On Thu, 16 Sep 2004, Andrew Newton wrote:
On Sep 16, 2004, at 12:20 PM, william(at)elan.net wrote:
It contains a lot lot more then just things related to MARID and
understanding
everything is difficult because of this "patent language", but from
what
I see of the MARID specific parts, the patent does cover RFC2821
Mail-From
(which Microsoft calls "Reverse-Path" in their patent application) as
well as RFC2822 headers and it many times mentions RMX records as well.
IANAL, but my limited understanding of these thing is that you must
look at the claims. Somebody correct me if I'm off-base, which is
quite possible considering IANAL.
That is certainly true and because IANAL the language in claims is difficult
to make out. I'm posting here the claims that I believe relate to the MARID
portion of that patent application, perhaps you'll understand it better.
P.S. For the authors of this patent reading the list, I'll note that I
found it funny that patent mentions taking first address of the From
header. The RFC2822 is very clear that if From header is group of
addresses, then Sender header MUST be present and that is where info
is to be looked at (if its not, one can probably discard the message
as not RFC compliant). I simply did not expect such a stupid mistake as
far as email standars are concerned to be part of the patent text.
Claims
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is claimed and desired secured by United States Letters Patent is
...
22. In a receiving domain that is network connectable to one or more
sending domains, the receiving domain including one or more receiving
messaging servers configured to receive electronic messages from sending
domains, a method for determining if a sending messaging server is
authorized to send electronic messages for a sending domain, the method
comprising: an act of receiving an electronic message purportedly sent
from the sending domain; an act of examining a plurality of parameter
values of the electronic message to attempt to identify an actual sending
side network address corresponding to a sending computer system; an act of
querying a name server for a list of network addresses authorized to send
electronic messages for the sending domain; an act of determining if the
actual sending side network address is authorized to send electronic
messages for the sending domain; and an act of providing results of the
determination to an message classification module such that the message
classification module can make a more reliable decision as to classifying
the received electronic message.
23. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the act of receiving an
electronic message purportedly sent from the sending side domain comprises
an act of receiving an electronic mail message.
24. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein an act of receiving an
electronic message purportedly sent from the sending domain comprises an
act of receiving an electronic message that does not include a
Reverse-Path parameter value.
25. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein an act of examining a
plurality of parameter values of the electronic message to attempt to
identify an actual sending side network address comprises an act of
identifying an Internet Protocol address corresponding to the sending
computer system.
26. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein an act of examining a
plurality of parameter values of the electronic message to attempt to
identify an actual sending side network address comprises an act of
examining a plurality of parameter values wherein at least one of the
plurality of parameter values is selected from among a first Resent-Sender
header value, a first mailbox value in the Resent-From header, a Sender
header value, or a first mailbox value in the From header.
27. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the act of querying a name
server for a list of network addresses authorized to send electronic
messages for the sending domain comprises an act of querying a Domain Name
Services server for a list of network addresses authorized to send
electronic messages for the sending domain
28. The method as recited in claim 27, wherein the act of querying a
Domain Name Services server for a list of network addresses authorized to
send electronic messages for the sending domain comprises the act of
querying a Domain Name Services for a list of Internet Protocol addresses
authorized to send electronic mail message for the sending domain.
29. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising: an act of
receiving a list of network addresses that are authorized to send
electronic messages for the sending domain.
30. The method as recited in claim 29, wherein an act of receiving a list
of network addresses that are authorized to send electronic messages
comprises an act of receiving one or more DNS TXT records.
31. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein an act of receiving a list
of network addresses that are authorized to send electronic messages
comprises an act of receiving one or more DNS TXT records that encode the
list of network addresses in XML instructions.
32. The method as recited in claim 31, wherein an act of receiving one or
more DNS TXT records that encode the list of network addresses in XML
instructions comprises an act of receiving electronic messaging
configuration information that spans across a plurality DNS TXT records
such that the electronic message configuration information can be
concatenated into an XML instance.
33. The method as recited in claim 32, wherein the act of receiving
electronic messaging configuration information that spans across a
plurality DNS TXT records such that the electronic message configuration
information can be concatenated into an XML instance comprises an act of
receiving a plurality of DNS TXT records that include ordering data
indicating how the XML instructions contained in the DNS TXT records are
to be ordered.
34. The method as recited in claim 33, further comprising: an act of
concatenating the XML instructions according to the ordering data to
generate an XML instance.
35. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the act of determining if
the actual sending side network address is authorized to send electronic
messages for the sending domain comprises an act of determining that the
actual sending side network address is contained in a received list of
authorized network addresses.
36. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the act of determining if
the actual sending side network address is authorized to send electronic
messages for the sending domain comprises an act of determining that the
actual sending side network address is not contained in a received list of
authorized network addresses.
37. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the act of an act of
providing results of the determination to an message classification module
comprises an act of indicating to the message classification module that
the actual sending side network address is authorized to send electronic
messages for the sending domain.
38. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the act of an act of
providing results of the determination to an message classification module
comprises an act of indicating to the message classification module that
the actual sending side network address is not authorized to send
electronic messages for the sending domain.