Document management system and method

• US 8,090,743 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2007
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Cha, Wan Kyu, Kim, Jeong Joong, Ahn, Han Joon
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): DARNO, PATRICK A
• Application Number:
  US11/621,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20070244882A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,819 Days
• Field of Search: 707/739, 707/999.005, 707/779
• US Class Current: 707/779
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification

Abstract

Provided are a document management system and method. The document management system including a database storing documents and a document classification unit for automatically classifying the documents stored in the database, wherein the document classification unit comprises a feature extraction module extracting features based on a keyword included in the documents and vectorizing the extracted features, a similarity judgment module judging similarity among the documents using vectors formed by the feature extraction module, and a classification system module classifying the documents stored in the database according to a preset classification system, the document classification unit performing document classification according to the classification system with respect to documents provided to the database.

Claims

1. A document management system that manages the storage and classification of documents and distributes information associated with the documents to a user, the system comprising:

a storage unit that stores documents to construct a database; and

a document processing unit that provides a user with a newly received information service application form that includes a service type section for setting a type of a newly received information service and an informing condition section for detecting a user-concerning document;

receives a newly received information service application input from the user, the newly received information service application input comprising an input that selects the type of the newly received information service from a general selective dissemination of information service, a legal selective dissemination of information service and a similarity retrieval selective dissemination of information service;

monitors newly received documents in accordance with the newly received information service application input; and

informs the user of information on a newly received document that corresponds to an informing condition, the document processing unit comprising a processor,

wherein if the general selective dissemination of information service is selected as the newly received information service, the document management system receives a retrieval expression from the user as the informing condition, determines whether a newly received document corresponds to the retrieval expression, and informs the user of the information on the newly received document if the newly received document corresponds to the retrieval expression,

wherein if the legal selective dissemination of information service is selected as the newly received information service, the document management system receives an input that designates a reference document that was previously stored in the storage unit as the informing condition, extracts a representative value of the reference document, compares the reference document with a corresponding newly received document using the representative value, determines whether a legal status of the reference document is different from that of the corresponding newly received document, and informs the user of the information on the newly received document if the legal status of the reference document is different from that of the corresponding newly received document, and

wherein if the similarity retrieval selective dissemination of information service is selected as the newly received information service, the document management system receives an input that designates a reference document that was previously stored in the storage unit as the informing condition, determines whether a newly received document is similar to the reference document, and informs the user of the information on the newly received document if the newly received document is similar to the reference document.

2. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein the document processing unit further automatically classifies the documents stored in the storage unit, the document processing unit comprising:

a feature extractor that extracts features based on a keyword included in the documents and vectorizes the extracted features;

a similarity determiner that determines similarity among the documents using vectors formed by the feature extractor; and

a classifier that classifies the documents previously stored in the database according to a predetermined classification system, and

wherein the document processing unit monitors in real time or according to a specific period whether new documents are provided to the database, and the determination of similarity by the similarity determiner and classification of the documents by the classifier are performed on the newly provided document to the database so as to automatically classify the newly provided document in the database.

3. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein the informing condition is a retrieval expression, and the document processing unit detects the specific document which corresponds to the retrieval expression among the newly received document and informs the user of the information on the detected document.

4. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein the informing condition is a reference document stored in the storage unit, and the document processing unit detects the specific document which is similar to the reference document and informs the user of the information on the detected document.

5. The document management system according to claim 4, wherein the document processing unit transmits an alarm message to the user when the specific document is detected.

6. The document management system according to claim 5, wherein a user setting associated with receiving the alarm message is modifiable by the user.

7. The document management system according to claim 2, wherein the degree of similarity of the documents determined by the similarity determiner is settable by the user.

8. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein each of the documents stored in the storage unit comprises at least one of patent publication documents and issued patent documents.

9. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein the informing condition is a reference document stored in the storage unit, and the document processing unit detects a change of a legal status of the reference document using the newly received document and informs the user of the detected change.

10. A method for managing documents using a document management system, the document management system comprising a storage unit that stores documents to construct a database and a document processing unit comprising a processor that detects a specific document among newly provided documents and informs the user of an information on the detected document, the method comprising:

providing a user with a newly received information service application form that includes a service type section for setting a type of a newly received information service and an informing condition section for detecting a user-concerning document;

receiving a newly received information service application input from the user, the newly received information service application input comprising an input that selects the type of the newly received information service from among a general selective dissemination of information service, a legal selective dissemination of information service and a similarity retrieval selective dissemination of information service;

monitoring newly received documents in accordance with the newly received information service application input; and

informing the user of information on a newly received document that corresponds to an informing condition,

wherein if the general selective dissemination of information service is selected as the newly received information service, the document management system receives a retrieval expression from the user as the informing condition, determines whether a newly received document corresponds to the retrieval expression, and informs the user of the information on the newly received document if the newly received document corresponds to the retrieval expression,

wherein if the legal selective dissemination of information service is selected as the newly received information service, the document management system receives an input that designates a reference document that was previously stored in the storage unit as the informing condition, extracts a representative value of the reference document, compares the reference document with a corresponding newly received document using the representative value, determines whether a legal status of the reference document is different from that of the corresponding newly received document, and informs the user of the information on the newly received document if the legal status of the reference document is different from that of the corresponding newly received document,

wherein if the similarity retrieval selective dissemination of information service is selected as the newly received information service, the document management system receives an input that designates a reference document that was previously stored in the storage unit as the informing condition, determines whether a newly received document is similar to the reference document, and informs the user of the information on the newly received document if the newly received document is similar to the reference document.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

extracting features from documents previously stored in the database and determining similarity among the documents using the extracted features;

classifying the documents stored in the database according to a predetermined classification system based on the similarity among the documents; and

supervising, using the processor, whether newly received documents are provided to the database in a real time or according to a specific period, and automatically performing the similarity determination on the newly received documents so as to automatically classify the newly received documents.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the informing condition is a retrieval expression, and the step of monitoring comprises detecting the specific document which correspond to the retrieval expression among the newly received documents.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein the informing condition is a reference document stored in the storage unit, and the step of monitoring comprises detecting the specific document which is similar to the reference document.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the documents stored in the storage unit comprise at least one of patent publication documents and issued patent documents.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein the informing condition is a reference document stored in the storage unit, and the step of monitoring comprises detecting a change of a legal status of the reference document using the newly received documents, and the step of informing comprises informing the user of the detected change.