Abstract:
The present inventors, devised among other things, an exemplary method of researching provisions of contracts. The exemplary method entails receiving user selection of one or more predefined queries for contractual precedents, and executing a search of one or more databases containing agreements based on the received user selection. After executing the search, the method entails displaying a subset of the search results based on a predefined filter stored in association with an identifier for the user. The predefined filter may filter based on traits such as jurisdiction, deal size, industry, or a list of companies.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Applications 61/134,605, and 61/113,851 which respectively were filed on Jul. 11, 2008 and Nov. 12, 2008. Both of these applications are incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND PERMISSION 
       [0002]    A portion of this patent document contains material subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever. The following notice applies to this document: Copyright © 2008, Thomson Global Resources. 
       TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0003]    Various embodiments of the present invention concern information-retrieval systems, such as those that provide legal documents or other related content, and user interfaces for such systems. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0004]    Transactional business lawyers within the American legal system, as well as many others across the globe, are continually involved in negotiating contracts on behalf of their clients. Often times the financial values involved in the contracts is significant, for example, in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. In negotiating these contracts, the business lawyers are under intense time pressure to make deals happens, while also protecting the best interests of their clients. 
         [0005]    To facilitate these high-stakes negotiations, lawyers often seek to look at previous contracts or particular provisions of previous contracts as precedents. These precedents are valuable not only for teaching lawyers contractual alternatives, but also for use as leverage in negotiations. For example, one side in a negotiation may argue that a particular indemnity clause is unconventional and the other side may argue that a particular termination clause is conventional. In either case, one side or the other may want to use precedent to support their arguments and gain a concession from the other. Unfortunately, even in law firms with a long history of negotiating high-stakes contracts, finding and leveraging available and relevant contractual or agreement precedent can be time consuming and labor intensive. 
         [0006]    Accordingly, the present inventors identified a need for better ways of researching contractual precedents. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0007]    To address this and/or other needs, the present inventors devised, among other things, systems, methods, and software that allow users to search, filter, and organize, share, and leverage contractual precedent. Moreover, the exemplary system also allows users to readily select and input contractual precedents into word-processing document, such as draft contracts. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary information-retrieval and contract drafting system  100 , which corresponds to one or more embodiments of the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a facsimile of an exemplary graphical user interface  200  which may be incorporated into system  100  and which corresponds to one or more embodiments of the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart of an exemplary method of operating system  100 , which corresponds to one or more embodiments of the present invention. 
           [0011]      FIGS. 4-40  are facsimiles of graphical user interfaces that form a portion of system  100  and also embody one or more methods, all corresponding to one or more embodiments of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS 
       [0012]    This description, which references and incorporates the above-identified Figures, describes one or more specific embodiments of an invention. These embodiments, offered not to limit but only to exemplify and teach the invention, are shown and described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to implement or practice the invention. Thus, where appropriate to avoid obscuring the invention, the description may omit certain information known to those of skill in the art. 
       Exemplary Document-Processing and Information-Retrieval System 
       [0013]      FIG. 1  shows an exemplary document-processing and information-retrieval system  100 . System  100  includes one or more databases  110 , one or more servers  120 , and one or more access devices  130 . 
       Exemplary Databases 
       [0014]    Databases  110  includes a set of primary databases  112  and a set of second databases  114 . Primary databases  112 , in the exemplary embodiment, include a caselaw database  1121  and a statutes databases  1122 , which respectively include judicial opinions and statutes from one or more local, state, federal, and/or international jurisdictions. Secondary databases  114 , provide attorney, judge, law firm, product, corporate profiles, and industry and financial databases, such as SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filings, including contracts and agreements. Each corporate profiles include one or more industry classification codes or indicators that facilitates association of industry and corporate identifiers with particular documents, such as agreements as well as portions of those documents. In some embodiments, the caselaw documents are logically associated via a data structure with documents or profiles in databases  114 . Other embodiments may include non-legal databases that include financial, scientific, or health-care information. Still other embodiments provide public or private databases, such as those made available through WESTLAW, INFOTRAC, and more generally any open web or Internet content. 
         [0015]    Databases  110 , which take the exemplary form of one or more electronic, magnetic, or optical data-storage devices, include or are otherwise associated with respective indices (not shown). Each of the indices includes terms and phrases in association with corresponding document addresses, identifiers, and other conventional information. Databases  110  are coupled or couplable via a wireless or wireline communications network, such as a local-, wide-, private-, or virtual-private network, to server  120 . 
       Exemplary Server 
       [0016]    Server  120 , which is generally representative of one or more servers for serving data in the form of webpages or other markup language forms with associated applets, ActiveX controls, remote-invocation objects, or other related software and data structures to service clients of various “thicknesses.” More particularly, server  120  includes a processor module  121 , a memory module  122 , a subscriber database  123 , a primary search module  124 , a secondary search module  125 , and an contractual research and drafting module  126 . 
         [0017]    Processor module  121  includes one or more local or distributed processors, controllers, or virtual machines. In the exemplary embodiment, processor module  121  assumes any convenient or desirable form. 
         [0018]    Memory module  122 , which takes the exemplary form of one or more electronic, magnetic, or optical data-storage devices, stores subscriber database  123 , search module  124 , secondary search module  125 , and contractual research and drafting module  126 . 
         [0019]    Subscriber database  123  includes subscriber-related data for controlling, administering, and managing pay-as-you-go or subscription-based access of databases  110 . In the exemplary embodiment, subscriber database  123  includes one or more preference data structures, of which data structure  1231  is representative. Data structure  1221  includes a customer or user identifier portion  1231 A, which is logically associated with one or more operational, configuration, or usage preferences or associated data for contractual research and drafting module  126 , such as preferences  1231 B,  1231 C, and  1231 D. 
         [0020]    Preference  1231 B includes a default value governing whether functionality of module  126  is enabled or disabled for the associated user or customer. Preference  1231 C includes one or more user defined search results filters for filtering contractual precedent research results via industry, company name list, deal size, clause type, and/or one or more other traits as well as identifiers for other users with whom the filters may be shared as well as their access rights with respect to the folders. Preference  1231 D includes one or more precedent storage folders associated with the user as well as identifiers for other users with whom the folders may be shared as well as their access rights with respect to the folders default values governing one or more other aspects of usage or operation or configuration of the information-integration tools within module  126 . 
         [0021]    Primary search module  124  includes one or more search engines and related user-interface components, for receiving and processing user queries against one or more of databases  110 . In the exemplary embodiment, one or more search engines associated with search module  124  provide Boolean, tf-idf, natural-language search capabilities. 
         [0022]    Secondary module  125  includes one or more search engines for receiving and processing queries against one or more of databases  114 . Some embodiments charge a separate or additional fee for searching and/or accessing documents from the secondary databases. 
         [0023]    Contractual research and drafting module  126  includes machine readable and/or executable instruction sets for wholly or partly defining software and related user interfaces, some of which have one or more portions thereof that integrate or cooperate with one or more document-processing applications. Exemplary document-processing (or document-authoring or -editing) applications include word-processing applications, email applications, presentation applications, and spreadsheet applications. (More about the module  126  is described below.) In the exemplary embodiment, these applications would be hosted on one or more accesses devices, such as access device  130 . (Other functionality of module  126  is described below.) 
       Exemplary Access Device 
       [0024]    Access device  130  is generally representative of one or more access devices. In the exemplary embodiment, access device  130  takes the form of a personal computer, workstation, personal digital assistant, mobile telephone, or any other device capable of providing an effective user interface with a server or database. Specifically, access device  130  includes a processor module  13  lone or more processors (or processing circuits)  131 , a memory  132 , a display  133 , a keyboard  134 , and a graphical pointer or selector  135 . 
         [0025]    Processor module  131  includes one or more processors, processing circuits, or controllers. In the exemplary embodiment, processor module  131  takes any convenient or desirable form. Coupled to processor module  131  is memory  132 . 
         [0026]    Memory  132  stores code (machine-readable or executable instructions) for an operating system  136 , a browser  137 , document processing software  138 . (In the exemplary embodiment, memory  132  also includes document management software and time and billing system software not shown in the  FIG. 1 . In some embodiments, this software may be hosted on a separate server.) 
         [0027]    In the exemplary embodiment, operating system  136  takes the form of a version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and browser  137  takes the form of a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Operating system  136  and browser  137  not only receive inputs from keyboard  134  and selector  135 , but also support rendering of graphical user interfaces on display  133 . In the exemplary embodiment, document processing software  138  includes Microsoft Word word processing software, Powerpoint presentation software, Excel spreadsheet software, and Outlook email software. Document processing software is shown integrated with one or more portions  1381  of contract research and draft module  126 , which are downloaded from server  120  via a wired or wireless communication link. Upon launching of the document processing software an integrated document-processing and information-retrieval graphical-user interface  139  is defined in memory  132  and rendered on display  133 . 
         [0028]    Upon rendering, interface  139  presents data in association with one or more interactive control features (or user-interface elements). In the exemplary embodiment, each of these control features takes the form of a hyperlink or other browser-compatible command input. User selection of some control features results in retrieval and display of at least a portion of the corresponding document within a region of interface  138  (not shown in this figure.) Although  FIG. 1  shows regions as being simultaneously displayed, some embodiments present them at separate times. 
         [0029]      FIG. 2  shows an exemplary form of interface  139 . 
       Exemplary Method(s) 
       [0030]      FIG. 3  shows a flow chart  300  of one or more exemplary methods of operating a system, such as system  100 . Flow chart  300  includes blocks  310 - 350 , which are arranged and described in a serial execution sequence in the exemplary embodiment. However, other embodiments execute two or more blocks in parallel using multiple processors or processor-like devices or a single processor organized as two or more virtual machines or sub processors. Other embodiments also alter the process sequence or provide different functional partitions to achieve analogous results. For example, some embodiments may alter the client-server allocation of functions, such that functions shown and described on the server side are implemented in whole or in part on the client side, and vice versa. Moreover, still other embodiments implement the blocks as two or more interconnected hardware modules with related control and data signals communicated between and through the modules. Thus, the exemplary process flow applies to software, hardware, and firmware implementations. 
         [0031]    Block  310  entails receiving user selection of one or more redefined queries for contractual precedents. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails a user invoking display of a topical hierarchical outline of contractual provisions or issues, wherein each of the provision types or issues is associated with a predetermined query for searching one or more databases  110 . 
         [0032]    Block  320  entails executing searching databases  110  based on the user selected topic, or more precisely their corresponding predefined queries. In the exemplary embodiment, execution of the searches is performed using server  120  and ensues upon receipt of a search command from the user via a graphical user interface  139 . 
         [0033]    Block  330  entails filtering search results based on stored and predefined search results filters for contractual provisions. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails retrieving a predefined filter (my lens) associated with the user via his or her user data structure and then applying the filter against the search results. Execution continues at block  340 . 
         [0034]    Block  340  entails storing one or more of the provisions included in the filtered search results in a user folder. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails a user manually selecting one or more of the provisions for storage in a filter. In some embodiments, the user drags and drops the desired position into one or more of his corresponding filters via a graphical user interface. 
         [0035]    Block  350  entails adding selected provisions from one or more of user folders into document within an active edit window of a word-processing application. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails a user selecting the word processing application for launch, selecting an existing document or new document for editing, and then selecting an icon for an add-on contract drafting tool. In response to selection of the icon, an interface for the contract drafting tool, for example, interface  139  or interface  200  in  FIG. 2  is displayed. The user then selects a folder to review the contract provisions it contains. One or more of the contract provisions may be selected by drag and dropping into the active window. Some embodiments store the contract provisions with attribution information to enable the user to invoke display of the entire agreement from which it was extracted. In this case, displaying entails communicating with server  120  to retrieve the agreement. 
         [0036]      FIGS. 4-40  shows another exemplary method and corresponding set of graphical user interfaces which may be used to replace and/or supplement the interfaces  139  and/or  200 . 
       CONCLUSION 
       [0037]    The embodiments described above are intended only to illustrate and teach one or more ways of practicing or implementing the present invention, not to restrict its breadth or scope. The actual scope of the invention, which embraces all ways of practicing or implementing the teachings of the invention, is defined only by the following claims and their equivalents.