Method and system for periodically updating data records having an expiry time

A method and system for information delivery of a computer system. The method includes the steps of storing a first data including a program and potentially reusable data on a storage medium of a computer system. In turn, a second data including control data is subsequently stored on the same storage medium as the first data. The contents of the control data is unknown at the time the first data was stored. The control data corresponds to a subset of the potentially reusable data. The program is executed and combines the control data and the potentially reusable data to create on the storage medium of the computer system a third data including newly indexed available information. Information is delivered by sending a plurality of transmissions where known data is sent in advance to minimize the subsequent delivery of unknown control data that becomes known based upon a future event.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention generally relates to a method and system of information 
delivery, and more specifically relates to a method and system which 
optimizes the delivery of time sensitive information. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
As technology progresses in the digital age, there has been the continued 
challenge to serve the growing and changing information needs of society. 
Technology has constantly reinvented new ways of utilizing data by 
optimizing the space and time necessary for the storage, transfer, 
compilation, and arrangement of information. Methods of data delivery have 
included the compression and/or ciphering of data sent via floppy 
diskette, compact disc (CD-ROM), or e-mail and by receiving data from 
centralized sources such as the Internet, Bulletin Board System (BBS), or 
other on-line services. 
A variety of recent advances in data delivery methods are known such as: 
metering the on-site usage of licensed software on fixed media; remote 
installation of software upgrades; and data on-demand services which offer 
novel ways for optimizing customized data distribution to subscribers. The 
common focus of these methods is splitting and recombining information in 
order to achieve more progressive solutions for data delivery. However, 
due to subscription data size and limited end user technology to support 
such information, the commercial data vendor in an effort to manage profit 
and control achieves delivery by maintaining an on-line centralized 
database where the subscriber uses a centralized information delivery 
program to download information from and have conditional access to. 
Such centralized information delivery programs rely on a fairly extensive 
library of known desired data. As a result, new data with references not 
listed in the original library files are unknown to the subscriber. Thus, 
the reference libraries require frequent updates to remain current with 
the new data. If the information provider is lax in providing updates, or 
the subscriber is lax in obtaining and employing available updates, the 
centralized information delivery program may become obsolete within only a 
few months after installation. Furthermore, the centralization of 
information oftentimes results in placing greater demands on data search 
engines. For example, when querying from a centralized data source, 
substantially all of the data is searched by the search engine in order to 
perform retrievals. Such an exhaustive search may result in a longer 
period of time for the search engine to complete its task. 
On-line databases, since their inception, have been the most desirable way 
to access information from large bodies of data. This was especially the 
case in the early 1980's when off-line desktop storage was at a premium 
and data transmission speed was slow. Lobby power helped influence the 
defining of boundaries between the government's mission of information 
dissemination and issues of competition with the private sector. The 
Reagan administration issued a proposal to prevent government agencies 
from providing on-line access, restricting the federal role of government 
to that of a wholesaler. Monopolies were forged with select commercial 
data vendors in the private sector to provide access to public 
information. Few could afford the expense of buying data up-front for the 
luxury and privacy of having unlimited searching and retrieval of this 
information off-line. As a result, searching and retrieval have been 
limited to either strictly on-line systems or strictly off-line systems. 
The introduction of CD-ROM, has allowed providers to distribute discs that 
contain summaries or abstracts of the full document, and reach a larger 
market at a better price. Although files with frequent updates are not 
best suited CD-ROM, this advance helped the subscriber search off-line and 
decide what documents were to be ordered. Compact discs have marked a 
clear beginning for a hybrid search and retrieval system to evolve and 
bring both together. 
Such is the case in the area of patents. In exchange for disclosure of an 
invention, the issuance of a U.S. patent is a twenty year grant from the 
time filed by the government of a property right to the inventor to 
`exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention`, with the 
patentee losing rights to the invention upon expiration. Title 37 Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR), Section 1.362(d) provides that maintenance fees 
may be paid without surcharge for the six-month period beginning three, 
seven, and eleven years after the date of issue of patents based on 
applications filed on or after Dec. 12, 1980. An additional six-month 
grace period is provided by 35 U.S.C. 41(b) and 37 CFR 1.362(e) for 
payment of the maintenance fee with the surcharge set forth in 37 CFR 
1.20(h), as amended effective Dec. 16, 1991. If the maintenance fee is not 
paid in the patent requiring such payment the patent will expire on the 
fourth, eighth, or twelfth anniversary of the grant. Eleven years since 
the first premature patent expiration in December 1985, over 275,000 
patents have prematurely expired and entered the public domain with an 
additional 1,000 patents prematurely expiring each week. 
The most common use of patent information and an early step in assessing 
the patentability of an invention is to perform prior art searches of 
existing patents. To assist patent examiners, the Automated Patent System 
(APS) was implemented in April of 1984 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark 
Office (PTO) with over 400 million dollars of taxpayer money to provide 
sophisticated centralized on-line search capabilities. By accessing the 
APS database from a computer, an examiner can select patents for review 
based on the occurrence of specified words or phases, in particular 
combinations, in the document. The U.S. Congress has long recognized the 
importance of information dissemination to the PTO's mission. The PTO 
enabling legislation has several sections addressing information 
dissemination; the most relevant of these being the requirement that the 
PTO provide the public with direct access to its search systems. 
Consequently, the APS database has been available to the public in the PTO 
Public Search Room since 1990 and, initially on an experimental basis, in 
14 of the 74 Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries since 1992. 
Virtually all information concerning the content of U.S. patents offered by 
commercial data vendors is based on data furnished by the PTO. At present, 
the most prevalent mode of transferring data to the vendor community from 
the PTO is in the form of files on magnetic tape. For example, the PTO 
offers copies of the tapes that contain the text used as input in the 
building of the APS database. The premature expiration of a patent has 
never been a search requirement for the patent examiner. As a result, 
there has been no need for the PTO to incorporate this new reference 
information into the APS database. Currently, the APS database is the 
representation of the original library files of patent text data at the 
time of issuance and does not provide a data field for the premature 
expiration status of a patent. Even though this is the primary source of 
data provided for sale by the PTO, commercial data vendors in turn have 
not recognized the potentially unrealized value of premature expiration 
information. 
It is the government's responsibility to publish what the public can not 
make, use, or sell. Aside from disclosure of the full patent document, the 
government also publishes the front page information of the patent 
document in the Official Gazette. The following is from Chapter 2575 of 
the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) Sixth Edition, Revision 1, 
September 1995. 
A notice will appear in each issue of the Official Gazette which will 
indicate which patents have been granted 3, 7, and 11 years earlier, that 
the window period has opened, and that maintenance fee payments will now 
be accepted for those patents. Another Official Gazette notice published 
after expiration of the grace period will indicate any patent which has 
prematurely expired due to nonpayment of maintenance fees and any patents 
which have been reinstated. An annual compilation of such expirations and 
reinstatements will also be published. 
This passage denotes the intention of the government to publish what the 
public can make, use, or sell. All patents prior to December 1985, expire 
seventeen years after being granted. For example, if it is the first week 
of the year 1996 and the public wanted to read what patents had just 
expired, one would look at the Official Gazette from the first week of 
1979. Essentially a book published exactly seventeen years ago would be 
retrieved. For the first 195 years of the U.S. Patent System, there was no 
need to republish or compile expired patent information because it was 
previously published by default. 
On Dec. 10, 1985, nearly 200 years since the first patent issued, the 
Official Gazette (OG) Notice had listed Pat. No. 4,291,808 to become the 
first patent ever to prematurely expire for failure to pay maintenance 
fees. Since then, the PTO has published weekly in the OG notices the 
patent numbers of the expiring patents. The release of the patent numbers 
only, limits the public to a manual, exhaustive, and inefficient 
cross-referenced retrieval of the newest patent documents that have 
prematurely expired, thereby creating for the first time a new need to 
compile this information. In 1990, the PTO released a series of CD-ROM 
subscription products including the Classification and Search Support 
Information System Bibliographic disc (CASSIS-BIB). This disc offers the 
search and retrieval of title-only patent information dating back to 1969. 
The subscriber can search for the status of a patent (withdrawn, 
reinstated, abandoned, or prematurely expired) and view the most current 
list of premature expired patents. Although the release of the CASSIS-BIB 
disc can help with the search of patent expirations and allows the 
subscriber the privacy and cost benefits of such a system, searching is 
limited to patent titles only, the disc is updated every two months and is 
not cost effective to update more frequently. 
Because of significant changes in technology, revisions to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, and the passage of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-13), public access has 
further expanded through a variety of programs administered by the PTO's 
Office of Information Dissemination to include the access of patent and 
trademark information made available via the Internet and PTO Bulletin 
Board System (PTO-BBS). Upon browsing Internet sites, patent servers at 
the Center for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR), 
Community of Science, Chemical Abstracts Society (CAS), and IBM to name a 
few, have all neglected to allow searching for the expiration status of a 
patent. The IBM Patent Server has come closest to this accomplishment 
where on Jun. 4, 1997, a maintenance status field was integrated into the 
database which lists the status of a patent upon retrieval only, and is 
not yet a searchable field. 
In November of 1994 the PTO established an on-line BBS. The PTO began to 
list exclusive files of premature expired patent numbers weekly and list 
master files of premature expired patent numbers every two months. The 
patent numbers are published in natural ascending order, and for more than 
ten years have been keyed in manually by the PTO. As a result, it is not 
uncommon to see occasional errors like the reversal of digits within the 
patent number based on an operator's manual entry. In 1995, the PTO added 
the release of the OG Notices on-line. In the OG Notice on Feb. 6, 1996, 
the PTO published the premature expired patent numbers for the week of 
Feb. 13, 1996 instead of the current week. On Mar. 12, 1996 the OG 
corrected the omission while the PTO-BBS did not. Since then, the 
exclusive files have been reported one week ahead of the OG Notices upon 
issue. The master list of premature expired patent numbers released on the 
PTO-BBS for Dec. 31, 1996 omitted about 6,000 premature expired patent 
numbers. This omission represents the eight and twelve year expirations 
since the previous master list on Oct. 31, 1996. This omission is in turn 
reflected in the December 1996 issue of the CASSIS-BIB CD-ROM. There were 
further omissions in the February 1997 issue and the CASSIS-BIB 
subscription disc does not remain corrected to this date. In May 1997, the 
PTO-BBS shut down due to a diminished user base and the increasing 
popularity of the Internet. The above inconsistencies indicate that there 
is no system for detecting error or omission that may be subject to manual 
labor or clerical errors. The issuance of the premature expired patent 
numbers by the PTO has now become questionable in regard to method, 
policy, and accuracy of its use. 
The conditions of centralization first mentioned have allowed for industry 
to overlook novel solutions for the dissemination of newly available 
information. Accordingly, in light of the above, there is a strong need in 
the art for a novel system and method for updating information/reference 
files of a computer and/or computer system without putting the onus of 
updating on the subscriber so that an information program stored thereon 
is kept current. Moreover, there is a strong need to improve a system and 
method to optimize the search, retrieval, reporting, delivery, and update 
of master database information and newly available information for both 
on-line and off-line systems. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention in particular relates to a system and method for 
updating patent files of a computer and/or computer system so that the 
patent files will include newly issued patents and premature expired ones. 
However, as will be discussed below, the present invention has 
applicability to updating a variety of types of reference data files of a 
computer and/or computer system without putting the onus of updating on 
the subscriber. 
Briefly, the present invention provides a portable storage media such as a 
floppy disk, CD-ROM or DVD-ROM that is being used to install a program, 
reference data files or other data to a computer or computer system. At 
subsequent intervals, new issue data, news and advertising data, renewal 
and reinstatement data, and control data are also provided to the computer 
or computer system. The control data being downloaded is a representation 
of the most recently available data references. The computer or computer 
system receiving the files creates a subset of reference data files to be 
queried, browsed, searched, selected, reported, archived, ordered, or 
hyperlinked. Thus, according to the present invention, a computer system's 
information reference data files are automatically updated and indexed 
with the installation of new data and/or programs. 
There are many types of information delivery programs that the present 
invention will benefit. For example, there are newly issued and premature 
expired patent and trademark providing programs, and job and housing 
availability programs to name a few. The aforementioned updating problem 
is prevalent in all areas where a particular software utilizes reference 
files that need to be updated frequently in order for the system using the 
software to operate at peak efficiency. 
As was mentioned above, the present invention can be utilized to update any 
suitable reference files of a computer and/or computer system without 
putting the onus of updating on the user. 
According to one particular aspect of the present invention, a method for 
creating data files of a computer system is provided including the steps 
of: storing first data on a storage medium of the computer system, the 
first data including an executable program and data files; subsequently 
storing second data on the storage medium of the computer system; and 
using the second data to create third data on the storage medium, wherein 
the third data is an updated subset of the data files. 
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a computer system 
is provided including: at least one computer; and a storage medium 
coupleable to the at least one computer, the storage medium adapted to 
deliver data to the at least one computer, the storage medium including 
first and second data; wherein the first data includes an executable 
program and data files, the second data is used to create third data on 
the storage medium, the third data being an updated subset of the data 
files. 
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, a method for 
creating data files of a computer system is provided including the steps 
of: storing first data on a storage medium of the computer system, the 
first data including an executable program and data files, the data files 
including potentially reusable data; subsequently storing second data on 
the storage medium of the computer system, the second data including data 
that corresponds to a subset of records of the data files; and executing 
the program for combining the second data with the data files to create 
third data on the storage medium, the third data including newly indexed 
available information, wherein the third data is an updated subset of the 
data files. 
The present invention optimizes the on-line transmission size of time 
sensitive information to a subscriber. The invention utilizes renewal 
information and previous expiration information to increase the 
subscription period. The invention offers an automated clipping service to 
encourage the potential use and easier access of information to the 
public. 
The present invention offers an automated preview service that utilizes the 
time delay between receiving control data for building newly available 
information and receiving newly issued information. The invention reduces 
the search and retrieval time for accessing master database information 
and newly available information. The present invention also implements 
methods of verification to assure the accuracy and reliability of newly 
available information. The invention streamlines the document delivery 
process by accessing document images off-line. The invention maintains 
privacy of a subscriber's query off-line and when possible limits on-line 
to retrieval only, of for querying non-semantic or keyword search 
strategies, such as but not limited to classification and cross-reference 
searching. 
The aforementioned program can be executed to combine the data from both 
deliveries and build newly indexed data files in storage. The new data is 
then sent to the display of the computer system and through the use of a 
computer user interface, the subscriber can configure, query, browse, 
select, report, archive, order, or hyperlink from the search engine. If so 
desired, the subscriber can connect to the Internet or other on-line 
services via the transceiver of the computer system to view a selected 
document image and send order or other information to the provider. The 
foregoing and other features of the invention are hereinafter fully 
described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following 
description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail one or more 
illustrative aspects of the invention, such being indicative, however, of 
but one or a few of the various ways in which the principles of the 
invention may be employed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, 
wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements 
throughout. 
As is mentioned above, the present invention relates to a system and method 
for creating and updating data files and references 30 of a computer 
and/or system 32 so that an information providing program 34 (FIG. 3) 
stored thereon will include the newest information available. The present 
invention provides a set of reference data files 30 (FIG. 3) on a 
recording medium 36 (FIG. 15) such as a floppy disk or a CD-ROM that is 
being used to install the program 34, files or other data to a computer 32 
or computer system 32. Along with the program 34 or data being installed, 
the updated reference data files 30 are also provided to the computer 32 
or computer system 32. The reference data files 30 being downloaded 
include the most recently available data references. The computer 32 or 
computer system 32 receiving the files creates a subset of reference data 
files 30 to be configured, queried, browsed, selected, reported, archived, 
ordered, or hyperlinked. Thus, according to the present invention, the 
computer system's 32 information reference data files 30 are automatically 
updated with the installation of new data and/or programs. 
Referring initially to FIG. 1, a detailed block diagram of the computer 
system 32 is shown in accordance with the present invention. The computer 
system 32 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 38 which is coupled to 
a bus 40. The CPU 38 or processor can be any of a plurality of processors, 
such as the 486DX/33, 486DX2/66, 486DX4/50-100, 486DX4/33-100, 
486DX4/33-83, p24T, Pentium 50/75, Pentium 60/90, Pentium 66/100, and 
Pentium II, and other similar and compatible processors. The processor 38 
functions to perform various operations described herein as well as for 
carrying out other operations related to the system. The manner in which 
the processor can be programmed to carry out the functions relating to the 
present invention will be readily apparent to those having ordinary skill 
in the art based on the description provided herein. 
The bus 40 includes a plurality of signal lines 42 for conveying addresses, 
data and controls between the CPU 38 and a number of other system bus 40 
components. The other system bus 40 components include a memory 44 
(including a Random Access Memory (RAM) 46 and a Read Only Memory (ROM) 
48) and a plurality of Input/Output (I/O) devices 60. The memory 44 serves 
as data storage and may store appropriate operating code to be executed by 
the processor for carrying out the functions described herein. 
The RAM 46 provides program instruction storage and working memory for the 
CPU 38. The ROM 48 contains software instructions known as the Basic 
Input/Output System (BIOS) for performing interface operations with the 
I/O devices 60. Also stored in the ROM 48 is a software routine which 
operates to load a boot program from the booting device. The boot program 
will typically be executed when the computer system 32 is powered on or 
when initialization of the system 32 is needed. 
The I/O devices 60 include basic devices such as data storage devices 62 
(e.g., floppy disks 64, tape drives, CD-ROMs, hard disks 70, etc.). 
Typically, the I/O devices 60 communicate with the CPU 38 by generating 
interrupts. The CPU 38 distinguishes interrupts from among the I/O devices 
60 through individual interrupt codes assigned thereto. Responses of the 
CPU 38 to the I/O device 60 interrupts differ, depending, among other 
things, on the devices generating the interrupts. Interrupt vectors are 
provided to direct the CPU 38 to different interrupt handling routines. 
The interrupt vectors are generated during initialization (i.e., boot up) 
of the computer system 32 by execution of the BIOS. Because responses of 
the CPU 38 to device interrupts may need to be changed from time to time, 
the interrupt vectors may need to be modified from time to time in order 
to direct the CPU 38 to different interrupt handling routines. To allow 
for modification of the interrupt vectors, they are stored in the RAM 46 
during operation of the computer system 32. 
A disk control subsystem 72 bidirectionally couples one or more disk drives 
(e.g., floppy disk drives, CD-ROM drives, etc.) to the system bus 40. The 
disk drive works in conjunction with a removable storage medium 62 such as 
a floppy diskette 64 or CD-ROM. 
A hard drive control subsystem 74 bidirectionally couples a rotating fixed 
disk, or hard drive 70 to the system bus 40. The hard drive control 
subsystem 74 and hard drive 70 provide mass storage 62 for CPU 38 
instructions and data. 
A terminal control subsystem 76 is also coupled to the bus 40 and provides 
output to a display device 78, typically a CRT monitor, and receives 
inputs from a manual 80 device such as a keyboard. Manual input may also 
be provided from a pointing device such as a mouse. 
A network adapter 82 is provided for coupling the system to a network. 
The components illustrated in FIG. 1 may be embodied in a personal 
computer, a portable computer, a workstation, a minicomputer, a main frame 
computer, or a super computer. As such, the details of the physical aspect 
of the data processing system such as structure of the bus 40 or the 
number of CPUs 38 that are coupled to the bus 40, is not crucial to the 
operation of the invention and thus is not described in further detail 
below. 
FIG. 2 shows the format of an exemplary data packet 90 received by the 
transceiver 92 (FIG. 4). In order to ensure proper routing of messages 
between the information provider 94 and an intended receiver 96, the 
messages are initially broken up into data packets 90, each of which 
receive a destination address according to a consistent protocol, and 
which are reassembled upon receipt by the target computer 32. The exchange 
of information between endpoints in a packet network is achieved via a 
"protocol." A commonly accepted protocol for this purpose is the Internet 
Protocol (IP), which provides for networking. Used in conjunction with the 
IP may be a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which provides for a 
reliable stream delivery of messages or a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) 
which allows for distinguishing messages among multiple destinations with 
a given host computer 32. 
More specifically, the TCP protocol is a popular connection-oriented 
transport layer protocol that is used around the world. The TCP protocol 
offers a full duplex reliable virtual end-to-end connection for 
transporting information between endpoints by using one or more of the 
packets 90, each of which comprises both control information and data. 
As is conventional, the data packet 90 is represented by a sequence of data 
and/or control information which is segmented into respective fields. The 
data packet 90 together with the information contained therein is 
constructed by the device which subsequently transmits the packet 90 to 
the transceiver 92. The format of the data packet 90 will typically be 
governed by the system protocol as is conventional. The data packet 90 
includes, in order, a synchronization field 98 (i.e., preamble) including 
synchronizing bits for synchronizing the receiver; a header field 100 
including header information such as the source address of the data packet 
90, the header field 100 including at the end thereof a length field 
including information regarding the length of the packet 90 (e.g., number 
of bits); a type/address field; a data field 102; and a cyclic redundancy 
check (CRC) field 104. It is noted that the length of the respective 
fields as shown in FIG. 2 as well as the other figures herein is not 
necessarily shown in proper corresponding proportion. In many cases the 
length of some fields has been exaggerated in the drawings for ease of 
understanding. Furthermore, it is also noted that the synchronization 
field may be transmitted at a data rate different from that of the 
remaining packet 90, as is well known throughout the art. 
The type/address field includes the destination address of the packet 90 
and information indicating whether or not the packet 90 is of a type which 
requires a response. For example, the type/address field can include one 
or more bits which are set to indicate that the transceiver 92 is required 
to transmit a positive and/or negative acknowledgment of receipt of the 
packet 90. In addition, or in the alternative, the type/address field can 
include information which identifies the packet 90 as a type which needs 
to be processed and transmitted by the transceiver 92 in order to forward 
the information to another location. Regardless of the particular reason 
why the packet 90 may necessitate a response, the type/address field has 
one or more predetermined indicia therein for indicating whether the 
packet 90 is of a type which requires that the transceiver 92 respond by 
transmitting information or is of a type which does not require that the 
transceiver 92 respond by transmitting information. The type/address field 
is shown located approximately in the middle of the data packet 90, 
although it will be appreciated that the type/address field could be 
located elsewhere in the packet 90. In the preferred aspect, however, the 
type/address field is located within the initial half of the data packet 
90 and most preferably towards the front of the packet 90. 
Following the type/address field, the data packet 90 includes a data field 
102 which contains the primary data being sent within the packet 90. The 
data field 102 is then followed by a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field 
104 which includes a CRC code for error detection as is conventional. 
Referring now to FIG. 3, a first data 120 including the program 34 and 
potentially reusable data 30 is stored on the storage medium 70 of the 
computer system 32. In turn, a second data 122 including control data 126 
is subsequently stored on the same or associated storage medium 70 as the 
first data 120. The contents of the control data 126 is unknown at the 
time the first data 120 was stored. The control data 126 corresponds to a 
subset of the potentially reusable data 30. The program 34 is executed and 
combines the control data 126 and the potentially reusable data 30 to 
create on the storage medium 70 of the computer system 32 a third data 128 
including newly indexed available information 130. 
Turning now to a more detailed consideration of a preferred aspect of the 
present invention, FIG. 4a illustrates a first delivery of data 120 which 
is sent to the subscriber 96 from a provider 94 via the portable storage 
media 136, or sent via other forms of transmission. The delivery contains 
the following: a master premature expired patent database 140, a program 
34 that allows a subscriber 96 to configure, query, browse, select, 
report, archive, order, or hyperlink from the master premature expired 
patent database 140 or from future databases that can be remotely built by 
the program 34, and data files 30 of patent information that have the 
potential to prematurely expire after four, eight, or twelve years from 
the issue date of the patent. Subsequent deliveries 122 of control data 
126 are periodically sent to the subscriber 96 via e-mail or other forms 
of transmission where the content of such data is unknown at the time of 
the first delivery. The control data 126 represents information that 
corresponds to a subset of records from the current data file 142. At this 
point, the subscriber 96 can operate the computer system 32 and run the 
program 34 to either combine a current data file 142 with the control data 
126 or to configure, query, browse, select, report, archive, order, or 
hyperlink from the master premature expired database 140 and connect to 
the Internet 144 or other on-line services via the transceiver 92 of the 
computer system 32 to view a selected document image and send order or 
other information to the provider 94. The first 120 and subsequent 
deliveries 122 of FIG. 4a represent information sent during a given 
subscription period. A subscription period is the time it takes to send a 
new first delivery 120 of information. For instance, if a portable storage 
media 136 is updated and sent quarterly, the subscription period is three 
months. More than three months of data files 30 of patent information that 
have the potential to prematurely expire are placed on the portable 
storage media 136 so there is no lapse in coverage for creating indexed 
databases of newly available information 130 while the portable storage 
media 136 for the next subscription period is being sent. 
Turning now to FIG. 4b, a flowchart shows how off-line indexes are created 
to be used for retrieving on-line document images. A provider 94 extracts 
text descriptions 150 of on-line document images 152 from the Internet 144 
to be prepared for delivery. A first delivery 120 is sent to the storage 
70 of a subscriber's 96 computer system 32 via the transceiver 92 which 
includes a program 34 and data files of potentially searchable 
descriptions of document images 154. The program 34 receives via the 
transceiver 92 a subsequent delivery 122 of control data 126 which 
combines with the potentially searchable descriptions 154 to form indexes 
156 of the location information of the on-line document images 152 and 
indexes 156 of the searchable descriptions 154 of the document images 152. 
The subscriber 96 uses the search engine 160 from the program 34 to search 
and select for desirable document descriptions 154. To retrieve an on-line 
document 152, a subscriber 96 uses the search engine 160 to use the 
indexes of document location information 156 and retrieve document images 
164 from the Internet 144 via the transceiver 92 of the computer system 
32. 
Turning now to FIG. 5, a flowchart that represents the general operations 
of the present invention and the relationship between the subscriber 96, 
the executable program 34 and the computer system 32 is shown. Set out 
below is an illustration of the update program 34 for applying 
modifications or updates to the reference data files 30 of the system 32. 
The update program 34 is in program design language from which source code 
and machine code are derivable. In the following general description of 
the update program 34, it is to be assumed that system is under mouse and 
keyboard device control. Moreover, it is assumed that the update program 
34 is invoked from a driver program contained in the operating system 
which facilitates the display of all of the screen panels, the monitoring 
of the keyboard and the installation of the plurality of separately 
installable features or components of the software program. 
When the subscriber 96 launches 200 the program 34, the status of the 
automated clipping service 202 is determined by retrieving configuration 
204 information to determine if the clipping mode is enabled 202 and if 
the clipping mode 204 is automated. If the clipping mode is disabled, the 
program 34 will enter the search engine 160 allowing the subscriber 96 to 
configure, query, browse, select, report, archive, order, or hyperlink 206 
from the current database 207. When the clipping mode 202 is enabled and 
there are no control files available 208, the program 34 will enter the 
search engine 160. However, when there are new control files expected to 
be available 208 or there are old control files available 208, a message 
210 is displayed stating that newly available information 130 is waiting 
to be built. Along with this message 210, there are three choices 212 for 
the subscriber 96 to select from. The first choice 212 allows the 
subscriber 96 to configure two parameters 204 in order to automate the 
clipping service 202. These parameters are the default data path to find 
the most recent control data 126 available, and the filename and data path 
to find the user preset defined query 216 that filters the newly available 
information to be built. The second choice 212 allows the subscriber 96 to 
cancel the message 212. By doing so, the program 34 will enter the search 
engine 160. The third choice 212 allows the subscriber 96 to build and 
view the newly available information 130. When this selection is made, the 
user configuration 204 information is retrieved 218 and the program 34 
combines 226 the new control data 126 with the corresponding current file 
142 of potentially reusable data 30 and builds an indexed database of 
newly available information 130 in storage 70. The program 34 will then 
filter the newly created indexed database 130 with a user-defined preset 
query 216 and send the information of interest to be displayed 78. If the 
clipping mode 204 is automated, then the above choices and messages are 
bypassed, and subscriber 96 preferences are retrieved from configuration 
204 to determine what new information is filtered 216 or `automatically 
clipped` and sent to the display 78. 
From this point, the subscriber 96 can operate a computer user interface 80 
(such as a keyboard, mouse, etc.) to configure, query, browse, select, 
report, archive, order, or hyperlink 206 from the search engine 160 and 
connect to the Internet 144 or other on-line services via the transceiver 
92 of the computer system 32 to view a selected document image and send 
order 206 or other information to the provider 94 for further document 
delivery. 
In an alternative aspect of the present invention, FIG. 6 illustrates how a 
scheduler 250 and e-mail retrieval system 252 can be integrated into the 
invention. First, when the computer system is powered up, the operating 
system is loaded and activates a scheduler 250 to periodically check the 
system time in comparison to the next scheduled delivery of control data 
126. Computing activity is resumed 254 until the current system time 
exceeds the scheduled delivery time. In the event where the subscriber 96 
launches 200 the program 34 and the control data 126 is not due 256, the 
program 34 will enter the search engine 160 allowing the subscriber 96 to 
configure, query, browse, select, report, archive, order, or hyperlink 206 
from the current database 207. In either case, when the control data is 
due 256, a message 258 is displayed 78 to remind the subscriber 96 that 
the control data 126 is overdue and asks if the subscriber 96 would like 
to obtain the latest e-mail 260. If the control data is not due 256, 
depending upon which case, the computing activity is either resumed 254 by 
default, or the program 34 will enter the search engine 160. If the 
subscriber 96 would like to obtain the latest e-mail 260, the program 34 
then checks for new control data 126 by searching for the control data 
file 126 in a default data path. If no data is found 262, an e-mail 
retrieval 252 procedure is launched to obtain the new control data 126 via 
the transceiver 92. Upon receipt of the control data 126 or when the data 
is found 262, a message 266 is displayed 78 that asks if the subscriber 96 
would like the potentially reusable data 30 to be built and displayed 78. 
If not, depending upon which case, the computing activity is once again 
either resumed 254 by default, or the program 34 will enter the search 
engine 160. If so, the program 34 combines 226 the new control data 126 
with the corresponding current file 142 of potentially reusable data 30 
and build an indexed database of newly available information 130 as 
requested by the subscriber 96. 
Referring now to FIG. 7a, steps are shown for verifying 280 either newly 
released or soon to be released expired patent data. The patent numbers 
are checked for digit reversals of patent numbers intended to be published 
in ascending order 282. By comparing each record of a database so that the 
patent number of the current record is always smaller than the patent 
number of the next record of the database, all records that do not meet 
this test are flagged to be modified 284. Since it is known in advance 
which patents could potentially expire early in a given week, all patent 
numbers to be verified should fall within an expected range of patent 
numbers 286. By comparing all patent numbers for their existence in a 
lookup table (see Table 7b) of expected ranges in a given week, patent 
numbers that do not meet this comparison are flagged to be modified 284. 
Periodically, the master list of the nearly 300,000 patent numbers 
currently expired is checked for omissions at different expiration levels. 
Variances are established by checking for the total number of patents 
expiring early in a current week and subtracting the total number of early 
expirations of the previous week. The variance is checked for all weeks, 
and variances that exceed an accepted level are flagged to be modified 
284. After modifications, the tests can be repeated 290 or if accepted, 
the new data is successfully verified and ready for release 292. 
Turning now to FIG. 8, the control data 126 is created for a subsequent 
delivery 122. The release of the current OG Notice 300 is received from 
the USPTO server 302 on the Internet 144 via the transceiver 92 of the 
computer system 32. A program 34 is executed and a temporary database 304 
of patent numbers is created and indexed by extracting the premature 
expired patent numbers from the text file of the OG Notice 300. A relation 
is set into the temporary database 304 from a current data file 142 which 
is identical to the subscriber's current file 142 of potentially reusable 
data 30. By default, all of the records have a logical value of FALSE 307 
in the expired field 306. The expired field 306 of the current data file 
142 is modified to a logical value of TRUE 308 for all matching records of 
this relation. Starting from the first record of the modified 310 current 
data file in batches of eight records at a time, an eight bit string 
composed of 1's and 0's is formed 312 where the logical value of TRUE 308 
in the expired field 306 for a given record is represented by a 1. The 
eight bit string is converted into an equivalent binary value. The binary 
value is then further converted into its equivalent ASCII character 314. A 
string of ASCII characters 314 are formed by repeating the steps of 
encoding the data until the end of the modified 310 current data file is 
reached. The resultant encoded character string becomes the newly created 
control data 126. 
Referring now to FIG. 9, steps are taken to combine the control data 126 
with the current file 142 of potentially reusable data 30 in order to 
create an indexed database of newly available information 130. First, a 
temporary file 320 is created in storage 70 by copying the patent number 
field 322 and expired field 306 only, from all of the records in the 
current data file 142 located on the portable storage media 136. By 
default, all of the records have a logical value of FALSE 307 in the 
expired field 306. The control data 126 is composed of ASCII characters 
314 which represent what records to modify in the expired field 306 of the 
temporary file 320. The control data 126 is decoded by converting each 
ASCII character 314 to an equivalent binary value. The binary value is 
then further converted into an eight bit string 312 composed of only 1's 
and 0's that represents the binary value. Starting from the first record 
of the temporary file 320 and the first character 314 of the control data 
126, the expired field 306 of the temporary file 320 is modified to a 
logical value of TRUE 308 for all records where the record position of the 
temporary file 320 equals the character position of the 1's in the decoded 
character string 312. The steps of decoding and modification are continued 
until the end of the control data file 126 is reached. A relation is then 
set from the temporary file 320 to flag the newly available information 
130 from the current file 142 of potential reusable data 30 on the 
portable storage media 136. The flagged records are then copied and 
indexed to storage 70 to form an indexed database of newly available 
information 130. 
Although it is unknown which patents will prematurely expire each week, the 
total number of patents previously issued that have the potential to 
expire early in a given week is known. By assigning a status bit to each 
of the patents that can potentially expire early, then dividing the total 
by eight and rounding, the maximum minimized transmission size of the 
delivery in bytes can be calculated in advance for any given week. The 
table in FIG. 10a shows the projected delivery sizes of the control data 
for the second half of the year 1996. The four, eight, and twelve year 
columns represent the number of patents previously issued that have the 
potential to expire early in a given week. The last four columns in the 
table show modified values due to previous premature expirations that can 
reduce the size of the delivery of control data by about 15%. Patents 
issued eight years ago have already had premature expirations four years 
ago, and patents issued twelve years ago have already had premature 
expirations four and eight years ago. 
There is a way to further reduce the maximum minimized transmission size of 
the delivery of control data and reduce the storage size of the 
potentially reusable data per week allowing more weeks to be sent in 
advance, thereby increasing the subscription period of the disc. The 
potential for a patent to prematurely expire is created at the time of 
issuance, and in turn, that potential is removed upon a patent's premature 
expiration. For example, the graph in FIG. 10b shows that there are about 
4,000 patents that have the potential to expire early, and of those, only 
about 1,000 patents actually do expire early in a given week. The number 
of patents that actually lapse for a given week is unknown, and thus 
creating the potential. The fact that a potential was created and then 
later removed shows not only the existence of potential, but also a change 
in potential. The fact that maintenance fees can not be paid earlier than 
one year before the premature expiration of the patent means that the 
potential for the patent to expire early does not change for the first 
three years of the expiration cycle. For the case of patents, the 
expiration cycle is four years. For trademarks, the expiration cycle is 
ten years. It is to be appreciated that the present invention may be 
applied to trademarks in an analogous manner as mentioned above with 
respect to patents. 
From the above example, it is gathered that the maintenance fees of about 
3,000 patents have been paid during the last year of the expiration cycle. 
As fees are paid, there are less patents that have the potential to expire 
early, thereby creating more space on a portable storage media resulting 
in the possibility for a longer subscription period. For example, if 
renewal fees are paid linearly, then there is a total of near 60 renewals 
for each week. A portable storage media can be delivered, where the first 
data file includes next week's potential premature expirations of about 
1,060 patents. The following week would have about 1,120 patents and so 
forth. At this rate, 50 weeks of potentially reusable data would total to 
about 126,500 patents. Without immediate access to renewal information, 
the potential number of patents to expire early per week can not be 
reduced. In light of this, by dividing the 126,500 patents by the 4,000 
patents that have the potential to expire early in a given week, only 31 
complete weeks of information can be stored in the same space as the 50 
weeks, thereby increasing the subscription period by 60%. As shown, by 
using renewal information, the minimum of potential expirations can drop 
to as low as about 1,060 patents. Dividing by 8 and rounding, the minimum 
minimized transmission size of the delivery can be calculated to about 133 
bytes, thereby further reducing the on-line transmission size by as much 
as an additional 74%. 
The benefits of an increased subscription period becomes critical when 
applying this application particularly to the search and retrieval of 
patent document images on Digital Versatile Disc (DVD-ROM). A single 
layer, single sided DVD-ROM has a maximum storage capacity of about 4.7 
GB, and is seven times greater than the storage capacity of CD-ROM which 
is about 650 MB. Currently, about 1,000 searchable patent document images 
can fit on CD-ROM, and in turn, roughly 7,000 patents can be placed on 
DVD-ROM. By placing 4,000 patents per week on disc, as stated from the 
above example, only one week of patent document images that have the 
potential to expire early can fit on DVD-ROM. However, if there is access 
to renewal information, a full six weeks of patent document images that 
have the potential to expire early can be stored in advance, thereby 
increasing the subscription period by 600%. This DVD-ROM application 
serves further utility because it removes the need for on-line document 
retrieval. By streamlining the document delivery process, the subscriber 
96 is saved the cost and time of on-line document ordering, and allows for 
complete privacy of unlimited off-line searching, retrieval, and reporting 
of premature expired patent documents. 
While a patent is in effect, the utility to the public is the knowledge 
gained from the disclosure of the invention. When a patent expires, the 
utility to the public changes, allowing anyone to practice or use the 
knowledge gained from the patent by `making, using, or selling the 
invention.` There is in turn an on-line implementation for reducing the 
search and retrieval time of premature expired patent documents. As shown, 
the premature expiration of a patent is seen, if at all, as a status or 
subset of all patents. As a result, all search requests for premature 
expirations, if any, are searched in relation to a database of all 
patents. Because the utility to the public of premature expired patent 
information changes, the arrangement of premature expired data can offer 
new use when searched. The premature expired information is partitioned 
and arranged as a new set of data (as opposed to its previous subset or 
status) and its resultant search time becomes significantly reduced. This 
new compilation restores the temporal displacement of information 
resulting from the potential of multiple premature expirations. Applying a 
search and retrieval system to this new compilation gives the user reduced 
storage and increased access speed by over 70% regardless of where the 
compilation resides. 
The primary goal of information dissemination of public information is to 
increase the potential of its accessibility to the public. This is 
accomplished by reducing distribution costs and creating incentives for 
the ease of retrieval which has been previously shown. Currently, the 
premature expiration status of a patent can be searched on the CASSIS-BIB 
disc or searched via a dedicated on-line connection to a select few 
commercial data vendors at most. There have been patent servers in 
existence on the Internet for more than two years offering up to 27 
different fields for selective searching of patent information. However, 
there are no patent servers of any kind on the Internet that allow for the 
specific search of premature expired patent information. 
Because patent examiners have had no immediate use for premature expired 
information, the APS data available to commercial data vendors and the 
public has never been designed to be reconciled with future premature 
expirations. Furthermore, commercial data vendors have been motivated by 
the profits of existing niche markets, and in turn, have had no immediate 
need or basis to solve the problem of facilitating access of premature 
expired patents or trademarks to the public at large. Even though compiled 
or partitioned arrangement of premature expired patent information is the 
best way to search for it, as of yet there is no evidence or intention by 
anyone or any entity to facilitate searching on the Internet for premature 
expired patent information regardless of whether the arrangement of 
premature expired patent information is compiled or not. 
Turning now to FIG. 11, a subscriber 96 performs a query on a web page 334 
at a web site on the Internet via the transceiver 92 of a computer system 
32 by using a World Wide Web (WWW) browser 332 which is a program that 
interprets many different on-line protocols and displays 78 such 
information received by these protocols in a desired manner to the 
subscriber 96. One such protocol called the HyperText Transfer Protocol 
(HTTP) is the most common method to access information via the web pages 
334 of a Web server on the Internet. Requests for information accessed are 
sent and received in the form of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) which is 
an understood format for the HTTP. Another communications protocol that 
has been universally accepted as a standard for on-line database searching 
is called the Z39.50 protocol. The Z39.50 server 340 accepts TCP 
connections from the transceiver 92 of a computer system 32 and requests 
to search and retrieve from available databases accessible through the 
database search engine 342. When a subscriber 96 requests a patent search 
at the provider's search page 334 on the Internet, a connection to the 
correct database is established before a query session can begin. The 
status of a checkbox 335 is assessed to see if the subscriber would like 
to intentionally search for premature expirations that have entered into 
the public domain. The WWW browser 332 connects to the HTTP server 334 at 
a web site on the Internet and posts a HTML form containing information 
related to a new or existing Z39.50 session. The Z39.50 gateway 336 parses 
the HTML form and starts a new Z39.50 connection 338 or connects to an 
existing Z39.50 connection 338. The subscriber's request is then passed 
from the Z39.50 gateway 336 to the appropriate Z39.50 connection 338 which 
in turn communicates with the remote Z39.50 server 340. A query is 
extracted from the parsed HTML form and is passed on from the Z39.50 
server to the database search engine 342 for obtaining search results. 
Based on the status of the checkbox 335, the search engine 342 decides 344 
to query either the premature expired patent database 140 or the entire 
patent database 350. The search and retrieval of premature expired patents 
can be obtained regardless of which database is being used. The results 
are passed back from the Z39.50 server 340 to the Z39.50 connection 338, 
back to the Z39.50 gateway 336, to the HTTP server 334 and back to the WWW 
browser 332 for display 78 to the subscriber 96. The Z39.50 gateway 336 
process then exits, but the associated Z39.50 connection 338 process 
stays, holding open the Z39.50 connection 338. If a Z39.50 connection 338 
process receives no input for a pre-configured period of time, then the 
connection times out and exits. 
Referring now to FIG. 12a, steps are shown to update a master database of 
all patents 350, a master database of premature expired patents 140, and 
create a new file 352 of potentially reusable data 30. A program 34 is 
executed to receive a current delivery 122 of data containing both newly 
issued patent data 354 and control data 126. The newly issued patent data 
354 is appended to update the master database of all patent information 
350. As previously discussed, all records having a logical value of TRUE 
in the expired field of the current data file 142 are extracted by the 
program 34 to form the newest premature expired patents 130, which in turn 
is appended to update the master database of all premature expired patents 
140. A new file 352 of potentially reusable data 30 is created by copying 
newly issued patent data 354 to a new data file 352. The expired level 
field of the current data file 142 is then incremented to the next 
potential expiration level and is modified by replacing a 4 with an 8, and 
an 8 with a 12 for all four 360 and eight year 362 records having a 
logical value of FALSE in the expired field of the current data file 142. 
The modified data is then appended to the new data file 352 creating a new 
file 352 of potentially reusable data 30. The next level of expiration for 
twelve year 364 records having a logical value of FALSE are final. 
Therefore, the twelve year 364 records have no further use. All records of 
the current data file 142 have been updated and put into other files and 
in turn, have no further use. The current data file 142 is then deleted. A 
block diagram of FIG. 12b further illustrates the relationships of the 
data structures involved for creating a new file of potentially reusable 
data as discussed in FIG. 12a. 
The flowchart of FIG. 13, shows the utilization of the time delay between 
receiving the newest patents that have prematurely expired 130, and newly 
issued patents 354. A subscriber 96 obtains a current delivery 400 
including control data 126, news and advertising data 401, renewal, 
reinstatement and other status data 402, and newly issued patent data 354 
by launching a program 34 that receives the current delivery 400 from the 
Internet 144 via the transceiver 92 of the computer system 32. Because of 
download size, installation, and remote indexing, the total delivery can 
take up to 15 minutes to view newly issued patent information 354. This 
download time can be utilized by viewing the newest premature expired 
patent information 130 and/or patent news and advertising of current 
events 401. Also, there are options to display any reinstatement 
information 420 that might be present. The files are downloaded in a batch 
where the control data 126 takes seconds to receive. In turn, news and 
advertising data 401 can take less than 60 seconds to be received. 
Advantage can be taken of the multitasking operating system and if so 
desired, build and view the newest premature expirations 130 in less than 
90 seconds. While the newly issued data 354 is downloading, the program 34 
retrieves configuration 403 information to determine if the preview mode 
is enabled 404 and if the preview mode 403 is automated. When the preview 
feature is enabled 404, a message is displayed 78 to view current 
expirations 406. If so, expirations are viewed 410 with search 
capabilities 160 until data is ready 414 with the option of viewing news 
412 if enabled. If not, another message is displayed 78 to view the latest 
news and advertising 408. If so, news and advertising are viewed 412. When 
data is ready 414, or both the expirations 406 and news 408 are not to be 
viewed, or the automated preview service 404 is disabled, then a message 
is displayed 78 to ask if newly issued patents are to be viewed 416. If 
so, newly issued patents 354 are viewed 416 with search capabilities 160. 
If not, then the search engine 160 is entered. If the preview mode 403 is 
automated, then the above choices and messages are bypassed and subscriber 
96 preferences are retrieved from configuration 403 to determine what 
preview features to display 78. At this point, the subscriber 96 can 
operate a computer user interface 80 (such as a keyboard, mouse, etc.) to 
configure, query, browse, select, report, archive, order, or hyperlink 206 
from the search engine 160 and connect to the Internet 144 or other 
on-line services via the transceiver 92 of the computer system 32 to view 
a selected document image and send order 206 or other information to the 
provider 94 for further document delivery. 
Turning now to FIG. 14, the data structures for status information are 
shown. It is necessary to extend the data structures of patent database 
information 422 to manage status updates. Fields 1 through 6 are used to 
list the most recent status change of premature expirations, 
reinstatements, and renewal of maintenance fees. Field 7 lists the 
potential date of expiration and field 8 shows a complete history of 
expiration updates in fields 1 through 6. There is a lookup table 424, 
that have 13 possible outcomes denoted by the characters A through M to 
determine the status history of a premature expiration during the patent's 
enforcement. The outcome corresponds to field 8 in the previous data 
structure 422. An example of the continued update for a given record 426 
is provided. When a maintenance fee is paid 428, the renewal flag (field 
3) is modified to a TRUE. In turn, the expired level (field 2), the 
potential expiration date (field 7), and the expiration status history are 
advanced to the eight year level. When the patent prematurely expires 430, 
the expired flag (field 1) is modified to a TRUE and the status history 
(field 8) is updated. When a late fee is paid 432, the renewal flag (field 
3) and the reinstatement flag (field 5) are modified to a TRUE, the 
expired flag (field 1) is modified to a FALSE, and all other status 
records are advanced to the next level. Status updates are performed with 
respect to the anticipation of a future event to assure that the final 
step of updating is reduced to, if and when possible, the change of a 
single status bit only (ie. upon the update of a premature expiration, the 
potential expiration date (field 7) becomes the actual expiration date). 
The usage for status updates are shown for example, by querying for all 
FALSE expired flags (field 1) and grouping data by potential expiration 
date (field 7). The updated data structures are then used to generate a 
batch of data files that include potentially reusable data 30 and placed 
on a portable storage media or sent to a subscriber for immediate 
transmission. 
Turning now to FIG. 15, a preferred portable storage medium 62 is shown in 
accordance with the present invention. The preferred storage medium 62 is 
a diskette with representative tracks 440, each track 440 having sectors 
442 such as for example sector 442. In the preferred aspect all tracks 440 
contain two additional sectors 442 to provide for 160 KB of hidden 
partitions on an 80-track diskette. The update data of a current delivery 
400 including control data 126, news and advertising data 401, renewal, 
reinstatement and other status data 402 is stored thereon so as to be 
inaccessible to some degree to conventional programs. The newly issued 
patent data 354 of the current delivery 400 is stored on the conventional 
storage portion of the diskette. By storing the current delivery of update 
data 400 in the hidden partitions, conventional storage capacity of the 
storage medium 62 is not reduced. The current delivery 400 is preferably 
stored in a compressed form and decompressed prior to installation to 
system. 
The two additional sectors 442 at the end of each track 440 provide a 
rotational delay between the last conventional sector 442. The delay 
provides the disk drive enough time to reposition the head on the next 
track 440 before the first sector 442 of the next track 440 passes under 
the head thereby speeding up access to data on the diskette. However, it 
will be appreciated that the present invention has applicability to any 
suitable storage medium 62 (e.g., diskette, CD-ROM, tape drive, etc.). 
As stated, this invention is not limited to patents or other information 
that passes into the public domain, such as trademarks, domain names, and 
copyrights. The invention is also used to extend the reuse of information 
that has an ever-changing availability such as, but not limited to, homes 
for sale, job availability, seasonal advertising, coupons, and personal 
ads, etc. For instance, the listings of 800,000 job descriptions are 
placed on DVD-ROM and each week receive a 100K e-mail file of control data 
to trigger which records to index and to display which jobs are available. 
In another example, the resumes of job applicants are placed on DVD-ROM. 
The applicants are either on or off the job search market for a given 
interval. The applicant may still want to be searched or notified by an 
employer or recruiter even when the applicant is off the market. The 
flowchart of FIG. 16 shows an aspect that reuses the resume information of 
job applicants. All applicant information is encrypted and compressed 450 
for privacy. A search 452 is performed where the retrieval 452 of the 
search 452 is displayed 78 based on the applicant's status. All records 
where the status of the applicant is active 454 are decrypted and 
decompressed, and resume information including their name 456 is displayed 
78. If the status is not active 454, another status is checked for 
anonymous retrieval 460. All records where retrieval 452 is not allowed 
460 are skipped. When retrieval 452 of the applicant is allowed 460, all 
records of resume information without the applicant's name 462 are then 
decrypted and decompressed for display 78. After all records are displayed 
78, the program can perform another search 464. If the subscriber 96 is 
interested in contacting the anonymously represented applicant 466, the 
provider 94 can be contacted by telephone or through the Internet 144 via 
the transceiver 92 of the computer system 32 to act as an intermediary and 
broker the negotiations between the subscriber 96 and applicant 466. 
The practice of encryption and compression is not limited to this aspect 
but rather can be applied to the invention in general 
Control data is the representation of an updated status that is dependent 
upon three cases; knowing when a status will change but not what, knowing 
what status will be changed but not when, and knowing neither what status 
will be changed nor when a status will change. The aspects discussed focus 
primarily on the change in status of potentially reusable data. For 
example, in coupon and advertising delivery applications, information such 
as updated pricing, expiration dates, locations, and other pertinent data 
is sent in conjunction with the control data to form the newly indexed 
available information. Also, indexes are not limited to being created 
remotely at the subscriber site. For cases where the delivery time of the 
indexes does not exceed the time needed to create the indexes at the 
subscriber site, the indexes are sent by the provider. The control data 
identifies the most efficient way to send update information of the 
present aspect. Data updates are not limited to being sent in the form of 
control data. A database of premature expired patent numbers can be sent 
instead. Furthermore, potentially reusable data can be more specifically 
defined in terms of potentially usable and/or potentially reusable data. 
Press releases, wills, and the declassification of confidential 
information have a one-time use at a future date and serve as examples of 
potentially usable data. 
The invention has use in a business/legal environment. For example, 
reference files are maintained containing data that is used in conjunction 
with various software applications. For instance in a law firm database, 
rules, regulations, citations, and various statutory dates and deadlines 
are stored in files that are referenced by software applications that use 
the reference data in making computations and decisions. If the reference 
data is incorrect, then it is highly probable that the output computation 
and/or decision made by the software is erroneous. Thus, if update 
reference data were stored in conjunction with regular data that is to be 
applied to the system (in a similar manner to that described above with 
respect to the data reference updates), the system would be using the most 
recent reference data. 
Further uses of the present invention include, configuring the user-defined 
preset query to flag a group of patents that the subscriber is licensing 
technology from. This customized information assures the subscriber that 
they're not continuing to pay licensing or royalty fees on a premature 
expired patent. By gaining competitive intelligence on abandoned patents 
and technologies, a subscriber can better evaluate the research and 
development costs of similar work. For example, a corporation will seek 
the counsel of a patent law firm to evaluate the potential of their new 
product to infringe on the intellectual property of a competitor. A 
competitive intelligence search is performed by the law firm, and all 
patents and trademarks in question are further searched for premature 
patent and trademark expiration as information to be used in advising the 
client of the possibility of infringement. 
By providing premature expired patents that can be made, used, or sold by 
anyone, the use of the clipping service to automate subscriber access 
allows for a new non-technical audience outside of the legal, corporate, 
and scientific communities to become familiarized with the patent system. 
Via the Internet, this information can be disseminated to any person in 
the world with access to a computer. In addition, professors of science 
and engineering at universities can now incorporate this lapsed property 
for use in their syllabus in the form of lab experiments and homework 
assignments. 
Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to a 
certain preferred aspect or aspects, it is obvious that equivalent 
alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon 
the reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed 
drawings. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the 
above described integers (components, assemblies, devices, compositions, 
etc.), the terms (including a reference to a "means") used to describe 
such integers are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to 
any integer which performs the specified function of the described integer 
(i.e., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally 
equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the 
herein illustrated exemplary aspect or aspects of the invention. In 
addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been 
described above with respect to only one of several illustrated aspects, 
such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other 
aspects, as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular 
application. 
The description herein with reference to the figures will be understood to 
describe the present invention in sufficient detail to enable one skilled 
in the art to utilize the present invention in a variety of applications 
and devices. The present invention includes all such equivalents and 
modifications, and is limited only by the scope of the following claims.