Patent ID: 8515942

Claim:
A computer program product residing on a non-transitory computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: retrieving a first query from a first user; retrieving a second query from a second user, wherein the second query is linked to the first query; generating a derivative query based, at least in part, upon merging at least a portion of the second query with at least a portion of the first query, wherein generating the derivative query includes retrieving the first query and the second query prior to generation of the derivative query; determining whether the derivative query contains one or more conflicts; and if it is determined that the derivative query contains one or more conflicts, resolving the one or more conflicts in the derivative query based upon a priority measure, wherein the priority measure assigns priority to the one or more conflicts based upon a hierarchy of the first user and the second user.