System, method, and computer program product for displaying and processing notes containing note segments linked to portions of documents5845301
Abstract
A system, method, and computer program product for annotating an electronic document. An electronic document is displayed. At least one note having at least one note segment is displayed. The note segment is linked to at least one portion of the electronic document. Location identification information is displayed that identifies a location of the portion in the electronic document that is linked to the note segment. This location identification information is displayed in the note, proximate to the note segment.
Claims
We claim:
1. A computer based method for annotating an electronic document, comprising the steps of:
(1) displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
(2) displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
(3) displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document; and
(3a) enabling a user to create a new note segment in said at least one note, said new note segment being linked to at least a portion of said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
wherein said new note segment and said at least one note segment are nested note segments.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said location identification information comprises at least one of column information and line information of a start of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein said location identification information comprises at least one of column information and line information of a first text line of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
(4) displaying a first graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one note segment; and
(5) displaying a second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one portion.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein said first and second graphical icons are at least one of the same shape and the same color.
6. The method of claim 4, wherein said first and second graphical icons are the same shape and color.
7. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of:
(6) displaying said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document, if not already being displayed, upon user selection of said first graphical icon.
8. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of:
(6) displaying said at least one note segment, if not already being displayed, upon user selection of said second graphical icon.
9. The method of claim 4, wherein step (5) comprises the step of:
displaying said second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document at a position that is next to a start of said at least one portion.
10. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:
(6) highlighting said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a user-specified highlighting style; and
(7) highlighting said at least one note segment in said at least one note using said user-specified highlighting style.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein steps (6) and (7) collectively comprise the steps of color coding said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document and said at least one note segment with a user-specified color, and color coding said first and second graphical icons displayed in said at least a part of said electronic document using said user-specified color.
12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:
(8) displaying at least one second note segment in said at least one note, said at least one second note segment being linked to at least one second portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
(9) displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one second note segment, second location identification information identifying a location of said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
(10) displaying a third graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one second note segment;
(11) displaying a fourth graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one second portion, said third and fourth graphical icons being identical;
(12) highlighting said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a second user-specified highlighting style; and
(13) highlighting said at least one second note segment in said at least one note using said second user-specified highlighting style.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein said at least one first portion and said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document are at least partially overlapping.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein said first and second graphical icons differ from said third and fourth graphical icons, and wherein said first user-specified highlighting style differs from said second user-specified highlighting style.
15. The method of claim 13, wherein said first and second graphical icons have a first shape, and said third and fourth graphical icons have a second shape different from said first shape.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein said first and second shapes are user-selectable.
17. The method of claim 13, wherein said first and second graphical icons have a first color, and said third and fourth graphical icons have a second color different from said first color.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein said first and second colors are user-selectable.
19. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:
(4) displaying a user-provided note title in said at least one note.
20. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
(4) displaying a list of said at least one note and any other notes in a note list menu; and
(5) enabling a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by reference to said list.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein step (4) comprises the step of displaying a list of titles corresponding to said at least one note and said any other notes in said note list menu; and
wherein step (5) comprises the step of enabling a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by selecting a corresponding title in said note list menu.
22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of:
(6) enabling a user to specify a note sorting preference;
wherein step (4) further comprises the step of displaying said list of titles corresponding to said at least one note and said any other notes in said note list menu, wherein said list of titles is ordered according to said note sorting preference.
23. The method of claim 22, wherein step (6) comprises the steps of:
enabling a user to specify note sorting according to title;
enabling a user to specify note sorting according to color and title; and
enabling a user to specify note sorting according to note location;
wherein step (4) further comprises the steps of:
displaying said list of titles sorted by note titles if a user specified note sorting according to title;
displaying said list of titles sorted by color of notes and note titles if a user specified note sorting according to color and title; and
displaying said list of titles sorted by note locations in the document if a user specified note sorting according to note location.
24. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:
(4) enabling a user to create a plurality of nested note segments linked to at least partially overlapping portions of said at least apart of said electronic document.
25. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
(4) enabling a user to select a second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
(5) automatically creating a second new note segment in said at least one note; and
(6) automatically linking said second new note segment to said second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
26. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:
(4) enabling a user to paste arbitrary text into said at least one note segment.
27. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one note segment and additional note segments are linked to nested portions of said electronic document.
28. The method of claim 27, wherein said nested portions of said electronic document represent at least partially overlapping portions contained in said at least a part of said electronic document.
29. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:
(4) enabling a user to insert into said at least one note segment at least one of
(a) a user-selected portion of said electronic document,
(b) a user-selected portion from another electronic document, and
(c) user-created work product.
30. A system for annotating an electronic document, comprising:
document displaying means for displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
location identification information displaying means for displaying in said at least one proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document; and
means for enabling a user to create a new note segment in said at least one note, said new note segment being linked to at least a portion of said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
wherein said new note segment and said at least one note segment are nested note segments.
31. The system of claim 30, wherein said location identification information comprises at least one of column information and line information of a start of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
32. The system of claim 31, wherein said location identification information comprises at least one of column information and line information of a first text line of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
33. The system of claim 30, further comprising:
first graphical icon displaying means for displaying a first graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one note segment; and
second graphical icon displaying means for displaying a second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one portion.
34. The system of claim 33, wherein said first and second graphical icons are at least one of the same shape and the same color.
35. The system of claim 33, wherein said first and second graphical icons are the same shape and color.
36. The system of claim 33, further comprising:
means for displaying said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document, if not already being displayed, upon user selection of said first graphical icon.
37. The system of claim 33, further comprising:
means for displaying said at least one note segment, if not already being displayed, upon user selection of said second graphical icon.
38. The system of claim 33, wherein said second graphical icon displaying means comprises:
means for displaying said second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document at a position that is next to a start of said at least one portion.
39. The system of claim 33, further comprising:
first highlighting means for highlighting said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a user-specified highlighting style; and
second highlighting means for highlighting said at least one note segment in said at least one note using said user-specified highlighting style.
40. The system of claim 39, wherein said first highlighting means and said second highlighting means operate to color code said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document and said at least one note segment with a user-specified color, and to color code said first and second graphical icons displayed in said at least a part of said electronic document using said user-specified color.
41. The system of claim 39, further comprising:
means for displaying at least one second note segment in said at least one note, said at least one second note segment being linked to at least one second portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
means for displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one second note segment, second location identification information identifying a location of said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
means for displaying a third graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one second note segment;
means for displaying a fourth graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one second portion, said third and fourth graphical icons being identical;
means for highlighting said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a second user-specified highlighting style; and
means for highlighting said at least one second note segment in said at least one note using said second user-specified highlighting style.
42. The system of claim 41, wherein said at least one first portion and said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document are at least partially overlapping.
43. The system of claim 42, wherein said first and second graphical icons differ from said third and fourth graphical icons, and wherein said first user-specified highlighting style differs from said second user-specified highlighting style.
44. The system of claim 42, wherein said first and second graphical icons have a first shape, and said third and fourth graphical icons have a second shape different from said first shape.
45. The system of claim 44, wherein said first and second shapes are user-selectable.
46. The system of claim 42, wherein said first and second graphical icons have a first color, and said third and fourth graphical icons have a second color different from said first color.
47. The system of claim 46, wherein said first and second colors are user-selectable.
48. The system of claim 30, further comprising:
means for displaying a user-provided note title in said at least one note.
49. The system of claim 30, further comprising:
list displaying means for displaying a list of said at least one note and any other notes in a note list menu; and
user enabling means for enabling a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by reference to said list.
50. The system of claim 49, wherein said list displaying means displays a list of titles corresponding to said at least one note and said any other notes in said note list menu; and
wherein said user enabling means enables a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by selecting a corresponding title in said note list menu.
51. The system of claim 50, further comprising:
sorting preference means for enabling a user to specify a note sorting preference;
wherein said list displaying means displays said list of titles corresponding to said at least one note and said any other notes in said note list menu, wherein said list of titles is ordered according to said note sorting preference.
52. The system of claim 51, wherein said sorting preference means comprises:
means for enabling a user to specify note sorting according to title;
means for enabling a user to specify note sorting according to color and title; and
means for enabling a user to specify note sorting according to note location;
wherein said list displaying means comprises:
means for displaying said list of titles sorted by note titles if a user specified note sorting according to title;
means for displaying said list of titles sorted by color of notes and note titles if a user specified note sorting according to color and title; and
means for displaying said list of titles sorted by note locations in the document if a user specified note sorting according to note location.
53. The system of claim 30, further comprising:
means for enabling a user to create a plurality of nested note segments linked to at least partially overlapping portions of said at least a part of said electronic document.
54. The system of claim 30, further comprising:
means for enabling a user to select a second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
means for automatically creating a second new note segment in said at least one note; and
means for automatically linking said second new note segment to said second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
55. The system of claim 30, further comprising:
means for enabling a user to paste arbitrary text into said at least one note segment.
56. The system of claim 30, wherein said at least one note segment and additional note segments are linked to nested portions of said electronic document.
57. The system of claim 56, wherein said nested portions of said electronic document represent at least partially overlapping portions contained in said at least a part of said electronic document.
58. The system of claim 30, further comprising:
means for enabling a user to insert into said at least one note segment at least one of
(a) a user-selected portion of said electronic document,
(b) a user-selected portion from another electronic document, and
(c) user-created work product.
59. A computer program product, comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, wherein said computer program logic enables a computer to annotate an electronic document, said computer program logic comprising:
document displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
location identification information displaying means for enabling the computer to display in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document; and
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to create a new note segment in said at least one note, said new note segment being linked to at least a portion of said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
wherein said new note segment and said at least one note segment are nested note segments.
60. The computer program product of claim 59, wherein said location identification information comprises at least one of column information and line information of a start of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
61. The computer program product of claim 60, wherein said location identification information comprises at least one of column information and line information of a first text line of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
62. The computer program product of claim 59, said computer program logic further comprising:
first graphical icon displaying means for enabling the computer to display a first graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one note segment; and
second graphical icon displaying means for enabling the computer to display a second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one portion.
63. The computer program product of claim 62, wherein said first and second graphical icons are at least one of the same shape and the same color.
64. The computer program product of claim 62, wherein said first and second graphical icons are the same shape and color.
65. The computer program product of claim 62, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to display said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document, if not already being displayed, upon user selection of said first graphical icon.
66. The computer program product of claim 62, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to display said at least one note segment, if not already being displayed, upon user selection of said second graphical icon.
67. The computer program product of claim 62, wherein said second graphical icon displaying means comprises:
means for enabling the computer to display said second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document at a position that is next to a start of said at least one portion.
68. The computer program product of claim 62, said computer program logic further comprising:
first highlighting means for enabling the computer to highlight said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a user-specified highlighting style; and
second highlighting means for enabling the computer to highlight said at least one note segment in said at least one note using said user-specified highlighting style.
69. The computer program product of claim 68, wherein said first highlighting means and said second highlighting means enable the computer to color code said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document and said at least one note segment with a user-specified color, and to color code said first and second graphical icons displayed in said at least a part of said electronic document using said user-specified color.
70. The computer program product of claim 68, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to display at least one second note segment in said at least one note, said at least one second note segment being linked to at least one second portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
means for enabling the computer to display in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one second note segment, second location identification information identifying a location of said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
means for enabling the computer to display a third graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one second note segment;
means for enabling the computer to display a fourth graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one second portion, said third and fourth graphical icons being identical;
means for enabling the computer to highlight said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a second user-specified highlighting style; and
means for enabling the computer to highlight said at least one second note segment in said at least one note using said second user-specified highlighting style.
71. The computer program product of claim 70, wherein said at least one first portion and said at least one second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document are at least partially overlapping.
72. The computer program product of claim 71, wherein said first and second graphical icons differ from said third and fourth graphical icons, and wherein said first user-specified highlighting style differs from said second user-specified highlighting style.
73. The computer program product of claim 71, wherein said first and second graphical icons have a first shape, and said third and fourth graphical icons have a second shape different from said first shape.
74. The computer program product of claim 73, wherein said first and second shapes are user-selectable.
75. The computer program product of claim 71, wherein said first and second graphical icons have a first color, and said third and fourth graphical icons have a second color different from said first color.
76. The computer program product of claim 75, wherein said first and second colors are user-selectable.
77. The computer program product of claim 59, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to display a user-provided note title in said at least one note.
78. The computer program product of claim 59, said computer program logic further comprising:
list displaying means for enabling the computer to display a list of said at least one note and any other notes in a note list menu; and
user enabling means for enabling the computer to enable a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by reference to said list.
79. The computer program product of claim 78, wherein said list displaying means enables the computer to display a list of titles corresponding to said at least one note and said any other notes in said note list menu; and
wherein said user enabling means enables the computer to enable a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by selecting a corresponding title in said note list menu.
80. The computer program product of claim 79, said computer program logic further comprising:
sorting preference means for enabling the computer to enable a user to specify a note sorting preference;
wherein said list displaying means enables the computer to display said list of titles corresponding to said at least one note and said any other notes in said note list menu, wherein said list of titles is ordered according to said note sorting preference.
81. The computer program product of claim 80, wherein said sorting preference means comprises:
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to specify note sorting according to title;
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to specify note sorting according to color and title; and
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to specify note sorting according to note location;
wherein said list displaying means comprises:
means for enabling the computer to display said list of titles sorted by note titles if a user specified note sorting according to title;
means for enabling the computer to display said list of titles sorted by color of notes and note titles if a user specified note sorting according to color and title; and
means for enabling the computer to display said list of titles sorted by note locations in the document if a user specified note sorting according to note location.
82. The computer program product of claim 59, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to create a plurality of nested note segments linked to at least partially overlapping portions of said at least a part of said electronic document.
83. The computer program product of claim 59, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to select a second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
means for enabling the computer to automatically create a second new note segment in said at least one note; and
means for enabling the computer to automatically link said second new note segment to said second portion in said at least a part of said electronic document.
84. The computer program product of claim 59, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to paste arbitrary text into said at least one note segment.
85. The computer program product of claim 59, wherein said at least one note segment and additional note segments are linked to nested portions of said electronic document.
86. The computer program product of claim 85, wherein said nested portions of said electronic document represent at least partially overlapping portions contained in said at least a part of said electronic document.
87. The computer program product of claim 59, wherein said computer program logic further comprises:
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to insert into said at least one note segment at least one of
(a) a user-selected portion of said electronic document,
(b) a user-selected portion from another electronic document, and
(c) user-created work product.
88. A computer based method for annotating an electronic document, comprising the steps of:
(1) displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
(2) displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
(3) displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
(4) displaying a first graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one note segment;
(5) displaying a second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one portion;
(6) highlighting said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a user-specified highlighting style; and
(7) highlighting said at least one note segment in said at least one note using said user-specified highlighting style.
89. A computer based method for annotating an electronic document, comprising the steps of:
(1) displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
(2) displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
(3) displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document; and
(4) enabling a user to create a plurality of nested note segments linked to at least partially overlapping portions of said electronic document.
90. A computer based method for annotating an electronic document, comprising the steps of:
(1) displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
(2) displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document; and
(3) displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
wherein said at least one note segment and additional note segments are linked to nested portions of said electronic document.
91. A system for annotating an electronic document, comprising:
document displaying means for displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
location identification information displaying means for displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
first graphical icon displaying means for displaying a first graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one note segment;
second graphical icon displaying means for displaying a second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one portion;
first highlighting means for highlighting said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a user-specified highlighting style; and
second highlighting means for highlighting said at least one note segment in said at least one note using said user-specified highlighting style.
92. A system for annotating an electronic document, comprising:
document displaying means for displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
location identification information displaying means for displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document; and
means for enabling a user to create a plurality of nested note segments linked to at least partially overlapping portions of said electronic document.
93. A system for annotating an electronic document, comprising:
document displaying means for displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document; and
location identification information displaying means for displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
wherein said at least one note segment and additional note segments are linked to nested portions of said electronic document.
94. A computer program product, comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, wherein said computer program logic enables a computer to annotate an electronic document, said computer program logic comprising:
document displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
location identification information displaying means for enabling the computer to display in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
first graphical icon displaying means for enabling the computer to display a first graphical icon in said at least one note proximate to said at least one note segment;
second graphical icon displaying means for enabling the computer to display a second graphical icon in said at least a part of said electronic document proximate to said at least one portion;
first highlighting means for enabling the computer to highlight said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document using a user-specified highlighting style; and
second highlighting means for enabling the computer to highlight said at least one note segment in said at least one note using said user-specified highlighting style.
95. A computer program product, comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, wherein said computer program logic enables a computer to annotate an electronic document, said computer program logic comprising:
document displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
location identification information displaying means for enabling the computer to display in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document; and
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to create a plurality of nested note segments linked to at least partially overlapping portions of said electronic document.
96. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, wherein said computer program logic enables a computer to annotate an electronic document, said computer program logic comprising:
document displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document; and
location identification information displaying means for enabling the computer to display in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
wherein said at least one note segment and additional note segments are linked to nested portions of said electronic document.
97. A computer based method for annotating an electronic document, comprising the steps of:
(1) displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
(2) displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
(3) displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
(4) enabling a user to create a new note segment in said at least one note, said new note segment being linked to at least a portion of said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document, wherein said new note segment and said at least one note segment are nested note segments;
(5) enabling a user to specify a note sorting preference;
(6) displaying a list of titles corresponding to said at least one notes, wherein said list of titles is ordered according to said note sorting preference; and
(7) enabling a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by selecting a corresponding title in said note list menu;
wherein step (5) comprises the step of:
enabling a user to specify note sorting according to title, color and title, or note location;
wherein step (6) comprises the steps of:
displaying said list of titles sorted by note titles if a user specified note sorting according to title;
displaying said list of titles sorted by color of notes and note titles if a user specified note sorting according to color and title; and
displaying said list of titles sorted by note locations in the document if a user specified note sorting according to note location.
98. A system for annotating an electronic document, comprising:
document displaying means for displaying at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for displaying at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
location identification information displaying means for displaying in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
means for enabling a user to create a new note segment in said at least one note, said new note segment being linked to at least a portion of said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document, wherein said new note segment and said at least one note segment are nested note segments;
sorting preference means for enabling a user to specify a note sorting preference;
list displaying means for displaying a list of titles corresponding to said at least one note and any other notes, wherein said list of titles is ordered according to said note sorting preference; and
user enabling means for enabling a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by selecting a corresponding title in said note list menu;
wherein said sorting preference means comprises:
means for enabling a user to specify note sorting according to title, color and title, or note location;
wherein said list displaying means comprises:
means for displaying said list of titles sorted by note titles if a user specified note sorting according to title;
means for displaying said list of titles sorted by color of notes and note titles if a user specified note sorting according to color and title; and
means for displaying said list of titles sorted by note locations in the document if a user specified note sorting according to note location.
99. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, wherein said computer program logic when executed enables a computer to annotate an electronic document, said computer program logic comprising:
document displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least a part of said electronic document;
note displaying means for enabling the computer to display at least one note having at least one note segment linked to at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document;
location identification information displaying means for enabling the computer to display in said at least one note, proximate to said at least one note segment, location identification information identifying a location of said at least one portion in said at least a part of said electronic document;
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to create a new note segment in said at least one note, said new note segment being linked to at least a portion of said at least one portion of said at least a part of said electronic document, wherein said new note segment and said at least one note segment are nested note segments;
sorting preference means for enabling the computer to enable a user to specify a note sorting preference;
list displaying means for enabling the computer to display a list of titles corresponding to said at least one note and any other notes, wherein said list of titles is ordered according to said note sorting preference; and
user enabling means for enabling the computer to enable a user to display any of said at least one note and said any other notes by selecting a corresponding title in said note list menu;
wherein said sorting preference means comprises:
means for enabling the computer to enable a user to specify note sorting according to title, color and title, or note location;
wherein said list displaying means comprises:
means for enabling the computer to display said list of titles sorted by note titles if a user specified note sorting according to title;
means for enabling the computer to display said list of titles sorted by color of notes and note titles if a user specified note sorting according to color and title; and
means for enabling the computer to display said list of titles sorted by note locations in the document if a user specified note sorting according to note location.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the fields of publishing, document editing and manipulation, and displaying documents and images. More particularly, the present invention relates to paginating, extracting, synchronizing, and displaying, a document in electronic form.
2. Art Background
As the development of multimedia computer display systems continues to advance, more computing power and features are available to computer users. For example, information which has historically been limited to published paper documents is now being made available through on-line computing services from publishers and information vendors. As an increasing market share of the data and computing capacity is provided through low cost high performance personal computers, some of the on-line information is also being made available in compact disks (CD) and magnetic media formats. Compact disk and magnetic media technology offer cost effective mass storage of documents, images and other data, in a format readily accessible for use with personal computers in a home or office environment. The combination of personal computers, compact disk technology and multimedia interactive graphic user interfaces, permits the access and display of textual and graphic information by personal computer (PC) users in a manner not previously known in the industry. The type of information potentially available to a PC user includes professional and technical publications, newspapers, magazines, and other scientific and literary data and images.
However, much of the information which is published through, for example, government sources, newspapers and magazines is not in machine readable form, but rather is printed on paper. Because of the amount of work and effort required to convert the printed information into a machine readable form, only a small portion of the total published information is currently available for use by PC users using magnetic disks, CDs and the like. In addition, the information which is in machine readable form is typically available either as an image of the original document or as a stream of text data. An image of a document has the advantage of presenting the information in its original format as published, including non-text material, such as drawings, equations, symbols, diagrams, etc. The viewer is familiar with the format, and the information is easily recognized and understood. However, since a document image is often stored as a bitmap, the content of the document cannot be easily searched or manipulated. Alternatively, a text data stream format has the advantage of presenting the information in a manipulable and searchable format. Unfortunately, in many cases, the format of presentation is not the format in which the information was originally published in print. Thus, the users are often unfamiliar with the format, inhibiting easy navigation of the document making information difficult to find and use.
One example of the problem of reproducing originally published documents stored in machine readable form, is the storage and display of United States patent documents by the United States Government. The United States Patent Office (herein referred to as the "PTO") provides magnetic tapes of issued U.S. patents and other documents, in the form of a scanned in image, and as a separate stream of text data. The magnetic tape storing the text data does not include graphical illustrations such as drawings, charts, textual tables, or much in the way of formatting data. Thus, the reproduction of a United States patent from PTO Text Files stored on magnetic tape does not result in the display of a U.S. patent as originally published by the U.S. Government. An example of a well known system for displaying text files provided by the PTO is that of the LexPat.RTM. system provided by Mead Data offered in conjunction with the Lexis.RTM. display system. Using the LexPat.RTM. system, the display of a U.S. patent on a terminal, such as a PC, results in a display of text only, and does not include drawings, charts, graphs, or original formatting information. The text of a selected patent appears in ASCII format, but does not appear as the original patent issued by the PTO, and may not be referenced by the original column and line numbers from the published patent. Other systems display text files of periodicals such as the Wall Street Journal or legal documents such as contracts. However, the text files do not appear as the original documents.
The U.S. Patent Office also provides magnetic tapes with image files comprising a scanned in image of the original U.S. patent issued by the PTO and published by the U.S. Government. The image files provided on magnetic tape by the PTO simply represent a bitmap image of the original published patent. As a scanned in image, the entire patent is provided including drawings, charts, graphs, text and the original format, since it represents a simple bitmap of the scanned original document. However, a scanned document may not be easily searched, edited, navigated or otherwise manipulated as can a text file.
As will be described, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for extracting, synchronizing, displaying, navigating and manipulating text and image documents simultaneously in electronic form. The present invention is described with particular reference for use with U.S. patent documents, and includes the process of extracting patent text and image data from magnetic tapes provided by the PTO, synchronizing the text and image data for recovering the original format (i.e., columns and lines) of the original published patent, and displaying the formatted text along with images using a unique graphical user interface (GUI) workbench. Although the present invention is described with reference to patent documents, it will be appreciated that the invention has application to a variety of different types of documents and applications.
The present invention's graphical user interface permits a user to selectively view ASCII text documents as well as bitmapped scanned images simultaneously on a display. When used in conjunction with U.S. patent documents, the graphic user interface of the present invention allows a user, such as a patent attorney, to display and manipulate both textual as well as graphic portions of patents. The text of a patent may be viewed on the display as it was originally published by the PTO, including column and line numbers. Simultaneously, the user may view the figures of a patent in the form of an image comprising a bitmap. Various functions are provided by the present invention for viewing, manipulating and displaying the patent documents. In order to assist the reader in understanding of graphic user interface (GUI) technology, it is suggested that certain references be considered for background. Many user interfaces utilize metaphors in the design of the interface as a way of maximizing human familiarity, and conveying information between the user and the computer. As for the use of familiar metaphors, such as desktops, notebooks, spread sheets, and the like, the interface takes advantage of existing human mental structures to permit a user to draw upon the metaphor analogy to understand the requirements of the particular computer system. (See for example, Patrick Chan "Learning Considerations in User Interface Design: The Room Model" Report CS-84-16, University of Waterloo, Computer Science Department, Ontario, Canada, July, 1984 and the references cited therein.) In addition, the reader is referred to the following references which describe various aspects, methods and apparatus associated with prior art graphic user interface design: U.S. Pat. No. Re. 32,632; U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,783; U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,412; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,154, and the references cited therein.
As will be described more fully below, the present invention's graphic user interface is based on a desktop "windows" metaphor, and provides the user with the ability to simultaneously display text and image documents in both a synchronized and unsynchronized fashion, as will be more fully described herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for extracting, synchronizing, displaying, and manipulating text and image documents in machine readable form for display. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, text and image files for documents, such as for example patent documents, are initially stored on separate magnetic tape media. These data files are extracted from the respective tapes and placed onto a faster medium, such as a hard disk drive. Catalogues are generated of the contents of the tapes and procedures are provided for locating and loading tapes from a tape inventory. The text and image files are synchronized to produce Equivalent Files using heuristic algorithms to create an approximate equivalence relationship between the text and the image files. In the presently preferred embodiment, the automatic pagination of the text and image files provides an equivalence relationship, and a final Equivalent File is obtained through human intervention to correct any inaccuracies still remaining after the automatic process has been completed. However, the present invention also contemplates an entirely automatic pagination process which would require no human intervention to obtain a usable Equivalent File. A word based inverted tree index is created for the text files to allow for very fast text searching using a graphic user interface (GUI) workbench.
The Equivalent Files and image files residing on, for example, a hard disk drive or compact disk (CD), are coupled as a resource to a computer display system. The computer display system includes a computer having a central processing unit (CPU) coupled to memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry. The computer is also coupled to a CD ROM, hard disk drive, or other mass memory device onto which the Equivalent File and image file have been stored. The computer is coupled to a display, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display, as well as a keyboard and a cursor control device. The graphic user interface of the present invention is displayed by the computer on the CRT, and includes a menu bar and a tool bar, each bar having a plurality of command options for selection by a user. The graphical user interface of the present invention permits the user to display, manipulate, and navigate the Equivalent File created using the process of the present invention, and to simultaneously view the image file on the display. In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, the Equivalent File may be synchronized with the image file, or alternatively, an Equivalent File may be displayed along with a completely separate and distinct image (for example, viewing the Equivalent File of one patent while viewing the image file of another patent). Once created, and as shown on the display, the Equivalent File is displayed in substantially the same column and line format as a printed patent published by the U.S. Government.
Using the graphic user interface of the present invention, a user may create libraries of patent text Equivalent Files and image files, as well as open cases to include a plurality of different patents or other documents. The Equivalent File may be selectively viewed on the display in an equivalent window. The Equivalent File may be navigated, highlighted, searched, and otherwise annotated using highlights, patent and case notes. Simultaneous with the viewing of the Equivalent File of a patent within the equivalent window, the user may view the exact portion of the image file corresponding to the display of the Equivalent File, or any portion of an image file within one or more image windows on the display. The present invention further provides search mechanisms for defining and searching key words chosen by the user or selected from the Equivalent File, or a word list. Boolean and proximity searches may also be performed on the Equivalent File and the results displayed. The search terms may be used to search documents within the equivalent window of a current Equivalent File, current library of documents, documents notes (referred to herein as "patent notes" and/or "case notes"), as well as other selected cases. The word list includes an alphabetical list of all words within the selected library, document or the like. The present invention also permits the user to display an image, for example a patent drawing image, within the image window by placing a cursor in the text of a patent Equivalent File and signaling the computer. In response to this signal, the computer displays the last referenced figure drawing within the image window. The interface of the present invention also permits the user to select portions of text and/or drawings within the image window, and enlarge or reduce the selected image for viewing by the user. The interface further permits the user to select any element number appearing on the patent drawings in the image window. The selection of an element number in a patent drawing results in the automatic highlighting of the first and every subsequent occurrence of that element number in the Equivalent File comprising a specification and claims of the selected patent equivalent displayed in the equivalent window. Additionally, multiple patents, drawings and/or other documents may be viewed simultaneously on the display in accordance with the teachings of the graphic user interface comprising the present invention. A variety of other features and functions are provided by the present invention for the manipulation, navigation and display of patent documents on the user interface. The user may display either a synchronized Image File wherein the image displayed is synchronized with the Equivalent file displayed, or an unsynchronized Image File wherein the image displayed is at some- page other than the one containing the column of text in the Equivalent File. A user may also copy and paste a portion of, or the whole, Equivalent File to notes of third party programs, such as word processors or drawing programs as well as allowing the user to import ASCII text into the notes from third party systems, such as deposition testimony in ASCII format into patent notes that relate to the topic of the testimony. Particularly when using the present invention with patents, it may be used to facilitate patent searching in the preparation and prosecution of patents, licensing of patents, litigation of patents, conducting infringement and validity studies of patents, producing infringement claim charts, managing and valuing a portfolio or group of patents, conducting 35 U.S.C. .sctn.112 searches on patents or pending applications, and many other uses which are regularly performed by a patent attorney, patent agent or technical personnel.
NOTATION AND NOMENCLATURE
In some of the detailed descriptions which follow, the present invention is presented partly in terms of interface display images, process steps, and symbolic representations of operations of data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art.
An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. These steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities may take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, displayed and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, images, terms, numbers, or the like. It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities.
In the present invention, the operations referred to are machine operations performed in conjunction with a human operator. Useful machines for performing the operations of the present invention include general purpose digital computers, digitally controlled displays or other similar devices. In all cases, the reader is advised to keep in mind the distinction between the method of operating a computer and/or display system, and the method of computation itself. The present invention relates to methods for operating a computer and interactive display system, and processing electrical or other physical signals to generate other desired physical signals.
The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing these operations. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. The method steps presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose machines may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove more convenient to construct specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. As such, no particular programming language is provided, as any one of a variety of languages may be utilized to implement the invention. The required structure for a variety of these machines and programming environments will be apparent from the description given below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of production configuration to extract text and image files, paginate the text files with the image files to produce Equivalent Files, and index the Equivalent Files.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the sequence of steps utilized by the present invention to extract text and image files, paginate the text files with the image files to produce Equivalent Piles, index the Equivalent Files and display the Equivalent Files and/or Image Files on a display.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a computer display system incorporating the teachings of the present invention.
FIG. 4 illustrates an enlarged portion of an image file comprising the bibliography page of U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,027.
FIG. 5 illustrates a sample portion of a PTO Text File for U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,027 illustrated in FIG. 4.
FIG. 6 illustrates an example of the column information listed in the PTO Text File for the U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,027 illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5.
FIG. 7 illustrates the paragraph shown in FIG. 6 as it is stored in the PTO Image File for U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,027.
FIG. 8 illustrates the column line number information provided by a published United States patent.
FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart block diagram of the extraction process utilized by the present invention to extract PTO Text Files and PTO Image Files for magnetic tapes provided by the PTO for use by the processing system of the present invention to synchronize and index the text and image files.
FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating the pagination process of the present invention to synchronize the PTO Text File and the PTO Image File to produce an Equivalent File.
FIG. 11 illustrates the user interface of the present invention upon system start including the title, menu and tool bars.
FIG. 12 illustrates the selection by a user of a down arrow function to open a list of available cases.
FIG. 13 illustrates the present invention's use of information arrows to direct the user to currently available options for execution.
FIG. 14 illustrates the patent text toolbox of the present invention and the display of a menu of patent section headings to assist the user in navigating a selected patent.
FIG. 15 illustrates the sub-command items available for selection by a user upon activating the Library menu option.
FIG. 16 illustrates the Set Library Directories dialog box, displayed after selection of the Set Library Directories sub-command item on the Library menu.
FIG. 17 illustrates the New Library dialog box.
FIG. 18 illustrates the Open Library dialog box.
FIG. 19 illustrates the present invention's Library dialog box for working with the library currently in use.
FIG. 20 illustrates the selection of a patent within the Intel.RTM. Library.
FIG. 21 illustrates the present invention's minimization of a library to an icon.
FIG. 22 illustrates the present invention's Update Library dialog box for updating the library currently in use, which in the present example, the Intel.RTM. Library.
FIG. 23 illustrates the present invention's Search Library dialog box which is displayed upon selection of the Search sub-command item from the library menu.
FIG. 24 illustrates the present invention's Word List dialog box which is displayed upon the activation of the Word List button function within the Search Library dialog box.
FIG. 25 illustrates the operation of the present invention's Word List dialog box for selecting an alphabetical tab and viewing the corresponding list of words from the library patents.
FIG. 26 illustrates the present invention's Search Results dialog box identifying the number of occurrences of the search term defined by the user in each of the library patents.
FIG. 27 illustrates the present invention's Library to Case Cross Reference dialog box.
FIG. 28 illustrates the present invention's Patent Text Toolbox for operating upon Equivalent Files displayed in an equivalent window.
FIG. 29 further illustrates the present invention's Patent Text Toolbox for operating upon the Equivalent File within the equivalent window.
FIG. 30 illustrates the present invention's simultaneous display of an equivalent window and an image window, as well as the display of a Patent Image Toolbox for operating upon images displayed within the image window.
FIG. 31 illustrates the present invention's simultaneous and synchronized display of an Equivalent File in an equivalent window and enlarged image displayed in an image window on the display screen.
FIG. 32 illustrates the display of patent section headings and the ability of a user to navigate the patent sections displayed within the equivalent window through the selection of section headings.
FIG. 33 illustrates the present invention's synchronization of an Equivalent File displayed in the equivalent window with the drawings of a patent disposed in an image file displayed in an image window on the display screen. The present invention links references to the figure numbers in the Equivalent File to the figures in the image file displayed in the image window.
FIG. 34 illustrates the present invention's use of an outline box to identify an area of the patent image to be enlarged.
FIG. 35 illustrates the present invention's user interface in which an Equivalent File is displayed in an equivalent window, and simultaneously, an enlarged portion of a figure from the image file is displayed in the image window on the display screen.
FIG. 36 illustrates the present invention's Select Element Number dialog box, which permits a user to input a drawing element and locate the first occurrence and the subsequent occurrences of the drawing element in the Equivalent File displayed in the equivalent window.
FIG. 37 illustrates the present invention's use of highlighting to highlight desired portions of the Equivalent File in various colors.
FIG. 38 illustrates the present invention's display of two equivalent windows and one image window on the display screen.
FIG. 39 illustrates the Import Patents dialog box of the present invention.
FIG. 40 illustrates the Import Patents dialog box after the selection of an Equivalent File to be imported.
FIG. 41 illustrates sub-command items available for selection upon the activation of the Case menu option.
FIG. 42 illustrates the Open Case dialog box which is displayed once the Open Case sub-command item illustrated in FIG. 41 is selected.
FIG. 43 illustrates the New Case dialog box which is displayed upon the selection of the New Case subcommand item illustrated in FIG. 41.
FIG. 44 illustrates the patent number drop down menu which permits a user to select a patent within a case for displaying.
FIG. 45 illustrates the Update Case dialog box which is displayed upon the activation of the Update Case sub-command item illustrated in FIG. 41.
FIG. 46 illustrates the search case dialog box which is displayed upon the selection of the Search sub-command item of the Case menu illustrated in FIG. 41.
FIG. 47 illustrates the Set Case Directories dialog box which is displayed upon the activation of the Set Case Directories sub-command item illustrated in FIG. 41.
FIG. 48 illustrates the Copy to Case dialog box which is displayed upon the selection of the Copy Case sub-command item illustrated in FIG. 41.
FIG. 49 illustrates the Backup Case dialog box which is displayed upon the activation of the Backup Case sub-command item of FIG. 41.
FIG. 50 illustrates the Delete dialog box which is displayed upon the selection of the Delete Case sub-command item illustrated in FIG. 41.
FIG. 51 illustrates the Print dialog box of the present invention which is displayed upon the activation of the Print sub-command item illustrated in FIG. 41.
FIG. 52 illustrates the Print Setup dialog box which is displayed upon the activation of the Print Setup sub-command item illustrated in FIG. 41.
FIG. 53 illustrates the subcommand items available for selection upon the activation of the Edit command option.
FIG. 54 illustrates the sub-command items available for selection by a user upon the activation of the View command option.
FIG. 55 illustrates the Preferences dialog box displayed upon the activation of the Preferences subcommand item of FIG. 54.
FIG. 56 illustrates the Screen Layout dialog box which is displayed upon the selection of a Screen Layout subcommand item of FIG. 54.
FIG. 57 illustrates the user interface of the present invention upon the selection of the Screen Layout of the Screen Layout dialog box illustrating one equivalent window and one image window on the display screen.
FIG. 58 illustrates the user interface of the present invention in which two equivalent windows are displayed side by side on the display screen after selection of Screen Layout of the Screen Layout dialog box.
FIG. 59 illustrates the graphic user interface of the present invention in which two equivalent windows and two image windows are displayed on the display screen subsequent to the selection of Screen Layout of the Screen Layout dialog box.
FIG. 60 illustrates the sub-command items available for selection upon the activation of the Window command option.
FIG. 61 illustrates the patent note menu of the present invention which displays all patent notes which have been generated by a user.
FIG. 62 illustrates a patent note of the present invention.
FIG. 63 illustrates the present invention's use of multi-notes wherein multiple patent notes may be created within a single patent note.
FIG. 64 illustrates the present invention's case note.
FIG. 65 illustrates the minimization of exemplary documents, such as search results and the like on the display of the present invention.
FIG. 66 illustrates the present invention's Go To Section dialog box which permits a user to input a patent column number and upon activation, results in the display of the column in the Equivalent File corresponding to the desired patent column.
FIG. 67 illustrates the present invention's Go To section dialog box which permits a user to select a section of the patent and upon activation, results in the display of the selected section in the Equivalent window.
FIG. 68 illustrates the sub-command items available for selection by a user upon the activation of the Help command option.
FIG. 69 illustrates the About dialog box which is displayed upon the activation of the About subcommand item illustrated in FIG. 68.
FIG. 70 illustrates the sub-command items which are available for selection by a user upon the activation of the Note command option.
FIG. 71 illustrates the case notes in Case dialog box which is displayed upon the selection of the View Case Note sub-command option illustrated in FIG. 70.
FIG. 72 illustrates the patent notes in Case dialog box which is displayed upon the selection of the View Patent Note sub-command item illustrated in FIG. 70.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth such as functional blocks, representative data processing devices, window configurations, specific patent documents, text and drawings, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known circuits and structures are not described in detail in order not to obscure the present invention unnecessarily.
The present invention will be described in various sections including a discussion of the general system configuration, the tape extraction process, the pagination process, the indexing process, and the graphic user interface. It is to be understood that although the following description is directed to U.S. patent documents, the present invention is not limited to patents, and has application to a variety of documents and images, as may be required by a particular application, such as for example, legal contracts, the Wall Street journal, The Los Angeles Times, etc.
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE INVENTION
The general system configuration of the present invention discloses one possible implementation of the present invention for the display, navigation, manipulation and editing of text and image data in a graphical user interface. As will be described, the general system configuration describes a computer display system which may be in the form of a personal computer, workstation, or dedicated processor system to permit the user to utilize the teachings of the present invention. No particular computer hardware is described within this specification, and the general system configuration description is intended to encompass a broad range of possible data processing systems in which the present invention may be implemented.
A general overview of the system of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1, and a flow chart of the primary process steps comprising the method of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 2.
The tape extraction process of the present invention extracts data files from PTO text and PTO Image File magnetic tapes provided by the PTO. The data files are extracted from these tapes onto a faster medium (such as a hard: disk drive) to provide access times which are useful in modern data processing systems. As will be described, the process of extraction involves appropriately generating catalogues and inventories of the contents of the tapes, as well as procedures for selecting and loading tapes from the newly created tape inventories.
The process of paginating the PTO Text Files and the PTO Image Files to produce "Equivalent Files" is performed by using a heuristic set of algorithms to automatically create an approximate equivalent relationship between the text and image files. A human operator verifies the results to finalize the Equivalent File, such that the original formatting of the published patent document is reflected in the Equivalent File.
As will be described, a process for creating an inverted tree index for the text contained in the PTO Text Files is disclosed. This indexing process results in a pre-built index for very fast text searching when using the graphic user interface of the present invention. Although the present invention describes an inverted tape index, other types of text searching methods may be employed, instead of the inverted tape index.
The graphic user interface ("GUI") of the present invention displays the Equivalent File and the PTO Image File, and allows the user to perform analysis on the displayed files or other stored files. The Equivalent File is formatted and displayed with a similar appearance to the PTO Image File, having the same column and line formatting as the published patent. The user may then, for example, use the GUI to perform text searches to generate accurate column and line citations, navigate the Equivalent File via section headings to locate desired sections of text, as well as to view the figures or text images in the displayed files or other stored files. Images and equivalent patent text may be viewed either in a synchronized or unsynchronized fashion using the teachings of the present invention.
GENERAL SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of the present invention's production configuration to extract text and image files, to paginate the text files to produce Equivalent Files, and to index the Equivalent Files. The process begins with the PTO magnetic tapes 1 that are of type 3480 from the PTO. There are three different categories of PTO magnetic tapes: PTO text tapes, PTO image tapes and PTO assignment tapes. A UNIX machine 2 reads the data in the PTO tapes 1 into a large file buffer. The data is then parsed to find each of the documents that are on the tapes. Parsing creates a table which contains patent numbers, the physical locations of the patent files on the tapes, the total number of bytes and other control information about each document that appears on the tape. A document can be either a patent, a certificate of correction, a reissued patent disclaimer or any other post-issuance document. The data can then be either stored in a digital linear tape (DLT) 3 or in any other suitable data storage medium. Because the amount of disk storage space required for the total active set of patents is greater than 1 terabyte (TB), currently the data is stored into libraries 5. The libraries may contain PTO Text Files 6, PTO Image Files 7 and post issuance documents 9. If a disk drive system with a large enough storage is available, the data can be stored in a disk drive. At present, the PTO image tapes are left in their original medium, namely the 3480 magnetic tapes.
Continuing to refer to FIG. 1, when an order 10 requesting a list of patents is entered into a UNIX database 11, the UNIX database 11 sorts the request list by patent location to minimize the number of different tapes that need to be mounted, and sends to the staging machine 8 the list of patents and other pertinent information such as the volume serial number of the tapes, and location information that allows the staging machine 8 to fast forward to the individual patent files that are requested. The staging machine 8 creates a file on its disks of all the text and image portions of each patent that has been requested to process. When the staging machine 8 has the text and image files available, it sends the text and image files to the pagination machine 13.
Further referring to FIG. 1, at present, the pagination machine 13 utilizes one or more DOS based machines 16 to paginate the text and image files and to create Equivalent Files as described more fully in the Terminology and Definition section in this Specification. After pagination, an index machine 19 adds post issuance documents 9 and indexes the Equivalent Files. The index machine 19 incorporates one or more DOS based machines 20. Next, the manufacturing machine 23 creates a CD ROM image of the Equivalent Files and the Image Files and writes the image to a CD ROM and digital linear tapes 28. The manufacturing machine 23 may utilize one or more DOS based machines 27, a CD ROM writer 25 and digital linear tapes 28. The CD ROM with the Equivalent Files and the Image Files are delivered to a user who then uses a system, such as the one illustrated in FIG. 3, to display and manipulate the files. The digital linear tapes with the finished patents are stored in a library 30, and the database 11 is updated so that when a particular patent in the library 30 is requested, the staging machine 8 mounts the finished patent from the library 30, and the database flags that the patent has already been paginated and indexed, so that pagination and indexing steps can be skipped for a faster process. Although in the present invention, specific machines such as UNIX machines and DOS machines are disclosed, these are mere examples of different types of computer systems that can be incorporated and not limitations upon the present invention.
Referring now to FIG. 3, an exemplary computer display system for use in accordance with the teachings of the present invention is shown. The computer system includes a display 40, such as a CRT monitor or a liquid crystal display (LCD), and further includes a cursor control device 42, such as a mouse of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 32,632, a track ball, joy stick, keyboard or other device for selectively positioning a cursor 44 on a display screen 68 of the display 40. Typically, the cursor control device 42 includes a signal generation means, such as a switch 46 having a first position and a second position. For example, the mouse shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 32,632 includes a switch which the user of the computer system uses to generate signals directing the computer to execute certain commands. As illustrated, the cursor control means 42 (hereinafter all types of applicable cursor control devices, such as mice, track bails, joy sticks, graphic tablets, keyboard inputs, and the like, are at times collectively referred to as the "mouse 42") is coupled to a computer 48.
The computer 48 comprises three major components. The first of these is an input/output (I/O) circuit 50 which is used to communicate information in appropriately structured form to and from other portions of the computer 48. In addition, the computer 48 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 52 coupled to the I/O circuit 50 and a memory 55. These elements are those typically found in most general purpose computers, and in fact, computer 48 is intended to be representative of a broad category of data processing devices capable of generating graphic displays.
Also shown in FIG. 3 is a keyboard 56 to input data and commands into the computer 48, as is well known in the art. A mass memory disk 60 is shown coupled to I/O circuit 50 to provide additional storage capability for the computer 48. In addition, a CD ROM 62 and a floppy disk 64 is further coupled to the I/O circuit 50, for providing, as will be described, a library of textual documents and images to be displayed on the display 40. It will be appreciated that additional devices may be coupled to the computer 48 for storing data, such as magnetic tape drives, as well as networks, which are in turn coupled to other data processing systems. A printer 57 is coupled to the I/O circuit 50 for printing documents, images, and the like, as is well known.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, the display 40 includes the display screen 68 in which a window 70 is displayed. The window 70 may be in the form of a rectangle or other well known shape, and may include a menu bar 72 disposed horizontally across the length of the window, or in any other desired position on the window. As is well known, the movement of the mouse 42 may be translated by the computer 48 into movement of the cursor 44 on the display screen 70. The reader is referred to literature cited in the background describing object-oriented display systems generally, and in particular, desktop metaphor window-based systems for additional description related to other computer systems which may be utilized in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. The system illustrated in FIG. 3 is intended to represent a general computer display system capable of providing a graphic user interface display.
In this specification, the present invention is described with reference to the display, navigation, and manipulation of United States patent documents. In particular, the invention is described herein as providing a unique method and apparatus for extracting, paginating, displaying, manipulating, navigating and editing the text of issued United States patents, and simultaneously displaying an image of a patent including the drawings on the display 40. Although the description herein describes the invention with reference to patent documents, as has previously been mentioned, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the present invention may be used in a variety of applications which require the simultaneous display, synchronization of, or unsynchronized display of, text and images on a display. For purposes of this specification, all references to "patents" or documents generally, shall be understood to encompass documents of every type, and are not limited solely to patent documents.
In addition, it will be noted that no particular programming language has been disclosed to implement the present invention using the computer display system illustrated in FIG. 3. A variety of programming languages such as C.sup.tt, Visual Basic, etc. may be used to implement the present invention on many different computer display platforms, using the teachings described herein.
TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS
A "PTO Image File" is an electronically stored data file in the format specified in the document: "U.S. Patent and Trademark Office APS U.S. Patent Image Data File". Each of these files contains one or more image pages from a patent document Each image page in a PTO Image File is an electronic representation of an actual page of a patent or a related patent document (such as a Certificate of Correction). The image pages are created by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the use of an electronic scanner, and are stored in the PTO Image File in Group 4 compressed format (see Federal Information Processing Standards publication 150: "Facsimile Coding Schemes and Coding Control Functions For Group 4 Facsimile Apparatus"). An enlarged portion of an exemplary image page (the bibliography page of U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,027) is shown in FIG. 4.
A "PTO Text File" is an electronically stored data file in the format specified in the document: "U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Full-Text/APS File". Each of these files contains an ASCII text representation of most of the textual data in a patent document. Generally, the bibliography information and the text paragraphs in the main body of the patent will be found in this file. Some equations and tables of textual information that appear in a patent will also be stored in this type of file. Visual information, such as diagrams and tables containing information of a graphical nature, and formatting information will not be found in the PTO Text File. In addition, the column and line number information that appears on published patents is not stored in the PTO Text File nor is the format of the bibliographical page.
The ASCII data in a PTO Text File is stored in fixed-length eighty character records. The first four characters of each record are an ID code that identifies what type of data the record contains, the fifth character is a blank, and the last seventy-five characters of the record store the actual data values. If the first four characters are all blanks, then the record is a continuation of the previous record.
For example, in the PTO Text File for U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,027 (part of which is illustrated in FIG. 5), there is a record that begins with "TTL" followed by Microprocessor breakpoint apparatus. This "TTL" record stores the title of the patent which is "Microprocessor breakpoint apparatus". One of these "TTL" records is required in every patent.
Another record, which begins with "ISD" and contains "19921117", shows the issue date of the patent which is Nov. 17, 1992.
In both of the above examples, the amount of data to be stored is seventy-five characters or less and therefore fits in one record. In many instances, there is too much data to fit in one record. Paragraphs of text from the main body of the patent are often split into multiple records because they have more than seventy-five characters. The first record of such a paragraph would start with an identifier ("ID") such as "PAR" (which indicates a paragraph whose first line is indented). The subsequent records used to hold the paragraph would start with an ID of four blanks indicating that these records are continuations of the first record. As many words as will fit in the seventy-five characters (without breaking the words) are stored in each record (see FIG. 5).
The PTO Text File stores data relating to a patent in an informational format using ASCII text rather than a visual display format (see FIG. 5). The Text File is comprised of records that contain labeled pieces of information. This is a very convenient format for processing the information about a patent using a computer (such as performing a text search or navigating the text of the patent).
The PTO Image File stores data relating to a patent in a scanned bitmap display format that is very easy for a human being to work with (see FIG. 4) since it visually appears as the original published patent. The PTO Image File comprises a series of digitized page images that are created by using a page scanning device to capture black and white pictures of typeset patent pages. This is a very convenient format for allowing a human to view the information contained in a patent. For example, the image pages can be printed on a laser printer to produce a readable paper document that visually displays the diagrams, equations and figures of the patent, as it was published by the U.S. Government.
An "Equivalent File" is an electronically stored data file which contains pagination information that details the equivalence relationship between a PTO Text file and a PTO Image File. This relationship makes both the PTO Text file and the PTO Image File more useful by specifying how the record-based ASCII data of the PTO Text file can be manipulated to be substantially equivalent in appearance to the PTO Image File and yet still retain its useful properties as an ASCII file.
"Pagination" is a process by which an Equivalent File is created from a PTO Text File and a PTO Image File. The PTO Image File is read to determine the locations of column breaks, column number, line breaks and line numbers as well as the locations and sizes of imbedded tables, structures, equations, and other non-text information in the specification. Pattern recognition techniques familiar to those skilled in the art are used to block and segment the layout of the image pages.
The PTO Text File is read to determine bibliographic information, figure references, section headings, font style, point size, superscript, subscript, boldness or presence of italicized type, and special characters.
The results of these two operations are then combined either manually, or by the use of Optical Character Recognition techniques to produce the equivalent File, which is n or line numbers. Each of the PTO Text File paragraphs that begins with a bibliographic information ID code is formatted to approximate the appearance of the Bibliography section on a typeset PTO Bibliography Image Page. Likewise each of the text paragraphs from the PTO Text File in the Specification and Claims sections is processed to produce a text file formatted to approximate the appearance of the Specification or Claims section in typeset PTO Specification and Claims image page(s).
The requirement for pagination of the PTO Text File and the PTO Image File arises from several distinct requirements in the field of use. In citing a patent in, for example, a legal proceeding, the specific reference is made by the column number and line number of the portion of interest. These column and line numbers are printed in the published patent and appear in the format of the page represented by the PTO Image File. However, these column and line numbers do not appear in the PTO Text File, making it difficult to discern a proper citation from the PTO Text File. In use, a user may perform a word search on the PTO Text File to locate a specific term. Once located in the PTO Text File, should the user wish to cite that reference, he or she must refer back to the PTO Image File (or the actual paper patent) to locate the exact column number and line number, without the benefit of any information as to that location.
Another requirement for pagination arises from the practice of placing pure images in line with the text in the columns of the patent. For example, a diagram of a structure followed by the text description of that structure, in the PTO Text File would appear only as text, without the image of the structure. The user must refer back to the PTO Image File (or the paper patent) to locate and study the diagram of the structure, again without any information regarding the physical location of the illustration, diagram, figures or the like, from the data in the PTO Text File.
The specific information about how the typesetting equipment processes the data from the PTO Text File to produce the PTO Image File is not available from the U.S. Government. Therefore, the two files must normally be treated as completely separate entities. (The PTO itself uses the files separately on two computers manufactured by Sun Microsystems, Inc.) The PTO Text File is normally used to search for text but has no information as to where or how the information appears in the typeset patent image pages. The PTO Image File is used to view the typeset text, diagrams, figures, and equations but has no representation of the data stored in a format that can be searched by a computer.
The purpose of the Equivalent File of the present invention is to paginate the PTO Text File so that the data in the Text file can be presented in a paginated patent-like format, thus facilitating searching in, and direct citation from the text, a function heretofore not available using the PTO Text Files. The pagination process formats the PTO Text File with correct column breaks, column numbers, end of line breaks, and line numbers, thus allowing direct citation, along with the benefits of pure text searching. The information contained in the Equivalent File can be used in both a familiar visual format by a human being and automatically by the computer at the same time.
A "synchronized" display is a method of navigating an Equivalent File and the corresponding Image File in a way that a user can view a column in the Equivalent file and the same column in the Image File simultaneously. For example, when the user views column 3 of the Equivalent File in a window, he can simultaneously view column 3 of the Image File in another window. Thus, the user can view two files, an Equivalent File and an Image File, in a synchronized manner.
An "unsynchronized" display is a method of displaying one portion of an Equivalent File and another portion of an Image File asynchronously. For example, assume there is a sentence in column 2 of the Equivalent File stating "referring to FIG. 5, the system illustrates . . . ." If a user selects the sentence in the Equivalent File, the Image File will display the first page which contains FIG. 5. Thus, the Equivalent File and the Image File do not refer to the same column, but they refer to the related matters. Another example of an unsynchronized display is displaying one portion of the Equivalent File while displaying a completely unrelated drawing, an unrelated table, or a different text portion of the Image File of the same patent or an Image File of another patent. Accordingly, in an unsynchronized display, there may be no relationship or linkage between the Equivalent File and the Image File displayed simultaneously.
The underlying structure of the information stored in the Equivalent File may be stored in many forms. It may be stored in a binary structure format for fast access by a language that implements structure operations such as the C programming language. Another alternative is to store some of the underlying structural information about the text in a generalized markup language such as SGML (Standardized Generalized Markup Language) and store the raw positional information in a binary structure format. There are many alternatives having their own impact on capabilities, speed, and ease-of-use of the present invention. The reader may therefore implement the present invention in the particular programming language which best accommodates the reader's system requirements. As previously described, the present invention may be implemented using a variety of computer systems, including the system shown in FIG. 3.
The SGML may be used in a variety of applications. The SGML may be used to write a patent application that is equivalent in appearance to a published patent. The SGML may be also utilized to create a compound document that contains both the Equivalent File and bit scanned images of tables, flow charts, equations and the like.
Equivalent Files are associated with at least the following types of synchronization information:
1. Column
The positions within the PTO Text File of the first character of each patent text column as those columns are displayed in the PTO Image File. This permits the present invention to determine which ASCII text is displayed in each column of the main body of the patent.
2. Line
The positions within the PTO Text File of the first character of each line of text as those lines are displayed in the PTO Image File. This permits the present invention to determine which ASCII text is displayed in each line of each column of the main body of the patent.
3. Column Line Number
The approximate line number in the patent column that each line of text in the PTO Text Pile is adjacent to, permitting the present invention to determine the approximate vertical positions of the ASCII text lines displayed in each column of the main body of the patent.
4. Bibliographic formatting
The approximate arrangement of the bibliographic data from the PTO Text File as it appears on the bibliographic page images in the PTO Image File.
5. Graphic Item Locations
The locations in the PTO Image File of the various figures, figure elements, equations, non-text tables, structures and diagrams referred to in the PTO Text File.
6. Sections
The positions within the PTO Text File of the various logical sections of the document (e.g., background of the invention, brief description of the drawings, the claims section, etc.) as they are displayed in the PTO Image File.
7. Font
The font style in which the various ASCII characters in the PTO Text File are displayed in the PTO Image File.
8. Point Size
The font size in which the various ASCII characters in the PTO Text File are displayed in the PTO Image File.
9. Superscript or Subscript
Whether the various ASCII characters in the PTO Text File are displayed as superscripts or subscripts in the PTO Image File.
10. Boldness
The degree of boldness of the font style in which the various ASCII characters in the PTO Text File are displayed in the PTO Image File.
11. Italics
The degree of italicness of the font style in which the various ASCII characters in the PTO Text File are displayed in the PTO Image File.
12. Special Characters
Some of the ASCII characters in the PTO Text File are displayed in the PTO Image File as special characters. Typically a group of characters in the PTO Text File (e.g., ".OMEGA.") will map to one special character in the PTO Image File (e.g., ".OMEGA."). This is due to the ASCII standard not defining many special characters that are useful.
As an example of the "Column" information listed above, refer to the paragraph of text from the main body of U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,027 that begins with "Numerous techniques are used . . . ". FIG. 6 shows how the ASCII characters for this paragraph are stored in the PTO Text File. The same paragraph is displayed in the PTO Image File for U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,027 in FIG. 7.
It should be noted that the paragraph in the PTO Text File (see FIG. 6) is 5 lines long, and that the same paragraph displayed in the PTO Image File (see FIG. 7) is 7 lines long. In addition, no words are broken across lines in the PTO Text File. Words at the ends of lines displayed in the PTO Image File may be split so that part of the word appears at the end of one line, followed by a hyphen, and the rest of the word appears on the next line (e.g., "performance").
The Equivalent File is associated with line numbers to identify which of the ASCII characters in the PTO Text File fall in which lines displayed in the PTO Image File. For example, the Equivalent File would store the lines of the paragraph in the PTO Image File (see FIG. 7) beginning with the following characters in the PTO Text File:
Line 1: The "N" in "Numerous".
Line 2: The "m" in the middle of "performance".
Line 3: The "d" in "development".
Line 4: The "T" in "The".
Line 5: The "p" in "part".
Line 6: The "s" in "some".
Line 7: The "t" in "that".
As an example of the "Column" information listed above, refer to the first page image of the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,027, shown in FIG. 8. As illustrated, the first column of the patent begins with the "M" in "MICROPROCESSOR". The second column of the patent begins with the "d" in "data". These positions are stored in the Equivalent File in order to identify which of the ASCII data in the PTO Text File falls within which columns.
FIG. 8 also shows an example of the "Column Line Number" information listed above. The column of numbers that runs down the middle of the page indicate what line numbers within the patent text columns each of the lines of text falls on. For column 1, shown in FIG. 8, the line that contains "This application is a continuation of application Ser." is line 4 of the column. In column 2, shown in FIG. 8, the line that shows "address at which a breakpoint is to occur. A second" is line 8 of the column. This information is associated with the Equivalent File to identify the approximate vertical position on the page image where a given line of text appears.
As an example of "Bibliographic formatting" information, reference is made to FIGS. 4 and 5. Notice that the title record which starts with "TTL" has its data displayed in bold below the words "United States Patent", the inventor's name, and a horizontal ruler line. Each piece of bibliographic information is stored as a column of text in the Equivalent File.
Paginating the bibliography data from the PTO Text File to the formatting on the bibliography pages in the PTO Image Files also involves adding text labels to the Equivalent File. For example, the characters "United States Patent ›19!" that appear at the top of every bibliography page are not found anywhere in the PTO Text File. These words appear at the top of every patent so their presence in the PTO Image File is unnecessary. However, in order to create an Equivalent File that is similar in appearance to the PTO Image File, these words must be specified in the Equivalent File. The pagination algorithm is designed to add these text labels when they are needed.
EXTRACTION
The extraction process of the present invention is illustrated in block diagram form in FIG. 9. The PTO provides the PTO Text File and PTO Image Files on IBM.RTM. 3480 magnetic tapes. The extraction process identifies the particular IBM.RTM. 3480 tape that a specific PTO Text File or a PTO Image File is located in, extracts those files from the tape(s) and converts them for use by the processing system which synchronizes and indexes the files.
PTO Text Tapes are issued by the PTO on specific calendar dates and contain a unique Volume Serial Number (VSN). All patents issued on a certain date should be present in the tape(s) issued on that date. The tapes do not contain an index. Therefore, extracting a specific PTO Text File requires that the entire 200 MB IBM.RTM. 3480 tape be read into a magnetic disk buffer and stripped of header blocks, tape marks labels, etc., and then parsed to create a Volume Table of Contents (VTOC). The VTOC contains the document number, byte count offset from the beginning of the tape, and the length of the document file in bytes. A separate program may then be used to index the beginning byte of the file and copy the file segment to another file, which then becomes the PTO Text File for the specific patent. It is possible for a PTO Text File to span multiple PTO Text Tapes. When this happens, a procedure is utilized by the present invention to concatenate the multiple file segments together. The VTOC created from the magnetic disk buffer is used to update a Relational Database System (RDB) for future reference, and the buffer is then erased.
INITIAL AUTOMATIC PAGINATION
The initial automatic pagination process is illustrated in flow chart form in FIG. 10. The automatic pagination process utilizes the PTO Text File and creates an Equivalent File that is an initial approximation of the formatting of the original published patent.
The steps of initial pagination of the present invention are as follows:
1. Read the PTO Text File into memory of a computer system (for example, a computer system of the type shown in FIG. 2 may be utilized).
2. Assign each of the ASCII data records that begins with a bibliographic information ID code, an approximate location on the corresponding image page of the PTO Image File at which its data should be displayed. See the document "U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Full-Text/APS File" for a listing of all the bibliographic data record ID codes. Also, see the document "Patents and Trademarks Style Manual" for a specification of how bibliography information is formatted on bibliography pages.
3. Process each of the paragraphs of the main body of the patent. Build a list of the locations of the Logical Groups that are found (see the document "U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Full-Text/APS File" for a listing of the Logical Groups that can appear in the main body of the patent, i.e. "GOVT", "PARN", "BSUM", "DRWD", "DETD", "CLMS", "DCLM").
4. Save the pagination information to disk in an Equivalent File.
In steps 2 and 3 above, the paragraph formatting procedure is performed whenever there is a data value that might span more than one line in the corresponding page image in the PTO Image File. In addition, the autopagination technique may be utilized on compressed data.
Pagination Correction Tool
The pagination correction tool allows a human to check and correct the results of the initial automatic pagination process. A computer system of the type illustrated in FIG. 3 may also be used. This tool is a software program with a graphical user interface that provides the following capabilities, and completes the following steps:
Open and read into memory a PTO Text File;
Open and read into memory a previously edited Equivalent File on media;
Use a cursor control device (for example, mouse 42) to mark or unmark characters that begin a patent column.
Use a cursor control device (for example, mouse 42) to mark or unmark characters that begin lines within a patent column.
Add or remove blank lines to set the appropriate vertical line spacing so that the lines of text fall on the same line numbers of the patent text column they are in as shown in the PTO Image File;
Use a cursor control device to mark or unmark paragraphs as being section titles.
Indicate which figures are on which drawing sheets.
As is typical in computer programs, the specified tasks listed above do not need to be performed in any particular order except that the file must be opened at the beginning and closed (and usually saved) at the end.
Indexing
A B+-tree inverted index of words is generated for a group of one or more Equivalent Files to greatly speed the process of searching the text of the files. These indexes are built from all the words in the PTO Text File. The index generator ignores end-of-line hyphens when building indexes but does not ignore hyphens in the middle of lines.
The present invention utilizes the following build/search index technique: when indices are built, all punctuation marks in a text file are stripped, and the resulting alphanumeric words are entered individually into an index database. The word position in the text file is also stored. For example, a string such as "›Ax,Bx,Cx!" is converted to three separate words--"Ax", "Bx" and "Cx", and the individual words are entered into the index database as three separate items.
When a user enters a search string such as "›Ax,Bx,Cx!", the string is converted into the following tokens: "Ax", "Bx" and "Cx". The tokens are searched using the text conversion technique described above, and the resulting search produces three lists of search matches. These lists are processed and filtered for all occurrences. The occurrence of "Ax" is immediately followed by the occurrence of "Cx". This technique allows words originating from the source text to be searched directly, without the need to store a large number of punctuation mark locations.
USER INTERFACE
The graphic user interface of the present invention is comprised in part of a computer program which is stored in either mass memory 60, CD-ROM 62, or floppy disk 64, of the system illustrated in FIG. 3. Appropriate programming code is loaded into memory 55 by the I/O circuit 50 and executed by the CPU 52. It will be appreciated that the computer program of the present invention may also be stored in random access memory (RAM), or in other machine readable form and media. The graphic user interface displays the Equivalent File and the PTO Image File, described above in previous sections, and provides a variety of viewing and editing options.
Referring now to FIG. 11, the display screen 68 is shown in detail. Illustrated within the display 68, is a title bar 100 for identifying the title of the program in which the user interface of the present invention is utilized. In the example of FIG. 11, the title of the program is PatentWorks Workbench.TM., however, depending on the nature of the program in which the present invention is used, the title may change in accordance with the particular application. In addition, a menu bar 102 is provided which includes a plurality of command options such as "Case", "Edit", "Patent", "Note", "Library", "View", "Window", and "Help". Additionally, other context specific command options may be displayed depending on the specific application in which the present invention is used.
As illustrated in FIG. 11, a tool bar 103 is displayed immediately below the menu bar 102. The tool bar 103 comprises the primary source of options and selection items which a user of the present invention will commonly access. As will be described more fully below, the tool bar of the present invention includes a briefcase icon 106, a direction button 107 for dropping a list of available cases, a light bulb icon 108 for designating a patent to a case, and a direction button 109 for obtaining a list of all patents or other documents which may be displayed in an Equivalent File format from a case. Additionally, a library icon 110 is provided on the tool bar 103, the selection of which provides a listing of all the patents available in the patent library. A magnifying glass icon 112 is displayed for selecting a search box to appear on the display screen. A target icon 113 is provided for identifying search results. Other icons displayed along the menu bar 103 include a printer icon 115 for printing documents. A case note icon 125 for displaying case notes is also provided on the tool bar 103. A patent note icon 126 and a direction button 127 are also provided for reviewing and accessing patent notes.
The specific functions and operations of these various icons and command options displayed on the menu bar 102 and tool bar 103 will be described more fully below. It will be noted that all tool bar icons or button functions have keyboard equivalents designed to allow the user to perform the functions of the icons and button functions without using the cursor control device. All of the functions of the tool bar 103 are also displayed in the menu bar drop down menus. Additionally, as shown in FIG. 11, two instructional arrows 129 and 130 are displayed on screen 68. The instructional arrows 129 and 130 provide initial instruction to the user to begin work using the interface of the present invention. These instructional arrows may be selectively turned on or off by the user. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 11, in the lower left hand corner of the screen is a minimized image of the current library identified as the
Referring again to FIG. 11 and FIG. 3, in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a user may access various functions by placing the cursor 44 over a command option on the menu bar 102 and signaling the CPU 52 using the mouse 42 or keyboard 56. A variety of methodologies may be employed for the selection of subcommand items illustrated in the various drop down menus once a command option on a menu is selected. The present invention operates independently of the particular methodology for function selection employed by the computer system illustrated in FIG. 3.
As illustrated in FIG. 12 and FIG. 3, the placement of cursor 44 over the direction button 107, and the activation of button function 107 using either the mouse 42 or the keyboard 56, results in the display of a list 132. The list 132 lists all the cases in the system. In the example illustrated in FIG. 12, there is currently one case which exists in the "System" library, and which is referred to as "demonstration". It will be appreciated that if the "System" library includes additional cases, then the names of these cases will be displayed in the list 132 as well. As illustrated in FIG. 13, the selection of the case referred to as "demonstration" results in the display of the case name along the tool bar 103. Additionally, the instructional arrows of the present invention provide guidance to the user as to available options which may be selected in the current state of the user interface. For example, in FIG. 13, instructional arrow 139 instructs the user to click on down arrow 109 to open and view the list of patents already disposed within the case "demonstration". Instructional arrow 140 informs the user that he may click on the library icon 110 to open the library and add patents to the case "demonstration". A case may contain patents from several libraries.
Referring now to FIG. 14, assume for example that a user activates button function 109 which results in the display of patents within the case "demonstration". Assume further that the user has selected U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,478 (hereinafter "478"). As shown in FIG. 14, the computer system illustrated in FIG. 3 displays the Equivalent File of the '478 Patent in an equivalent window 160. As previously described in the specification, the Equivalent File of the '478 Patent was generated in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, including the processes of extraction, synchronization, indexing and the like as hereinabove described. Additional features of the equivalent window 160, and its operation in conjunction with other functions of the present invention will be described in more detail below. Also shown in FIG. 14, is a Patent Text Toolbox 162. A downward arrow button function 165 has been activated in FIG. 14 by a user, resulting in the display of a drop down list 170. As shown, the drop down list 170 includes a listing of the sections of the Patent '478 displayed in the equivalent window 160.
As will be described, a user may quickly navigate from section to section by selecting one of the various sections of Patent '478 displayed in list 170. For example, in FIG. 14, the bibliography section has been selected. In response to the selection of the bibliography section by the user, the CPU 52, illustrated in FIG. 2, displays the bibliography portion of the Equivalent File in the equivalent window 160. A user may verify that the bibliography section is currently being displayed within the equivalent window 160, by observing a letter "B" (referred to by numeral 175) displayed along the right edge of the equivalent window 160. In the present example, the letter "B" indicates that the text displayed within the equivalent window 160 corresponds to the bibliography section of the patent. Additional features and functions of the equivalent window 160 will be described more fully below.
As illustrated in FIG. 15, the activation of the library menu on menu bar 102 results in the display of a library drop down menu 150. The menu 150 includes a variety of command items including "Open Library", "Search", "Case Cross Reference", and "Set Library Directories". For purposes of this specification, a description of the various functions of the present invention will be set forth below. However, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, that the operation of the present invention is dynamic, and that a particular order or sequence of events illustrated herein is only one of a variety of possible sequences of images and operations which the present invention is capable of performing. Since the present invention comprises a graphic user interface which permits an operator to interact with the computer system illustrated in FIG. 3, the particular sequences of operations and displays generated herein, are dependent upon the computer system illustrated in FIG. 3 in cooperation with the human operator.
Referring now to FIG. 16, assume for example that a user selects the function "Set Library Directories" from the library drop down menu 150 illustrated in FIG. 15. In response to the selection of the Set Libraries Directories command, the CPU 52 in FIG. 2 displays a Set Library Directories dialog box 175 as shown in FIG. 16. The Set Library Directories dialog box 175 permits a user to define the directories that contain libraries, and the directory used when creating new libraries. The Set Library Directories dialog box 175 includes a variety of dialog box options. As shown in FIG. 16, a directories window 180 displays current directories available to the user. A user may place cursor 44 in FIG. 3 over a desired directory, and signal the computer to select the directory using the keyboard 56 or the mouse 42 in FIG. 3. After the selection of a directory, the directory may be added to the path list using the add directory button function 185. By double clicking on a directory to open the directory, the directories contained in the selected directory are then listed below the selected directory within a window 180. Additionally, various drives may be selected such as the CD drive 62 (see FIG. 3). An icon representation of the CD drive 62 is also displayed in the Set Library Directories dialog box 175. For example, in FIG. 16 the CD drive 62 is represented by an icon 200. By clicking on an icon to select it, all directories contained on the selected drive are then listed in the directories list displayed in window 180. As illustrated, the currently selected directory is also identified within the Set Library Directories dialog box 175. The currently selected directory may be a directory selected from the directories list or path list. Once a user has selected a directory, the activation of the add directory button function 185 adds the directory to the list of directories containing libraries in the window 190. A button function Remove Directory 205 removes a selected directory from the path list. Once removed, the directory is no longer used in searches for available libraries. The Set Library Directories dialog box 175 also includes a Set as Default button function 210. The Set as Default button 210 sets the currently selected directory as the default directory. When setting directories for libraries, the directory set as a default is the directory where new libraries are created. As illustrated in FIG. 16, the Set Library Directories dialog box 175 also identifies the current default directory.
Referring now to FIG. 17, selecting a New Library option from menu 150 in FIG. 15, results in the display of a New Library dialog box 225. Using the keyboard 56 in FIG. 3 or other input device, a user may then input a library name into an open field 230 for the new library, and create a new library using the inputted name.
The selection of the Open Library sub-command item from menu 150 in FIG. 15 results in the computer 48 in FIG. 3 generating and displaying an Open Library dialog box 235, illustrated in FIG. 18. As shown in FIG. 18, the Open Library dialog box 235 includes a field 237 which displays previously created libraries in reference to only those libraries found in directories specified in the window 190. Additionally, the libraries are identified by name, for example, an "aaa" library 240 and a "bbb" library 242, are illustrated within the field 237. A scroll bar (not shown) is provided to permit the user to scroll through the various libraries in the event there are more libraries than can be displayed within the field 237 at any one time. The particular mechanism for scrolling will not be disclosed herein, since the scrolling of textual windows is known in the art.
In the presently preferred embodiment, referring to FIG. 18 and FIG. 3, a library is selected by the user by placing the cursor 44 over a library icon 238, or the name of the library, and double clicking switch 46 on the cursor control device 42. Alternatively, by placing cursor 44 over the name of the library or icon 238 and clicking switch 46 a single time, the library is highlighted. The library may then be selected by placing the cursor 44 over the OK button 250 and clicking switch 46. As shown in FIG. 18, once a library is selected (in the example of FIG. 18, the library "bbb"), the computer 48 highlights the name of the library. As used in this specification, a "library" contains a collection of electronic patents, which includes the Equivalent File and PTO Image File of each listed patent.
Referring now to FIG. 19, the selection of a library (in the present example, the "bbb" library) results in the computer 48 in FIG. 3 generating and displaying a Library content dialog box 260. As shown, box 260 includes a field 262 in which all patents comprising the selected library are listed. In the example illustrated in FIG. 19, the "bbb" Library includes only four patents (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,760,478; 4,783,757; 5,073,969 and 5,165,027). Additionally, all patents disposed within a library are identified by a light bulb icon 265 as well as the patent number as shown in the figure. Additional patent specific information may also be included such as inventor's name, assignee information, patent titles, etc. Box 260 further includes a patent library icon 270 to denote box 260 as comprising library patents, as opposed to case patents which will be described below. Box 260 further includes a variety of other button functions, such as a "remove" button 274 to remove a patent from the library, a "create a new case" button 276 for creating a new case from within the library box 260, and an "add to" button 278 for adding patents to a case.
In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 19, box 260 includes a "select all" button function 284 to choose all patents in the library window 262 to add. A user may select a single patent to view, in which case, the computer displays the patent Equivalent File in the equivalent window 160 illustrated in FIG. 14. The selection of an OK button 286 dismisses the window 260 and executes the function which the user has selected.
As shown in FIG. 20, the selection of Patent '478 by the user results in that patent being highlighted on the display. Box 260 further includes a downward arrow button 290 to minimize box 260 into the library icon 270, as shown in FIG. 21. To minimize box 260, cursor 44 of FIG. 3 is placed over button 290, and the mouse 42 of FIG. 3 is momentarily clicked. Computer 48 of FIG. 3, sensing the momentary depressing of switch 46, minimizes the box 260 as shown in FIG. 21 as the library icon 270 identified by the name of the library which has been minimized.
The selection of the Update Library sub-command item within menu 150 of FIG. 15 results in the displa |
