Description and the merits of M-Protect A new software, M-Protect, - - PDF document

Description and the merits of M-Protect A new software, M-Protect, based on a U.S. Patent # 7571220, delivers many powerful commercial

• features. The new product will not only stop the spam mails, it will also offer auto-sorting of

incoming mails, supplemented with new mail functionality and auto-search for an item of interest,

• r a paid service delivered to a special mail inbox by many competing vendors.

A new business web-service:

The auto-search capability replaces the traditional method in the usual visual search of a particular item of interest or a paid service advertised on many web-pages displayed on a terminal screen. A mail user specifies a set of criteria on an item of interest, a question or a paid service. The server will search a database for a match and sends the results into a special mail inbox. Moreover, the vendors may be notified by the server, so that the vendors may have sufficient time to make a limited-time special offer to a particular mail user. The mail user receives marketing offers on desirable items from many vendors through the mails. This opens up a new channel of commerce opportunity and it would grab a market share in the e-commerce world.

Protection to an e-mail address:

The protection to an e-mail address is made possible by the exchange of password keys between the mail server systems. In addition, the mail user is able to employ several master keys for his/her social and business groups. The master keys can be deleted without affecting all previously established e-mail connection. The master key is automatically deleted at the receiving end of the server, upon a first e-mail exchange. It is a built-in effort to ensure the integrity of the key. The master key is automatically replaced by a set of uniquely defined keys in all subsequent e-mail exchanges between two unique e-mail addressees. The keys are automatically updated periodically in a high security environment. An unknown mail sender must obtain a key through an interrogative web-session for a permission to send a restricted number of mails in a preset given time.

Incoming mails auto-sorted by Group Keys:

Several mail in-boxes, according to the group master keys, are made available to a mail

• user. The incoming mails may be auto-sorted into their respective mail inboxes. This

feature increases the efficiency of many busy readers. An authenticity level indicator would indicate how the mail has reached the user's mail inbox. Due to the complexity in today's world, a single mail inbox is inadequate for many mail users. The 1/4

M-Protect would provide several mail in-boxes, auto-sorted easily by the use of the Group Master keys available to the user. Alternatively, the M-Protect could also learn it by looking up the sender's name already filed in the previous mail folder and automatically sorts it into the corresponding mail in-box. The license fee would scale with the number of mail in-boxes provided by the M-Protect software. The incoming mail in a group mail inbox may optionally contain a link pointing to the user's master

• inbox. This will give the mail user an optional way to look at all the incoming mails in the master mail

in-box.

Advanced functionality: Receipt notification & content search:

A confirmation on the delivery of a mail is sent when the mail reaches its destination. A receipt acknowledgment may be delivered by the recipient by clicking an acknowledgment box after reading the mail (or delivered automatically if pre-selected by the recipient). A search function on keywords in all mails is a useful and desirable feature for a busy mail reader.

The deficiencies of current mail server systems:

Currently, there is no protection to an e-mail address. The e-mail address is vulnerable to spam attack. The time-consuming and annoying spam mails have been very pervasive,

• ften a persistent part of the incoming mails.

The current e-mail providers offer only one master mail inbox (except the spam box). Auto-sorting of incoming mails and auto-search for an item of interest are not yet available by any vendor. A user must now rely on visual search on many web-pages displayed on one or multiple screens from different

• vendors. The commercial features envisioned in the U.S. Patent described above is not available.

Market Penetration:

The utilities or the software modules provided for the mail readers, e.g. a plug-in module for Window Outlook, are free for all world-wide mail users. However, only M-Protect licensed users would enjoy the extra benefits specified in the presentation. This is made possible by the deployment of the license keys in different categories. A set of instruction and warning will be inserted for non-M-Protect users, so that their expected replied mails to the M- Protect users would not be rejected, by properly including the exchange key in their replied text. The exchange keys are hidden in the M-Protect user's message. They are displayed explicitly for non-M- Protect users. It is very important to have a package that will co-exist with the currently available systems. The M-Protect is designed to co-exist with currently known mail server systems. We would make our best effort to monitor our progress during a stage in the Test and Implementation

• f the package to minimize the disruption in the market place.

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The license to the education institutions is quite generous. Few of them would satisfy with only one extra mail in-box, in addition to the traditional master mail in-box. Many of their members have multiple roles, e.g. different class assignments, various teaching and social duties, together with the work of many graduate students in the research groups. Numerous mail in-boxes, automatically sorted by the group exchange keys, are a good solution in the

• rganization of their mail folders. It would improve their efficiency, if they can concentrate on some

incoming mails already sorted in a group in-box. It would help them to discover quickly some common problems faced by the students, or to co-relate the messages in the same group in-box. When the education institutions are satisfied with the convenience and the features of the M-Protect, it is likely that they would ask for more mail in-boxes for their members. The license fee would scale with the number of mail in-boxes.

Goals:

Our goad is to have a seamless integration with widely used mail server systems. After the acceptance

• f our products in the market place, we would branch out, with more functionality and to install

additional commercial trading platforms. The uniqueness and the high-security feature of the mail exchange keys provide a very strong base for the continued expansion of commercial trading activities for many mail users, either in the form of tips, opinions, advice or help, especially for the frequent mail exchanges within some inner co-ordinating groups. Any spam mail or fake information could easily be rejected or spotted by the authenticity flag provided by the M-Protect. The M-Protect would indicate how the mail has reached the mail in-box, together with a flag indicating if the originating mail address is inconsistent with the sending DNS domain. These features are currently absent from many mail service providers.

Competitors:

There are known competitors. There are deficiencies in their approaches and none of them could provide the features described above. (1) list filtering: a white list and a black list are maintained to filter the mails. It is cumbersome and it is a very time-consuming method. (2) spamarrest.com: It is a limited fee-paying solution where a server requires a return of an inquiry or an authorization before a mail is accepted for delivery. (3) Spam Assassin: It works on several algorithms. It makes a best guess, trying to be ahead

• f the spammers. It has shown limited success. The algorithms must be

continuously improved and evolved with time. It can only limit the number of spam mails, it cannot stop the spam effectively. (4) Gmail: I had registered as a new Gmail user about a month ago. To my dismay, I found that mails from some new senders were automatically diverted to a spam mail box. I could not activate a subscription key to two community-based websites for several 3/4

days, because the spam mail box was hidden in a sub-menu, called “5 more”,located seven items below the inbox icon. Because of the confidential nature of many businesses, many corporations, including the education institutions, government and legal entities, would not move into a Gmail platform. Gmail is not a competitor in our case. An algorithm based on the degree of suspicious in the content of a mail is usually not a perfect solution to the problem. All the above e-mail service providers do not offer any commercial features envisioned in the U.S. patent described above.

Market potential:

The demand for the product is rated “High, moderately increasing.” in the Lambert & Lambert Inc.'s report (see the high-lighted answer to #10). The size of the market is very broad internationally (#11). The M-Protect software has some very clear competitive advantages over many competitors (#15). The product has a very promising future in the e-commerce world. The intended customers are those world-wide mail users who would like to have the protection on their e-mail addresses, spam-free mail delivery, auto-sorted group mailboxes and attractive and rich commercial activities, including any paid services and commercial products.

Impact to users:

• Minimized. A mail user needs only to remember one or more master passwords. The password

could be changed at any time, and all previously established e-connections would continue to

• function. New password is only needed for any new acquaintances.

The exchange keys in our product are executed in the background, without any user intervention.

Operating cost:

The distribution of the software and the cost of sales are minimized through the use of the web-servers.

Barrier to entry:

The new product is superior over many other products currently available in the market. Many commercial features described above are not yet provided by any vendors. The method used in the M-Protect and the commercial features mentioned above are proprietary and protected by the U.S. Patent # 7571220 (see also the report from Lambert & Lambert Inc). 4/4