Abstract:
The present inventors devised unique systems, methods, interfaces, and software for managing and leveraging knowledge in law firms and potentially other enterprises. For example, one system provides a single user interface for researching case law for online legal research service and identifying and accessing law-firm documents.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/437,169, which was filed on Dec. 30, 2002 and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/480,476, which was filed on Jun. 19, 2003. Both of these applications are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND PERMISSION 
     One or more portions of this patent document contain 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© 2002, Thomson Legal &amp; Regulatory, Inc. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Various embodiments of the present invention concern information retrieval systems and knowledge-management systems, particularly such systems in a legal-research or law-firm context. 
     BACKGROUND 
     The American legal system, as well as some other legal systems around the world, rely heavily on written judicial opinions, the written pronouncements of judges, to articulate or interpret the laws governing resolution of disputes. As a consequence, judges and lawyers within our legal system are continually researching an ever expanding body of past opinions, or case law, for the ones most relevant to resolution or prevention of new disputes. Found cases are studied for relevance and are ultimately cited and discussed in documents, called work product, which, for example, advocate court action, counsel clients on likely court actions, or educate clients and lawyers on the state of the law in particular jurisdictions. 
     Over time, law firms, particularly large one with scores of lawyers and hundreds of clients, amass large collections of work product. In attempting to manage and leverage the value of these collections, many law firms in the last decade or so have sought to use knowledge-managements systems. 
     Most, if not all, of these systems have been built around document-management systems (DMSs) that assist in storing, indexing, and searching law-firm documents. The indexing and searching capability of these systems allows lawyers to reuse some of their work product, and thus have in some instances enhanced the efficiency of lawyers in developing new work product. 
     However, the present inventors have recognized that centering a law firm&#39;s knowledge management on document-management systems presents at least two problems. First, the document collections in these systems are generally undisciplined in the sense that they include multiple versions of the same document, non-legal documents, and so forth. Thus, searches in the DMS collections often turn up marginally relevant documents or draft documents that frustrate efforts to quickly identify the high-quality finished documents most likely to have reusable content. Second, even when apparently reusable documents are found, it is necessary for lawyers or other highly trained personnel to assess not only whether their legal arguments are of high quality, but also whether their supporting case law has been overruled, weakened, or otherwise affected by newer case law or other legal developments. (Even with online legal research services, such as the Westlaw online service, that allow one to check the validity of case law on a case-by-case basis,) this assessment is generally time consuming and thus offsets the efficiency gains of reusing work product. 
     Accordingly, the present inventors have identified a need for better systems, tools, and methods of managing and leveraging the accumulated knowledge within law-firm document collections. 
     SUMMARY 
     To address this and/or other needs, the present inventors have devised unique systems, methods, interfaces, and software for managing and leveraging knowledge in law firms and potentially other enterprises. For example, one system provides a single user interface for researching case law for online legal research service and identifying and accessing law-firm documents. The interface allows a user, such as an attorney, to initiate or submit a legal research query and view search results that identify not only relevant external documents from the online legal research service, but also relevant internal documents, such as briefs, client letters, and legal memoranda, from the law firm&#39;s own document collection. 
     Moreover, in this exemplary system, the external and internal documents are displayed with validity indicators, such as color-coded icons, that indicate whether cases they cite are still valid law, enabling the attorney to more readily assess the strength or weakness of each identified document. 
     Notably, the exemplary embodiment provides a seamless integration of the internal and external documents, yet the internal documents never leave the security of the law firm firewalls. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary information system  100  corresponding to one or more embodiments of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a flow chart corresponding to one or more exemplary methods of operating an information system and associated components that embody the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS 
     The following description, which incorporates the figures and the appended claims, describes and/or illustrates one or more exemplary embodiments of one or more inventions. These embodiments, offered not to limit but only to exemplify and teach the invention(s), are shown and described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to make and use the invention(s). Thus, where appropriate to avoid obscuring the one or more inventions, the description may omit certain information known to those of skill in the relevant art. 
     Exemplary Information System 
       FIG. 1  depicts an exemplary information retrieval and knowledge management system  100  that incorporates one or more teachings of the present invention. System  100  includes a commercial online legal-data (or research) provider  110 , a law-firm information-management system  120 , and a client access device  130 . 
     Specifically, commercial online legal data (or research) provider  110  includes main databases  112 , reference identification database  114 , and server  116 . In the exemplary embodiment, main databases  112  contain a wide variety of legal documents, including for example, case law (judicial opinions), legislation, and journal articles. Reference identification database  114  includes a list of document identifiers and corresponding citations, with each document identifier and citation corresponding to a document within main databases  112 . Databases  112  are coupled to server  116 . 
     Server  116 , representative of one or more servers, includes a processing unit  1161 , and a memory  1162 . Memory  1161 , which can take the form of an electronic, magnetic, or optical computer- (or machine-) readable medium, includes one or more one or more search engines, and other modules and software, such as browser-compatible user-interface elements (UIEs) for receiving and fulfilling queries from clients. 
     In the exemplary embodiment, server  116  serves active or dynamic content in the form of hypertext markup language (HTML), extensible markup language (XML), or more generally a markup-language, documents or pages. To this end, the exemplary server supports the following web services or protocols: TCP/IP, SOAP (HTTP, HTML, XML), and UDDI. Additionally, the UIEs of server  116  include one or more Java scripts, applets, or other related software and data structures for serving data in association with desired interactive control or user-interface features, objects, modules, or elements. (In some embodiments, the HTML pages include URL or other embedded instructions that include one or more portions of queries submitted from an access device, such as access device  130 .) These features work in conjunction with client processor and software platforms to define one or more portions of a browser-based graphical user interface for legal research. Server  116  is coupled or couplable, for example, via an Internet Protocol (IP) network, to law-firm information-management system  120 . 
     Law-firm information-management system  120  includes a document-management subsystem  122 , and a knowledge-management subsystem  124 . Document-management subsystem (DMS)  122  includes a DMS database server  1221  and a DMS database  1222 . DMS database  1222  includes internal firm work-product documents, such as briefs, legal memorandum, opinions, letters, and multiple versions of same in multiple stages of completion. It may also include non-legal materials. The contents of the DMS database are generally associated with metadata profiles indicating authors, creation dates, update dates, client numbers, security settings, access restrictions and so forth. 
     Knowledge management subsystem (KMS)  124  includes a KMS server  1242  and a KMS database (or document repository)  1244 . KMS server  1242 , which may present one or more servers depending on loading and performance issues, includes a full-text index module, an engines-and-applications module, an HTML library module, a metadata database module, a citation index module, and a usage-and-tracking module, all of which are not shown as separate items in  FIG. 1 . 
     In the exemplary embodiment, full-text-indexer module is used to facilitate general retrieval of documents from KMS database by indexing documents and/or providing index data. Engines-and-applications module includes the following engines and applications: citation-identification engine, full-text search engine, KeyCite Flags engine (see appendix for further details); scheduler application for handling migrating documents from DMS database, DMS integration components, and system administration tools. 
     HTML library module stores HTML version of each document contained in the research repository, including KeyCite flags and tags. Metadata database module  1242 D stores descriptive information and attributes of documents contained in the KMS database, includes information from the DMS database. Citation index module indexes the citations relationships between documents to maintain flags and tags on citations. And, usage-tracking database stores and maintains a historical log of all search and retrieval activity containing detail information by document name, author, area of law, and user ID. 
     KMS database stores a selected set of high-quality internal work-product documents. In the exemplary embodiment, these documents are copies of documents selected from DMS database  1222 . When copied into KMS database  1244 , one or more portion of the metadata profile data is also incorporated into KMS database. 
     Law-firm information-management system  120  and online legal-research provider  110  are both communicatively coupled or couplable, via a local-area network (such a corporate intranet) or wide-area network (such as the Internet) to access device  130 . 
     Access device  130 , which is generally representative of one or more access devices within a business organization, such as a law firm, takes the exemplary form of a workstation. In addition to a keyboard  131  (lower left hand corner), a mouse (graphical pointer)  132 , and a display  133 , access device  130  includes a processing unit  134 , a memory module  135 , and a browser-compatible legal-research interface  136 . 
     More particularly, processing unit  134  includes at least one processing circuit. Memory module  135 , which takes the form of one or more electronic, magnetic, optical machine-readable mediums, includes operating system  1351 , a browser application  1352 , and a word processor application  1353 . 
     Operating system  1351 , which cooperates with processing unit  134  and takes the exemplary form of the Microsoft Windows operating system, includes a set of user-interface objects, modules, or elements, accessible via application programs such as browser application  1352 . Browser application  1352  takes exemplary form of a Microsoft Internet Explorer™ or Netscape Navigator browser, cooperates with operating system  1321  and externally provided data, coded instructions (collectively UIEs) from servers such as (external legal-research) server  116  and internal KMS server  1242 , to define and render, on display  133 , browser-compatible legal-research interface  136 . 
     Legal-research interface  136  includes a query portion  1361 , an external re-results portion  1362 , an external document display portion  1363 , an internal-results portion  1364 , and an internal document display portion  1365 . In the exemplary embodiment, portions  1361 - 1365  are not necessarily displayed or accessed simultaneously. For example, the interface can include tabs and full-screen-display options that enable the user to focus the display on particular portion of the data or interface portions. One embodiment provides one folder tab to invoke display of a combined listing of internal and external results with corresponding indicators to distinguish internal results from external ones and the other to invoke display of internal results only. 
     Query portion  1361  includes a label portion L and one or more associated interactive user-interface (UI) elements (objects, features, or widgets), E and EE (referred to hereinafter as label portion  1361 L, and elements  1361 E and  1361 EE.) Label portion  1361 L is defined to display a query-indicator label, such as “Search Based on this New Citation,” “KeyCite this Citation, or “Search these Databases,” to indicate to a user that some form of query input is expected within this portion of the interface. UI element  1361 E accepts input from a user. In the exemplary embodiment, this UI element takes the form of a text box or menu, with the menu enabling the use to select a target for the query, such as the KMS database. As a default, the exemplary embodiment will run the query against the KMS database in combination with any other database set that is selected. (Some embodiments provide a set of UI elements that enable the user to select from a number of predefined category- or subject-matter-specific queries. The queries are defined, for example, by expert legal researches in the specific legal areas. A hierarchical organization or outline of the queries facilitates user selection of the appropriate query by the user. The user may also view the details of the predefined queries and modify as desired prior to submission.) 
     UI element  1361 EE allows a user to initiate submission and execution of a query defined via user-interface element  1361 E. The exemplary embodiment provides this feature in the form of a “go” button, which upon actuation results in transmission of the defined query (or relevant portion of it) to not only main database  112  (server  116 ), but also to KMS database XYX for fulfillment. (In some embodiments, the query is submitted only to KMS database XYX.) 
     External-results portion  1362  is defined to display search results obtained or received from online legal-research provider  110 , or more precisely its main database  112 . In the exemplary embodiment, external-results portion  1362  includes one or more document identifiers or descriptors  1362 D which are displayable in association with corresponding user-interface element L 1 . Descriptor  1362 D provides information regarding a corresponding external-results document within database  112 . In the exemplary embodiment, this information includes a title T 1 , metadata M 1 , and a case validity flag F 1 . UI element L 1 , for example a hyperlink, provides an option which can be invoked for example, by clicking, to retrieve and display the document(s) associated with descriptor  1362 D, as indicated by document display  1363 . 
     Document display  1363 , which in some embodiments is presented in a spit-screen along a listing of the internal and/or external results, displays at least a portion of the external document associated with UI element L 1 . The document includes text (denoted by the broken lines) and legal citations CA and CB, which are respectively associated with case-validity flags FA and FB and hyperlinks LA and LB. Selection of hyperlinks LA and LB all a user retrieve the documents corresponding to the citations from online legal-research provider  110 . 
     Internal-results portion  1364  is defined to display results of querying internal firm database, KMS database  1244 . In the exemplary embodiment, internal-results portion  1364  includes one or more sets of document-specific UI elements, such as UI element set  1364 D, one or more of which are displayable in association with a corresponding UI element L 2 . Each UI-element provides data or access to data about the contents of an associated internal-results documents, such as a document title T 2 , metadata M 2 , case-law validity flag F 2 , and law-firm rating R 2 . 
     More precisely, metadata M 2  includes one or more portion of the metadata associated with the original DMS copy of the identified document. (The exemplary embodiment populates KMS database with copies of documents selected from DMS database.) In the exemplary embodiment, this includes author, client, document ID, dates of creation and revision, etc. Case-law validity flag F 2  provides an indication of the validity of case law cited within the corresponding firm document. Law-firm rating R 1  provides an indication of the utility and/or quality of the document as determined by previous law-firm users of the document. 
     UI element L 2 , similar to UI element L 1 , provides a user option to retrieve and display the internal document(s) associated with descriptor  1364 D. Exercising this option results in a display document display  1365 . 
     Document display  1365 , which in some embodiments is presented in a spit-screen along a listing of the internal and/or external results, displays at least a portion of the internal document associated with UI element L 2 . The document includes text (denoted by the broken lines) and legal citations CA and CX, which are respectively associated with case-validity flags FA and FB and hyperlinks LA and LX. In addition to providing a visual indication of case-law validity, the case-validity flags can be selected in some embodiments to cause retrieval and/or display of further information regarding the nature of the flags. Hyperlinks LA and LX all a user retrieve the documents corresponding to the citations from online legal-research provider  110 . In addition to the text and citations, document display  1365  provides a firm-name label FN to clearly identify the document as an internal law firm document, a title label T 2  for indicating the title of the corresponding internal document, and a load-copy UI element LC for enabling user to initiate loading of a copy of the corresponding internal document directly into a word processor application of access device  130  for use in generating a new work product document. Moreover, document display portion  1365  also includes a ratings UI-element R 1  which enables a user to see the current law-firm-user rating of the document as well as to rate the current document. Figure X shows an exemplary set of UI elements for achieving this rating. 
     Exemplary Method of Operation 
       FIG. 2  shows a flow chart  200  of one or more exemplary methods of operating an information-management system, such as system  100 . Flow chart  200  includes blocks  210 - 280 , 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. 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. 
     At block  210 , the exemplary method begins with a law-firm user, such as an attorney or paralegal, initiating a search session with online legal-research system  110 . In the exemplary embodiment, this entails the user at access device  130  logging onto a law-firm network using security measures, such as an assigned username and password. After login, the user then launches and directs the Internet browser within access device  130  to connect to the online legal research system. In some embodiments, the user enters a separate username and password to initiate the search session, and in others the previous network login suffices. Execution continues at block  220 . 
     Block  220  entails displaying or otherwise loading and presenting one or more portions of legal-research user interface  156 . In the exemplary embodiment, this entails server  116  of online legal-research system  110  sending an HTML document (or webpage) that includes scripts, applets, and associated data for causing access device  130  to display query portion  1361  of user interface  136 . For users at law firms that have a knowledge management system, such as management system  100 , which is provided or authorized by the online legal research system, the associated data includes at least one firm-name label to use in labeling specific portion of the user interface as well as the name of KMS server  1242 , which is configured and/or authorized to access KMS database  1244 . Execution continues at block  230 . 
     Block  230  entails the user defining and submitting a query. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails the user defining a query using query portion  1361  of interface  136 . Query portion includes features, such as a text box or pull-down menus that enable the user to define a citation, natural-language, or terms-and-connectors query. The interface also presents the user an option to specify the scope of the search or query as including one or more databases within online legal research system and/or at least one internal law firm database. Options related to identifying the internal law firm databases are labeled based on the firm-name label provided by the online legal research system. After defining the query, the user submits it to system by actuating a UI element, such as a “go” button, using an input device, such as a mouse or keyboard. The query is then communicated over the Internet to server  116  and KMS server  1242 . 
     Block  240  entails searching databases at one or both of the online legal search system and the law-firm information management system based on the submitted query. In the exemplary embodiment, online legal-search system  110 , or more precisely, server  116  executes or causes execution of the query against the requested databases, and returns results the search (external results) to access device  130  in the form of HTML documents with associated control features and data. If the query was defined to include law-firm databases, an applet, script or other device is returned along with the external results of access device  130  to trigger or cause access device to call KMS server  1242  to execute the query against an internal law-firm database, such as KMS database  1244 . Some embodiments may call the KMS server concurrently with submission of a query identifying an internal law-firm database. In any case, KMS server executes the search against the KMS databases and serves results in the form of a mark-up language document, such as HTML, to access device  130 . Execution of the exemplary method continues at block  250 . 
     Block  250  entails presenting the search results. In the exemplary embodiment, this presentation entails presenting the internal results and the external results via the browser interface in association with one or more sets of UI elements (or interactive control features), as shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     Block  260  entails displaying an internal law-firm document from internal results set. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails the user selecting a UI element, such a link, associated with one of the listed internal documents and the KMS server retrieving the document from the KMS database and serving it to the access device. Notably, the KMS server automatically updates the document to the current state of the law—that is, current validity flags are inserted next to all of the authorities in the document. The KMS server requests these from the online legal-research provider—in real time—an inserts them prior to serving up the pages to the access device. Another feature of this interface allows the use to click on an UI element and move the mouse cursor to each place in the document that contained terms from the search, for example, a citation in the case of a citation search. 
     Block  270  entails loading the displayed internal document into a word-processing application program. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails the user selecting a “load copy” icon LC on the internal-document display portion  1365  of interface  136 . In response, user interface  136 , which includes an appropriate application program interface, launches or otherwise communicates with the word-processing application to load the document from interface  136  into the word-processing application for user modification. In response, tracking system data within KMS server  1242  is also updated to reflect usage of this internal document. (The exemplary system generally tracks everytime a user clicks on something, specifically creating a usage record indicating the date, time, user, client-mater, type of transaction.) 
     Block  280  saves the modified copy of the internal document in the DMS database as a new work product document. In the exemplary embodiment, this entails the user also providing metadata profile data for the new document. 
     Exemplary Method of Building the Research Repository 
     In the exemplary system of  FIG. 1 , knowledge-management subsystem  120  includes KMS database  1244 , which serves as a research repository of documents selected from DMS database  1224 . KMS server  1242  includes software (that is, coded instructions) for automatically migrating or mirroring select documents from firm&#39;s DMS or network file system to the KMS database  1242 . 
     In the exemplary embodiment, this migration process initially entails retrieving one or more documents from DMS database, for example, using administrator defined queries and executing those queries on a scheduled basis or event-driven basis. Next, the exemplary method entails converting the retrieved documents into a markup language, such as HTML, subsequently indexing the converted documents based on citations and text. The next series of operations include storing citation relationships, storing the HTML documents with tagged citations, and storing document profile data all in a relevant portion of the KMS server. 
     Conclusion 
     The embodiments described above are intended only to illustrate and teach one or more ways of making and using 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 one or more issued patent claims and their equivalents.