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. 02, 2003
Filed:
Apr. 27, 2000
David M. Cannon, Tucson, AZ (US);
Colin S. Dawson, Tucson, AZ (US);
Mark A. Haye, Tucson, AZ (US);
James P. Smith, Menlo Park, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A system and method for relating files in a distributed data storage environment allows for positive identification of membership of a file within a group, even in a loosely coupled environment where files are not available for comparison in real time. In disclosed embodiments, base files of a client are stored on a server and are accompanied by tokens uniquely identifying the base files. The tokens are generated on the client and may be derived from the contents of the base file using a digital signature. Each file transmitted to the server is accompanied with a token. Incremental backups may be used, and may employ file differencing. Accordingly, sub-files related to the base files may be transmitted to the server for backup. The sub-files are related to their respective base files using the tokens and are cross-linked to the base files so that any sub-files can be retrieved together with the base file from which the sub-file was derived.