Patent Document ID: 5444823
Application ID: 08325541
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A system for accessing a topic stored as part of an on-line body of documentation, comprising: a questionless case-based knowledge base, said questionless case-based knowledge base comprised of means for storing a series of questionless case structures in memory, each said questionless case structure comprised of first, second and third fields, said first field containing a topic name, said second field containing a description of said topic named in said first field, and said third field containing a pointer which provides a path to said second field; a user interface, said user interface comprising means for inputting, as a series of alpha-numeric characters, a natural language description of said topic; a search engine coupled to said user interface and said questionless case-based knowledge base, said search engine comprising: means for performing a search of said questionless case-based knowledge base each time one of said series of alpha-numeric characters is entered into said search engine, via said user interface, as an input; means for identifying, each time one of said series of alpha-numeric characters is entered into said search engine as an input, said questionless case structures which potentially contain said topic, said questionless case structures identified based upon all of said alpha-numeric characters previously entered into said search engine as inputs; and means for selecting said questionless case structure in which said topic is stored; wherein said means for identifying, each time one of said series of alpha-numeric characters is entered into said search engine as an input, said questionless case structures which potentially contain said topic further comprises: means for identifying said questionless case structures having at least one word, or a portion thereof, in said first or second fields, which matches said series of alpha-numeric characters previously entered into said search engine as inputs; means for identifying said questionless case structures having at least one word, or a portion thereof, in said first or second fields, which matches three consecutive alpha-numeric characters of said series of alpha-numeric characters previously entered into said search engine as inputs; and means for identifying said questionless case structures having, in said first or second fields, a numeric representation which falls within a pre-determined value of a numeric representation forming part of said series of alpha-numeric characters previously entered into said search engine as inputs.