System and Method to Automatically Enhance Confidence in Intellectual Property Ownership

A system comprising:

• computer hardware in communication with a network and for providing a data store comprising first data stored therein, the first data comprising a plurality of records, each record having a search criteria relating to digital content and annotation data associated therewith relating to at least one of a pedigree of the digital content, licensing information relating to the digital content, and an owner of copyright in the digital content;
• receiving a request comprising one of receiving first digital content and determining first search criteria therefrom and receiving first search criteria derived from first digital content;
• searching the first data to retrieve annotation data associated with the first search criteria;
• and,
• responding to the request with annotation data associated with the first search criteria.