Patent ID: 7222299

Claim:
A method for detecting quoted text within a document, the method comprising: generating a first set of hash values for a first sequence of words within a first document; generating a second set of hash values for a second sequence of words within a second document; comparing the first set of hash values to the second set of hash values to identify matching hash values corresponding to at least a portion of a block of quoted text within the first document; and identifying additional portions, on a character-by-character basis, of the block of quoted text by comparing additional text contiguous to the first sequence of words to additional text contiguous to the second sequence of words; wherein comparing the first set of hash values to the second set of hash values to identify matching hash values corresponding to at least a portion of a block of quoted text within the first document comprises: identifying a first sequence of hash values of the first set of hash values that match a second sequence of hash values of the second set of hash values, wherein a length of the first sequence is above a predefined threshold; and identifying text within the first document corresponding to the first sequence of hash values as a first portion of the block of quoted text.