Patent ID: 7647344

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of creating a data structure stored in a memory, wherein the data structure provides information to link business records that are related to a same person of a plurality of persons, for database searching and business record matching operations, the method comprising: (a) associating a first business record, of a first plurality of business records, with a first identifier of a plurality of identifiers that identifies at least one person of the plurality of persons, wherein each identifier is unique and persistent for a predetermined period of time; (b) associating a second business record, of a second plurality of business records, with a second identifier that identifies at least one person of the plurality of persons; (c) determining that the first identifier and the second identifier correspond to a same person by determining that a third business record, of the first of second pluralities of business records, matches with a first element of a first plurality of elements of the first business record and further matches with a second element of a second plurality of elements of the second business record; (d) determining a plurality of potentially matching business records, and from the plurality of potentially matching business records, eliminating a potentially matching business record which does not match a name element of the third business record; (e) when the first identifier and the second identifier are determined to correspond to the same person of the plurality of persons, linking the first identifier and the second identifier in a data structure that provides respective references to the first and second business records without merging the first and second business records under either the first or second identifiers and without merging the first and second identifiers; (f) separately maintaining information in the first business record associated with the first identifier and information in the second business record associated with the second identifier for the predetermined period of time; and (g) when information about the same person of the plurality of persons is requested, grouping access to the information that is separately maintained in both the first and second business records via either one of the first identifier or second identifier based on the link between the first and second identifiers in the data structure.