Patent ID: 7613712

Claim:
A method for identifying related triples in a resource description framework (RDF) data set, comprising A. executing, on a digital data processing system, with respect to the data set the sub-steps of (i) identifying as related a triple substantially matching a criteria; (ii) identifying as related a triple that is a direct ancestor of a triple identified as related in any of sub-steps (i), (ii) and (iii), and that is not in substantial conflict with the criteria, where a triple whose object is the subject of another triple is deemed a direct ancestor of that other triple, and, conversely, where a triple whose subject is the object of another triple is deemed a direct descendent of that other triple, wherein sub-step (iii) is defined below; (iii) identifying as related a triple (hereinafter “identified descendent”) that is a direct descendent of a triple (hereinafter “identified ancestor”) identified as related in any of sub-steps (i), (ii) and (iii), and which identified descendent (a) is not associated with the identified ancestor via a predicate substantially matching a predicate named in the criteria, if any, and (b) is not in substantial conflict with the criteria; (c) is not associated with the identified ancestor via a predicate matching a predicate by which the identified ancestor is associated with a triple, if any, as a result of which the identified ancestor was identified during execution of sub-step (ii), (iv) identifying as related a triple that is a sibling of another triple identified as related in sub-step (i) and that is not in substantial conflict with the criteria, where triples that share a common subject are deemed siblings B. generating an indication of triples identified as related in step (A), C. wherein the criteria specifies a predicate and an object associated with that predicate, and wherein sub-step (ii) includes comparing at least one of the predicate and object specified in the criteria with the direct ancestor in order to determine whether the direct ancestor is in substantial conflict with the criteria.