Patent ID: 8661026

Claim:
A method of identifying an entity representation in an electronic universal database that corresponds to an entity representation in an electronic foreign database, each database comprising a plurality of entity representations, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of search criteria field values; determining one or more entity representations in the foreign database corresponding to one or more of the search criteria field values, each entity representation in the electronic universal database and electronic foreign database comprising a plurality of linked records, each record comprising a plurality of fields, each field capable of containing a field value, each field value associated with a field value weight, wherein each field value weight comprises an expected value of a size of a field value cohort of a record in an arbitrary entity representation in the universal database; forming a comprehensive search criteria, based on determining the one or more entity representations in the foreign database, the comprehensive search criteria comprising a plurality of field values from a plurality of records from the entity representation in the foreign database corresponding to at least some of the search criteria field values, wherein the comprehensive search criteria comprises at least two non-identical field values associated with a same field from the plurality of records in the entity representation in the foreign database; determining a highest ranked entity representation in the universal database according to summed field value weights for field values matching the comprehensive search criteria; calculating a confidence level reflecting a likelihood that the highest ranked entity representation corresponds to the plurality of search criteria field values; and outputting, when the confidence level exceeds a predetermined threshold, an identifier for the highest ranked entity representation.