US Patent 5,181,162: Document management and production system (Eastman Kodak Company)

Title: Document management and production system
Patent Number: US Patent 5,181,162
Issued: January 19, 1993
Filed: December 6, 1989
Parent case: n/a
Inventor(s): Smith; Robert M. et al.
Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
Referenced at issuance: n/a
Referenced after issuance: US Patent 5,655,130 (Unisys Corporation) Φ, US Patent 5,764,973 (enterWorks.com), US Patent 5,987,423 (IBM Corporation), and US Patent 6,496,793 (Borland Software Corporation).
Blogger comment:

There were 12 references to prior patents at issuance. These references are unremarkable for the scope and purposes of this blog.

An advanced search at USPTO online on May 15, 2008 for distinguishing references to this patent after its issuance using ref/5,181,162 reveals 334 references. A more refined search reveals the four US patents identified above.

Abstract:

It is an object of the present invention:

1. to provide a novel system for creating, distributing, producing and managing various types of complex documents.
2. to support coordinated, multiple user access to various components of complex documents.
3. to maintain individual document components as discrete units that may be accessed selectively and combined by the user or by means of external programming.
4. to provide a general platform which may be customized to suit a variety of publishing, case management and document handling applications.
5. to provide an object-oriented, data-base-centered computational environment for the storage, modification, organization and retrieval of documents. 
   

Independent claims (as numbered):

1. A document management and production system for accepting and organizing document information, the system comprising:

a. electronic data-storage means comprising a plurality of data locations;

b. means for storing in said data locations, for each document, information representative of document components that collectively specify content, organization and appearance of the document, said information including:

1) logical document components defining structural divisions and structural relationships among information-bearing constituents of the document;

2) attributes, if any, of such logical document components;

3) layout document components that define how content is physically distributed and located within the document; and

4) attributes, if any, of such layout document components;

c. database-management means for specifying ordinal and hierarchical relationships among logical document components and among layout document components; and

d. document-management means for integrating the logical and layout components into a single, organized document;

wherein at least some of the attributes associated with the logical document components contain information specifying locational preferences and positions of such components within the document, thereby facilitating mapping of logical document components that specify information-bearing constituents to layout document components to produce an integrated document.