Patent ID: 8527468

Claim:
A method for setting and managing a retention periods for documents in a distributed computing system, said method comprising the steps of: loading compound documents into a database as individual items; extracting text from one or more of the individual items and linking the text to a source item; establishing a custodian for each document instance from the one or more documents; categorizing content within the one or more documents into one or more categories and associating the one or more documents with the one or more categories; assigning retention policies to the content based on the one or more categories, wherein the policies specify a retention period; and continuously monitoring retention policies according to assigned retention periods; utilizing algorithms to cross-match one or more retention policies with the each document instance based on the role of the custodian held at the time a document instance was created and retained and the category to which the document instance refers, in the event multiple retention policies apply for the each document instance, setting a principle retention period to the furthest in the future; and monitoring the principle retention period for said document instance by placing document instances that are expired or about to expire in a queue for deletion, modification, or suspension, and removing from the queue any document instance having a modified or suspended retention period and deleting any remaining document instance in the queue.