Patent ID: 8495076

Claim:
A method of identifying an entity representation in an electronic universal database that corresponds to an entity representation in an electronic foreign database, each database comprising a plurality of entity representations, each entity representation comprising a plurality of linked records, each record comprising a plurality of fields, each field capable of containing a field value, each field value associated with a field value weight, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of search criteria field values identifying an entity representation in the foreign database; ranking entity representations in the universal database according to summed field value weights, wherein each summed field value weight comprises weights corresponding to field values, from records within a same entity representation from the universal database, that match a search criteria field value, and wherein, for each summed field value weight, each weight corresponding to field values is counted at most once for each search criteria field value; determining a highest ranked entity representation; calculating a confidence level reflecting a likelihood that the highest ranked entity representation corresponds to the entity representation identified by the search criteria field values; wherein the calculating a confidence level comprises a sum of terms, each term comprising an exponent, each exponent comprising a difference between a summed weight for the highest ranked entity reference and a summed weight for another entity representation; and outputting, if the confidence level exceeds a predetermined threshold, an identifier for the highest ranked entity representation.