FORM 2
The Patent Act 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patent Rules  2005

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(SEE SECTION 10 AND RULE 13)

TITLE OF THE INVENTION

“Automatic response to email”

APPLICANT:

Name Nationality Address
Alcatel Lucent France 3 avenue Octave Greard 75007 Paris  France

The following specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:-

TECHNICAL FIELD
[001] The embodiments herein relate to email clients and  more particularly  to setting up a mechanism for selectively sending out of office response to emails.

BACKGROUND
[002] An email client is an application that can be used by the user to access and manage emails from a suitable user device. The email client may be a locally installed type or may be a web based email client. The locally installed type email clients may be installed onto user devices. Further  the user can configure at least one email account to the installed email client and can send and receive emails through the email client. The emails may be downloaded to the email client and hence the user may be able to access the emails even when he/she is offline. Examples of locally installed type email clients are Microsoft Outlook  Lotus Notes  Pegasus Mail  Thunderbird and so on.
[003] The web based email clients provide means for logging in to email account of a user using registered login details. The user may be able to access the web based email account through a web browser from any system that is connected to the internet. Once logged in  the user may be able to access and manage emails from his/her account. The user can send and receive new emails using user interface provided by the email client and the user device.
[004] The email clients also provide means for setting up out office responses. In any communication  it is important to acknowledge or reply to an incoming communication. Especially in official communication  it is important to acknowledge emails  as the case represented by the email may be one that requires immediate assistance. Consider a scenario that an employee of a company is going on a vacation. He may receive email (s) even when he is out of office and the sender of the email may be expecting an immediate response. In this case  the employee may setup an out of office response in his email client so that the sender of the email get notified that the recipient is out of station and may have only sporadic access to emails. In another example  when a person is travelling with limited or no access to the emails  he/she can set up an out of office response with corresponding email account. Further  when a new email comes in to that particular address/account  the out of office response is sent to sender of that email.
[005] Existing email clients provide means for setting up out of office response to emails. The user can write a specific message and save as out of office response. The user can also set a time period during which the response email should be active. For example  he/she can set date and time such that the out of office response/email is sent in response to emails that arrive only during the set time period. A disadvantage of the existing systems is that the out of office email is sent in response to an email even if the email is a calendar invite that is scheduled for a day which fall out the scheduled out of office time period.
[006] For example  assume that the user is going on leave or is travelling and has setup an out of office email from 1st of August to 3rd of August. It may happen that during this time  the user gets an email which is a calendar invite for a meeting/event scheduled to happen on 5th of August. In this case also the sender of the email receives an out of office email  even though the user will be available on the scheduled date of meeting i.e. 5th. It is unnecessary that the sender receives the out of office email in this context.

SUMMARY
[007] In view of the foregoing  an embodiment herein provides a method for selectively sending out of office response to a received email. The method comprises checking date of an event mentioned in the received email using an email exchange server  on said email exchange server receiving said email and an out of office response being configured with the email account of addressee of the received email; checking if the date of event falls within an unavailability period set by the addressee and sending the out of office response to sender of the received email on the date of event falling within the unavailability period.
[008] Embodiments further disclose a system for selectively sending out of office response to a received email. The system further comprises means configured for checking date of an event mentioned in the received email using an email exchange server  on the email exchange server receiving the email and an out of office response being configured with the email account of addressee of the received email; checking if the date of event falls within an unavailability period set by the addressee using said email exchange server and sending the out of office response to sender of the received email on the date of event falling within the unavailability period using the email exchange server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[009] The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following detailed description with reference to the drawings  in which:
[0010] FIG. 1 illustrates a general block diagram of the email communication system  as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram which shows various components of the email exchange server  as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0012] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram which shows various steps involved in the process of sending time line based response emails  as disclosed in the embodiments herein; and
[0013] FIG. 4 illustrates example diagram that shows graphical user interface provided to a user for setting up time line based response emails with an email client  as disclosed in the embodiments herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0014] The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly  the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
[0015] The embodiments herein disclose a time line based email response mechanism for calendar invites by treating calendar invites separately in context of out of office responses. Referring now to the drawings  and more particularly to FIGS. 1 through 4  where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures  there are shown embodiments.
[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates a general block diagram of the email communication system  as disclosed in the embodiments herein. The system comprises a sender UE (User Equipment) 101.a  a receiving UE 101.b and an email exchange server (server) 102. A user at the sender UE end can send an email to another user at the receiver UE end by accessing an email client service from the sender UE 101. a can send emails to the receiver UE 101.b using an email client. In various embodiments  the email client may be a web based email client or a locally installed email client.
[0017] The emails sent from the sender UE 101.a initially reaches the server 102. The server 102 checks whether out of office response has been configured or not. If out of office response is not configured by that user  the server 102 routes the email to the receiving UE 101.b. If the out of office response is found to be configured with the user’s email account  the server 102 parses the received email. During parsing process  contents of the email are semantically analyzed by the server 102.
[0018] By analyzing the email contents  the server 102 identifies whether the email content is a meeting/calendar/event invite or not. The meeting/calendar/event invite may refer to an email that comprises an invitation to a meeting or event scheduled for a particular time period and date. In an embodiment  the calendar invite may be identified by checking format of the email. For example  email clients may provide a specific template/format for creating calendar/meeting invites. In another embodiment  the server may identify a calendar by receiving manual input from the user. For example  the sender may write an email in general email format inviting the recipient for a meeting. The server 102 may analyze parsed email content and identify that the sender has mentioned specific date and/or time in the email content. In this case  the server 102 may intimate the user and the user can decide and confirm whether the out of office response is to be sent or not.
[0019] If the server 102/ the user identify that the schedule mentioned in the calendar invite falls within the dates set in the out of office response settings  then the server 102 sends an office response to the sender of the email/invite i.e. to the receiving UE 101.b. In an embodiment  the out of office response may be pre-set by the user.
[0020] In another embodiment  if the received email is not a calendar invite and if the user has activated an out of office response  then the server 102 may route the received email to the receiving UE 101.b and send the pre-set out of office response to the sender of the email.
[0021] FIG. 2 is a block diagram which shows various components of the email exchange server  as disclosed in the embodiments herein. The server 102 comprises a processing module 201  a parser module 202  an analyzer module 203  an email routing module 204  a control module 205  a memory module 206 and an interface module 207.
[0022] The processing module 201 receives the incoming email and processes the received email. Upon receiving the email  the processing module 201 checks and identifies destination address. Further  the processing module 201 checks whether the addressee/ the user to whom the email is to be delivered has activated/set the out of office response or not. If the user has not set any out of office response the email is directly forwarded to the user’s receiving UE 101.b.
[0023] If the processing module 201 identifies that the user has activated out of office response with his/her email account  then the processing module 201 checks whether the received email comprise a calendar invite or not. If the received email does not comprise any calendar/meeting/event invite  then the email is directly forwarded to the receiving UE 101.b. If the processing module 201 identifies that the received email is a calendar invite  then the email is forwarded to the parser module 202.
[0024] The parser module 202 receives the email from the processor module 202 and parses the email. In the parsing process  the email contents are broke into small chunks of data so as to ease process of interpretation  management and transmission of the data across modules of the system. Further  the data chunks are transmitted to the analyzer module 203.
[0025] The analyzer module 203 semantically analyzes contents of each blocks and identifies whether the email is a calendar invite or else if the email comprises a calendar invite or not. In an embodiment  the email may comprise the calendar invite in a specific template/format. The analyzer module 203 may analyze the format of the email to identify whether the received email is a calendar invite or not. In another embodiment  the meeting invite may be sent in in a normal email format. When meeting invite is sent in the form of an email  the analyzer module 203 may identify that the mail content comprises information such as specific date  time and so on. Further  the analyzer module 203 may fetch user input/response to decide whether the received email is a calendar/meeting/event invite before deciding whether or not to send out of office response is to be sent or not.
[0026] The email routing module 204 may route the received email to the destination user account or the receiving UE 101.b. The email routing module 204 may fetch information regarding the address to which the email is to be sent from the processing module 201. The control module 205 may control and coordinate operations of other modules in the server 102. The control module 205 may also synchronize operations of other modules in the server 102.
[0027] The memory module 206 may be used to create and store various databases associated with the emailing mechanism. For example  database comprising email routing information may be present in the memory module 206. This information may be further used by the server 102 for routing a received email to the destination user account i.e. to the receiving UE 101.b. Further  the memory module 206 may also possess databases that comprise user registration information  user login information and so on. Further  the user login information stored in the memory module 102 may be used by the server 102 to authenticate user login attempts. When a user tries to log in to the server 102  the server may compare the login information provided by the user with pre-stored information present in the associated databases. The memory module may also comprise information on user account settings  user configured options and so on. For example  when a user configures an out of office response with his/her account  that particular information is stored in the memory module 206 of the server 102. Later when an email addressed to that particular user is received  the server 102 may send out of office response as configured by the user.
[0028] The interface module 207 may comprise input/output modules that may be used to establish connection between user devices 101. The server 102 may be connected to the user devices 101 through internet connectivity.
[0029] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram which shows various steps involved in the process of sending time line based response emails  as disclosed in the embodiments herein. The server 102 receives (301) email (s) from the user’s sender UE 101.a. Upon receiving an email  the server 102 identifies email Id of the addressee. Further the server 102 checks if the addressee/user has configured any out of office response with his/her email account or not. If the addressee has not configured any out of office response with his/her email account  the server 102 routes the email to the addressee.
[0030] If the user has configured any out of office response with his/her email account  the email contents are parsed (302) using the parser module 202 present in the server 102. The parsing module 202 divides/splits the email contents to chunks of data. Further the analyzer module 203 analyzes the parsed email contents and checks (303) whether the received email is a calendar/meeting invite or not.
[0031] In an embodiment  the received email may be in a specific format/template that corresponds to the calendar/meeting invite. Further  the specific meeting/calendar invite template may be stored in the memory module 206 of the server 102. The server 102 may compare format of the received email with the stored formats to identify whether the received email is a calendar/meeting invite.
[0032] In another embodiment  the received email may comprise a calendar/meeting invite in the general email format. The server 102 may analyze the received email contents to identify whether the email comprises information such as date  time and so on as content of the email. The analyzer module 203 in the server 102 may analyze body of the email  subject line and so on during the analysis process. Further  the server 102 may intimate the user and the user may be able to manually check whether the received email is a calendar/meeting invite or not. Further  the user may also be provided with options to instruct the server 102 whether or not to send out of office response to that particular email. In another embodiment  the user may also be provided with options to set out of office response to selected senders.
[0033] If the server 102 identifies that the received email is not a calendar invite  the email is routed to the addressee and the out of office response is sent (304) to the sender of the email. In an embodiment  the out of office response may be a message that is pre-configured by the user.
[0034] If the server 102 identifies that the received email is a calendar invite  the server 102 checks date of the event mentioned in the received calendar invite. Further the server 102 checks (305) whether the date of event falls within an unavailability period set by the user or not. The unavailability period may refer to a time period during which the user intends the out of office response to be active or a time period during which the user may not be able to access or respond to emails. For example  assume that the user has set out of office response from 1st August 2012 to 3rd August 2012. The server 102 checks whether the date of event mentioned in the received email falls within this period or not.
[0035] If the date of event falls out of the set unavailability period dates  the server routes the email to the addressee and does not send (306) out of office response to the sender of the email.
[0036] If the server 102 identify that the date of event falls within the set unavailability period   then the server 102 routes the received mail to address and sends the out of office response to sender of that particular email. The out of office response may be a message that is manually set by the user i.e. addressee of that email. The user may also be provided with options to create multiple out of office responses and to configure specific out of office response messages to selected senders. For example  the user can configure a particular out of office response for one email Id such that for an incoming email from that particular email Id to that particular addressee  the server 102 sends that particular out of office response.
[0037] The various actions in method 300 may be performed in the order presented  in a different order or simultaneously. Further  in some embodiments  some actions listed in FIG. 3 may be omitted.
[0038] FIG. 4 illustrates example diagram that shows graphical user interface provided to a user for setting up time line based response emails with an email client  as disclosed in the embodiments herein. The user can set the date and time (unavailability period) between which the out of office response is to be active. Further  the user can select option to send out of office response selectively for calendar/meeting invites. The user may also be provided with options to get user feedback for the meeting info via email.
[0039] The “start processing meeting invite now for leave period” option may be used selectively by the user for processing mails received from the moment the out of office response option is set. For example  consider that the user sets the out of office response on 27th August with a time limit from 28th August to 31ts August. Normally  the system will process mails received only between the set time periods  i.e. starting from 28th August. But using the “start processing meeting invite now for leave period” option  the user may configure to apply the out of office response check option for the mails received from the moment the response is set.
[0040] Further  “get user feedback for meeting info in mail” option may be set if the user intends to check a mail and provide feedback on whether the out of office response to be sent for a received mail. If this option is set  the system may intimate the user before sending the out of office response to a mail and may get confirmation on whether the response is to be sent or not.
[0041] The embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented through at least one software program running on at least one hardware device and performing network management functions to control the network elements. The network elements shown in Fig. 2 include blocks which can be at least one of a hardware device  or a combination of hardware device and software module.
[0042] The embodiment disclosed herein specifies a system for sending time line based out of office responses to calendar invites. The mechanism allows selectively sending out of office response to emails providing a system thereof. Therefore  it is understood that the scope of the protection is extended to such a program and in addition to a computer readable means having a message therein  such computer readable storage means contain program code means for implementation of one or more steps of the method  when the program runs on a server or mobile device or any suitable programmable device. The method is implemented in a preferred embodiment through or together with a software program written in e.g. Very high speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) another programming language  or implemented by one or more VHDL or several software modules being executed on at least one hardware device. The hardware device can be any kind of device which can be programmed including e.g. any kind of computer like a server or a personal computer  or the like  or any combination thereof  e.g. one processor and two FPGAs. The device may also include means which could be e.g. hardware means like e.g. an ASIC  or a combination of hardware and software means  e.g. an ASIC and an FPGA  or at least one microprocessor and at least one memory with software modules located therein. Thus  the means are at least one hardware means and/or at least one software means. The method embodiments described herein could be implemented in pure hardware or partly in hardware and partly in software. The device may also include only software means. Alternatively  the invention may be implemented on different hardware devices  e.g. using a plurality of CPUs.
[0043] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can  by applying current knowledge  readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept  and  therefore  such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore  while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments  those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the claims as described herein.

CLAIMS
What is claimed is:
1. A method of selectively sending out of office response to a received email  wherein said method comprises:
checking date of an event mentioned in said received email by an email exchange server  on said email exchange server receiving said email and an out of office response being configured with the email account of addressee of said received email;
checking if said date of event falls within an unavailability period set by said addressee; and
sending said out of office response to sender of said received email on said date of event falling within said unavailability period.
2. The method as in claim 1  wherein said checking of date of event in said received email further comprises:
parsing said received email to a plurality of chunks of data by said email exchange server;
analyzing said plurality of chunks of data by said email exchange server;
checking if said received email is at least one of an event invite or a meeting invite; and
detecting date of event on said received email being at least one of said meeting invite or event invite.
3. The method as in claim 2  wherein said checking of whether said received email is at least one of said event invite or meeting invite further comprises:
checking if said received email is in a specific format;
automatically detecting whether said received email is at least one of said event invite or meeting invite  on said received email being in said specific format;
informing said addressee on said received email not being in said specific format; and
performing action based on a response received from said addressee by said email exchange server.
4. The method as in claim 3  wherein said performing action based on said received response by said email exchange server is sending said out of office response to said sender of said received email.
5. The method as in claim 3  wherein said performing action based on said received response by said email exchange server is not sending said out of office response to said sender of said received email.
6. The method as in claim 1  wherein said out of office response is manually set by said addressee.
7. The method as in claim 1  wherein said out of unavailability period is set manually by said addressee.
8. A system for selectively sending out of office response to a received email  said system provided with at least one means configured for:
checking date of an event mentioned in said received email using an email exchange server  on said email exchange server receiving said email and an out of office response being configured with the email account of addressee of said received email;
checking if said date of event falls within an unavailability period set by said addressee using said email exchange server; and
sending said out of office response to sender of said received email on said date of event falling within said unavailability period using said email exchange server.
9. The system as in claim 8 is further configured for checking the date of event in said email by:
parsing said received email to a plurality of chunks of data using said email exchange server;
analyzing said plurality of chunks of data using said email exchange server;
checking if said received email is at least one of an event invite or a meeting invite using said email exchange server; and
detecting date of event on said received email being at least one of said meeting invite or event invite using said email exchange server.
10. The system as in claim 9 is further configured for checking whether said received email is at least one of said event invite or meeting invite by:
checking if said received email is in a specific format using said email exchange server;
automatically detecting whether said received email is at least one of said event invite or meeting invite  on said received email being in said specific format  using said email exchange server;
informing said addressee on said received email not being in said specific format by said email exchange server; and
performing action based on a response received from said addressee by said email exchange server.

11. The system as in claim 10 is further configured for performing said action by sending an out of office response to the sender of said received email using said email exchange server.
12. The system as in claim 10 is further configured for performing said action by not sending an out of office response to the sender of said received email using said email exchange server.
13. The system as in claim 8 is further configured for providing means for said user to manually set at least one of said out of office response and said unavailability period.
Dated: 7th day of September  2012 Signature:
Dr. Kalyan Chakravarthy.
Patent Agent

ABSTRACT
The embodiments herein relate to email client and  more particularly  to setting up mechanism for selectively sending out of office response to emails. If the addressee/user has configured any out of office response with his email account  the server checks if the received email is a calendar/meeting invite or not. If the received email is a calendar invite and if the user has configured out of office response  the server identifies the date on which the event mentioned in the meeting is scheduled for (date of event). If the date of event falls within the unavailability period set by the user  then the server sends out of office response to the sender of the calendar invite. If the date of event mentioned in the calendar falls out of the unavailability period  then the server may not send out of office response.

FIG. 3