System for linked and networked document objects

• US 9,218,431 B2
• Filed: 08/30/2013
• Issued: 12/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DSS Technology Management, Inc. (Document Security Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bascom Research, LLC (Document Security Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bascom, Thomas Layne, Harmon, Jason N.
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US14/015,782
• Publication Number:
  US 20130346433A1
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• Field of Search: 707/758, 707/802
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links

Abstract

Systems and methods for searching relationships between and among documents are disclosed. A user interface for presenting document objects and relationships between document objects located on a network is also disclosed. The document objects provided to the user may be determined based on document object references corresponding to the document objects. Document object information, relationship information, and contextual relationship information may also be provided to the user.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more interconnected servers accessible to users of said system, wherein each of the one or more interconnected servers includes a processor and one or more memory devices that store or allow access to one or more directories;

one or more document objects stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

document object information pertaining to said one or more document objects;

relationship information pertaining to relationships between two or more of said document objects, said relationship information stored in records in the one or more directories and accessible to said interconnected servers;

said records comprising a traversable pairwise connection between document objects, having a field identifying document object information pertaining to a first document object, a field identifying document object information pertaining to a second document object, and one or more fields identifying contextual relationship information describing the traversable connection between the two document objects;

wherein said document object information comprises a document object reference, the document object reference corresponds to at least one of said document objects;

at least one of said interconnected servers configured to allow at least one of said users to establish at least one of said relationships between said two or more document objects, wherein establishing one of said relationships enhances the functionality of the interconnected servers by creating traversable pairwise connections of document objects, stored in records, which are available to the users;

at least one of said interconnected servers configured to make at least a portion of said document objects accessible over the internet;

at least one of said interconnected servers configured to make at least one of said document objects accessible to at least one of said users based on at least one of said document object references corresponding to said at least one accessible document object;

at least one of said interconnected servers configured to receive requests and at least one of said interconnected servers configured to retrieve at least a portion of said records; and

at least one of said interconnected servers configured to transmit for use in a display to at least one of said users at least a portion of said document object information, and at least a portion of said contextual relationship information;

wherein the at least one of the interconnected servers configured to retrieve is adapted to retrieve directly from the stored records, said portions of the stored records to be transmitted, and enhance functionality of the interconnected servers by improving speed and precision of transforming a user'"'"'s request into a display of the transmitted portions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said interconnected servers is configured to receive a request that causes the server to perform said retrieval of said records by identifying and retrieving those records containing a document object reference contained in said request.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of said interconnected servers is configured to filter and sort said retrieved portion of said records before said transmitting for use in a display.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the interconnected servers is configured to receive a request that causes the server to perform said retrieval of said portions of said records by identifying and retrieving those portions of said records containing contextual relationship information contained in said request.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the document object information comprises one or more document object attributes describing one or more document objects in terms useful to the user.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein, the contextual relationship information comprises text used to provide a meaningful description of said relationship between two or more of said document objects.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said document object reference is a URL.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said document object information pertaining to a first document object comprises a pointer to a link reference, said link reference comprising a pointer to a document object on the network, document object information associated with that document object and one or more pointers to records, wherein the one or more pointers to records identifies those records containing said pointer to a link reference in one of said identifying fields.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more records further comprises a directional indicator identifying the nature of said relationship information, wherein the directional indicator specifies that the identified relationship information is either unidirectional or bi-directional.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said interconnected servers configured to retrieve is further configured to use the fields identifying contextual relationship information to improve the precision.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said interconnected servers configured to retrieve is further configured to use the fields identifying contextual information to improve the speed.

12. A system comprising:

one or more interconnected servers accessible to users of said system, wherein each of the one or more interconnected servers includes a processor and one or more memory devices that store or allow access to one or more directories;

one or more document objects stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

document object information pertaining to said one or more document objects, said document object information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

relationship information pertaining to relationships between two or more of said document objects, said relationship information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

contextual relationship information associated with said relationship information, said contextual relationship information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

one or more records comprising a traversable pairwise connection between two of said document objects, having a field identifying document object information pertaining to a first document object, a field identifying document object information pertaining to a second document object, and one or more fields identifying contextual relationship information describing the traversable connection between the two document objects, wherein one or more records are stored in the one or more directories;

document object references each corresponding to at least one of said document objects, said document object references stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

wherein at least one of said document objects is associated with at least one or more of said relationships;

at least one of said interconnected servers recording said one or more records;

at least one of said interconnected servers adapted to provide at least one of said users access to one or more of said document objects based on said document object information corresponding to said one or more document objects; and

at least one of said interconnected servers presenting to at least one of said users at least a portion of said document object information, at least a portion of said relationship information and at least a portion of said contextual relationship information based on said document object information.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the document object information comprises one or more document object attributes describing one or more document objects in terms useful to the user.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein, the contextual relationship information comprises text used to provide a meaningful description of said relationship between two or more of said document objects.

15. A system comprising:

one or more interconnected servers accessible to users of said system, wherein each of the one or more interconnected servers includes a processor and one or more memory devices that store or allow access to one or more directories;

one or more document objects stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

document object information pertaining to said one or more document objects, said document object information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

relationship information pertaining to relationships between two or more of said document objects, said relationship information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

contextual relationship information associated with said relationship information;

one or more records representing the stored relationship information, each record comprising a traversable pairwise connection between document objects, having a field identifying document object information pertaining to a first document object, a field identifying document object information pertaining to a second document object, and one or more fields identifying contextual relationship information describing the traversable connection between the two document objects, wherein one or more records are stored in the one or more directories;

document object references each corresponding to at least one of said document objects, said document object references stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

wherein said document object information associated with at least one of said document objects comprises privacy setting information;

at least one of said interconnected servers controlling a presentation of said document object information associated with at least one of said document objects based on said privacy setting information associated with said at least one of said document objects;

at least one of said interconnected servers recording usage information associated with at least one of said document objects based on said privacy setting information associated with said at least one of said document objects; and

at least one of said interconnected servers controlling a presentation of said relationship information pertaining to at least one or more of said relationships associated with at least one of said document objects based on said privacy setting information associated with said at least one of said document objects.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the document object information comprises one or more document object attributes describing one or more document objects in terms useful to the user.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the contextual relationship information comprises text used to provide a meaningful description of said relationship between two or more of said document objects.

18. A system comprising:

one or more interconnected servers accessible to users of said system, wherein each of the one or more interconnected servers includes a processor and one or more memory devices that store or allow access to one or more directories;

one or more document objects stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

document object information pertaining to said one or more document objects, said document object information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

relationship information pertaining to relationships between two or more of said document objects, said relationship information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

contextual relationship information associated with said relationship information, said contextual relationship information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

document object references each corresponding to at least one of said document objects, said document object references stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

at least one of said interconnected servers configured to allow at least one of said users to establish at least one of said relationships between said two or more document objects;

at least one of said interconnected servers configured to group together at least two of said relationships associated with at least one of said document objects;

at least one of said interconnected servers configured to group together at least two of said relationships based on said contextual relationship information associated with said relationship information of said at least two relationships;

one or more records representing said relationship information, each record comprising a traversable pairwise connection between document objects, having a field identifying document object information pertaining to a first document object, a field identifying document object information pertaining to a second document object, and one or more fields identifying contextual relationship information describing the traversable connection between the two document objects, wherein one or more records are stored in the one or more directories; and

at least one of said interconnected servers transmitting at least a portion of said document object information, at least a portion of said grouping of said relationship information and at least a portion of said contextual relationship information based on said document object information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein one of the interconnected servers is configured to group together at least two of said records by retrieving from at least one of said directories using contextual relationship information to identify one or more records in which the contextual relationship information is identified and accumulating said identified records for later transmission to the users of said system.

20. A system comprising:

one or more interconnected servers accessible to users of said system, wherein each of the one or more interconnected servers includes a processor and one or more memory devices that store or allow access to one or more directories;

one or more document objects stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

document object information pertaining to said one or more document objects, said document object information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

relationship information pertaining to relationships between two or more of said document objects, said relationship information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

contextual relationship information associated with said relationship information, said contextual relationship information stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

one or more records representing said relationship information, each record comprising a traversable pairwise connection between document objects, having a field identifying document object information pertaining to a first document object, a field identifying document object information pertaining to a second document object, and one or more fields identifying contextual relationship information describing the traversable connection between the two document objects, wherein one or more records are stored in the one or more directories;

document object references each corresponding to at least one of said document objects, said document object references stored in or accessible to said interconnected servers;

wherein said relationship information comprises information referring to said two or more document objects and said contextual relationship information;

wherein said document object information comprises at least one from a group consisting of product review, news article, product information page, competitor'"'"'s product information, and product order form;

at least one of said interconnected servers selectively recording usage information associated with at least one of said document objects;

at least one of said interconnected servers using said recorded usage information for billing purposes; and

at least one of said interconnected servers presenting at least a portion of said document object information, at least a portion of said relationship information and at least a portion of said contextual relationship information based on said document object information.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein, the contextual relationship information comprises text used to provide a meaningful description of said relationship between two or more of said document objects.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising one or more user account records wherein each user account record identifies a portion of said recorded usage information.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising one or more user account records wherein said one or more document objects are registered to said user account record.