Electronic discovery apparatus, system, method, and electronically stored computer program product

• US 20050027750A1
• Filed: 04/12/2004
• Published: 02/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cricket Legal Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cricket Technologies LLC
• Inventors: Martin, John, Cody, Jennifer St. James, Shepley, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,761,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/942 Legal/academic
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/952 Malicious software

Abstract

A system, apparatus, method, and computer program product for electronically stored file profiling and conversion including converting printable files to images, supported by meta-data, and one or more searchable master text files.

Claims

1. (Cancelled).

2. A method of profiling electronically-stored data, comprising:

accessing data from one or more data archives, said one or more data archives located on one or more electronic archive devices;

transferring a file from said accessed data to a working electronic folder;

tagging the working electronic folder with folder meta-data;

processing the contents of said electronic folder, said step of processing including identifying whether a file within said electronic folder can be converted;

selecting a file that can be converted in said processing step; and

converting said selected file, said step of converting including

extracting file meta-data from said selected file into a corresponding meta-data file,

extracting a user-selectable portion of text from said selected file into a corresponding selected text file,

creating an image of said selected file, and

appending the corresponding meta-data file to said image of said selected file to create an appended image file.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

exporting one of said appended image file and said selected text file.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising a step of:

displaying one of said steps of accessing, transferring, tagging, processing, selecting, and converting.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said step of displaying comprises:

displaying a series of parent-child relationships between a file and an attachment to said file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said attachment comprises:

a second attachment attachment to said attachment.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein said folder metadata comprises:

date created, last date opened, last date modified, creator name, matter name, and predetermined identification and quality control data.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of processing further comprises:

identifying a duplication within said working electronic folder.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of processing further comprises:

marking a file that cannot be converted as an exception file.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of transferring comprises:

transferring via a drag-and-drop user interface comprising one of a computer mouse and a pointing device.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein said working electronic folder comprises:

a time-stamped audit file configured to record a file history spanning file creation to file destruction.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of processing further comprises one of:

checking a file for a virus;

removing said virus from said file;

checking said file for encoding or encryption;

decoding or decrypting said file.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of processing further comprises:

performing page estimation and time stamping/digital authentication of said electronic folder.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein said step of identifying a duplication comprises:

identifying said duplication by a hash or another unique identifier.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein said file that cannot be processed comprises one of:

a file with a virus;

an encrypted file;

an unknown file-type; and

a deselected file.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein said step of marking a file that cannot be converted comprises one of:

logging said exception file; and

exporting said exception file.

17. The method of claim 8, wherein said step of identifying a duplication comprises:

identifying a duplication by an MD5 hash algorithm.

18. The method of claim 8, wherein said step of identifying a duplication comprises:

checking a duplicate file for a file corruption; and

deleting or exporting a corrupted duplicate file.

19. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of converting comprises one of:

time stamping and digitally authenticating both the image and the file of extracted meta-data.

20. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of converting comprises one of:

creating a searchable master text file containing the contents of all selected files;

time stamping or digitally authenticating the searchable master text file; and

appending selected meta-data about the files included in the master text file.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said step of creating a searchable master text file comprises:

creating one or more searchable subordinate text files containing the contents of an operator-selected subset of the selected files;

time stamping or digitally authenticating the one or more subordinate text files; and

appending selected meta-data about the files included in the subordinate text files.

22. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of extracting selected file meta-data comprises:

extracting one of file content data, content header information, file meta-data, file type information, and file characteristic data.

23. The method of claim 2, wherein said selected file meta-data comprises:

predetermined categories of meta-data corresponding to a file-type.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein said step of time stamping comprises:

time stamping with one of UTC time and another predetermined time zone.

25. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of extracting a user-selectable portion of text comprises:

creating an ASCII file of said user-selectable portion of text.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said step of extracting a user-selectable portion of text further comprises:

converting said image of said selected file to text with an OCR program if an ASCII file cannot be created.

27. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of extracting a user-selectable portion of text comprises:

searching for a key word.

28. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of extracting a user-selectable portion of text comprises:

extracting a portion of text around said keyword.

29. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of processing comprises:

processing with a prioritization scheme keyed to file type.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said step of processing with a prioritization scheme comprises:

processing with a plug-in module.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein said step of processing with a plug-in module comprises:

processing with a plug-in module configured to be selected to be ‘

ON’

or ‘

OFF.’

32. The method of claim 30, wherein said step of processing with a plug-in module comprises;

processing with a plug-in module configured to have a user-selectable priority.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein said step of processing with a prioritization scheme keyed to file type comprises at least one of:

identifying a file type extension; and

evaluating a binary file header.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein said step of processing with a prioritization scheme keyed to file type comprises one of:

identifying said file type extension and evaluating the binary header when the file type extension is unknown; and

evaluating the binary header, and if there is a conflict between the binary header and the file-type extension, one of the binary header or the file-type extension is considered a default first choice, either arbitrarily or based on a predetermined logic keyed to a predetermined file type.

35. The method of claim 30, wherein said step of processing with a plug-in module comprises one of:

processing with a plug-in configured to open multiple file types;

processing with multiple plug-ins configured to open a single file-type;

processing with a plug-in created by incorporating a library of a commercially available software product; and

processing with a plug-in comprising a library of programming code that incorporates functionality of a third party library or an application to load, image and extract metadata from a document.

36. The method of claim 29, wherein said step of processing with a prioritization scheme keyed to file type comprises:

reading a file that is not correlated to a plug-in or a file that cannot be read by a plug-in with an AutoVue plug-in.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein said step of processing with a prioritization scheme keyed to a file type comprises:

reading a file that cannot be processed by the AutoVue plug-in by using a Microsoft Windows File Type Association and accessing a Windows registry to determine if a “

print”

verb is associated with the extension in windows;

if said “

print”

verb is found to be associated with the extension, starting a new Windows process with said “

print”

verb as startup information and feeding the output of said new Windows process to an imaging print driver.

38. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of creating an image of said selected file comprises:

imaging with a TIFFing driver.

39. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of exporting comprises:

exporting to at least one of an image viewer, a printer, and a computer configured to search the corresponding meta-data or a master file text content.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said step of exporting comprises:

exporting a file comprising a predetermined litigation support software file type.

41. The method of claim 30, wherein said predetermined litigation support software file type comprises one of:

an IPRO file type, an Opticon file type, a Concordance file type, a Summation file type, a Ringtail file type, a Microsoft Access file type, and a data management file type.

42. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of accessing comprises:

pre-filtering said data with pre-filtering criteria.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein said step of pre-filtering comprises:

pre-filtering based on file content, content header information, file meta-data, file type, or other criteria identified by the user.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein said step of pre-filtering comprises:

saving said pre-filtering criteria.

45. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of accessing comprises:

accessing an email or instant messaging archive.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein said step of accessing an email or instant message archive comprises:

accessing a printable attachment of an email or instant message.

47. A system for profiling electronically-stored data, comprising:

means for accessing data from one or more data archives, said one or more data archives located on one or more electronic archive devices;

means for transferring a file from said accessed data to a working electronic folder;

means for tagging the working electronic folder with folder meta-data;

means for processing the contents of said electronic folder, said step of processing including identifying whether a file within said electronic folder can be converted;

means for selecting a file that can be converted in said processing step; and

means for converting said selected file, said step of converting including

means for extracting selected file meta-data from said selected file into a corresponding meta-data file,

means for extracting a user-selectable portion of text from said selected file into a corresponding selected text file,

means for creating an image of said selected file, and

means for appending the corresponding meta-data file to said image of said selected file to create an appended image file.

48. A computer program product including instructions configured to control a computer so as to profile electronically-stored data, said instructions comprising instructions for:

accessing data from one or more data archives, said one or more data archives located on one or more electronic archive devices;

transferring a file from said accessed data to a working electronic folder tagging the working electronic folder with folder meta-data;

processing the contents of said electronic folder, said step of processing including identifying whether a file within said electronic folder can be converted;

selecting a file that can be converted in said processing step; and

converting said selected file, said step of converting including

extracting selected file meta-data from said selected file into a corresponding meta-data file,

extracting a user-selectable portion of text from said selected file into a corresponding selected text file,

creating an image of said selected file, and

appending the corresponding meta-data file to said image of said selected file to create an appended image file.