Computer assisted and/or implemented process and system for annotating and/or linking documents and data, optionally in an intellectual property management system

A computer-implemented system for providing a grouping of annotated electronic documents in an intellectual property environment, said system comprising:

• (A) at least one merge component, to associate document data representative of at least one document and annotation data representative of at least one annotation to be applied to the at least one document, said document data including at least one element corresponding to a location of the at least one annotation within said document;
• and to provide at least one marked-up representation of the at least one document, the at least one marked-up representation having the document data and the annotation data;
• (B) at least one split component, responsive to said at least one marked-up representation, to extract the annotation data and the document data from the at least one marked-up representation;
• and
• (C) at least one version component, to at least one of manage a history of changes and to maintain a separate version for the document data and the annotation data applied thereto.

A system for retrieving and storing a plurality of electronic documents and a plurality of annotations to be applied to the documents, the plurality of documents to be accessed by a plurality of users, the plurality of annotations to be accessed by at least a portion of the users, the system comprising:

• (A) at least one storage portion, to store at least one document and at least one annotation associated therewith;
• (B) at least one server to determine respective locations of the plurality of documents including the at least one document, and the plurality of annotations including the at least one annotation;
• and
• (C) at least one manager, to determine a location of the at least one document and at least one annotation to be applied thereto, stored in the at least one storage portion, and to at least one of retrieve from and store in, via the at least one server, the at least one document and the at least one annotation to be applied thereto, in the at least one storage portion;
• and to provide the at least one document with the at least one annotation applied thereto.

In a computer-implemented system, a method for annotating electronic documents in an intellectual property environment, comprising the at least one of sequential, non-sequential, and sequence independent steps of:

• (A) providing at least one document;
• (B) determining at least one section of the at least one document to be annotated;
• (C) determining at least one annotation to be applied to the at least one section;
• (D) associating the at least one annotation with the at least one section;
• and
• (E) storing the at least one annotation for later retrieval, wherein the annotation is stored separately from the at least one document.

In a computer-implemented system, a method for annotating electronic documents in an intellectual property environment, the annotations indicating an evaluation of at least one legal property relative to at least the annotated electronic document, comprising the at least one of sequential, non-sequential, and sequence independent steps of:

• (A) providing at least one document, wherein the at least one document is representative of at least one of:
• a patent document, a trademark document, a copyright document, a product description document, a license document, a sui generic protection document, a design registration document, a trade secret document, and an opinion document;
• (B) determining at least one section of the at least one document to be annotated, including at least one of (i) indicating, responsive to the user, a scope of the at least one section and selecting the at least one section;
• (ii) selecting, responsive to the user, the at least one section from a plurality of pre-determined sections;
• and (iii) automatically or semi-automatically pre-determining a scope of the at least one section, and automatically, manually or semi-automatically selecting the at least one section;
• (C) determining at least one annotation to be applied to the at least one section, including at least one of:
• (i) selecting at least one pre-defined notation;
• (ii) receiving input text;
• (ii) selecting at least one user-defined attribute;
• (iv) receiving a reference to a URL;
• and (v) receiving a reference to a file;
• (D) associating the at least one annotation with the at least one section;
• and
• (E) storing the storing the at least one annotation for later retrieval, wherein the annotation is stored separately from the at least one document.

A computer-implemented system for managing an annotated electronic document in XML format, said system comprising:

• (A) at least one merge component, to associate document data representative of at least one document, and annotation data representative of at least one annotation, to be applied to the at least one document, said document data having an XML format and including at least one element corresponding to a location of the at least one annotation within said document;
• and to provide at least one marked-up representation of the at least one document, the at least one marked-up representation having the document data and the annotation data associated therewith;
• and
• (B) at least one split component, responsive to said at least one marked-up representation, to extract the annotation data and the document data from the at least one marked-up representation;
• (C) wherein the at least one annotation and the at least one document are at least one of stored logically separate and stored physically separate.