Patent ID: 7254588

Claim:
A method for management of categorization and access to documents between a semiconductor foundry and a user, the method comprising the steps of: retaining within a document database body text for a plurality of documents that define parameters of the semiconductor foundry's manufacturing processes; creating a document identification record associated with each document of the plurality of documents; categorizing a plurality of document attributes for each document of the plurality of documents, each of the plurality of document attributes based on the parameters of the semiconductor foundry's manufacturing processes; creating an attribute record for each category of document attribute for each document of the plurality of documents; creating an attribute tree level record providing a hierarchy for each categorization defined by each attribute; defining a document access control record associated with each document of the plurality of documents identifying which of said document attributes govern access to said documents; creating a user access profile for a user, said user access profile defining the user's access privileges for each attribute; generating a document tree categorizing said documents based on attributes selected by the user; selecting at least one document from the document tree; comparing said user access profile to said document access control record for the at least one selected document; and transferring to a the user those documents selected by said user from said document tree and for which said user has access privileges granted based on the contents of said document access control record.