Information archival and retrieval system for internetworked computers

• US 7,792,682 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2001
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rodney D. Johnson
• Original Assignee: Rodney D. Johnson
• Inventors: Johnson, Rodney D.
• Primary Examiner(s): OUELLETTE, JONATHAN P
• Application Number:
  US09/909,502
• Publication Number:
  US 20020010682A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,337 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1.1
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A computing system can archive information from internetworked computers, such as Internet content, for later retrieval. A server system processes content providers, such as DNS registries and web sites, to extract and store content—including text, image, audio, and video content. For web sites, HTML source code is stored along with a browser-rendered display file. The content is perpetually archived to create a historical record of information for each content provider. An interface is used to retrieve the archived content in response to queries.

Claims

1. A computerized system for retrieving content collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with an internetworked content provider, comprising:

a data warehouse including a database storing data in an organized structure, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a content provider, and an archived registration file having Internet domain name registration information stored therein that is related to the content provider associated with the electronic address at the specified time;

a plurality of modules populating the database with data associated with the data files;

a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file;

a query engine in communication with the electronic index for retrieving the stored data based on a query parameter and the electronic index;

a user interface in communication with the query engine for soliciting a query from a user for desired content, the desired content having a match to the content stored within the archived original content file; and

a query result presented to the user in response to the query and the electronic index, the query result including a reference to the archived original content file and the archived registration file.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the query solicits desired content of at least one of a text string or a multimedia target.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the data warehouse is located remote from the user interface.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the query result is not presented in real time.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the user interface includes a search engine result identifying a Universal Resource Locator.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the Universal Resource Locator is responsive to the solicitation for a query.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the query result includes a history of changes to the data files collected from the electronic address over time.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the query result includes a history of changes to the Internet domain name information over time.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the query results are responsive to a query specifying a trademark.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the query results are responsive to a query specifying a work of authorship.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the database associates the archived original content file and the archived Internet domain registration information with a content provider based on a time that the archived copy of the original content file was collected from the electronic address.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the archived original content file includes an image of a browser-executable source code file.

13. A system for storing information for retrieval, comprising:

a database storing data in an organized structure, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a content provider;

a plurality of modules populating the database with data associated with the data files;

a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file; and

a query engine in communication with the electronic index for retrieving the stored data based on a query parameter and the electronic index.

14. The system of claim 13 further comprising an archive storing the data files in perpetuity.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the database includes references to the data files for retrieval from the archive.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the content provider includes a content provider selected from at least one of a domain name service registry and a web server.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the modules communicate with the electronic address over a public access computer network.

18. The system of claim 13 further comprising an indexer, the indexer creating the searchable electronic index.

19. The system of claim 13 wherein the searchable electronic index includes multimedia data.

20. The system of claim 13 wherein the database relates the archived original content file with a time that the archived original content file was collected from the electronic address.

21. The system of claim 13 wherein the archived original content file includes an image of a browser-executable source code file.

22. A computerized system for storage and retrieval of content from a plurality of Internet content providers, the content including registration content and page content, the system comprising:

a data warehouse structured to store content for later retrieval, the data warehouse including a database storing data in an organized structure, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a content provider;

a plurality of modules populating the database with data associated with the data files, including a registration retrieval mechanism in communication with a plurality of Internet domain name registries for retrieving registration content for a plurality of content providers and storing the retrieved registration content in a plurality of registration files in the data warehouse over time;

a mechanism for associating the stored registration content with a respective time stamp, the time stamp indicating the time that the stored registration content was retrieved by the registration retrieval mechanism;

a searchable electronic index of the the content stored within the archived original content file and the registration content stored within the registration files; and

a query engine in communication with the electronic index for retrieving the stored data based on a query parameter and the electronic index.

23. The system of claim 22 further comprising a page retrieval mechanism in communication with a content provider for retrieving page content from the content providers and storing the retrieved content in the data warehouse.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the database manages the stored registration content.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein the indexer is a multimedia indexer.

26. The system of claim 22 further comprising a query engine coupled to the indexer for retrieving the stored registration content.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the query engine includes a program interface operable by a remote computer.

28. A computerized system for archiving information from a plurality of internetworked web content providers, comprising:

a data warehouse including a database storing data in an organized structure, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a web content provider;

the database including an identifier of a web content provider;

for the web content provider, information stored in the data files of the data warehouse including;

ownership registration data stored in a registration file;

instructions for operating web browsers stored in a source code file;

an image of a browser-rendered display generated by a web browser as instructed by the instructions in the source code file, the rendered image file generated contemporaneously with the storage of the source code file and stored in a rendered image file;

a plurality of modules populating the database with data associated with the data files, including data associating the web content provider with the stored information;

a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file; and

a query engine in communication with the electronic index for retrieving the stored data based on a query parameter and the electronic index.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the identifier is a unique address of the web content provider.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the unique address is a domain name derived from a domain name registry.

31. The system of claim 28 wherein the stored information is compressed.

32. The system of claim 28 wherein the stored information includes a copy of a multimedia file.

33. The system of claim 28 further comprising an indexer operating on the stored information.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the indexer includes a digital signature engine operating on multimedia files.

35. The system of claim 28 further comprising a user interface for querying the data warehouse.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the user interface is operable by a remote computer.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein the remote computer includes a search engine interface.

38. The system of claim 28 wherein the modules comprise web robots to retrieve information from a remote content provider.

39. The system of claim 38 wherein the remote content provider is a registry storing the ownership registration data.

40. The system of claim 38 wherein the remote content provider is the web content provider storing the instructions.

41. The system of claim 28 further comprising a processing module to monitor changes to the instructions at the web content provider, based on the stored source code file.

42. The system of claim 41 wherein the data warehouse stores a prior version and a current version of a changed source code file.

43. The system of claim 28 further comprising a processing module to monitor changes to ownership registration data at a registration content provider based on the stored record of ownership registration data.

44. The system of claim 43 wherein the data warehouse stores a prior version and a current version of a changed record of ownership registration data.

45. The system of claim 28 wherein the data warehouse includes an offline storage medium.

46. The system of claim 28 wherein the web content provider supports a protocol to facilitate the archival of information.

47. The system of claim 28 wherein the database relates the stored information with a time that the stored information was collected for the data warehouse.

48. The system of claim 28 wherein the stored source code file includes an image of a browser-executable source code file.

49. A computerized system for archiving data from a plurality of distinct content providers, the system comprising:

an identification for each content provider of a plurality of content providers, each content provider having ownership information, the ownership information being changeable over time;

a mechanism that stores, for each identified content provider, a file for each version of the ownership information in association with a time stamp in a data archive for later retrieval; and

a database structure associating each content provider with its stored ownership information, wherein the database structure tracks changes to the stored ownership information over time.

50. The system of claim 49 wherein the content providers are registered in a shared registry system.

51. The system of claim 50 wherein the stored ownership information includes registration data associated with the registry.

52. The system of claim 50 wherein the content provider is identified by a unique address.

53. The system of claim 49 wherein the mechanism includes a data compression algorithm to reduce the size of the ownership information before storing in the data archive.

54. The system of claim 49 wherein the stored ownership information is maintainable in perpetuity.

55. The system of claim 49 further comprising an indexer for maintaining a searchable index of the stored ownership information.

56. The system of claim 55 wherein the stored ownership information is multimedia content.

57. The system of claim 55 further comprising a query engine coupled to the indexer for processing queries against the stored ownership information.

58. The system of claim 57 wherein the query engine includes a program interface operable by a remote computer.

59. A computerized system for monitoring intellectual property rights across a plurality of internetworked content providers, comprising:

a data archive including a database storing data in an organized structure, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a web content provider;

the database including an identifier of a plurality of web content providers;

for each of a plurality of web content provider, information stored in data files in the data archive, including;

Internet domain name registration data associated with the web content provider stored in a registration file;

instructions for operating web browsers as specified by the web content provider stored in a source code file;

an image of a browser-rendered display generated by a web browser as instructed by the instructions in the source code file, the browser-rendered image being generated contemporaneously with the storage of the source code file and stored in a rendered image file;

a plurality of modules populating the database with data associated with the data files, including data associating web content providers with the stored information and associating the stored information with a time stamp;

a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file;

a query engine in communication with the electronic index for retrieving the stored data based on a query parameter and the electronic index; and

a report responsive to the query parameter, the report including archived information associated at least one web content provider.

60. The system of claim 59 wherein the solicited information is at least one of a trademark, a work of authorship, or an invention.

61. The system of claim 59 wherein the solicited information is entered as a file location.

62. The system of claim 61 wherein the file is at least one of a text file, an audio file, an image file, or a video file.

63. The system of claim 59 wherein the report includes archived information associated with a plurality of network registrars.

64. The system of claim 59 wherein the report includes archived information from a plurality of web content providers.

65. The system of claim 59 wherein the archived information includes obsolete information.

66. The system of claim 59 wherein the stored source code file includes an image of a browser-executable source code file.

67. A computerized method for retrieving content collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with an internetworked content provider, comprising:

in a data warehouse having a database, storing data in an organized structure, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a content provider, and an archived registration file having Internet domain name registration information stored therein that is related to a content provider associated with the electronic address at the specified time;

from a plurality of modules, populating the database with data associated with the data files;

creating a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file stored in the database;

operating a query engine in communication with the electronic index;

accepting a query parameter from a user for desired content through a user interface in communication with the query engine, the desired content having a match to original content stored in the archived original content file;

from the query engine, retrieving the stored data based on the query parameter and the electronic index; and

presenting a query result to the user, the query result including a reference to the archived original content file and the archived registration file.

68. The method of claim 67 wherein the query parameter comprises a desired content of at least one of a text string or a multimedia target.

69. The method of claim 67 wherein the data warehouse is located remote from the user interface.

70. The method of claim 67 wherein presenting the query result is not performed in real time with the query.

71. The method of claim 67 wherein the query parameter comprises a Universal Resource Locator identified through a search engine result.

72. The method of claim 71 wherein the Universal Resource Locator is responsive to the solicitation for a query.

73. The method of claim 67 wherein the query result includes a history of changes to the data files collected from the electronic address over time.

74. The method of claim 67 wherein the query result includes a history of changes to the Internet domain name information over time.

75. The method of claim 67 wherein the query results are responsive to a query specifying a trademark.

76. The method of claim 67 wherein the query results are responsive to a query specifying a work of authorship.

77. A method for storing information for retrieval, comprising:

storing data in an organized structure in a database, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a content provider;

from a plurality of modules, populating the database with data associated with the data files;

creating a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file;

accepting a query parameter into a query engine in communication with the electronic index; and

retrieving the stored data based on the query parameter and the electronic index.

78. The method of claim 77 further comprising storing the data files in perpetuity.

79. The method of claim 77 wherein the content provider includes a content provider selected from at least one of a domain name service registry and a web server.

80. The method of claim 77 wherein the modules communicate with the electronic address over a public access computer network.

81. The method of claim 77 further comprising an indexer, the indexer creating the searchable electronic index.

82. A computerized method for storage and retrieval of content from a plurality of Internet content providers, the content including registration content and page content, the method comprising:

storing data in an organized structure in a data warehouse having a database, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a content provider;

from a plurality of modules, populating the data warehouse with the data files including retrieving registration content for a plurality of web content providers from a plurality of Internet domain name registries and storing the retrieved registration content in a plurality of registration files in the data warehouse over time;

associating the stored registration content with a respective time stamp, the time stamp indicating the time that the stored registration content was retrieved from the respective Internet domain name registry;

creating a searchable electronic index stored in the database of the registration content stored within the archived original content file and the registration content stored within the registration files;

accepting a query parameter into a query engine in communication with the electronic index; and

retrieving the stored data based on the query parameter and the electronic index.

83. The method of claim 82 further comprising retrieving page content from the web content providers and storing the retrieved page content in the data warehouse.

84. The method of claim 82 further comprising accessing the searchable electronic index using a query engine.

85. A computerized method for archiving information from a plurality of internetworked web content providers, comprising:

connecting a machine to a data warehouse having data storage that is accessible by the machine;

storing data in an organized structure in a database of the data warehouse, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a content provider;

storing an identifier of a web content provider in the data warehouse;

for the web content provider, storing information in the data files of the data warehouse, the stored information including;

ownership registration data stored in a registration file;

instructions for operating web browsers stored in a source code file;

an image of a browser-rendered display generated by a web browser as instructed by the instructions in the source code file, the rendered image file generated contemporaneously with the storage of the source code file and stored in a rendered image file;

from a plurality of modules, populating the data warehouse with the data files and associating the web content provider with the stored information;

creating a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file;

accepting a query parameter into a query engine in communication with the electronic index; and

retrieving the stored data based on the query parameter and the electronic index.

86. The method of claim 85 wherein the identifier is a unique address of the web content provider.

87. The method of claim 86 wherein the unique address is a domain name derived from a domain name registry.

88. The method of claim 85 wherein the stored information is compressed.

89. The method of claim 85 wherein the stored information includes a copy of a multimedia file.

90. The method of claim 85 further comprising operating on the stored information using an indexer.

91. The method of claim 90 wherein the indexer includes a digital signature engine operating on multimedia files.

92. The method of claim 85 further comprising for querying the data warehouse through a user interface.

93. The method of claim 92 wherein the user interface is operable by a remote computer.

94. The method of claim 93 wherein the remote computer includes a search engine interface.

95. The method of claim 85 populating the database comprises operating web robots to retrieve information from a remote content provider.

96. The method of claim 95 wherein the remote content provider is a registry storing the ownership registration data.

97. The method of claim 85 further comprising monitoring changes to instructions at the web content provider, based on the stored source code.

98. The method of claim 85 further comprising monitoring changes to ownership registration data at a registration content provider based on the stored record of ownership registration data.

99. The method of claim 85 wherein the data warehouse includes an offline storage medium.

100. A computerized method for archiving data from a plurality of distinct content providers, the method comprising:

connecting a machine to a data archive having data storage that is accessible by the machine;

machine storing in the data archive an identification for each content provider of a plurality of content providers, each content provider having ownership information, the ownership information being changeable over time;

machine storing, for each identified content provider, a file for each version of the ownership information in association with a time stamp in the data archive for later retrieval; and

machine tracking changes to the stored ownership information over time.

101. The method of claim 100 wherein the ownership information includes registration data associated with a shared registry.

102. The method of claim 100 wherein storing the content comprises using a data compression algorithm to reduce the size of the ownership information before storing in the data archive.

103. The method of claim 100 wherein the stored ownership information is maintainable in perpetuity.

104. The method of claim 100 further comprising maintaining a searchable index of the stored ownership information.

105. A method for monitoring intellectual property rights across a plurality of internetworked content providers, comprising:

connecting a machine to a data archive having data storage that is accessible by the machine;

storing data in an organized structure in a database of the data archive, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a web content provider;

providing an identifier in the database of a plurality of web content providers;

for each of a plurality of content provider, machine storing information in the data archive, including;

Internet domain name registration data associated with the content provider stored in a registration file;

instructions for operating web browsers as specified by the web content provider stored in a source code file;

an image of a browser-rendered display generated by a web browser as instructed by the instructions in the source code file, the browser-rendered image being generated contemporaneously with the storage of the source code file and stored in a rendered image file;

from a plurality of modules, populating the database with data associated with the data files, including data associating web content providers with the stored information and associating the stored information with a time stamp;

creating a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file;

accepting a query parameter into a query engine in communication with the electronic index;

retrieving the stored data based on the query parameter and the electronic index; and

presenting a report responsive to the query parameter, the report including archived information associated at least one web content provider.

106. The method of claim 105 wherein the query parameter is at least one of a trademark, a work of authorship, or an invention.

107. The method of claim 105 wherein query parameter comprises a file location.

108. The method of claim 107 wherein the file is at least one of a text file, an audio file, an image file, or a video file.

109. The method of claim 105 wherein the report includes archived information associated with a plurality of network registrars.

110. The method of claim 105 wherein the report includes archived information from a plurality of web content providers.

111. The method of claim 105 wherein the archived information includes obsolete information.

112. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer-usable medium; and

a set of computer instructions embodied on the medium for operating a computer, the computer instructions including computer instructions that cause a computer to perform a computerized method for retrieving content collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with an internetworked content provider, comprising computer instructions for;

in a data warehouse having data storage accessible by a computer, storing a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having original content stored therein as collected from an electronic address at a specified time and an archived registration file having Internet domain name registration information stored therein that is related to a content provider associated with the electronic address at the specified time;

storing a searchable electronic index of the original content stored in the archived original content file;

providing a query engine in communication with the electronic index;

soliciting a query from a user for desired content through a user interface in communication with the query engine, the desired content having a match to original content stored in the archived original content file;

presenting a query result to the user in response to the query and the electronic index, the query result including a reference to the archived original content file and the archived registration file.

113. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer-usable medium; and

a set of computer instructions embodied on the medium for operating a computer, the computer instructions including computer instructions that cause a computer to perform a computerized method for storing information for retrieval, comprising computer instructions for;

storing data in an organized structure in a database, the data associated with a plurality of data files, including an archived original content file having content stored therein as collected from an electronic address over time, the content associated with a content provider;

from a plurality of modules, populating the database with the data files;

creating a searchable electronic index of the content stored within the archived original content file stored in the database;

accepting a query parameter into a query engine in communication with the electronic index; and

retrieving the stored data based on the query parameter and the electronic index.

114. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer-usable medium; and

a set of computer instructions embodied on the medium for operating a computer, the computer instructions including computer instructions that cause a computer to perform a computerized method for storage and retrieval of content from a plurality of Internet content providers, the content including registration content and page content, the method comprising computer instructions for;

storing content for later retrieval in a data warehouse; and

retrieving registration content for a plurality of web content providers from a plurality of Internet domain name registries and storing the retrieved registration content in a plurality of registration files in the data warehouse over time;

associating the stored registration content with a respective time stamp, the time stamp indicating the time that the stored registration content was retrieved from the respective Internet domain name registry; and

creating a searchable electronic index of the registration content stored in the registration files.

115. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer-usable medium; and

a set of computer instructions embodied on the medium for operating a computer, the computer instructions including computer instructions that cause a computer to perform a computerized method for archiving information from a plurality of internetworked web content providers, comprising computer instructions for;

storing an identifier of a web content provider in a data warehouse;

for the web content provider, storing information in the data warehouse including;

ownership registration data stored in a registration file;

instructions for operating web browsers stored in a source code file;

an image of a browser-rendered display generated by a web browser as instructed by the instructions in the source code file, the rendered image file generated contemporaneously with the storage of the source code file and stored in a rendered image file; and

associating the web content provider with the stored information in a database.

116. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer-usable medium; and

a set of computer instructions embodied on the medium for operating a computer, the computer instructions including computer instructions that cause a computer to perform a computerized method for archiving data from a plurality of distinct content providers, each content provider having ownership information, the ownership information being changeable over time, comprising computer instructions for;

connecting the computer to a data archive having data storage that is accessible by the computer;

storing an identification for each content provider of a plurality of content providers;

storing, for each identified content provider, a file for each version of the ownership information in association with a time stamp in a data archive for later retrieval; and

tracking changes to the stored ownership information over time.

117. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a computer-usable medium; and

a set of computer instructions embodied on the medium for operating a computer, the computer instructions including computer instructions that cause a computer to perform a method for monitoring intellectual property rights across a plurality of internetworked content providers, comprising computer instructions for;

providing an identifier of a plurality of web content providers;

for each of a plurality of content provider, storing searchable information in the data archive, including;

Internet domain name registration data associated with the content provider stored in a registration file;

instructions for operating web browsers as specified by the web content provider stored in a source code file;

an image of a browser-rendered display generated by a web browser as instructed by the instructions in the source code file, the browser-rendered image being generated contemporaneously with the storage of the source code file and stored in a rendered image file;

a database associating web content providers with the stored information and associating the stored information with a time stamp;

soliciting information from the data archive related to the searchable information and a specified time; and

presenting a report responsive to the query information, the report including archived information associated at least one content provider.