Patent Overview
The system of using rated keywords and phrases to describe a subject was invented in 1999 and granted a patent by the USPTO in November
2006 and again in February 2010 (U.S. patent #7664747). A partner with Morgan Finnegan verified the enforceability of the first
patent.
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A highlevel recap of the key claims granted for this patent follow:
A system for creating and maintaining information utilizing user opinions in a database of subjects, available to a population of users, comprising:
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Describing a database subject using a plurality of natural language terms, each of such plurality of natural-language terms having relevance to
the subject according to an involved subset of such population of users;
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Rating the degree of relevance of each of such plurality of natural-language terms to such database subject according to each of such involved
subset of such population of users;
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Associating, in such database, such respective natural-language terms and respective degrees of relevance with each such database
subject;
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Computing, for such involved subset of such population of users, in such database, an overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of
natural-language terms to such database subject;
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Presenting to a particular user information, about a particular such database subject and such associated respective relevant natural language
terms with such respective overall degrees of relevance;
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Collecting, from such particular user, such particular user's opinions about respective degrees of relevance to such particular database subject
of such respective presented natural-language terms;
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Adding such particular user to such involved subset of such population of users and adding such particular user's opinions to such
database;
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Updating, in association with such particular database subject, in such database, such overall degree of relevance of each of such plurality of
natural-language terms associated with such particular database subject; and
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Presenting to a particular user information about a particular such database subject and such associated relevant natural-language terms with
such updated respective overall degrees of relevance.