Patent ID: 8260713

Claim:
A method implemented in a computer having a processor and a memory for automatically correlating sales records to specific media items subject to royalty obligations, the method comprising: storing catalog metadata comprising a database representation of media items unique to a given record label's repertoire, said catalog metadata storing for each given media item a set of signatures based on different combinations of information about the given media item; receiving from a user sales records that document purchases that have occurred for media items subject to royalty obligations, at least some of the sales records requiring additional processing in order to determine applicable royalty obligations, at least some sales records missing information about which specific media item has been purchased; parsing the sales records to extract from each sales record a set of fields having at least some information about a given media item purchased; deriving a set of signatures for each sales record, based on different combinations of the fields extracted for that sales record; comparing the set of derived signatures for each sales record against corresponding sets of signatures stored in said catalog metadata; based on the comparison, automatically correlating each sales record to one specific media item that is subject to royalty obligations; and reporting the correlated sales records to the user.