SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TAGGING EMAILS BY DISCUSSIONS

• US 20120158728A1
• Filed: 02/27/2012
• Published: 06/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Clearwell Systems (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Kumar, Mohan, Lehrman, Gary, Dara, Hari Krishna
• Granted Patent: US 9,779,094 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

The invention provides for techniques to process and produce email documents. The techniques provide for organizing a first plurality of email documents into a plurality of document groups, reviewing a document group from the plurality of document groups, and associating a review content with the document group. The techniques provide for ways to propagate the review content to one or more email documents associated with the document group and producing a second plurality of email documents. The techniques provide for annotating one or more email documents in accordance with the review content. Depending on the embodiment, review content may include text, graphics, audio, tag, and multimedia information. Produced documents can be searched and browsed in accordance with information in the review content. Email documents can be grouped by information in meta information and/or header information associated with the email documents into various groups, including threads or conversations, for example.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

combining, by a computer system comprising a processor, a plurality of electronically stored documents into a plurality of groups, wherein each group comprises a plurality of related documents;

receiving, by the computer system, review content provided by a user for a group of the plurality of groups;

associating the review content with the group; and

propagating the review content to one or more of the plurality of related documents in the group based on propagation information provided by the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of related documents for a group are at least one of duplicates or near duplicates of each other.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the review content is indicative of textual information or an annotation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the review content is indicative of redaction information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the propagation information indicates whether to propagate the review content to each of the related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group, a subset of related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group, or none of the related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving additional review content for the group; and

generating a final version of each related document in the plurality of related documents in the group, wherein the final version includes the review content and the additional review content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the review content is created and stored in a data container that is separate from the plurality of electronically stored documents, and wherein propagating the review content comprises linking the review content to the one or more of the plurality of related documents in the group.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

producing a first plurality of documents from the plurality of electronically stored documents in response to a query related to the review content associated with the group, the first plurality of documents including at least one document from the related documents in the document group.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

storing an original source location and a custodian for each of the first plurality of documents.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the review content with the group comprises associating the review content with a pivot document in the group.

11. A system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled with the memory, the processor configured to;

combine a plurality of electronically stored documents into a plurality of groups, wherein each group comprises a plurality of related documents;

receive review content provided by a user for a group of the plurality of groups;

associate the review content with the group; and

propagate the review content to one or more of the plurality of related documents in the group based on propagation information provided by the user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the review content is indicative of textual information or an annotation.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the propagation information indicates whether to propagate the review content to each of the related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group, a subset of related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group, or none of the related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further to:

receive additional review content for the group; and

generate a final version of each related document in the plurality of related documents in the group, wherein the final version includes the review content and the additional review content.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

combining a plurality of electronically stored documents into a plurality of groups, wherein each group comprises a plurality of related documents;

receiving review content provided by a user for a group of the plurality of groups;

associating the review content with the group; and

propagating the review content to one or more of the plurality of related documents in the group based on propagation information provided by the user.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the review content is indicative of textual information or an annotation.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the propagation information indicates whether to propagate the review content to each of the related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group, a subset of related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group, or none of the related documents in the plurality of related documents in the group.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further to:

receive additional review content for the group; and

generate a final version of each related document in the plurality of related documents in the group, wherein the final version includes the review content and the additional review content.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further to:

produce a first plurality of documents from the plurality of electronically stored documents in response to a query related to the review content associated with the group, the first plurality of documents including at least one document from the related documents in the document group.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further to:

store an original source location and a custodian for each of the first plurality of documents.