Patent ID: 8024347

Claim:
A method for differentiating types of data stored in a data collection, the method comprising: receiving, in a programmed computer having a processor, a search request on a first type of data stored in the data collection, wherein the first type of data comprises personal names; automatically differentiating data of the first type stored in the data collection from data of other types stored in the data collection using a name-type determination engine, wherein said other types of data comprises business names, wherein frequency ranked sets of selected personal names and selected business names are maintained, wherein sets of tokens found uniquely in the selected personal names or the selected business names are maintained, and wherein syntactic, morphological and orthographic patterns associated with the selected business names or the selected personal names are maintained; and completing the search request in the programmed computer using data determined to be of the first type, wherein automatically differentiating data of the first type includes determining a type of each data entry in the data collection based only on tokens associated with the data entry, and applying a series of one or more rules to the tokens associated with the data entry, wherein applying a series of one or more rules to the tokens associated with the data entry comprises applying a rule that tests for presence of selected phrases in a given name to determine that the given name refers to a business, wherein each of the selected phrases is comprised of at least two valid personal names, and wherein the one of more rules additionally test: whether the given name contains an apostrophe character; whether the given name contains an enumeration; whether the given name contains an apostrophe followed by the letter “S”; and whether the given name contains a plurality of slashes.