The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 25, 2001
Filed:
Feb. 24, 1998
William W. Cohen, North Plainfield, NJ (US);
AT&T Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A system and method are provided for answering queries concerning information stored in a set of collections. Each collection includes a structured entity, and each structured entity includes a field. A query is received that specifies a subset of the set of collections and a logical constraint between fields that includes a requirement that a first field match a second field. The probability that the first field matches the second field is determined automatically based upon the contents of the fields. A collection of lists is generated in response to the query, where each list includes members of the subset of collections specified in the query, and where each list has an estimate of the probability that the members of the list satisfies the logical constraint specified in the query.