Email Receipt Certification via Trusted Third Party Mediator

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current methods for recording and certifying email transactions are inefficient, requiring human intervention, high labor costs, and limiting flexibility in email content and attachments, as they often rely on predetermined templates and are not automated, making it difficult for telecommunications operators to manage and provide requested data to legal authorities and users.

Innovation Solution

A method that allows any email content to be delivered with proof of reception, including transmission data, attachments, and a unique registration number, using a digital certification process that automates the recording and certification of incoming emails, generating a digital certificate in .pdf format with detailed operation traces, and managing credit balances for certification services.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If automated digital certification method is implemented, then productivity and efficiency are improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecertification process efficiencyVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a certification authority (CA) as an intermediary that issues digital certificates to email servers. This mediator handles the complex cryptographic operations and trust management, allowing the email certification system to achieve high productivity without requiring each participant to manage complex security infrastructure directly. The CA acts as a trusted third party that simplifies the overall system complexity while enabling automated certification.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates digital copies of email metadata and transmission information in the form of signed certificates. Instead of manually processing and certifying each email, the system automatically generates cryptographic copies of the transmission data that serve as proof of delivery. This copying mechanism enables high-volume automated certification without proportionally increasing operational complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

2Adaptability or versatility

If flexible email content handling is enabled, then adaptability is improved, but measurement precision of transmission data decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveemail content flexibilityVSAvoidtransmission data verification
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the essential metadata elements needed for certification (sender, recipient, timestamp, subject) from the full email content. By separating the certification data from the complete email message, the system can handle any email content format flexibly while maintaining precise verification of the extracted transmission facts. This extraction approach allows adaptability to diverse email formats without sacrificing measurement precision of the certified elements.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the parameter representation from complete email content to standardized metadata fields with fixed data types. By transforming the variable, unstructured email content into structured parameters (timestamps as numeric values, addresses as standardized strings), the system achieves both flexibility in handling different email formats and precision in measuring and verifying transmission data.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentEP2723023B1Method for the registration and certification of receipt of electronic mail
Publication Date: 2020.03.04 LLEIDANETWORKS SERVEIS TELEMATICS
  • EP2723023B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2723023B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2723023B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The object of the invention is a method to receive e-mail from any transmitting user in a specific e-mail address, generating proof of all the operation transactions to deliver a certificate to the transmitting user as a trusted third party of the sending and delivery of an e-mail, indicating the content and the attachments, by the steps of reception in a mail server, sending of a copy to the recipient, its itemization in a database and its registration in the client register and database, where finally a data processing unit creates an electronic receipt with the transactional data, the data sent, the attachments and it digitally signs it creating the certificate that it sends to the initial user.