System and method of dynamically generating an electronic document based upon data analysis

• US 6,654,754 B1
• Filed: 12/08/1999
• Issued: 11/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: Inceptor, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Franklin, Martin, Knauft, Christopher L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coby, Frantz
• Application Number:
  US09/456,784
• Time in Patent Office: 1,448 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103, 707/104
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• 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: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A system and method of generating index information for electronic documents. The system includes a client, one or more information retrieval (IR) engines, such as a search engine, which are each in communication with each other via a network. In one embodiment of the invention, the server maintains a plurality or data objects that are protected by digital rights management (DRM) software. Upon receiving a network request from one of the IR systems, the server dynamically generates an electronic document that provides index information that is associated with one of the data objects. In one embodiment of the invention, the server dynamically generates the contents of the electronic document based upon the indexing characteristics of the IR system. Furthermore, upon receiving a network request from one of the client, the server determines whether the client is authorized to access the data object that is associated with the network request. If the client is authorized to access the data object, the server transmits the data object to the user. Alternatively, if the client is not authorized to access the data object, the server dynamically prepares instructions to the client, the instructions describing additional steps the user at the client may perform to get authorized to access the data object.

Claims

1. A method of generating index information for a data object, the method comprising:

generating index information for the data object, wherein the index information includes a set of one or more keywords;

selecting one or more of the keywords from the index information;

identifying one or more words that are associated with the selected keywords; and

adding the identified words to the set of keywords, the identified words providing additional keywords for the index information for the data object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more words that are associated with the selected keywords comprises using a thesaurus to identify one or more words that are related to the selected keywords.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more words that are associated with the selected keywords comprises using a semantic network to identify one or more words that are related to the selected keywords.

4. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising obfuscating at least a portion of the index information so that the intelligibility of the contents of the index information is reduced.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is dynamically generated in response to a request for the network resource that is maintained by a server computer.

6. A method of generating index information for a data object, the method comprising:

generating index information for the data object;

identifying one or more words that are common to a group of data objects that includes the data object; and

adding the identified words to the index information.

7. The method of claim 6, additionally comprising obfuscating at least a portion of the index information so that the intelligibility of the contents of the index information is reduced.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the index information is dynamically generated in response to a request for an electronic resource that is maintained by a server computer.

9. A method of generating index information for a data object, the method comprising:

generating index information for the data object, wherein the index information includes a set of one or more keywords;

identifying the roots of selected keywords;

substituting the selected keywords with the roots.

10. The method of claim 9, additionally comprising obfuscating at least a portion of the index information so that the intelligibility of the contents of the index information is reduced.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the roots are automatically inserted into the index information upon a request for an electronic resource which is maintained by a server computer.

12. A method of generating index information for a data object, the method comprising:

generating index information for the data object, wherein the index information includes a set of one or more keywords;

classifying one or more of the keywords into one or more classifications;

selecting at least one of the classifications; and

removing one or more of the keywords that are members of a selected classification of the keywords.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein classifying the one or more keywords comprises identifying whether a respective keyword is an adjective.

14. A method of generating index information for a data object, the method comprising:

generating index information for a data object, wherein the index information comprises one or more keywords;

selecting one or more of the keywords;

identifying one or more keywords that are associated with the selected keywords with a semantic network; and

adding the identified keywords to the index information.