Systems, methods, and software for hyperlinking names

Abstract

Hyperlinking or associating documents to other documents based on the names of people in the documents has become more desirable. Although there is an automated system for installing such hyperlinks into judicial opinions, the system is not generally applicable to other types of names and documents, nor well suited to determine hyperlinks for names that might refer to two or more similarly named persons. Accordingly, the inventor devised systems, methods, and software that facilitate hyperlinking names in documents, regardless of type. One exemplary system includes a descriptor module and a linking module. The descriptor module develops descriptive patterns for selecting co-occurent document information that is useful in recognizing associations between names and professional classes. The linking module tags names in an input document, extracts co-occurent information using the descriptive patterns, and uses a Bayesian inference network that processes a (non-inverse-document-frequency) name-rarity score for each name along with the name and selected co-occurent document information to determine appropriate hyperlinks to other documents, such as entries in professional directories.