Systems and methods for tagging emails by discussions

• US 9,779,094 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2012
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kumar, Mohan, Lehrman, Gary, Dara, Hari Krishna
• Primary Examiner(s): KUDDUS, DANIEL A
• Application Number:
  US13/406,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20120158728A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,045 Days
• Field of Search: 707728, 707730, 707999102
• 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 processor, a plurality of electronically stored documents into a plurality of groups, wherein each group comprises a plurality of related documents, and wherein for each of the plurality of electronically stored documents the combining comprises;

comparing a feature vector of the electronically stored document to a set of potential categories, wherein the feature vector comprises one or more feature vector words of the electronically stored document,

determining a subset of the potential categories based on a relevance score between the electronically stored document and a first category within the subset of the potential categories exceeds a first threshold, and

assigning the electronically stored document to a second category within the subset of the potential categories based on a similarity distance between the feature vector of the electronically stored document and a feature vector of the second category exceeds a second threshold;

receiving, by the processor, 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 based on propagation information indicating documents in the group to which to propagate the review content based on a review of at least one of the related documents, wherein propagating the review content based on the propagation information comprises at least one of propagating the review content to each of the plurality of related documents or propagating the review content to a subset of the plurality of related documents, wherein the review content comprises redaction information to redact a portion of each of the plurality of related documents or to redact a portion of each document of the subset of the plurality of related documents, and wherein the redaction information specifies one or more locations corresponding to line numbers of each of the plurality of related documents or each document of the subset of the plurality of related documents that are not displayed in response to a query returning the documents.

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, further comprising:

receiving another 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

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

8. 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.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the review content comprises each addition and each modification of the review content.

10. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory to store processor-executable instructions that cause the processor to;

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

comparing a feature vector of the electronically stored document to a set of potential categories, wherein the feature vector comprises one or more feature vector words of the electronically stored document,

determining a subset of the potential categories based on a relevance score between the electronically stored document and a first category within the subset of the potential categories exceeds a first threshold, and

assigning the electronically stored document to a second category within the subset of the potential categories based on a similarity distance between the feature vector of the electronically stored document and a feature vector of the second category exceeds a second threshold;

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 based on propagation information indicating documents in the group to which to propagate the review content based on a review of at least one of the related documents, wherein propagating the review content based on the propagation information comprises at least one of propagating the review content to each of the plurality of related documents or propagating the review content to a subset of the plurality of related documents, wherein the review content comprises redaction information to redact a portion of each of the plurality of related documents or to redact a portion of each document of the subset of the plurality of related documents, and wherein the redaction information specifies one or more locations corresponding to line numbers of each of the plurality of related documents or each document of the subset of the plurality of related documents that are not displayed in response to a query returning the documents.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the review content is indicative of textual information or an annotation.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor is further to:

receive another 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.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the review content comprises each addition and each modification of the review content.

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

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

comparing a feature vector of the electronically stored document to a set of potential categories, wherein the feature vector comprises one or more feature vector words of the electronically stored document,

determining a subset of the potential categories based on a relevance score between the electronically stored document and a first category within the subset of the potential categories exceeds a first threshold, and

assigning the electronically stored document to a second category within the subset of the potential categories based on a similarity distance between the feature vector of the electronically stored document and a feature vector of the second category exceeds a second threshold;

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 based on propagation information indicating documents in the group to which to propagate the review content based on a review of at least one of the related documents, wherein propagating the review content based on the propagation information comprises at least one of propagating the review content to each of the plurality of related documents or propagating the review content to a subset of the plurality of related documents, wherein the review content comprises redaction information to redact a portion of each of the plurality of related documents or to redact a portion of each document of the subset of the plurality of related documents, and wherein the redaction information specifies one or more locations corresponding to line numbers of each of the plurality of related documents or each document of the subset of the plurality of related documents that are not displayed in response to a query returning the documents.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the review content is indicative of textual information or an annotation.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the process is further to:

receive another 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.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, 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.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the processor is further to:

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

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the review content comprises each addition and each modification of the review content.