Patent Document ID: 5446883
Application ID: 07965165

Base Claim:
1. A method for retrieving a solution document in response to an inquiry from among a system of distributed data bases, the system having at least a first and a second computer, each computer having a data base of solution documents, the method comprising the steps of: receiving at least one inquiry into the first computer, the inquiry having a subject; searching the data base of the first computer for a solution document related to the subject of the inquiry; responsive to finding at least one solution document in the data base of the first computer related to the subject of the inquiry, retrieving the solution document from the first computer; responsive to finding no solution document in the data base of the first computer related to the subject of the inquiry, performing the steps of: generating in the first computer, a document from at least one inquiry in the first computer for which no solution document was found, the document containing for each such inquiry the subject of the inquiry, and an identity of the computer in which the inquiry originated; transmitting the document to the second computer; extracting in the second computer any inquiries from the document; for each extracted inquiry, searching the data base of the second computer for a solution document related to the subject of the inquiry; responsive to finding at least one solution document in the data base of the second computer, retrieving the solution document from the second computer and exporting the solution document to the computer in which the inquiry originated; and, responsive to finding no solution document in the data base of the second computer, notifying the computer in which the inquiry originated that no solution document has been found.

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Claim 8:
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the document generated in the first computer further contains for each inquiry at least one search step performed in searching the data base of the first computer for a solution document.