Patent ID: 7558793

Claim:
A method comprising: storing a database in a processing system, the database including: a list of elements, each element having a unique identifier, one or more elements of the list of elements being for inclusion in one or more of a plurality of bills of material (BOMs); and one or more data structures for storing the plurality of BOMs, each BOM describable as a tree with each node an element of the list of elements, elements of at least two of the BOMs associated with respective owners of a set of owners, two or more of the BOMs being associated with respective owners of the set of owners, and providing remote access to one or more elements of information in the database to one or more users, such that the database may contain two BOMS associated with two or more different owners, the method including feature A and/or feature B, feature A including that at least one of the BOMs includes confidential information of the owner of the BOM such that that unrestricted access to the confidential information is limited to the owner and any one or more designates of the owner of the BOM, and that a first BOM of a first owner may share one or more elements of the list of elements with a second BOM of a second owner, and feature B including that one or more elements in the element list are associated with a respective owner of the set of owners, that the list of elements includes an indication of ownership for each element associated with one of the owners, and that the method further comprises restricting access to information about a particular element in the element list that is associated with a particular owner to the particular owner and any one or more designates of the particular owner.