Breakwater Solutions LLC

Gregory R Sheaffer

Philip L Richards

John T Ritter

Daniel K Blair

A method and system for tracking the history of possession, activity, and changes related to an electronic document after its creation includes a document in a file system on an computing device having linked metadata which tracks hash values that update when a user performs a document action. Each hash value indicates a fixed document state. The metadata stores hash value identifiers associated with the initial document state and the document state right before the most recent document action and a list of identifiers associated with every state of the document in its history. The method and system allows for branching of multiple documents from a common state, identified by a common hash value and includes components to visualize a document's lineage. The method and system also includes the ability to store information in a document regarding similar, or near duplicate, documents that do not share the same lineage.

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Charlotte, NC, United States of America

Gregory R Sheaffer