Document renewal and translation

• US 9,760,552 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2013
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Oyarzabal, Randy E., Turner, Jeffery A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Application Number:
  US13/787,205
• Publication Number:
  US 20130185621A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,651 Days
• Field of Search: 715229, 707694-695
• 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-implemented method, comprising:

interactively generating, using a provided graphical user interface (GUI) and based on a plurality of input data received through the GUI, on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, data representing a document that defines an agreement between at least two entities, based on two or more instances of component documents from a plurality of instances of component documents, wherein at least a portion of content within the data representing the document is inserted from a first data source specified by a first instance of component document of the two or more instances of component documents, and wherein the at least a portion of the content within the data representing the document is formatted according to template data specified by a second instance of a component document of the two or more instances of component documents;

receiving a request to renew the document, once attribute data describing the document is processed to determine that the document has expired;

receiving a selection, within a second provided GUI, of a plurality of instances of updated component documents from the plurality of instances of component documents, wherein the plurality of updated instances of component documents include an updated first instance of a component document specifying a second data source that is distinct from the first data source;

automatically generating data, on the non-transitory computer-readable medium, representing an updated document, by a first entity of the at least two entities and by operation of one or more computer processors, by populating a first portion of the data representing the updated document using data elements extracted from the data representing the document and further by populating a second portion of the data representing the updated document using data extracted from the second data source specified by the updated first instance of the component document, wherein the data representing the updated document is formatted differently than the data representing the document, based on template data specified by one of the one or more updated instances of component documents;

transmitting, over a data communications network, one or more data messages, specifying the data representing the updated document to a second entity of the at least two entities for approval;

upon receiving, over the data communications network, a second one or more data messages indicating an approval of the data representing the updated document by the second entity and upon determining that the document is currently an active document, marking the data representing 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 document as the effective legal agreement between the at least two entities; and

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

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon receiving a third one or more data messages indicating a rejection of the data representing the updated document;

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

generate a second version of the data representing the updated document, based on the plurality of instances of updated component documents.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

submitting the second version of the data representing 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 a revised agreement defined by the second version of the updated document is in effect.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of instances of updated component documents includes at least one build component and one utility component, and wherein receiving the selection of the plurality of instances of updated component documents further comprises:

receiving a first selection of a build component data object from the plurality of instances of updated component documents, wherein the build component data object defines a portion of the document; and

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

wherein automatically generating the data representing the updated document is further based on the first selection of the build component data object and the second selection of the utility component data object.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating one or more data packets specifying 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.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon receipt of two or more languages selected by a user, generating data representing a respective translated updated document for each of the two or more selected languages.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more data messages specifying the data representing the updated document include a link to a single, centralized copy of the data representing the updated document, thereby preventing creation of multiple, inconsistent versions of the data representing the updated document.