Patent Document ID: 8135669
Application ID: 11792778

Base Claim:
1. A method for displaying, capturing and using document metadata within result pages in an information access system, wherein the method comprises: storing, by the information access system, a first metadata object, the first metadata object containing chronologically-ordered entries that contain content posted by users of the information access system regarding a given document, at least one of the entries containing content created by a first user of the information access system; receiving a query from a second user of the information access system; and in response to receiving the query: identifying matching documents, the matching documents being documents that are returned by applying the query to a set of documents, the matching documents including the given document; and producing, by a server in the information access system, a result page including a first area containing a title of the given document and a snippet of the given document, a second area containing a title of a second document and a snippet of the second document; wherein the first area includes one or more of the entries in the first metadata object, wherein the first area includes an element for posting the new entry to the first metadata object, wherein the second area includes text in the second metadata object, and an element for editing the text in the second metadata object, receiving the new entry from the second user; and receiving input from the second user, the input representing edits to the text in the second metadata object.

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Claim 5:
5. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising: using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or Active Directory to manage access rights of end users of the information access system, the end users including the first user and the second user; controlling whether the second user is able to view and edit metadata in metadata objects associated with the matching documents based on the access rights of the second user, and maintaining the access rights of the users such that users in user-defined groups can share viewing and editing of document metadata in a secure manner.