Document renewal and translation

• US 8,972,848 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2010
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Oyarzabal, Randy E., Turner, Jeffery A.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CHAU T
• Application Number:
  US12/952,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20120131434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,561 Days
• Field of Search: 715/229, 707694-695, 705/1.1
• US Class Current: 715/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services

Abstract

Methods, systems and program products for renewing documents relating to an agreement between two entities. Content from an existing document is extracted, the existing document having been created from component documents. A selection of one or more updated component documents is received. An updated document is then generated based on the extracted content from the received document and the received selection of one or more updated component documents, wherein the updated document defines a revised agreement between the two entities.

Claims

1. A computer program product for renewing a document, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising computer readable program code to;

interactively generate a document that defines an agreement between at least two entities, based on two or more component documents from a plurality of component documents, wherein at least a portion of content within the document is inserted from a first data source specified by a first component document of the two or more component documents, and wherein the at least a portion of the content within the document is formatted according to a template specified by a second component document of the two or more component documents;

receive a request to renew the generated document, once the generated document has expired;

receive a selection of one or more updated component documents from the plurality of component documents, wherein the one or more updated component documents include an updated first component document specifying a second data source that is distinct from the first data source;

automatically generate an updated document, by a first entity of the at least two entities and operation of one or more computer processors, by populating a first portion of the updated document using content extracted from the existing document and further by populating a second portion of the updated document using data extracted from the second data source specified by the updated first component document, wherein the updated document is formatted differently than the generated document based on a template specified by one of the one or more updated component documents;

transmit at least an indication of the generated update document to a second entity of the at least two entities for approval;

upon receipt of approval of the updated document by the second entity and upon determining that the existing document is currently an active document, mark the updated document as approved without activating the updated document, wherein the active document represents an effective legal agreement between the at least two entities, and wherein once active the updated document replaces the existing document as the effective legal agreement between the at least two entities; and

upon detection that the existing document has expired, automatically activate the approved updated document as the effective legal agreement between the at least two entities.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

computer readable program code to, upon rejection of the submitted updated document;

modify at least one of the updated component documents in the received selection; and

generate a second version of the updated document, based on the at least one modified updated component document.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, further comprising:

computer readable program code to submit the second version of the updated document for approval; and

computer readable program code to, upon approval of the second version of the updated document, mark the second version of the updated document as active, to indicate the revised agreement defined by the second version of the updated document is in effect.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

computer readable program code to provide an interface allowing a user to select from a plurality of updated component documents, wherein each updated component document defines an attribute of the document.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the plurality of updated component documents includes at least one build component and one utility component, and wherein the computer readable program code to receive a selection of one or more updated component documents further comprises:

computer readable program code to receive a first selection of at least one build component from the plurality of updated component documents, wherein the build component defines a portion of the document; and

computer readable program code to receive a second selection of at least one utility component from the plurality of updated component documents, wherein the utility component defines a structure of at least a portion of the document, and

wherein computer readable program code to generate the updated document is further based on at least one of the first selection of at least one build component and the second selection of at least one utility component.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

computer readable program code to generate a notification, based on an occurrence at least one of (i) approval of the update document, (ii) rejection of the updated document, (iii) cancellation of the updated document, (iv) submitting the updated document for approval, and (v) marking the updated document as active.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the plurality of component documents include:

a plurality of utility components, each specifying at least one of (i) a presentation template for at least a portion of the existing document and (ii) an indication of a data source from which data used in the existing document is extracted, and

a plurality of build components, each defining at least one of (i) a billing structure for the existing agreement, (ii) hardware provided as part of the existing agreement, (iii) one or more services provided as part of the existing agreement and (iv) a section header within the existing document.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

computer readable program code to, upon receipt of two or more languages selected by a user, generate an updated document for each of the two or more selected languages.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the updated document sent to the second entity is a reference to a single, centralized copy of the updated document and the computer readable program code does not create multiple inconsistent versions of the updated document.

10. A system, comprising:

a computer processor; and

a memory containing a program that, when executed on the computer processor, performs an operation for renewing a document, comprising;

interactively generating a document that defines an agreement between at least two entities, based on two or more component documents from a plurality of component documents, wherein at least a portion of content within the document is inserted from a first data source specified by a first component document of the two or more component documents, and wherein the at least a portion of the content within the document is formatted according to a template specified by a second component document of the two or more component documents;

receiving a request to renew the generated document, once the generated document has expired;

receiving a selection of one or more updated component documents from the plurality of component documents, wherein the one or more updated component documents include an updated first component document specifying a second data source that is distinct from the first data source; and

automatically generating an updated document, by a first entity of the at least two entities and operation of one or more computer processors, by populating a first portion of the updated document using content extracted from the existing document and further by populating a second portion of the updated document using data extracted from the second data source specified by the updated first component document, wherein the updated document is formatted differently than the generated document based on a template specified by one of the one or more updated component documents;

transmit at least an indication of the generated updated document to a second entity of the at least two entities for approval;

upon receipt of approval of the updated document by the second entity and upon determining that the existing document is currently an active document, mark the updated document as approved without activating the updated document, wherein the active document represents an effective legal agreement between the at least two entities, and wherein once active the updated document replaces the existing document as the effective legal agreement between the at least two entities; and

upon detection that the existing document has expired, automatically activate the approved updated document as the effective legal agreement between the at least two entities.

11. The system of claim 10, the operation further comprising:

upon rejection of the submitted updated document;

modifying at least one of the updated component documents in the received selection; and

generating a second version of the updated document, based on the at least one modified updated component document.

12. The system of claim 11, the operation further comprising:

submitting the second version of the updated document for approval; and

upon approval of the second version of the updated document, marking the second version of the updated document as active, to indicate the revised agreement defined by the second version of the updated document is in effect.

13. The system of claim 10, the operation further comprising:

providing an interface allowing a user to select from a plurality of updated component documents, wherein each updated component document defines an attribute of the document.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of updated component documents includes at least one build component and one utility component, and wherein receiving a selection of one or more updated component documents further comprises:

receiving a first selection of at least one build component from the plurality of updated component documents, wherein the build component defines a portion of the document;

receiving a second selection of at least one utility component from the plurality of updated component documents, wherein the utility component defines a structure of at least a portion of the document, and

wherein generating the updated document is further based on at least one of the first selection of at least one build component and the second selection of at least one utility component.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of component documents include:

a plurality of utility components, each specifying at least one of (i) a presentation template for at least a portion of the existing document and (ii) an indication of a data source from which data used in the existing document is extracted, and

a plurality of build components, each defining at least one of (i) a billing structure for the existing agreement, (ii) hardware provided as part of the existing agreement, (iii) one or more services provided as part of the existing agreement and (iv) a section header within the existing document.