Patent ID: 7283985

Claim:
A computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine readable-storage device, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, prioritize associations of products and business entities in a data collection, the computer program product configured to: receive information associating a particular product from a group of associated particular products identified in the data collection with a particular business entity identified in the data collection, wherein: the particular business entity is associated in the data collection with multiple data entries that each identify one or more product associations between one or more particular products from the group of associated particular products and the particular business entity, and each of the multiple data entries has a priority indication associated therewith; and storing an indication of the received information associating the particular product in one or more of the multiple data entries in the data collection for use in: determining, in response to a received request, which of the multiple data entries associated with the particular business entity and identifying one or more product associations between the one or more particular products from the group of associated particular products and the particular business entity includes a higher priority indication, and using a data entry of the multiple data entries that includes the higher priority indication to determine whether a product from a group of associated particular products identified in the data collection is associated with the particular business entity.