System and method for indexing electronic discovery data

• US 8,924,395 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2011
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Planet Data Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Planet Data Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: Wade, Michael, Nelson, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): ABRAHAM, AHMED M
• Application Number:
  US13/267,800
• Publication Number:
  US 20120265762A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,181 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705, 707/706, 707/707, 707/740, 707/709, 707/758, 707/777, 707/778, 709/707, 715/713, 715/234, 717/155, 717/100
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks

Abstract

Systems and methods for efficiently processing electronically stored information (ESI) are described. The systems and methods describe processing ESI in preparation for, or association with, litigation. The invention preserves the contextual relationships among documents when processing and indexing data, allowing for increased precision and recall during data analytics.

Claims

1. A method, comprising the steps of:

(a) determining a file type using a file typer for each document in a plurality of documents;

(b) extracting data using a file ripper from each document typed in step (a), wherein the data is selected from the group consisting of metadata, text, records, tables, images, pictures, auditory data or combinations thereof;

(c) testing the data extracted in step (b) for an embedded object, and if one or more embedded objects are detected, appending the data from the embedded objects to a buffer wherein the data in the documents;

(d) repeating steps (a) to (c) recursively for each document until no additional embedded objects are detected in the documents;

(e) repeating steps (a) to (d) iteratively for each document in the plurality of documents;

(f) creating an object map which preserves respective locations of the embedded objects within each document in the plurality of documents;

(g) replacing the embedded objects within each document of the documents with text, where the spatial relationship between the text at the location and the surrounding text is specified by the object map; and

(h) generating an index which preserves hierarchial relationships among the documents and the embedded objects, where the documents and the embedded objects have at least one individual identifier associated with each of the documents and the embedded objects.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the embedded objects contain at least one additional embedded object.

3. the method of claim 1, wherein text of a visual representation of an embedded object within the document is preserved both in substance and location with respect to text in document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein for every file type there is an individual, corresponding extraction.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising repeating steps (a) to (e) recursively for all the embedded objects, and if at least one additional embedded object is detected, performing an extraction of the additional embedded objects until no additional embedded objects are detected.

6. A computer system for reviewing data, the computer system comprising:

(a) a source of a plurality of electronic documents, the source provided by a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium;

(b) a software sub-routine comprising a file typer, the software sub-routine embodied as software instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to determine the physical file type of a document;

(c) a software sub-routine comprising a file ripper, the software sub-routine embodied as software instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to extract data from at least one document from the plurality of electronic documents, wherein the data is selected from the group consisting of metadata, text, records, tables, images, pictures, auditory data or combinations thereof;

(i) wherein the file ripper tests each document for linked or embedded objects, and

(ii) wherein the file ripper recursively repeats step (i) if additional linked or embedded objects are detected;

(d) an index comprising data from the documents and embedded objects wherein the index preserves hierarchical relationships among the embedded objects and wherein each embedded object has at least one individual identifier showing the respective locations of the embedded objects within the documents preserved through the use of an object map, and

(e) a software sub-routine embodied as software instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to replace the embedded objects within the documents with text corresponding to the embedded objects the text inserted at the respective locations specified by the object map.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the index is stored in a buffer on a computer-readable storage medium capable of receiving requests for specific data characteristics and identifying documents or embedded objects with those characteristics.

8. The computer system of claim 6, further comprising a library housing methods of extraction for all file types respectively for documents and embedded objects.

9. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the computer system is used for preparation of documents which are to be reviewed in connection with a litigation.

10. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the computer system is located within a plurality of servers, processors and storage media in communication over a network.

11. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the computer system comprises a terminal for accepting user input or displaying data processed by a computer-readable storage medium.

12. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the source of a plurality of electronic documents is in communication with other components of the computer system via the Internet.

13. The computer system of claim 6, wherein each document is selected from the group consisting of a text file, an image, and a spreadsheet.

14. The computer system of claim 6, wherein each embedded object is selected from the group consisting of a text file, an image, and a spreadsheet.

15. The computer system of claim 6, further comprising a first processor capable of receiving at least one document extracting data from said document, and recursively searching said document for linked or embedded objects.

16. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising a first computer-readable storage medium capable of containing all extracted data, and featuring a buffer with data for each linked or embedded object indexed separately, wherein each of a substance, location and textual relationship of each linked or embedded object and the document is preserved.

17. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising a second processor in communication with the computer-readable storage medium capable of receiving requests for specific data characteristics and identifying the documents or embedded objects with those characteristics.

18. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising a second computer-readable storage medium containing a library of all individual programs for all file types.

19. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the second computer-readable storage medium is in communication with the processor.

20. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the computer system is used for the preparation of documents in anticipation of litigation.

21. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the computer system is located within a plurality of servers, processors and computer-readable storage media in communication over a network.

22. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the computer system comprises a terminal for accepting user input or displaying extracted data processed by the first and second computer-readable storage media.

23. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the source of a plurality of electronic documents is in communication with other components of the computer system via the Internet.