address via telephone conversation is easier, in comparison to an email address comprising letters, especially when the mother tongue of the individuals conversing differs.

^■ Some consonants, such as B, T and P may sound indistinguishable to the listener, especially if the individual pronouncing these consonants is not a native speaker. For example, native Arabic speakers confuse and interchange B and P. ^■ In some fonts, the letter "1" (its capital is "L") looks the same as the digit "1". As such, it is difficult to identify the exact email address, especially in certain fonts. For example, bell@example.com can easily be mistaken for bell@example.com.

^■ As the telephone number of a user is an information piece usually remembered by the user, he carries this information with him wherever he goes, and therefore can be connected to his email box without carrying with him notes or mobile memory.

One of the drawbacks of the prior art use of telephone numbers as the username of an email address is that the telephone number taken into consideration is the local telephone number. For example, 054-1234567 is a valid telephone number in Israel. However, this telephone number may exist in other countries, and as such, only the first user to select this number will be able to register his telephone number as his email address within a certain email system.

According to one embodiment of the invention, this problem is solved by adding the telephone country code to the username. For example, the telephone country code of Israel is 972, therefore, the username corresponding to telephone number 0541234567 is 9720541234567, and the full email address is 9720541234567@example.com.

Thus, assuming in Norway there is a user that owns telephone number 0541234567, as the country code of Norway is 47, the user name corresponding to this telephone number is 470541234567, and the full email address is 470541234567@example.com. These features have substantial importance, as email providers, such as Gmail® (of Google™) and Hotmail, are international enterprises that provide their services worldwide. The term EC ELL is referred herein as to an email system that supports the use of telephone number of a user as his username. Thus, the email addresses 9720541234567@ecell.com is supported by an ECELL system. According to one embodiment of the invention, the leading zeros are removed from the user name. For example, if a local telephone number is 0541234567, by removing the leading zero, the username will be 541234567, and as such, the email address will be 972541234567@ecell.com in the case the country code is 972, and 47541234567@ecell.com in the case the country code is 47.

The major problem an EC ELL system must deal with is to ensure that an email address in the form of an international telephone number will be provided only to the user owning this telephone number.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a registration process to an email service, according to one embodiment of the invention. This process ensures that an email address in the form of an international telephone number will be provided only to a user that owns this telephone number.

The registration process begins by providing the acceptance of the user to the service terms. The user browses the Web site of ECELL, opens the registration page, reads the terms, and if he accepts to use the service under these terms, he confirms the acceptance by clocking a corresponding button. However, if the user does not accept these terms, the registration process aborts. In the case the user has accepted the service terms, he is directed to another Web page in which he fills his personal details, such as his name, address, credit card number. The user must provide also his cellular telephone number, including the country code. However, if the user does not provide the country code, the ECELL server may obtain this information from his IP address, upon which the geographical location of the user can be detected. At the next step, ECELL server verifies that the telephone number provided by the user is not registered already in the system. If the telephone number is already registered, the registration is rejected by the server, and the user is given the chance to provide again his telephone number.

In the case the telephone number is not registered in ECELL server, the server sends to this telephone number an SMS message, which includes a registration code. This code has to be provided by the user to ECELL server while continuing browsing the to the ECELL server.

After the code is provided by the user, the registration process completes, and the user may start using the service. However, if the code is not provided for a certain period, e.g. 30 minutes, the registration aborts.

Since in this way a user is limited to open only one email account per telephone, there is no need to use methods to ensure that the entity registering a new email account is an individual and not a malicious program. As such, in comparison to the registration process of a "regular" email account (i.e., which does not ensure that the username of a user is identical to his telephone number), this method is extremely simple.

The module (infrastructure, software and hardware components) of the email system that ensures that registration of an email account wherein the username thereof is in the format of an international telephone number is referred to herein as "ensuring module". This module of the email system is in charge, from the email system side, of the steps illustrated in Fig. 1.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the email system informs the cellular telephone thereof about incoming email messages. This can be carried out by short messaging message such as SMS, MMS, and so on. According to one embodiment of the invention, the sent information comprises only informative details, such as sender identity and subject. According to another embodiment of the invention, the entire mail message is sent to the cellular telephone number.

Fig. 2 schematically illustrates a communication channel between the mailbox of the cellular telephone of a user, and his mailbox at the ECELL email system, according to one embodiment of the invention. Presently, it is common for a cellular telephone to comprise a mailbox. According to one embodiment of the invention, this feature is used especially for enabling the user of a cellular telephone to access his ECELL mailbox, and vice versa.

For example, the user may define how to respond to incoming email messages to his ECELL mailbox : (a) to forward to his cellular telephone mailbox the entire incoming email message; (b) to send a notice thereof, or (c) neither of these options.

Of course, ECELL system can be adapted to present short messaging messages on the email client, and vice versa, to present email messages on the cellular telephone. This can be obtained by, for example, changing the format of a message according to the media upon which the message is to be presented.

In Fig. 2, the user's cellular telephone employs a mail client for accessing the email messages of the cellular telephone mailbox, sending new messages, and so on. Information sent from the cellular telephone mail client to the ECELL mailbox of the user's computer passes the following stations^ the information (e.g., an SMS message) is sent from the cellular telephone, via a cellular base station, to a cellular server of the cellular network to which the cellular telephone is connected. The cellular server communicates via the Internet with the ECELL server, which is also connected to the Internet. The ECELL server stores the information in the user's ECELL mailbox, thereby allowing the mail client operating on the user's computer to access this information.

The information sent from the user's ECELL client to the user's cellular telephone mailbox, passes the following stations^ the information (e.g., an email message) is sent from the user's computer to the ECELL server via the Internet, as both are connected to the Internet. The ECELL server sends the information to the cellular server, which also is connected to the Internet. Then, the information is sent from the cellular server via the cellular network to the mailbox of the user's cellular telephone, where the user can access via the mail client operating on his cellular telephone. The interaction of the user's cellular telephone with the cellular network is carried out via the nearest cellular base station to the current geographical location of the cellular telephone.

Actually, the ECELL user can use his cellular telephone to send a message to any email address, not necessarily of ECELL, as the ECELL server is actually also a "regular" mail server, with some adaptations. The user can also use the mail client of his computer to send a message to any cellular telephone, not necessarily of an ECELL user. These features are possible as the ECELL intermediates between the parties, and as such can change the format of a message to correspond to the format known by the recipient (for example, to convert an email message to SMS message, and vice versa).

The ECELL server is connected to a database comprising for each user the details thereof, including his telephone number. This way, a telephone number can be registered only once.

Of course, these are simplified examples, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the communication between the user's ECELL mailbox to the user's cellular telephone mailbox can be carried out differently.

The foregoing description and illustrations of the embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the above description in any form.

Any term that has been defined above and used in the claims, should to be interpreted according to this definition.

Claims

What is claimed is^ CLAIMS

1. An email system comprising:

an ensuring module, for ensuring that the username of an email address of the email system comprises the international telephone number of the user thereof.

2. An email system according to claim 1, wherein said international telephone number is comprised οΐ^'·

- the local telephone number of the owner of said email address as known in the country thereof, including the leading zeros; and

^■ the telephone country code of said country.

3. An email system according to claim 1, wherein said international telephone number is comprised οΐ^'·

- the local telephone number of the owner of said email address as known in the country thereof, from which the leading zero is removed; and

^■ the telephone country code of said country.

4. An email system according to claim 1, wherein said ensuring module comprising:

^■ a server managing a database of users and their associated international telephone numbers!

- a module for sending short messaging messages to a cellular telephone number; ^■ a Web site having a registration Web page;

^■ adaptations for registering a user by the steps of:

. while a user browses said Web page, providing by said user to said server an acceptance to service terms, and his telephone number;

. if said telephone number is not registered in said database, sending a code, via a short messaging message, by said module for sending short messaging messages, to said telephone number;

. upon providing said code, by said user, via said Web page, to said server, registering said user to said service.

5. An email system according to claim 4, wherein said short messaging message is selected from a group comprising:

SMS, MMS.

6. An email system according to claim 1, wherein said system informs said user on receiving an email message by sending a short messaging message to said telephone number.

7. An email system according to claim 6, wherein said message includes the entire message.

8. An email system according to claim 6, wherein said message includes the subject and the identity of the sender thereof.

9. An email system according to claim 1, further comprising a module for changing a format of an email message to a format of a short messaging message.

10. An email system according to claim 1, further comprising a module for changing a format of a short messaging message to a format of an email message.

11. An email system according to claim 1, further comprising a module for allowing sending an email message to a cellular telephone number via short messaging message.

12. An email system according to claim 1, further comprising a module for sending a short messaging message to an email address.

13. A method for ensuring that an email account in a form of a telephone number is issued only to the owner of this telephone number, the method comprises the steps οΐ^'· - applying by the user to an email system for opening a new email account in a form of an international telephone number;

- verifying that the user is the owner of the international telephone number; and

if the verification is positive, then opening by the email system the email account.