Patent ID: 6829601
Filing Date: 2004-12-07
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A document management system for accessing documents in response to a referencing request from a document referencing system connected to the document management system via a network, said document management system comprising:a storing device for storing a plurality of documents and relationship information comprising information defining relationships between the plurality of documents and disclosure standards regarding the defined relationships; a receiving unit for receiving identifying information that identifies a first document of the plurality of documents sent from the document referencing system, a request to access documents with an appropriate relationship to said first document, and referencing conditions used for finding out or searching for the appropriate relationship; a processor, coupled to said receiving unit and to said storing device, responsive to said request to access documents with the appropriate relationship to the first document, for selecting a relationship from the relationship information as the appropriate relationship to the first document based on said referencing conditions, conducting a search of the documents and selecting a document that fulfills said selected appropriate relationship to the first document wherein: said selected appropriate relationship is a link between different documents; and said referencing conditions include information showing whether the link is established in accordance with predetermined conditions; and an output device, coupled to said processor and to said network, that sends the selected document to the document referencing system via the network.