System and method to identify documents in a database which relate to a given document by using recursive searching and no keywords

A method for identifying documents in a database which relate to a document under test, comprising:

• retrieving from the database a list of documents that cite the document under test;
• storing as generation 1 data identifying data corresponding to each reference in the list;
• retrieving from the database each available reference identified by the identifying data stored as generation 1 data;
• and
• storing as generation 2 data identifying data corresponding to each reference cited in the references identified by the generation 1 data.

A method for identifying documents in a database which relate to a document under test, comprising:

• retrieving from the database a list of documents that cite the document under test;
• storing as generation 1 data identifying data corresponding to each document in the list;
• retrieving from the database a list of documents that cite each document identified by the identifying data stored as generation 1 data;
• and
• storing as generation 2 data identifying data corresponding to each document in the list of documents that cite each document identified in the generation 1 data.