Patent ID: 7379928

Claim:
A method of searching a document containing a content layer and at least one annotation layer, the method comprising: performing a search query upon the document containing both a content layer and at least one annotation layer, the search query comprising: searching within the content layer of the document for at least one match to the search query; searching within the annotation layer of the document for at least one match to the search query; and the searching of both the content layer and the annotation layer of the document being enabled to search both text and ink; producing list of search result data structures by producing a search result data structure for each match of the search query, the data structure comprising information identifying whether the match occurred in the content layer or the annotation layer, the page number of the document, the spatial coordinates of the match, a bounding box of the match, and a pointer to the document; collating and reordering the list of search result data structures, by a sorting mechanism, into a logically ordered list; and returning a search result comprising at least one search result data structure based on the result of at least one of the search of the text portion of the document or the search of the annotation portion of the document, the search result including location information associated with at least one match within the document.