Method and system for annotating and/or linking documents and data for intellectual property management

A computer-implemented system for providing annotated electronic documents, the annotations which are applied to the documents being stored in a first data storage, the documents being stored in a second data storage, the first data storage and the second data storage being at least one of physically separate and logically separate, said system comprising:

• a processor which is hardware;
• a merge component, responsive to a request from a user for at least one document, configured to:
• retrieve the at least one document from a second data storage as document data,
• retrieve at least one annotation to apply to said at least one document from the first data storage as annotation data, said document data including at least one element corresponding to a location of the at least one annotation within said document, wherein the annotation data is image data or text, wherein the at least one annotation is permitted to be different from every other annotation;
• and
• combine the document data and the annotation data to form a unitary single logical document displaying the annotation embedded seamlessly in the document data at the location;
• a split component, responsive to a request from the user to store the combined annotation data and document data, configured to:
• extract the annotation data and the document data from the single logical document,
• update the at least one annotation in the first data storage from the extracted annotation data, and
• update the at least one document in the second data storage from the extracted document data;
• and
• at least one version component, configured 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,
• wherein the annotation data indicates both (i) a predetermined section of plural variable-length sections within the document as stored in the second data storage into which the annotation is embedded as indicated by a document-image-independent data schema, and (ii) a content-portion of the predetermined section with which the annotation is associated,
• wherein the merge component, the split component, and the version component, include executable instructions executing in the processor.

A method, in a computer-implemented system for providing annotated electronic documents, the annotations which are applied to the documents being stored in a first data storage, the documents being stored in a second data storage, for annotating documents, implemented by a computer system, said method comprising the at least one of sequential, non-sequential and sequence-independent steps of:

• determining, by the computer system and responsive to a user, at least one annotation to apply to at least one document, including (i) selecting at least a portion of the at least one document for annotation, (ii) associating the at least one annotation with the at least one portion, and (iii) editing the at least one annotation associated with the at least one portion, wherein the annotation is image data or text, wherein the at least one annotation is permitted to be different from every other annotation;
• and
• responsive to the user, at least one of establishing, traversing, indicating, and removing at least one reference between (i) the at least one portion and (ii) at least one of an other portion of the at least one document, an other document, and at least one other portion of the other document;
• and
• by a merge component of the computer system, responsive to a request from the user for the at least one document, retrieving the at least one document from a second data storage as document data, (i) retrieving the at least one annotation to apply to said at least one document from a first data storage as annotation data, and (ii) combining the annotation data and the document data to form a unitary single logical document, the single logical document displaying the annotation embedded seamlessly in the document data,
• by a split component of the computer system, responsive to a request from the user to store the combined annotation data and document data:
• extracting the annotation data and the document data from the single logical document,
• updating the at least one annotation in the first data storage from the extracted annotation data, and
• updating the at least one document in the second data storage from the extracted document data,
• wherein the annotation data indicates both (i) a predetermined section of plural variable-length sections within the document as stored in the second data storage into which the annotation is embedded as indicated by a document-image-independent data schema, and (ii) a content-portion of the predetermined section with which the annotation is associated.

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

• at least one storage portion, to store at least one document and at least one annotation associated with the at least one document;
• at least one server to determine respective locations of (i) the plurality of documents including the at least one document, and (ii) the plurality of annotations including the at least one annotation;
• at least one manager, (i) to determine a location of the at least one document and at least one annotation to apply to the at least one document stored in the at least one storage portion;
• (ii) to at least one of retrieve from and store in, via the at least one server, the at least one document as document data and the at least one annotation to apply to said at least one document as annotation data, in the at least one storage portion;
• and (iii) to provide the at least one document with the at least one annotation applied to a content-portion of a pre-determined section of the document as indicated by a document-image-independent data schema;
• a merge component, responsive to a request from a user for the at least one document, configured to:
• retrieve the at least one document from a second data storage as document data, retrieve the at least one annotation to be applied to said at least one document from a first data storage as annotation data, and combine the annotation data and the document data to form a unitary single logical document, the single logical document displaying the annotation embedded seamlessly in the document data;
• and
• a split component, responsive to a request from the user to store the combined annotation data and document data, configured to:
• extract the annotation data and the document data from the single logical document, update the at least one annotation in the first data storage from the extracted annotation data, and update the at least one document in the second data storage from the extracted document data,
• wherein the annotation data indicates both (i) the predetermined section of plural variable-length sections within the document as stored in the storage portion into which the annotation is embedded as indicated by the document-image-independent data schema, and (ii) the content-portion of the predetermined section with which the annotation is associated.

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

• providing at least one document, as document data;
• determining a content-portion within at least one section of the at least one document for annotation;
• determining at least one annotation to apply to the determined content-portion within the at least one section as indicated by a document-image-independent data schema;
• associating the determined at least one annotation with (i) the content-portion which is determined and (ii) the at least one section;
• storing the determined at least one annotation for later retrieval, as annotation data, wherein the annotation is stored separately from the at least one document;
• in a merge component, responsive to a request from a user for the at least one document:
• retrieving the at least one document from a second data storage as document data, retrieving the at least one annotation to be applied to said at least one document from a first data storage as annotation data, and combining the annotation data and the document data to form a unitary single logical document, the single logical document displaying the annotation embedded seamlessly in the document data;
• and
• in a split component, responsive to a request from the user to store the combined annotation data and document data:
• extracting the annotation data and the document data from the single logical document, updating the at least one annotation in the first data storage from the extracted annotation data, and updating the at least one document in the second data storage from the extracted document data,
• wherein the annotation data indicates both (i) the at least one section of plural variable-length sections within the document into which the at least one annotation, which is determined, is embedded as indicated by the document-image-independent data schema, and (ii) a content-portion of the at least one section, which is determined, with which the annotation is associated.

A method, in a computer-implemented system, 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 performed by a computer of:

• providing at least one document as document data, 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;
• determining at least one section of the at least one document for annotation as indicated by a document-image-independent data schema, including at least one of (i) indicating, responsive to a user, a content-portion of the at least one section and selecting the at least one section;
• (ii) selecting, responsive to the user, as the content-portion, the at least one section from a plurality of pre-determined sections of the at least one document;
• and (iii) automatically or semi-automatically pre-determining a content-portion of the at least one section, and automatically, manually or semi-automatically selecting the at least one section;
• determining at least one annotation to apply to the content-portion, 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;
• associating (i) the determined at least one annotation with (ii) the content-portion of the at least one section as indicated by the document-image-independent data schema;
• storing the determined at least one annotation, for later retrieval, as annotation data, wherein the determined at least one annotation is stored separately from the at least one document;
• in a merge component, responsive to a request from the user for the at least one document:
• retrieving the at least one document from a second data storage as document data, retrieving the at least one annotation to be applied to said at least one document from a first data storage as annotation data, and combining the annotation data and the document data to form a unitary single logical document, the single logical document displaying the annotation embedded seamlessly in the document data;
• and
• in a split component, responsive to a request from the user to store the combined annotation data and document data:
• extracting the annotation data and the document data from the single logical document, updating the at least one annotation in the first data storage from the extracted annotation data, and updating the at least one document in the second data storage from the extracted document data,
• wherein the annotation data indicates both (i) the at least one section of plural variable-length sections within the document into which the determined at least one annotation is embedded as indicated by the document-image-independent data schema, and (ii) the content-portion of the at least one section, with which the annotation is associated.