Patent ID: 6938053

Claim:
A method for categorizing an item based on a training set of categorized items, the method comprising the steps of: (a) parsing an item into at least one token; (b) identifying, from a plurality of categories, at least one category that contains at least one occurrence of at least one token from the item; (c) calculating an agreement weight based on Record Linkage Theory for each of the at least one token from the item that occurs in a first category of the at least one category; (d) combining the agreement weights to determine a total weight for the first category; (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) for each category that contains at least one occurrence of at least one token from the item, wherein the agreement weight based on Record Linkage Theory is a probability that the at least one token can correctly classify the first category divided by a probability that the at least one token can correctly classify the plurality of categories excluding the first category.