Kevin Spacey, best known for his Oscar winning roles in Unusual Suspects, American Beauty, and the Netflix series House of Cards where he stars as President Frank Underwood, can now add inventor and patent holder to his resume.
Kevin Spacey and longtime friend and co-worker Dana Brunetti were granted the patent for “Systems and Methods for Implementing Mail Delivery” on April 5, 2016, as U.S. Patent No. 9,306,887. The abstract states, “The invention relates to systems and methods for managing emails where an email server that may comprise one or more computer systems, and which may be part of an email system, receives an email addressed to a specified first user. The email server may analyze the received email and access one or more electronic databases, which may comprise information related to one or more respective registered users of the email system. The databases may be stored on one or more computer-readable storage media operatively connected to the email server.”
This idea emerged for many reasons, the main one being the amount of email Spacey and Brunetti received. Spacey and Brunetti would become inundated with emails and became frustrated after having to change their email multiple times to avoid unwanted messages.
According to Brunetti, “It is like having a digital doorman at a velvet rope. It allows in only the ones it knows or whoever is on the list and sends the others away with a message telling them they’re not approved. If they’ve been given a PIN or other access they can approve themselves. If they’ve been emailed by the user they’re pre-approved so their replies can get through and they won’t know the difference, but anyone can always be unapproved at any time.”
Brunetti went on to discuss how this invention could be a great business tool for “agents, attorneys, managers, etc. to stop getting unsolicited submissions or other unwanted contact from people like stalkers of client.”
