System, method, and computer program product for knowledge management

• US 20020007373A1
• Filed: 05/04/2001
• Published: 01/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DataCloud Technologies, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Rose Blush Software LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Blair, Tim W., Rappaport, Irving S., Rivette, Kevin G., Germeraad, Paul B., Rosenquist, Brent, DeWolfe, Andrew S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,797,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/505
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/382 using citations hypermedia G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/11 Patent retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/917 Text
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/924 Patent procedure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/933 Citation analysis
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product of enabling a user to organize and analyze information in electronic form are described herein. The method operates by searching a first set of documents to thereby generate a second set of documents. The method automatically creates a first group comprising the second set of documents. The method analyzes the first group according to one or more analytical functions to thereby generate a third set of documents. The method automatically creates a second group comprising the third set of documents. The method enables selective iteration of any of these operational steps. The method also generates objects corresponding to process components of this work flow. The user can re-execute the work flow (process) by traversing the objects, or create a new process by modifying the objects.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of enabling a user to organize and analyze information in electronic form, comprising the steps of:

(1) searching a first set of documents to thereby generate a second set of documents;

(2) automatically creating a first group comprising said second set of documents;

(3) analyzing said first group according to one or more analytical functions to thereby generate a third set of documents;

(4) automatically creating a second group comprising said third set of documents; and

(5) enabling selective iteration of at least one of steps (1)-(4).

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

enabling the user to make at least one of said first group and said second group a permanent group.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (1) comprises the step of:

performing a cluster analysis over said first set of documents to create a hierarchical arrangement of groups containing said first set of documents.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

(i) performing a relevancy visualization analysis over at least one of said first group and said second group to identify how documents contained therein are inter-related with respect to key terms.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein step (i) operates according to a rule book.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said rule book comprises patent specific rules.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

(i) generating objects corresponding to process components of a work flow represented by at least steps (1)-(4).

8. The method of claim 7, wherein step (i) comprises:

generating said objects using object definitions.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said object definitions comprise at least one of:

a boolean operation object definition;

a corporate family operating object definition;

an export object definition;

a folder object definition;

an import object definition;

a list exploder operation object definition;

a list object definition;

a query object definition; and

a patent family dedupe object definition.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of:

enabling a user to save one or more of said objects.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

enabling a user to re-execute said work flow by traversing said objects.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

enabling a user to create a new work flow by modifying said objects.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

enabling a user to annotate at least one of said first group, said second group, and any portion of any document contained in said first group or said second group.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said first set of documents is from at least one of a database, an external source, and over the Internet.