List-based entity name detection

A system for detecting ambiguous entity names in documents, comprising:

• an ambiguous entity name detector comprising one or more computing devices, and an ambiguous entity name detection computer program having a plurality of sub-programs executable by said computing device or devices, wherein the sub-programs configure said computing device or devices to,
• access document data,
• identify each list structure in the document data,
• for each list structure,
• separate the words in each list structure into candidate entity names,
• compare each candidate entity name to a known entity name listing, wherein the known entity name listing comprises known non-ambiguous entity names each of which is assigned a single entity type and a single category, and further comprises known ambiguous entity names each of which is assigned a single entity type and a single category, and wherein an entity name in the known entity name listing is an ambiguous entity name if that entity name can correspond to a known entity name or to an unrelated item, and
• whenever there is a match found between at least one candidate entity name and an ambiguous entity name in the known entity name listing, for each candidate entity name matching such an ambiguous entity name, determine if there is a match between another candidate entity name and a non-ambiguous entity name in the known entity name listing whose assigned entity type and category matches the entity type and category assigned to the ambiguous entity name in the known entity name listing that matched the candidate entity name under consideration, and whenever such an entity type and category match exists, designate the candidate entity name under consideration as corresponding to the matching ambiguous entity name in the known entity name listing.

A system for detecting generic entity names in documents and associating a detected generic entity name with an applicable species entity name, comprising:

• a generic entity name detector comprising one or more computing devices, and a generic entity name detection computer program having a plurality of sub-programs executable by said computing device or devices, wherein the sub-programs configure said computing device or devices to,
• access document data,
• identify each list structure in the document data,
• for each list structure,
• separate the words in each list structure into candidate entity names, wherein each candidate entity name comprises a single word or a multiple-word phrase,
• compare each candidate entity name to a known entity name listing, wherein the known entity name listing comprises known non-generic entity names each of which is assigned a single entity type and a single category, and further comprises known generic entity names each of which is associated with a separate sub-list of species entity names applicable to the generic entity name wherein each of the species entity names is assigned a single entity type and a single category, and
• whenever a match is found between at least one candidate entity name and a non-generic entity name in the known entity name listing, as well as a match between at least one candidate entity name and a generic entity name in the known entity name listing, for each candidate entity name found to match a non-generic entity name in the known entity name listing and each candidate entity name found to match a generic entity name in the known entity name listing, identify the species entity name associated with the matching generic entity name that is assigned the same entity type and category as the non-generic entity name in the known entity name listing that matched a candidate entity name, if any, and associate the identified species entity name to the candidate entity name found to match the generic entity name in the known entity name listing as a candidate species entity name.