Method and computer program product for an online monitoring search engine

• US 6,401,118 B1
• Filed: 08/13/1998
• Issued: 06/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ZeroFOX, Inc. (ZeroFox Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ONLINE MONITORING SERVICES
• Inventors: Thomas, Jason B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
• Application Number:
  US09/133,374
• Time in Patent Office: 1,391 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/222, 709/225, 709/226, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 707/5, 707/4, 707/3, 707/2, 707/1
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

An online monitoring search engine. The invention is a system, method and computer program product that allows an organization, company, or the like to monitor the Internet (or any computer network) for violations of their intellectual property (e.g., patent, trademark or copyright infringement), or monitor how persons on the Internet view their business, products and/or services. The system includes a Web server for receiving search requests and criteria from users on a Web client and a server for searching the Internet for URL'"'"'s that contain contents matching the search criteria, thereby compiling a list of offending URL'"'"'s. The system also includes a file system for storing contents from each of the offending URL'"'"'s and a relational database for allowing the server to perform queries of the content in order to produce a report. The method involves receiving search criteria from a user, searching the Internet, downloading offending contents, and then archiving and scoring the contents. The method also obtains contact information for each registrant of the offending URL'"'"'s and produces a report for the user.

Claims

1. A method for performing online monitoring of a computer network, comprising the steps of:

(1) receiving search criteria from a user, wherein said search criteria reflects the intellectual property infringement or disparagement concerns of said user;

(2) searching the computer network for addresses that specify sites which contain contents matching said search criteria, said searching step comprising the steps of;

(a) selecting an existing search engine that is available on the computer network, wherein said search engine is configured to return only a subset of n hits of a total set of N hits actually found by said search engine;

(b) translating said search criteria into a set of related keywords and a main topic keyword;

(c) querying said search engine for said main topic keyword; and

(d) when step (c) returns a number of hits greater than n, constructing two new queries in the forms of;

(i) {said main topic keyword} AND {an unused related keyword from said set of related keywords}; and

(ii) {said main topic keyword} AND NOT {said unused related keyword};

(3) obtaining a list of offending addresses that contain contents matching said search criteria; and

(4) downloading said contents from each offending address within said list;

whereby said downloaded contents represent unrealized hits said search engine would not otherwise return and may be utilized by said user to plan intellectual property infringement or disparagement enforcement activities.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer network is the global Internet.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

performing steps (b)-(d) on a plurality of search engines;

concatenating the hits from each of said search engines into said list of offending addresses; and

removing duplicates from said list of offending addresses.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein step (4) comprises the steps of:

(a) Nice File Transfer Protocol (FTP) crawling when one of said list of offending addresses is a FTP site;

(b) Web crawling when one of said list of offending addresses is a Web site; and

(c) copying the contents of said one of said list of offending addresses to said local file system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer network is an intranet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer network is an extranet.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(5) archiving contents from each offending address within said list to a local file system;

(6) obtaining a score for each offending address within said list; and

(7) generating a report listing said list of offending addresses and said score for each offending address within said list.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

(8) grouping said contents from each of said list of offending addresses to form a list of actual sites; and

(9) obtaining contact information for each of said list of actual sites.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

(8) grouping said contents from each of said list of offending addresses to form a list of actual sites;

(9) obtaining a score for each page of each actual site within said list; and

(10) generating a report listing the highest scoring page of each actual site within said list.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein step (5) comprises the steps of:

(a) seperating inline and non-inline contents of each page of said contents for said each offending address within said list; and

(b) copying said inline contents to said local file system.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for causing an application program to execute on a computer that performs online monitoring of a computer network, said computer readable program code means comprising:

a first computer readable program code means for causing the computer to receive search criteria from a user, wherein said search criteria reflects the intellectual property infringement or disparagement concerns of said user;

a second computer readable program code means for causing the computer to search the computer network for addresses that specify sites which contain contents matching said search criteria, wherein said second computer readable program code means comprises;

a third computer readable program code means for causing the computer to select an existing search engine that is available on the computer network, wherein said search engine is configured to return only a subset of n hits of a total set of N hits actually found by said search engine;

a fourth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to translate said search criteria into a set of related keywords and a main topic keyword;

a fifth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to query said search engine for said main topic keyword; and

a sixth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to construct two new queries when said fifth computer readable program code means returns a number of hits greater than n in the forms of;

(i) {said main topic keyword} AND {an unused related keyword from said set of related keywords}; and

(ii) {said main topic keyword} AND NOT {said unused related keyword};

a seventh computer readable program code means for causing the computer to obtain a list of offending addresses that contain contents matching said search criteria; and

an eighth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to download said contents from each offending address within said list;

whereby said downloaded contents represent unrealized hits said search engine would not otherwise return and may be utilized by said user to plan intellectual property infringement or disparagement enforcement activities.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer network is the global Internet.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising:

a ninth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to group said contents from each of said list of offending addresses to form a list of actual sites; and

a tenth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to obtain contact information for each of said list of actual sites.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising:

a ninth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to group said contents from each of said list of offending addresses to form a list of actual sites;

a tenth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to obtain a score for each page of each actual site within said list; and

an eleventh computer readable program code means for causing the computer to generate a report listing the highest scoring page of each actual site within said list.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising:

a ninth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to perform the functions of computer readable program code means four-six on a plurality of search engines;

a tenth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to concatenate the hits from each of said search engines into said list of offending addresses; and

an eleventh computer readable program code means for causing the computer to remove duplicates from said list of offending addresses.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein said eighth computer readable program code means comprises:

a ninth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to Nice File Transfer Protocol (FTP) crawling when one of said list of offending addresses is a FTP site;

a tenth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to Web crawling when one of said list of offending addresses is a Web site; and

an eleventh computer readable program code means for causing the computer to copy the contents of said one of said list of offending addresses to a local file system.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

a ninth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to archive said contents from each offending address within said list to a local file system;

a tenth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to obtain a score for each offending address within said list; and

an eleventh computer readable program code means for causing the computer to generate a report listing said list of offending of offending addresses and said score for each offending address within said list.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein said ninth computer readable program code means comprises:

a tenth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to separate inline and non-inline contents of each page of said contents for each offending address within said list; and

an eleventh computer readable program code means for causing the computer to copy said inline contents to said local file system.