System and method for searching for documents

• US 8,290,983 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2008
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RELX Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Original Assignee: LexisNexis Group Inc. (RELX PLC)
• Inventors: Meyer, Ronald J., Ainsworth, Richard, Freisthler, Andrew, Bennett, Zachary W., Stiver, Mark C., Calton, Jason, Edala, Narasimha R., Miller, David James, Loritz, Donald
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo, Isaac M
• Application Number:
  US12/285,764
• Publication Number:
  US 20090150827A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,463 Days
• Field of Search: 707600-831
• US Class Current: 707/791
• 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 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 by extracting data having recognized citation formats from the set of documents;

providing a displayed list of the set of citations that enables determination of the most frequent citation by a user viewing the displayed list;

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.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the displayed list of the set of citations includes, 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.

3. The method of claim 1, 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.

4. The method of claim 1, 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.

5. The method of claim 1, 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.

6. The method of claim 1, 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.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

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