Archive for February 6th, 2007

Multi-language document search and retrieval system

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

Title:   Multi-language document search and retrieval system

Type:  issued patent

Patent number:  7,174,290

Issue date:  February 6, 2007

Filing date:  July 7, 2003 (priority to November 30, 1998)

Link to PDF: 

AIPW Summary:  A system for multi-lingual searching and indexing. A string of text is separated into individual words (tokens), with non-indexable tokens being removed. The words are then reduced to their grammatical stems and indexed. A problem with this process is that it is language-dependent. This invention improves both phases to be multi-lingual by removing accent marks from words and word endings from multiple languages. For example, during the tokenization phase, words that would not normally be indexed in one language would not be indexed from any language. The patent gives the example of the word “the” in English (which would not be indexed) and the word “thé” in French (which would be indexed). Under this invention, the string “the” would not be indexed, since in English it would not be indexed (see column 5, lines 21-41).

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Extensible, replaceable network component system

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

Title:  Extensible, replaceable network component system

Type:  reissued patent

Patent number:  RE39,486

Issue date:  February 6, 2007

Filing date: April 3, 2003 (May 5, 1995)

Link to PDF: 

AIPW Summary:  This patent presents a different (although not unique) case because it is a reissue of a previously issued patent (6,212,575  ). A broadening reissue case (like this one) can be filed up to two years from the issue date of the patent to be reissued (which, in this case, was filed on the two year deadline). A broadening reissue permits the patent holder to reopen prosecution of the case to attempt to obtain broader claims than in the originally issued case. The reissued patent adds claims 14-20 to the case.

This patent relates to a platform for developing network navigation components that can operate across different computer systems via APIs. Components are designed to provide a specific service, and can be added and removed without affecting the overall operation of the system. Figure 4 provides a good overview of the system. According to the patent, this invention relates to the OpenDoc operating environment (OpenDoc background; OpenDoc developer documentation).

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