Patent Document ID: 8244689
Application ID: 11356765

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method of determining if a first object and a second object represent a same entity, the method comprising: identifying one or more common attributes between the first object and the second object, wherein the first object and the second object are included in a fact repository located on one or more computer systems; determining an entropy for each of the one or more common attributes, wherein a respective entropy for a respective attribute in the one or more common attributes comprises a respective numeric value measuring a respective amount of information carried by the respective attribute; identifying a subset of the one or more common attributes whose respective values are equivalent; determining whether the first object and the second object represent the same entity by comparing a sum of entropies for the subset of the one or more common attributes to an entropy threshold measure; and in response to determining that the first object and the second object represent the same entity, merging the first object and the second object in the fact repository.

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Claim 9:
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: identifying a first subset of the one or more common attributes whose respective values are equivalent; identifying a second subset of the one or more common attributes whose respective values are nonequivalent; determining whether the first object and the second object represent different entities by comparing a difference of a sum of entropies for the first subset of the one or more common attributes and a sum of entropies for the second subset of the one or more common attributes to an entropy threshold measure; and in response to determining that the first object and the second object do not represent different entities, merging the first object and the second object in the fact repository and deleting in the merged object the one or more common attributes and values corresponding to the one or more common attributes for one of the first object and the second object.