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:
Mar. 22, 2011
Filed:
May. 31, 2005
Paul N. Weinberg, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Dave L. Sullivan, Canoga Park, CA (US);
David E. Brookler, Century City, CA (US);
Richard T. Endo, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Nathan F. Yospe, Glendale, CA (US);
Paul N. Weinberg, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Dave L. Sullivan, Canoga Park, CA (US);
David E. Brookler, Century City, CA (US);
Richard T. Endo, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Nathan F. Yospe, Glendale, CA (US);
SAP AG, Walldorf, DE;
Abstract
One or more embodiments of the invention enable a user to search for at least one value in layers of audience specific data comprising language, regional, regulatory and/or cultural specific values per layer. The word 'audience' for the purposes of this specification means a group of document consumers such as people or computers that are associated with a language, country, region, regulation or culture. A search utilizing at least one embodiment of the invention occurs with respect to data that makes use of rule-based inheritance. For a three level inheritance embodiment, there are 8 permutations involving a NULL value in at least one of the layers, instead of making the user calculate the proper mask, the Current Audience Layer mask can be logical ORed with the Primary Audience Layer Mask or the Secondary Audience Layer Mask in order to create the desired search combination. In addition, predefined audience layer operators may also be used comprising 'has value', “is missing value”, “inherits primary”, “inherits secondary”, “inherits any” and “does not inherit”. These predefined masks save the user from generating a bit mask for searching by hand.