Dynamic legal database providing historical and current versions of bodies of law Number:7,412,463 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) owispatent

Title: Dynamic legal database providing historical and current versions of bodies of law

Abstract: Information collections defining a common subject such as a codified or uncodified body of law are stored on a computer readable medium in association with temporal information indicating the state or status with respect to time of parts of the information collection, including different versions of the same part. Parts of an information collection that are different versions of each other have different temporal information associated therewith and can be accessed based on the temporal information. Thus, the temporal information may be used to control access to and display of parts of the subject in a computer system based on time as search or request parameter. In a preferred embodiment, the subject is a statutory body of law such as the United States Code. Sections of the Code are stored in association with temporal information such as date of enactment, effective date and termination date. A researcher can access a version of any part of the Code in effect at any particular time.

Patent Number: 7,412,463 Issued on 08/12/2008 to Mitchell,   et al.

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Inventors:	Mitchell; Fred C. (Princeton, NJ), Mosca; Peter (Belle Mead, NJ), Snyder; James Michael (Mount Holly, NJ)
Assignee:	Bloomberg Finance L.P. (
Appl. No.:	10/045,586
Filed:	January 11, 2002

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Current U.S. Class:	707/203 ; 715/227; 715/229
Current International Class:	G06F 17/30 (20060101)
Field of Search:	703/3,102,10,203 715/514,511 707/203,3,102,10,2 717/227,229

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References Cited [Referenced By]

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Primary Examiner: Corrielus; Jean M
Attorney, Agent or Firm: DeRosa; Frank J. Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP

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Claims

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The invention claimed is:

1. A computer readable medium encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer readable medium of information relating to the body of law, the body of law comprising a plurality of topics and a plurality of parts, including parts that are different versions of each other, the one or more data structures comprising: an association of each part of the body of law, including different versions thereof, and at least one topic, the association comprising a hierarchical arrangement of topics of the body of law and parts of the body of law in which each part of the body of law and any different version thereof and the associated at least one topic are hierarchically associated; an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part and of the legal applicability of any different version thereof and the respective part of the body of law or respective different version thereof; and an association of information relating to each part and version of the body of law and the at least one topic with which the respective part or version is associated.

2. A computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the the one or more data structures enable computer access to a part or version of the body of law based at least on the temporal information associated therewith.

3. A computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the temporal information includes a date range, and wherein the one or more data structures enable computer access to a part or version of the body of law based at least on a date encompassed by the date range associated with that part of the body of law.

4. A computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the temporal information comprises a date on which that part or version of the body of law was adopted.

5. A computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the information relating to each part of the body of law associated with at least one topic comprises the temporal information.

6. A computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the association of the information relating to each part of the body of law and at least one topic comprises the at least one topic including such information.

7. A computer readable medium encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer readable medium of information relating to the body of law, the one or more data structures comprising: one or more unique information units, each information unit including at least one part of the body of law, including any different version of the at least one part, and a plurality of topical units, each comprising at least one topic arranged in a scheme for organizing a plurality of interrelated topics; an association of each topical unit and the at least one information unit, each topical unit including information relating to the at least one information unit associated therewith; and an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of each part of the body of law and different version thereof and the respective information unit in which information unit the respective part and any different version thereof are included.

8. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the the one or more data structures enable computer access to an information unit based at least on the temporal information associated therewith.

9. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the the one or more data structures enable computer access to an information unit based at least on the temporal information associated therewith.

10. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the association of each information unit and temporal information comprises each information unit including the associated temporal information.

11. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, comprising at least one link between each information unit and the temporal information associated therewith.

12. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein each information unit comprises a structured document including a part or version of the body of law and the temporal information associated therewith.

13. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the one or more data structures comprises a relational database including records, and each information unit and the temporal information associated therewith are included in a respective record.

14. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the one or more data structures comprises a plurality of files, each file storing at least one information unit and the temporal information associated therewith.

15. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the one or more data structures comprises a plurality of files, each file storing at least one topical unit, each information unit associated therewith, and the respective temporal information associated with each information unit associated therewith.

16. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the one or more data structures comprises a hierarchical arrangement of topical units and associated information units.

17. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the association of the topical unit and the temporal information associated with at least one of the information units associated with the respective topical unit comprises the topical unit including the temporal information.

18. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the one or more data structures comprises a hierarchical organization comprising a topic tree that comprises a plurality of nodes, with each node representing one of the topical units, the tree having leaf nodes representing topical units, each topical unit being an atomic topical unit that is not subdivided, and wherein each information unit associated with a respective topical unit is associated with the leaf node representing that topical unit.

19. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the the one or more data structures comprises at least one table of contents (TOC) associated with the topical units, each TOC including a reference to each information unit associated with the respective topical unit.

20. A computer readable medium according to claim 1 or 7, wherein the temporal information includes a date range.

21. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the temporal information includes a date range, and wherein the one or more data structures enable computer access to an information unit based at least on a date encompassed by the date range associated with that information unit.

22. A computer readable medium according to claim 1 or 7, wherein the temporal information comprises a date range including a date on which the related part of the body of law is effective, and, if that part of the body of law has a date of termination, the date of termination.

23. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the temporal information comprises a date on which the part or version of body of law included in the respective information unit was adopted.

24. A computer readable medium according to claim 1 or 7, wherein the body of law includes at least one title of the United States Code.

25. A computer readable medium according to claim 1 or 7, wherein the body of law includes at least one title of the United States Code of Federal Regulations.

26. A computer readable medium according to claim 1 or 7, wherein the body of law includes at least one title of a codified set of laws of at least one state.

27. A method of providing the one or more data structures of claim 7 comprising: associating each information unit with applicable temporal information; organizing the information units into topical units at least one of which includes the plurality of information units having different versions of the same part of the body of law; and configuring the one or more data structures to provide access by a computer, in response to at least one request input to the computer identifying a topical unit and a date, to an information unit of the identified topical unit having temporal information associated therewith that encompasses the date.

28. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the information relating to each information unit associated with at least one topical unit comprises the temporal information.

29. A computer readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the association of the information relating to each information unit and at least one topical unit comprises the at least one topical unit including such information.

30. A computer readable medium encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer readable medium of information relating to the body of law, the one or more data structures comprising: a plurality of structured documents arranged in a hierarchy of documents comprising documents including a topic or topics of the body of law and documents including a part of the body of law; an association of each of the documents including a part of the body of law and temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of the respective part, wherein a plurality of the parts of the body of law comprises different versions of the same part of the body of law; and each document that includes a part of the body of law including any different version of that part of the body of law and the temporal information associated with the respective part or version.

31. A computer readable medium encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer readable medium of information relating to the body of law, the one or more data structures comprising: a plurality of lower-level structured documents; an association of each of a plurality of parts of the body of law and temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of the respective part, wherein a plurality of the parts of the body of law comprises different versions of the same part of the body of law, the temporal information being different for different versions of the same part of the body of law; each lower level structured document including a different part or different version of the same part of the body of law and including the associated temporal information; and at least one higher level structured document, each lower level structured document being in a hierarchical relationship with at least one higher level structured document which higher level structured document includes information relating to the respective lower level structured document.

32. A method of providing the one or more data structures of claim 31, comprising: associating each part of the body of law with applicable temporal information; including each part of the body of law and its associated temporal information into a lower level structured document; associating applicable lower level structured documents with a higher level structured document; including in each higher level document information relating to each lower level document associated therewith; and configuring the one or more data structures to provide access by a computer, in response to at least one request input to the computer identifying a part of the body of law and a date, to a structured document including the identified part and temporal information associated therewith that encompasses the date.

33. A computer readable medium encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection related to a common subject, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer readable medium of information relating to the common subject, the one or more data structures, comprising: a plurality of lower level structured documents; an association of each of a plurality of parts of the common subject and temporal information comprising at least one date indicating a state or status with respect to time of the respective part of the common subject, wherein a plurality of the parts of the common subject comprises different versions of the same part of the common subject, the temporal information being different for different versions of the same part of the common subject; each lower level structured document including a different part or different version of the same part of the common subject and including the associated temporal information; and at least one higher level structured document, each lower level structured document being in a hierarchical relationship with at least one higher level structured document which higher level structured document includes information relating to the respective lower level structured document.

34. A computer readable medium according to claim 31 or 33, wherein at least one higher level structured document includes a table of contents (TOC) including a reference to each lower level structured document associated therewith.

35. A computer readable medium according to claim 34, wherein at least one higher level structured document includes a TOC having a reference to at least one other higher level structured document hierarchically related to the at least one higher level structured document in an ancestral/descendant relationship.

36. A computer readable medium according to claim 34, wherein at least one higher level structured document includes a TOC having a reference to at least one other higher level structured document and to each lower level structured document referenced by the at least one other higher level structured document, the at least one higher level structured document being hierarchically related in an ancestral/descendant relationship with the at least one other higher level structured document, and each of the lower level structured documents.

37. A computer readable medium according to claim 31 or 33, wherein at least one structured document indicates differences between different versions of the same part.

38. A computer readable medium encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer readable medium of information relating to the body of law, the one or more data structures, comprising: a hierarchical arrangement of headings in at least one table of contents (TOC) and parts of the body of law, each heading identifying one or more parts of the body of law; an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part of the body of law and the respective part of the body of law; an association of a plurality of parts of the body of law that are different versions of each other and have different temporal information associated therewith and at least one heading of a TOC; and an association of the temporal information relating to each part and version of the body of law and each heading with which the respective part or version is associated.

39. A computer readable medium according to claim 38, wherein the one or more data structures enable computer access to a part of the body of law in response to a request by a computer including at least a date of the one or more dates associated with that part.

40. A computer readable medium according to claim 38, wherein the one or more data structures include a structured document for and including each different part of the body of law.

41. A computer readable medium according to claim 40, wherein each TOC is included in a structured document having a reference to each other structured document including a part of the body of law referenced in a heading of that TOC.

42. An information storage and retrieval system, comprising: a computer system including a computer display device, a computer input device and a computer-readable medium, the computer system being coupled to access data stored on the computer-readable medium, wherein the medium being encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating access by the computer system of information from the medium relating to the body of law, the one or more data structures comprising: an association of each part of the body of law, including different versions thereof, and at least one topic comprising a hierarchical arrangement of topics of the body of law and parts of the body of law in which each part of the body of law and different version thereof and the associated at least one topic are hierarchically associated; and an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part and the legal applicability of any different version thereof and the respective part of the body of law or respective different version thereof, wherein the computer system being programmed to access the medium and cause to be displayed on the computer display device, in response to input from the computer input device, information identifying at least two parts of the body of law that are different versions of each other together with temporal information associated therewith, and in response to input from the computer input device selecting one of the identified parts displayed identity to access the medium and cause the one identified part to be displayed on the display device.

43. An information storage and retrieval system, comprising: a computer system including a computer display device, a computer input device and a computer-readable medium, the computer system being coupled to access data stored on the computer-readable medium; the medium being encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating access by the computer system of information from the medium relating to the body of law, the one or more data structures comprising: a hierarchical arrangement of headings in at least one table of contents (TOC) and parts of the body of law, each heading identifying one or more parts of the body of law; an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part of the body of law and the respective part of the body of law; and an association of a plurality of parts of the body of law that are different versions of each other and have different temporal information associated therewith and at least one heading of a TOC; the computer system being programmed to access the medium and cause to be displayed on the computer display device, in response to input from the computer input device at least one heading, at least one part associated with the at least one heading and temporal information, and the computer system being programmed to cause to be displayed on the computer display device a displayed part selected with the computer input device that has temporal information associated therewith that encompasses the displayed temporal information.

44. A method of accessing an information collection stored on a computer readable medium using a computer coupled to access the information collection, the medium being encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating access by the computer system of information from the medium relating to the body of law, the one or more data structures comprising; an association of each part of the body of law, including different versions thereof, and at least one topic comprising a hierarchical arrangement of topics of the body of law and parts of the body of law in which each part of the body of law and any different version thereof and the associated at least one topic are hierarchically associated; and an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part and the legal applicability of any different version thereof and the respective part of the body of law or respective different version thereof; the method comprising: displaying on a computer display device coupled to the computer dates in association with information identifying at least two parts that are different versions of each other; and displaying on the computer display device that part of the body of law that is selected with a computer input device coupled to the computer.

45. A method of accessing an information collection stored on a computer readable medium using a computer coupled to access the information collection, the medium being encoded with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating access by the computer system of information from the medium relating to the body of law, the one or more data structures comprising: an association of each part of the body of law, including different versions thereof, and at least one topic comprising a hierarchical arrangement of topics of the body of law and parts of the body of law in which each part of the body of law and any different version thereof and the associated at least one topic are hierarchically associated; and an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part and the legal applicability of any different version thereof and the respective part of the body of law or respective different version thereof; the method comprising: inputting to the computer using a computer input device information identifying a part of the body of law and a date; and in response thereto, the computer causing the computer display device to display the identified part which has temporal information encompassing the inputted date.

46. A method according to claim 44, wherein the information collection includes a table of contents (TOC) having headings with which one or more parts of the body of law are associated, each heading being associated with temporal information indicating the applicability of parts associated with the respective heading, the method comprising: displaying on the computer display device a heading and the temporal information associated therewith; inputting to the computer using a computer input device a selection of displayed temporal information associated with a heading; and in response thereto, displaying on the computer display device the part of the body of law in the displayed heading associated with the temporal information that is selected using the computer input device.

47. A method for encoding a computer readable medium with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer readable medium of information relating to the body of law, the body of law comprising a plurality of topics and a plurality of parts, including parts that are different versions of each other, the method comprising creating in the one or more data structures: an association of each part of the body of law, including different versions thereof, and at least one topic in a hierarchical arrangement of topics of the body of law and parts of the body of law in which each part of the body of law and any different version thereof and the associated at least one topic are hierarchically associated; an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of a respective part and the legal applicability of any different version thereof and the respective part of the body of law or respective different version thereof; and an association of information relating to each part or version of the body of law and the at least one topic with which the respective part or version is associated.

48. A method for encoding a computer readable medium with one or more data structures representing an information collection comprising a body of law, the one or more data structures organizing the information collection and facilitating computer access from the computer readable medium of information relating to the body of law, the method comprising creating in the one or more data structures: one or more unique information units, each including at least one part of the body of law including any different version of the at least one part, and a plurality of topical units, each comprising at least one topic; an association of each topical unit and the at least one information unit, each topical unit including information relating to the at least one information unit associated therewith; and an association of temporal information comprising one or more dates indicating the legal applicability of each part of the body of law and different version thereof and the respective information unit in which the respective part and any different version thereof are included; the method comprising storing the one or more data structures in the computer readable medium.

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Description

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

The invention generally relates to collections of information and to systems that include, and/or access, retrieve, display and/or otherwise perform operations involving, such information collections. In particular, the invention relates to information collections that include information that may change with time, and which maintain a status, state or other relationship of information in the collection with respect to time. For example, the information collections may store historical as well as current information in association with related temporal information. In preferred embodiments, the information collections comprise a body of law and store historical and current versions of the body of law and parts thereof.

The term "information collection" is used herein in a broad sense and, unless the context indicates otherwise, encompasses databases, information bases, knowledge bases, bodies of information, etc., stored on a computer readable medium (electronic, magnetic, optical, etc.) or otherwise accessible by a computer device. Similarly "information" is used herein in a broad sense and, unless the context indicates otherwise, encompasses data. Unless the context indicates otherwise, the terms "information" and "data" may be used herein interchangeably, and the terms "information collection," information base," "knowledge base" and "database" may be used herein interchangeably. Similarly, the term "body of law" is used herein in a broad sense and encompasses bodies of law, codified and uncodified, such as codes, sets and codifications of laws, regulations, administrative rules, etc.

Some information collections include information that changes with time, and, in a sense, are dynamic. For example, a dictionary is a collection of words and their meanings; both the composition of the collection and the meanings of words in the collection may change over time. Frequently, words have multiple meanings in dictionaries and include historical information. Other examples are version control and configuration management systems that include historical and current versions of documents and software.

Still another example of an information collection that may change over time is a body of law, for example, promulgated by a governmental or quasi-governmental or other organization.

Such information collections may include historical information in the form of commentary, historical data, annotations, legislative history, references to other laws or judicial decisions, case notes, etc., as well as the current version of the body of law.

In the above examples, the subjects of the information collections can be rather large. To facilitate working (e.g., storing, accessing, retrieving, displaying, etc.) with an expansive subject, it is often necessary to provide some kind of organizational structure for the information. For some applications of a dynamic subject that may change over time, not only would an organizational structure be beneficial, but it would be useful to be able to track status or obtain the current state of parts of the subject, or to obtain historical information such as earlier versions of parts of the subject.

Bodies of law and/or parts thereof typically take effect on some date after enactment, and remain in effect until a specified expiration date, or indefinitely (or in perpetuity), unless altered or terminated by an intervening enactment. However, some bodies of law and/or parts thereof have retroactive effect from the date of enactment. In addition, at the time of enactment, a body of law or part thereof may have a duration that is not certain. For example, a body of law or part thereof becomes and/or ceases to be effective at some time triggered by an event that is not certain at the time that the body of law or part thereof was enacted. Possibly, such a body of law or part thereof might never actually go into effect if its initial effective conditions are not met. Likewise, a termination condition could fail to occur. It is also possible that a body of law or part thereof might be enacted with an effective date that, because of a subsequent enactment, may never take effect.

Therefore, ascertaining the status or state of any body of law or part thereof at any given time or interval of time can be difficult. Also, many bodies of law typically include one or more parts and/or sub-parts that may be modified independently of each other, which can compound any uncertainty or lack of clarity in the status or state of the parts and sub-parts.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The invention provides information collections that include information that may change with time, and which maintain a status or state or other relationship(s) of information in the collection with respect to time. The information collections may define a body of information on a common subject, e.g., a body of law, and the state or status thereof at any given time or within any given period of time, and provide access to a version of a part of the common subject that is or was active, or is or was applicable, or as it read, etc., at any given time or within any given period of time.

The invention provides a dynamic or date-sensitive information collection that cohesively provides access to a subject, e.g., for display, printing, storage, processing, etc., based on temporal concerns. For example, the information collections may store historical as well as current information in an integrated fashion.

As discussed below, a plurality of parts of the common subject are associated with temporal information indicating a state or status thereof, e.g., a temporal applicability with respect to time, with which access for retrieval, transmission, storage, display, printing, viewing, etc., is affected or controlled, or by, with or through which a part is made visible to a user in some way (collectively referred to herein as "visibility" for ease of reference and discussion). Other information, e.g., historical information, commentary, annotations, descriptive information, references and/or links to other parts of the subject or to other subjects, etc., may also be associated with parts of the common subject. For example, visibility of a part or parts of a common subject will depend upon the temporal information associated therewith. Visibility is a user-centric concept in which information stored in association with temporal information on a computer readable medium may or may not be accessible to a user, e.g., for retrieval, transmission, storage, display, printing and/or viewing based on one or more predetermined criteria. Thus, temporal information can be used as a filter so that only that part or those parts of the subject that satisfy a temporal criterion or criteria would be visible.

The inventive information collections are stored on a computer readable medium, and comprise a plurality of unique parts of information, each related to a common subject, e.g., a body of law, and each stored in association with temporal information of the type described herein. A part of a collection may be an atomic part that is not subdivided, or a non-atomic part that is subdivided. An example of a non-atomic part is a table of contents ("TOC") or index heading, while an example of an atomic part is a lowest level unit under the heading. The collections include a plurality of parts of the common subject that are different versions of each other (including parts which are replacements or substitutes for other parts, or parts that are the closest counterpart of other parts, etc.), and have different temporal information associated therewith. Different versions of the same part are also examples of atomic parts.

The collections are preferably arranged or configured to include a plurality of topics, each having associated therewith at least one part of the common subject and including information relating to the at least one part of the common subject. A topic may be atomic or non-atomic, and may simply be an identifier for a part of the common subject, or a name for such part, or a heading, for example in a TOC or index, etc. At least one of the topics has associated therewith a plurality of parts, e.g., atomic parts, of the common subject that are different versions of each other and that have different temporal information associated therewith. Information associated with a topic may include temporal information relating to the applicability with respect to time of at least one of the parts associated with the respective topic and/or historical information, descriptive information, etc. relating to such a part and/or the associated topic.

A part of the common subject and temporal and other information can be associated in various ways. They can be linked (e.g., hyperlinked) or included in the same file, or record or structured document, or they may be associated by pointers, etc. Topics and related parts of the common subject and other topics can be similarly associated.

In one embodiment, the information collection is represented by a hierarchical arrangement of topics and associated parts of the common subject. The information collection may be hierarchically organized as a topic tree having non-leaf nodes and leaf nodes representing topics. A non-leaf node is an example of a non-atomic topic and a leaf node is an example of an atomic topic. Each atomic part of the common subject associated with a respective topic is associated with the leaf node representing that topic. At least one TOC or index may be associated with at least one topic, each TOC or index including a reference to each part of the common subject associated with the respective topic. At least one heading in the TOC or index is a leaf node associated with a plurality of atomic parts of the common subject that are different versions of each other and have different temporal information associated therewith. Each atomic part of the common subject is associated with at least one heading. The headings may have temporal information associated therewith that indicate the temporal applicability of the part of the common subject associated therewith, as well as other information. Non-atomic headings or topics may include pointers to atomic parts, or be associated in any appropriate manner.

The temporal information associated with each part of the common subject may include a date range, and in that embodiment, the information collection is structured so that a part of the common subject can be accessed based on a date encompassed by the date range associated with that part. The date range may include a date on which that part of the common subject first became effective, or was the then or now current version. If the part of the common subject has a date when it ceases to be effective or current, or a date of termination, which may be unstated and hence would be indefinite or in perpetuity, the date range may also include that date. The temporal information may also include a date on which the part of common subject was created or adopted, which may also be included in the date range.

Parts of the common subject, and topics if applicable, may be included in structured documents, e.g. created with a markup language such as Extensible Markup Language ("XML") or Hypertext Markup Language ("HTML"). In such an embodiment, each part of the common subject that is a different version of the same part is preferably included in a separate structured document. A document can be or include an atomic part of a common subject, or a non-atomic part of a common subject. A part or document may include information or content in various forms, including by way of example, any or all of text, numbers, symbols, computer code, graphics, etc. While a document may contain a non-atomic part of the information collection, the document itself may not be subject to subdivision. Structured documents may include topics, headings, parts, etc., and may also include references to other related or associated documents.

In one embodiment, each part of the common subject and its associated temporal information are included in a separate lower level structured document. One or more higher level structured documents include information relating to a plurality of lower level structured documents that are in a hierarchical relationship with a respective higher level document. At least one of the higher level documents has information relating to a plurality of lower level documents that each includes a different atomic version of the same part of the common subject and the associated temporal information. At least one higher level document may include a topic and/or a TOC including a reference to a lower level document or documents associated therewith. At least one higher level document may include a topic and/or a TOC having a reference to one or more other higher level documents and to one or more lower level documents which are referenced by any of the plurality of higher level documents. The documents in this embodiment are hierarchically related in ancestral and descendant relationships. Also, at least one structured document may be provided indicating differences between different versions of the same part of the common subject.

The invention provides methods of providing the information collections described herein comprising: associating each part of the common subject with applicable temporal information, organizing parts of the common subject into topics at least one of which includes a plurality of atomic parts that are different versions of each other, and configuring the information collection to provide, in response to at least one request identifying a part and/or topic and/or a date, the identified part and/or topic having temporal information associated therewith that encompasses the date. The terms "request" and "query" are used in a broad sense and encompass inputs entered into a computer or computer system or equivalent device by any appropriate input device, including selection of input information displayed on a computer display using a pointing device such as a mouse. Also, a request may be entered by a single input, multiple inputs or a series or sequence of inputs.

In embodiments providing an information collection in structured documents, an inventive method comprises: associating each part of the common subject with applicable temporal information by including each part and its associated temporal information into a lower level structured document; associating applicable lower level documents with a higher level structured document by including in each higher level document information relating to one or more lower level document associated therewith; and configuring the information collection to provide, in response to at least one request identifying a part of the common subject and a date, a structured document including the identified part having temporal information associated therewith that encompasses the date.

Each part of the common subject is preferably stored discretely and the information collection preferably includes a construct for implementing a topic tree. The topic tree, which organizes the parts of the common subject according to a predetermined organization scheme, includes leaf nodes which represent the finest, smallest or most granular organizational breakdown, i.e., atomic parts. The atomic parts of the common subject are logically or relationally associated with the leaf nodes, which represent the atomic topics. Each non-root node of the topic tree may be logically associated with temporal information reflecting the temporal scope of the nodes and parts of the common subject associated therewith.

In the preferred embodiment, the topic tree is implemented by a hierarchical arrangement of structured documents which collectively provide a TOC. The parts of the common subject are provided in structured documents, and the TOC is also provided in structured documents that are logically positioned at nodes of the topic tree and include references to corresponding structured documents. In addition, each TOC document preferably includes a reference to an ancestral (e.g., parent) TOC document, if any, and all descendant (e.g., child) TOC documents. Each document reference in a TOC document preferably includes: (i) a label, reflecting an instance of a heading in the TOC; (ii) a file name of the referenced document; and (iii) a date range reflecting the combined temporal scope of all documents which descend lineally from the referenced document. In this manner, the label (which represents an entry or heading in the table of contents) can be displayed depending on its visibility.

The invention also provides systems for storing and accessing parts of a common subject having temporal information associated therewith. Such systems comprise an information collection as described herein stored on a computer readable medium, and means for accessing a part from the information collection in response to at least one request identifying the part and a date encompassed by the tempora