System and method for searching for documents

• US 20090150827A1
• Filed: 10/14/2008
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RELX Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Original Assignee: LexisNexis Group Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Inventors: Ainsworth, Richard, Meyer, Ronald J., Freisthler, Andrew, Edala, Narasimha R., Calton, Jason, Loritz, Donald, Miller, David James, Stiver, Mark C., Bennett, Zachary W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,290,983 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

A computer system is disclosed. The computer system includes one or more processors, and a memory storage storing one or more instructions for implementing a search tool. The instructions, when executed, instruct the computer system to perform a set of steps. The steps include receiving a search query from a user computer, the search query including one or more search terms to use to perform a first search. The steps further include, based on the one or more search terms, performing the first search, and providing for display at the user computer a list of one or more law-related documents responsive to the search query, a list of one or more recommended sources in which to perform a second search for documents, and a list of legal topics associated with the responsive documents.

Claims

1. A method for searching for documents, comprising:

receiving a first search query from a user computer, the first search query including one or more search terms;

based on the one or more search terms, providing for display a set of one or more recommended sources in which to search for documents;

receiving a selection of a recommended source from the set of one or more recommended sources;

based on the selection, executing a second search query in the selected recommended source, the second search query including the one or more search terms; and

in response to the second search query, providing for display a list of one or more documents responsive to the second search query.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the first search query, providing for display along with the set of one or more recommended sources, a list of one or more documents responsive to the first search query.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more recommended sources include one or more searchable electronic publications including retrievable documents,

the first search query is for law-related documents publicly available on the web; and

the second search query is for law-related documents available via a proprietary search tool.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a set of documents responsive to the first search query;

determining a set of citations cited in the set of documents; and

providing for display the set of citations, so that the most frequent citation can be determined by a user by viewing a displayed list of the set of citations.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the citations; and

in response to the selection;

providing for display a list of a subset of documents, the subset of documents including documents from the set of documents that include the selected citation, and

providing for display the set of one or more recommended sources in which to search for documents.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the set of one or more recommended sources is determined based on the search terms and the selected citation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more recommended sources are selected from a database, and further comprising:

constructing the database by, for each of a plurality of sources, sampling documents from the source, extracting keywords from each sampled document in the source, and storing the extracted keywords as a term vector.

8. A method for searching for documents, comprising:

receiving a search query entered into a search query window, the search query including one or more search terms;

determining a set of documents responsive to the search query;

determining a set of citations cited in the set of documents; and

providing for display the set of citations, so that the most frequent citation can be determined by a user by viewing a displayed list of the set of citations.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the displayed set of citations includes a list that displays, for each citation in the set of citations, the citation and an indication of the frequency that the citation appears within the set of documents.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the set of documents is a set of law-related documents publicly available on the Internet, and further including:

determining a set of legal topics associated with the set of law-related documents and providing for display the set of legal topics.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the citations; and

in response to the selection, providing for display a list of a subset of documents, the subset of documents including documents from the set of documents that include the selected citation.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the citations, wherein the selected citation cites to a law-related document; and

in response to the selection, providing for display the law-related document.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the search query is a first search query, and further comprising:

based on the one or more search terms, providing for display a set of one or more recommended sources in which to search for documents;

receiving a selection of a recommended source from the set of one or more recommended sources;

based on the selection of the recommended source, executing a second search query in the selected recommended source, the second search query including the one or more search terms; and

providing for display a list of one or more documents in response to the second search query.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a selection of one of the citations; and

in response to the selection;

providing for display a list of a subset of documents, the subset of documents including documents from the set of documents that include the selected citation, and

providing for display a set of one or more recommended sources in which to search for documents.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the set of one or more recommended sources is determined based on the search terms and the selected citation.

16. A computer system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory storage storing one or more instructions for implementing a search tool, wherein the instructions, when executed, instruct the computer system to perform at least the steps of;

receiving a search query from a user computer, the search query including one or more search terms to use to perform a first search; and

based on the one or more search terms, performing the first search, and providing for display at the user computer a list of one or more law-related documents responsive to the search query, a list of one or more recommended sources in which to perform a second search for documents, and a list of legal topics associated with the responsive documents.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the search query is a first search query, and wherein the search tool further permits the computer system to perform the steps of:

receiving a selection of a recommended source from the list of one or more recommended sources;

based on the selection, executing a second search query in the selected recommended source, the second search query including the one or more search terms; and

transmitting for display at the user computer a list of one or more law-related documents, in response to the second search query.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the instructions further instruct the computer system to perform the steps of:

determining a set of law-related documents responsive to the first search query;

determining a set of citations cited in the set of law-related documents; and

providing for display the set of citations.

19. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the instructions further instruct the computer system to perform the steps of:

determining a set of law-related documents responsive to the search query;

determining a set of legal topics associated with the set of law-related documents; and

including the set of legal topics in the list of legal topics.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the search tool further permits the computer system to perform the steps of:

receiving a selection of one of the legal topics; and

in response to the selection, transmitting for display a list of a subset of documents, the subset of documents including a subset of law-related documents from the provided list of law-related documents.

21. The computer system of claim 20, wherein the list of one or more recommended sources depends on the one or more search terms and the selected legal topic.

22. The computer system of claim 16, further comprising:

a database that stores a list of a plurality of sources, wherein the instructions, when executed, further instruct the computer system to;

construct the database by, for each of the plurality of sources, sampling documents from the source, extracting keywords from each sampled document in the source, and storing the extracted keywords as a term vector; and

select the list of one or more recommended sources from the plurality of sources stored in the database.