Point of law search system and method
AssigneeLexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
InventorsDavid James Miller, Harry R. Silver, Andrew L. Freisthler
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A “More Like This Headnote” search relates online headnotes intelligently so that users have the means to retrieve related headnotes quickly and easily. This is achieved by using a tailored search type in the search engine, which is designed to handle the text of a headnote as a search string. Retrieval logic then presents the search results to the user in a “Virtual Digest” view comprising related headnotes and case materials, sorted by user-selected options.
Claims20
A search method for locating documents discussing a selected idea, implemented by a computer programmed to perform the steps of:
- (a) in response to a user selecting a document having a body discussing ideas, displaying the selected document to the user in a computer screen display in a format with headnotes, wherein the headnotes represent significant ideas identified in the body of the document;
- (b) in response to user selection of one of the headnotes in the display of the selected document, processing the text of the selected headnote to identify phrases and generating a search request based on the processed text;
- (c) using an associative text search engine to conduct a database search using the search request to locate other documents discussing similar ideas;
- and
- (d) using retrieval logic to present to the user in a computer screen display, the results of the search in a digest view comprising at least one of related headnotes and best text, sorted by user-selected options.
A search method for locating documents discussing a selected idea, implemented by a computer programmed to perform the steps of:
- (a) retrieving from a database a document requested by a user, wherein the document has a body discussing ideas and at least one headnote representing a significant idea identified in the body;
- (b) displaying the retrieved document to the user in a computer screen display in a format in which the at least one headnote is displayed;
- (c) generating a search request based at least on a headnote selected by the user in the display of the retrieved document;
- (d) running an associative text search using the search request to identify documents relevant to the idea represented by the selected headnote, the identified documents defining an answer set;
- (e) identifying which, if any, headnotes of the documents in the answer set represent the same idea as the selected headnote;
- (f) determining which, if any, of the identified headnotes are sufficiently relevant to the idea represented in the selected headnote to display to the user;
- (g) if a document in the answer set has no headnotes or has no headnotes representing the same idea point as the selected headnote, identifying portions of text in the document most relevant to the idea represented in the selected headnote;
- (h) determining which, if any, of the identified portions of text are sufficiently relevant to the idea represented in the selected headnote to display to the user;
- (i) if there are sufficiently relevant portions of text to display to the user, identifying the most relevant portion of text;
- and
- (i) displaying the relevant headnotes, if any, and the relevant portions of text, if any, to the user in a computer screen display in a digest view with a list of the citations of the documents in the answer set.
A search system for locating documents discussing a selected idea, implemented using programmable data processing apparatus including computer-readable memory and a display device for displaying information to a user in a screen display, the search system comprising:
- means for retrieving from a database stored in the memory a document requested by a user, wherein the document has a body discussing ideas and at least one headnote representing a significant idea identified in the body;
- means for displaying the retrieved document to the user in the screen display in a format in which the at least one headnote is displayed;
- means for generating a search request based at least on a headnote selected by the user in the display of the retrieved document;
- means for identifying documents relevant to the idea represented in the selected headnote, based on the search request, the identified documents defining an answer set;
- means for identifying which, if any, headnotes of the documents in the answer set discuss the same idea as the selected headnote;
- means for determining which, if any, of the identified headnotes are sufficiently relevant to the idea represented in the selected headnote to display to the user;
- means for identifying portions of text in the document most relevant to the idea represented in the selected headnote, if a case in the answer set has no headnotes or has no headnotes discussing the same idea as the selected headnote;
- means for determining which, if any, of the identified portions of text are sufficiently relevant to the idea represented by the selected headnote to display to the user in a computer screen display;
- means for identifying the most relevant portion of text, if there are sufficiently relevant portions of text to display to the user in a computer screen display;
- and
- means for displaying the relevant headnotes, if any, and the relevant portions of text, if any, to the user in a computer screen display in a digest view with a list of the citations of the identified documents.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.