USOO7707624B2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 7,707,624 B2 TomkoW (45) Date of Patent: Apr. 27, 2010 (54) SYSTEM FOR, AND METHOD OF PROVING 6,760,752 B1* 7/2004 Liu et al. .................... TO9,206 THE TRANSMISSION, RECEIPT AND CONTENT OF A REPLY TO AN ELECTRONIC MESSAGE FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS WO WOOO,25245 * 5/2OOO (75) Inventor: Terrence A. Tomkow, Los Angeles, CA WO WOO1? 10090 * 2, 2001 (US) WO WO O2, 11025 A2 2?2002 WO WO 02/25864 A1 3, 2002 (73) Assignee: Rpost International Limited (BM) WO WO O2/O93849 A2 11/2002 (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 * cited by examiner U.S.C. 154(b) by 952 days. Primary Examiner Emmanuel L. Moise (21) Appl. No.: 10/719,098 Assistant Examiner Shewaye Gelagay (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—John K. Fitzgerald; Fulwider (22) Filed: Nov. 21, 2003 Patton LLP (65) Prior Publication Data (57) ABSTRACT US 2004/O230657 A1 Nov. 18, 2004 A server transmits a message from a sender to a recipient. The Related U.S. Application Data server receives from the recipient an attachment relating to (60) Provisional application No. 60/429,080, filed on Nov. the message route between the server and the recipient. The 26, 2002. server transmits to the sender the message and the attachment s and their encrypted digital fingerprints and expunges the (51) Int. Cl. transmitted information. To Subsequently authenticate the G06F 7/04 (2006.01) message and the attachment, the sender transmits to the server G6F 5/6 (2006.01) what the server has previously transmitted to the sender. The G06F 7/30 (2006.01) server then prepares a digital fingerprint of the message and H04L 29/06 (2006.01) decrypts the encrypted digital fingerprint of the message and (52) U.S. Cl 726/5: 713/168: 709f2O6 compares these digital fingerprints to authenticate the mes Oa - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - s 7097233. 709/24 s sage. The server performs the same routine with the attach s ment and the encrypted digital fingerprint of the attachment to (58) Field of Classification Search ............... ... 72675 authenticate the attachment the recipient replies to the send See application file for complete search history. er's message through the server. The server records proof of (56) References Cited the delivery and content of the reply to the sender and the recipient. U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 6,643,687 B1 * 1 1/2003 Dickie et al. ................ TO9,206 16 Claims, 22 Drawing Sheets 14 16 ESMTPDIALOG (TELENET CONNECTION) REGISTERIGAIt RECIPIENTS MAI TRANSPORTAGENT MESSAGE (TAGGED) TRANSPORTAGENT (RPOSTSERVER) MTA DSN REPORTS) & MUA NOTIFICATION (RPOSTSERVER) RECEPT SEDERS MAUSERAGENT (E-MAIL CLIEVT) 18 MESSAGESENDER - 20 MESSAGERECIPIENT MESSAGE BODY MESSAGE DIGEST ATACHMENT1 MESSAGE DIGEST MESSAGE BODY ESSAGE DIGEST: ATACHMENT ATACHMENTn (ESMTPDIALOGIS) DSN REPORTS) ATTACHMENTn ECRYPTED OVERAL MESSAGEDGEST (DIGITALSIGNATURE) U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 2 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 FIG 2A-1 200 205 To register an email by an originator RS sets the Delivery Status of each (e.g., "John Smith at email address destination to "UWSEWT" jSmithGadomain.com) 206 RS generates and Stores Message Digest (hash) of the body of the Originator Creates an email message message using any Internet Mail User Agent (MUA) (Note the message may have multiple destinations and attachments) 207 202 RS generates and stores a hash for each file attached to the message, The Registration System (RS), acting as the Senders MTA receives a copy Of email . 208 203 RS Creates a second copy to RSWill Create a copy of the original modify the original message message to be stored until the registration process is complete 209 204 RS Creates a database record Which The Original subject line of the included: message is amended to indicate that The time at Which the message Was the Copy is registered (e.g. by received, pre-pending (R)egistered") The names and Sizes Of the attachments of the message 210 The name and address of each destination of the message, A notice that the message is The time at Which the message Was registered by RS, together with links delivered to the destination's MIA. to the RS's WWW site are appended The delivery status of each destination to the body of the message, U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 3 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 Email headers are added requesting a Mail User Agent (MUA) reading notification in a variety of header formats recognized by various MUAs, The request for notification directs the notification to an destination Whose name is the address Of the Originator of the message and Whose address is a post.com account Set up for this purpose, The notification Will use the address of the original sender in the name field of the MUA request. (e.g., dispositions-notification-to.jsmith0adomin, COm KreadreceiptGrpost.com.>) Transmit the message (GOTO FIGB) FIG, 2A-2 U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 4 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 I IZZ ZZZ U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 5 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 6 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 7 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 240 System receives MTA Notification FIG, 2C 241 System scans incoming mail to post.com for addresses containing "rctp f 242 System identifies meSSages addressed to "rcpbXXXXXyGrpost.com" 243 as delivery notifications for destination System Scans the y of message XXXXXXX, Subject and body of the message for Strings indicating delivery failure, relay or Success 244 245 Change delivery status Motification of destination y of indicates Successful meSSage XXXXXY tO delivery "DELIVERED-TO 2 MAILBOX" 246 250 WOtification Change delivery Status Save copies of indicates delivery of destination y of MTA Wotice and failure message XXXXXX to 2 "FAILURE" attachments 251 248 Processing Complete Notification Change delivery status indicates message of destination y of elayed onward message XXXXXX to "RELAYED" U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 8 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 250 251 From time to time the system For each meSSade Will review the Status of all g pending messages the system Will 402 Examine the destination Status (DS) for each destination 255 DS = Examines neXt "DELIVERED-AND Since delivery WAITING-FOR-DSW" 256 Get West Destination Since delivery "DELIVERED" YES 15 (Note: DS="RELAYED', More "UNDELIVERABLE", Destinations "DELIVERED-TO-MAILBOX"Or 2 "FAILURE") WO 260 Delivery is complete F.IG. 2D Generate(Goto fig Receipt 2E) U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 9 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 FIG. 2E-1 270 The system generates an email Receipt Which includes: 271 A message identifier for administrative purposes, This identifier may be or may include reference to the originator's id and/or the value of the Internet Message-ID of the originator's message as received by the system, 272 The Quoted body of the message together With the email addresses of its intended recipients, 273 A table for each recipient listing: The Delivery status of the message for that destination based upon the Systems recorded delivery status, The time at Which the recipient's MIA received the message and/or the time at which the system received a DSW from the recipient's MTA. 274 A list of the original attachments of the email together with there separate hash numbers. 275 Transcripts or abstractions of the transcripts of all the SMPT dialogs generated in the delivery of the message to each destination, (F) U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 10 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 276 Quotations from the bodies and the attachments of all received DSNs including Whatever details of delivery or disposition of the message that they might reveal. 277 The system Will attach to the receipt copies of all of the attachments of the Original message, 278 The system will attach received DSN messages and their attachments to the receipt, 279 Having generated the text of the receipt so far, the system then generates an encrypted hash of the body of the receipt, 280 The encrypted hash is appended to the body of the message as a digital Signature, 281 The receipt, now being complete, is sent by email to the originator With the advice that it be kept for the Originator's records, 282 The system may now delete all copies of the Original message, attachment and DSNs, FIG, 2E-2 U.S. Patent Apr. 27, 2010 Sheet 11 of 22 US 7,707,624 B2 285 The system receives MUA Notifications at an e-mail address used for the purpose. (e.g., readreceipt0rpost.com) 286 Extracts the address of the Sender of the Original message from the address of the MUA Notice Where it is found in the name field of the message, (e.g., TOjsmith(Gadomain, COm KreadreceiptGrpost.com.> 287 Creates a receipt which includes; the Subject of the MUA as its subject, a heading e.g. "RPost Reading Receipt", the body of the MUA Notice quoted in the body of the Receipt a time/datestamp 288 Attach to the receipt any files that may accompany the MUA's receipt 289 Generate a hash for any files attached to the receipt and record this hash in the body of the receipt, 290 Generate a hash for the body of the receipt and its attachments, encrypt this hash, and appended the result to the message as a "document digital fingerprint", 291 Send the resulting receipt to the Originator of the message, 292 Having sent this receipt, the system may delete all internal records of the transaction, FIG, 2F U.S.