Expeditious citation indexing

An apparatus for indexing patent related prior art citations, comprising:

• means for obtaining one or more electronic documents from a patent information system;
• means for identifying a citation within the one or more electronic documents;
• means for comparing the citation to a primary trusted records list;
• and
• means for outputting the citation.

A computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon computer-readable instructions for categorizing patent related prior art citations, comprising instructions configured to cause at least one processor to:

• obtain an electronic document from a patent information system;
• identify a citation within the electronic document;
• compare the citation to a primary trusted records list;
• and
• output the citation.

An apparatus for categorizing patent related prior art citations, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable memory;
• a plurality of modules comprising processor executable code stored in the non-transitory computer-readable memory;
• a processor connected to the non-transitory computer-readable memory and configured to access the plurality of modules stored in the non-transitory computer readable memory;
• and
• a citation analysis module configured to
• obtain an electronic document from a patent information system;
• identify a citation within the electronic document;
• compare the citation to a primary trusted records list;
• and
• output the citation.