US20150074397A1

Movatterモバイル変換

Info

Publication number: US20150074397A1
Application number: US14/384,851
Authority: US
Inventors: Andre Dube; Darryl Beallie; Brian Anderson; Cody Thompson
Original assignee: COGNILORE Inc
Current assignee: COGNILORE Inc
Priority date: 2012-03-13
Filing date: 2013-03-13
Publication date: 2015-03-12
Also published as: US20180234397A1; US20210144129A1; US11038850B2; US11632357B2

Abstract

Electronic publications are increasingly replacing physical media, where standards have evolved to mimic these physical media. Accordingly it is beneficial to provide electronic publication software systems and/or software applications to enable new paradigms that provide consumers, authors, publishers, retailers, and others with a method of publishing new electronic content in a manner wherein primary and secondary electronic content may be combined from multiple sources to generate said new electronic content which may be distributed based upon rights embedded within content elements. The method further comprising the ability to support community interactions within work and private environments; to re-assign licenses and issue sub-licenses; and to distribute said new electronic content with a unique fingerprint allowing unique identification of sources of non-authorised content.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application U.S. 61/610,066 filed Mar. 13, 2012 entitled “Methods and Systems for Digital Content” and U.S. Provisional Patent Application US 61/610,068 filed Mar. 13, 2102 entitled “Methods and Systms for Digital Contents”, the entire contents of which are included by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to electronic content and more specifically to licensing, annotating, publishing, generating, rendering, and social community engagement of electronic content.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In 2010, Google estimated that since the invention of printing, approximately 130,000,000 unique titles had been published. When writing systems were invented in ancient civilizations, approximately 6,000 years ago, words were not separated from each other (scriptural continua) and there was no punctuation and employed various media including tree bark, clay, stone, and metal. Texts were written from right to left, left to right, and even so that alternate lines read in opposite directions. Today, many languages including Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chinese remain as right-to-left languages whereas those derived from the Greek, Latin and Cyrillic languages are left-to-right. Additionally Chinese and Japanese are read bottom-to-top whereas Hebrew, Arabic, and those derived from Greek, Latin and Cyrillic languages are top-to-bottom. Accordingly, even today there are multiple structures for text even ignoring the 82 languages with over 10 million native speakers and the 7,358 recognised languages (“Ethnologue: Languages of the World”).

Since the early-20th century to today the majority of books are printed by offset lithography although the introduction in the late-20th century of computer-to-file and computer-to-plate systems further increased quality as well as allowing electronic distribution of content from a publisher to the printer. These technologies led to publishing concepts such as “print on demand”, which make it possible to print as few as one book at a time, have made self-publishing much easier and more affordable whilst also allowing publishers to keep low-selling books in print rather than declaring them out of print. Also in the late 20th Century the combination of advanced word processing software, graphic image processing software, and standards for document exchange combined with the rapid penetration of the Internet resulted in much of the new information generated not being printed in paper books but being available online through websites, digital libraries, CD/DVD/NAND ROM, or in the form of eBooks. Additionally, the Internet has resulted in a rapid proliferation of information and written content overall despite erosion generally in writing skills of users of the Internet. An on-line book is an electronic book that is available online through the Internet whereas, at present, an eBook, being a contraction of “electronic book”, refers to a digital version of a conventional print book although with time these distinctions will be lost. Today the majority of content on the Internet is presented through extendable markup languages such as Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) which control their appearance within webpages and websites.

Numerous eBook formats have emerged and proliferated over the past twenty years for electronic publishing (ePublishing), some supported by major software companies such as Adobe with its Portable Document Format (PDF) approach, and others supported by independent and open-source programmers including EPUB (also referred to as ePUB, ePub, EPub, and epub) which became an official standard of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) in 2007 superseding the older Open eBook standard. Today the vast majority of downloadable content from the Internet is PDF based.

EPUB has become a leading format for eBooks alongside PDF as it is free and open, supports re-flowable (word wrap) and re-sizable text, supports inline raster and vector images, allows embedded metadata, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) styling, alternative renditions in the same file, use of out-of-line and inline Extensible Markup Language (XML) islands (an XML island is a piece of XML embedded within an HTML document to associate data with an HTML object to extend the functionality of the HTML). However, EPUB does not support Digital Rights Management (DRM) directly and such functionality is typically applied through applying “wrappers” such as Adobe's Content Server approach to provide an equivalent function as the “wrapper” is encrypted/decrypted by the supporting eReader software thereby exposing the EPUB for display.

Like EPUB PDF is an open standard for document exchange. However, unlike EPUB, PDF was originally a proprietary format controlled by Adobe for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. It was officially released as an open standard in 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as ISO 32000-1:2008. At the same time Adobe published a Public Patent License to ISO 32000-1 granting a royalty-free rights for all patents owned by Adobe that are necessary to make, use, sell and distribute PDF compliant implementations. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, graphics, and other information needed to display it. Accordingly, PDF documents are fixed in layout and do not reflow according to the rendering device's screen dimensions or orientation as EPUB does. Other standards in addition to PDF and EPUB are also employed including, for example, the AZW and MOBI eBook formats.

In contrast to the fully self-contained PDF an EPUB file uses XHTML 1.1 to construct the content of a book. Styling and layout are performed using a subset of CSS 2.0 such that this specialized syntax requires only a portion of CSS properties to be supported by e-reading systems and adds a few custom properties such as page-header and page footer. EPUB also requires that PNG, JPEG, GIF, and SVG images be supported using Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) and whilst other media types are allowed, creators must include alternative renditions using supported types. EPUB requires Unicode and content producers must use either UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding in order for EPUB to support international and multilingual books. However, reading systems are not required to provide the fonts necessary to display every Unicode character, though they are required to display at least a placeholder for characters that cannot be displayed fully.

Annotation: However use of a ZIP file as the container for the EPUB hinders linking into, between, or within an EPUB book which is not helped through the specification's lack of detail on linking. Additionally, EPUB lacks within the specification consideration of annotation. This lack of a standardized way to annotate EPUB books leads to ad-hoc solutions resulting in it being difficult or impossible to share and/or transfer annotations therefore limiting the use of EPUB as it cannot provide a level of interactivity comparable to the web.

In contrast to EPUB PDF files can be annotated, highlighted, and notes added by a variety of proprietary software application including Adobe Acrobat, Tracker Software's PDF-XChange Viewer, Aji's iAnnotate, GRAHL Software Design's PDF Annotator, neu.Pen's neu.Annotate PDF, FoxIt's Foxit Reader, and Nitro's Nitro Pro7. However, each of these applications the software application opens the source PDF document, provides the tools for the user to edit and/or annotate the content and then it is saved directly back into the PDF format.

Accordingly, no common format exists to handle annotations within eBooks. Those made to PDF eBooks are stored internally such that all users with rights to DRM protected eBooks or all users in unprotected eBooks can view the annotations and amend, edit, add to these. At present such annotations have been primarily focused to managing the generation of content by allowing such annotations to represent reviewer contents such that the next released version of the content contains the comments that have been accepted with respect to the reviewer(s).

Digital Rights Management: The EPUB specification does not require use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) explicitly as this is handled as an additional layer nor does it name any particular DRM system to use, so that publishers can choose a DRM scheme to their liking such as Apple FairPlay™ or Adobe Content Server. However, future versions of EPUB, specifically the Open Container Format (OCF) standard, may specify a format for DRM.

FairPlay™ protects files by encrypting content using an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm in combination with a Message-Digest Algorithm, e.g. MD5 hashes. The master key required to decrypt the encrypted content is also stored in encrypted form in the content container file. Each time a new customer uses Apple's software to buy content, a new random user key is generated and used to encrypt the master key wherein the random user key is stored, together with the account information, on Apple's servers, and also sent to the user's version of the software on their computer platform which are then stored in its own encrypted key repository. Using this key repository, the software application is able to retrieve the user key required to decrypt the master key and then, using the master key decrypt the content to render it to the user. Users authorize computers rather than specific content and hence when authorizing a new computer Apple's servers in response to the request transmit all user keys associated with the account information.

Adobe Content Server is DRM software used to add digital rights management to eBooks developed by Adobe Systems. It is designed to “protect” and distribute Adobe eBooks in PDF or EPUB format through Adobe Digital Editions which uses the proprietary Adobe Digital Experience Protection Technology (ADEPT) DRM concept, which is also implemented on some eBook readers such as the Sony Reader. The software locks content to up to six machines and allows the user to view the content on each of them. The underlying concept in ADEPT is similar to that employed in FairPlay™ but using RSA public key cryptography. Accordingly a per-user RSA key, created from the product of two large prime numbers along with an auxiliary value, is published and used to encrypt a per-book AES key which encrypts the content.

Accordingly, at present eBooks are published and handled with a combination of techniques, for example in DRM and annotations, which exploit techniques developed primarily for other applications. For example FairPlay™ was originally employed with iTunes™ to protect digital audio content in 2001 and is essentially mirrored in the other dominant DRM solution of Adobe Content Server. EPUB does not support annotations being developed upon Open eBook (formally Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS)) which is a legacy eBook format. At the same time techniques for annotating PDFs for eBooks are the same as those established for collaborating and reviewing documents during content generation and release rather than considering post-release annotation by users of protected content. Similarly, licensing is addressed from the viewpoint of releasing a single eBook to a single user in the same manner as previously the user purchased music rather than considering enterprises purchasing multiple copies for use by varying members within their organization.

Accordingly to date eBook applications have been focused to only one aspect of the multi-faceted world of publishing, namely the replacement of physical books with an electronic book format. Accordingly it would be beneficial to provide users with an eBook software system that addresses the multiple facets of publishing that have evolved over the past two hundred years of publishing. It would also be beneficial for the eBook software systems and/or software applications to leverage the benefits and potential that the Internet and high-speed communications provide including, but not limited to leveraging social media, supporting crowd sourcing, allowing streaming content, supporting multimedia content within annotations, and supporting hyperlinks within annotations.

It would also be beneficial for such eBook software systems and/or software applications to enable new paradigms that provide consumers, authors, publishers, retailers, and others with new models for releasing digital content from editorial and authorship viewpoints; new models for providing digital rights management; new models for publishers to release revised editions, errata, new additions, etc; new methods of engaging social networks within work and private environments with associated content (annotations) to the original release content; and supporting discussion and information dissemination within a wide variety of environments from education to business to book clubs etc. Within such eBook software systems and/or software applications the inventors consider primary (electronic) content as being content having defined authorship and released with or without digital rights, and secondary (electronic) content as being additional content associated with predefined elements of the primary content generated by one or more users with associated characteristics in terms of releasing the secondary content to one or more other users.

Accordingly the inventors have addressed providing benefits in terms of providing; supporting community interaction with electronic content; licensing electronic content with re-assignable rights and the ability to issue sub-rights; generating and rendering combined content from primary content and one or more secondary content sources with low network overhead; providing the ability to issue partial licenses to users with predetermined validity; and distributing electronic content with fingerprinting allowing unique identification of sources of non-authorised content. Additionally users address the navigation of eBooks generically rather than the current dominant sectors of works of fiction and historical non-fiction such as biographies. Such works are read sequentially and accordingly easily rendered in a linear fashion to the user. However, a dictionary, a thesaurus, a user manual, a set of legal statutes, a cookery book are accessed in manners that may be described as non-linear or randomly by users such that different renditions of location and movement with the electronic content are required other than a table of contents, page numbers, and an index which mimic their historical paper predecessors or releases.

The inventors have considered it beneficial to provide the release of electronic content in manner wherein primary and secondary electronic content may be subsequently combined from multiple sources to generate a new eBook which may be sold with well documented flow-through licenses and revenue allocation based upon rights embedded to content elements.

Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to mitigate limitations and disadvantages of the prior art with respect to electronic content and more specifically to licensing, annotating, publishing, generating, rendering, and social community engagement of electronic content.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:

a server comprising at least a first processor and a first memory hosting and executing a first software application, the memory storing primary content relating to a publication and second content relating to the publication generated by a user;
an electronic device comprising at least a second processor, a second memory, a user interface and a display and hosting and executing a second software application; wherein
the electronic device and server communicate via a communications network to transfer merged, rendered, encrypted and fingerprinted primary and secondary content to the electronic device from the server and new secondary content to the server from the electronic device as generated by the user using the electronic device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts an example of annotations made by a user of a conventional paper based book according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary screenshot of a prior art software application “Scrible” for annotating electronic content;

FIG. 3 depicts details of the prior art software application “Scrible” depicted inFIG. 2;

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary use of the prior art software application “Scrible”;

FIG. 5 depicts examples of other prior art software applications for annotating web based and PDF based electronic content;

FIG. 6 depicts a network supporting communications and interactions between devices connected to the network and a software system according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 depicts an electronic device supporting communications and interactions to the network depicted inFIG. 6;

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA electronic content comprising publishing primary content and associating user generated secondary content to the primary content;

FIG. 9 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA rendering published primary content and filtered secondary content to a user;

FIG. 10 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein a user selects secondary content filtering to be applied in association with primary content for rendering to the user;

FIG. 11 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein a second source of primary content provides update citations to secondary content of a user associated with a first source of primary content;

FIG. 12 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein secondary content generated by a user under a first license may be de-activated and re-activated under a second license in association with the source of primary content to which the secondary content relates;

FIG. 13 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein secondary content generated by a user in association with primary content may be associated with different levels of publication by the user;

FIG. 14 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein multiple sources of primary content may be employed by a user in association with secondary content to generate new primary content for publication;

FIG. 15 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA with crowd sourcing of secondary content with respect to an element of primary content;

FIG. 16 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein a user publishes primary and secondary content to a social media application for subsequent user review;

FIGS. 17A through 17C depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein a publisher publishes primary content which is subsequently purchased by an enterprise wherein a license and sub-licenses are issued and associated to the primary content;

FIG. 18 depicts a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA relating to the rendering of merged primary and secondary content to a user;

FIG. 19 depicts dynamic migration of a user's viewing window within retrieved merged primary and secondary content in response to a characteristic of the user according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 20 depicts an index according to the prior art together with a flowchart according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA for indexing primary content and subsequently generated index of secondary content;

FIG. 21 depicts an example of a user adding an annotation as a pseudo-primary element of a primary content so that the secondary content is displayed to subsequent users as if it was an element of the primary content when published by the user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is directed to electronic content and more specifically to licensing, annotating, publishing, distributing, updating, searching, generating, rendering, and social community engagement of electronic content.

The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiment(s) only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the exemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an exemplary embodiment. It being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope as set forth in the appended claims. Where embodiments of the invention are described with respect to process flows or flowcharts then these are described with respect to this embodiment. It would be evident that two or more flowcharts may be combined or linked.

A “mobile electronic device” as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless device used for communication that requires a battery or other independent form of energy for power. This includes, but is not limited to, devices such as a cellular telephone, smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computer, pager, portable multimedia player, portable gaming console, laptop computer, tablet computer, and an electronic reader. A “fixed electronic device” (FED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless device or wired device used for communication that does not require a battery or other independent form of energy for power. This includes, but is not limited to, devices such as Internet enable televisions, gaming systems, desktop computers, kiosks, and Internet enabled communications terminals.

A “network operator” or “network service provider” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a telephone or other company that provides services for mobile phone subscribers including voice, text, and Internet; telephone or other company that provides services for subscribers including but not limited to voice, text, Voice-over-IP, and Internet; a telephone, cable or other company that provides wireless access to local area, metropolitan area, and long-haul networks for data, text, Internet, and other traffic or communication sessions; etc.

A “software system” as used as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a server based computer system executing a software application or software suite of applications to provide one or more features relating to the licensing, annotating, publishing, generating, rendering, encrypting, social community engagement, storing, merging, and rendering electronic content and tracking of user and social community activities of electronic content. The software system being accessed through communications from a “software application” or “software applications” and providing data including, but not limited to, electronic content to the software application. A “software application” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, an application, combination of applications, or application suite in execution upon a portable electronic device or fixed electronic device to provide one or more features relating to one or more features relating to the licensing, annotating, publishing, generating, rendering, encrypting, social community engagement, storing, merging, and rendering electronic content and tracking of user and social community activities of electronic content.

“Primary content” and “Title” as used herein and throughout this disclosure refers to, but is not limited to, electronic content generated by an author and/or published by a publisher with or without content digital rights which is made available through a software system to a user via a software application with a procurement process that may or may not require a financial transaction between the user and a provider of the primary content. The provider may be the author, publisher, an operator of the software system, or a third party engaged by one or more of the preceding. The primary content may include one or more of text, characters, audiovisual content and multimedia content relating to an author or authors relating to a subject or subjects. Examples of primary content may include eBooks and other electronic documents including, but not limited to, novels, manuals, user guides, reference materials, reviews, specialist subject materials, journals, newspapers, music, movies, cartoons, videos, television programming, brochures, and software.

“Secondary content” as used herein and through this disclosure refers to, but is not limited to, electronic content generated by a user with or without digital rights which is made available through a software system to a user via a software application with or without user digital rights associated with said secondary content. Said user digital rights relating to the predetermined portion of a community of users of the software system/software application that may view the secondary content generated by the user. The secondary content may include, but is not limited to, one or more of text, characters, audiovisual content and multimedia content.

A “publisher” as used herein and through this disclosure refers to, but is not limited to, an enterprise or organization engaged in publishing through performing one or more stages of the development, acquisition, copyediting, graphic design, production, release, and marketing and distribution of electronic content, referred to in this specification as primary content. Typically publishers acquire content from authors but authors may be their own publishers, meaning, originators and developers of electronic content can also deliver the electronic content for the same. An “author” as used herein and through this disclosure refers to, but is not limited to, an individual or group of individuals who originate or give existence to anything that may be considered electronic content and their authorship determines responsibility for what is created. More traditionally an author is the originator of any written work which may be represented electronically as electronic content. However, an author may originate through one or more of text, characters, audiovisual content and multimedia content.

A “user” as used herein and through this disclosure refers to, but is not limited to, a person or device that utilizes the software system and/or software application (SS-SA) and as used herein may refer to a person, group, or organization that has registered with the SS-SA to acquire primary content and generates secondary content in association with the primary content. A “curator” or “librarian” as used herein and through this disclosure refers to, but is not limited to, a person or group of individuals having rights to manage one or more aspects of the license(s) of primary content and their associated sub-licenses as well as one or more aspects of the associations of users to groups and the according distribution of the secondary content from these users.

Referring toFIG. 1 there is depicted an image of an example of annotations made by a user of a conventional paper basedbook100 according to the prior art. As depicted thebook100 is open and has leftpage100A andright page100

B comprising pages

10 and11 of a book of poetry.Left page100A comprises “The Waste Land” wherein the last two lines are indicated byfirst box120 andright page100B comprises “III. The Fire Sermon” wherein the whole poem is indicated withsecond box130. Down the left hand side offirst page100A arefirst annotations110 written by hand by a reader of the poem “The Waste Land” and beneath aresecond annotations140. Other annotations are indicated on right page100C byhandwritten notes150. At the bottom of each of left and

right pages

100A and100B respectively are first and second footnote lists160 and170 respectively that contain translations, modern equivalents, citations, and references to aid the reader in understanding the poem.

This conventional structure of pages with margins (not identified but forming the defined white space around the border of the page), footnotes, and page numbers has been maintained within the PDF structure which represents one of the two dominant formats of electronic publishing for written content. As such content generated today within a desktop publishing application and converted to PDF format is paginated according to the settings of the application by default or as set by the user when generating the PDF. Accordingly when displayed upon different devices with different screen dimensions the page will be dimensioned to fit unless the user zooms. For many portable electronic devices the required magnification is such that the user must scroll left-right and up-down to read the entire content of one page before moving to the next page. This pre-paginated fixed dimension structure of PDFs is not reflected in EPUB structured content which is rendered with a predetermined character format such that the amount of content displayed in each electronic device varies with screen dimension and user adjustment in the character font size.

Now referring toFIG. 2 there is depicted anexemplary screenshot200 of a prior art software application “Scrible” for annotating electronic content within a web page. As depicted a screen displays abackground260 andapplication toolbar250 together with “Explorer”window240 andwebpage220 which depicts part of a Wikipedia™ article relating to “2009-2010 Toyota vehicle recalls” which has been annotated as evident fromannotation window230.Webpage220 andannotation window230 are depicted in expanded form inFIG. 3 with first and

second webpages

310 and320 respectively. Withinfirst webpage310 is shown “Scrible”toolbar370 which has been accessed by the user and provides the user with a variety of tools for annotating.Second webpage320 shows first and

second annotations

330 and340 respectively together with first and second highlightedtext sections360 and350 which were highlighted by the user prior to associating first and

second annotations

330 and340 respectively to them.

The “Scrible”toolbar370 is depicted again inFIG. 4 wherein features within the “Scrible”toolbar370 are indicated including “Sign-In”431, “Library”432, “Highlight”433, “Add Note”434, “Text Format”buttons435, “Display-Hide Annotations-Notes”buttons436, and “Link-Mail-Save”buttons437. These elements in the “Scrible”toolbar370 allow a user to annotate a webpage such as shown infirst image410 which when annotated appears as shown insecond image420. Accordingly withinsecond image420 there are shown “Scrible”toolbar370

bookmark

440 together withannotation460 and associated highlightedtext450. Also shown isannotations legend480 which allows a user to keep track of the notes and associated highlights. Accordingly, a user may through “Scrible”toolbar370 add annotation to a webpage and then use “Link-Mail-Save”buttons437 which allow the user to create a link to the annotated web page to provide to other users, email the annotated page to another known user, and save the annotated web page to a “Scrible” account associated with the user. Accordingly a user must know another user in order to provide a link from their annotated web page or to email the annotated web page to them.

Referring toFIG. 5 there are depicted examples of other prior art software applications for annotating web based and PDF based electronic content. These includeAdobe Acrobat500A which allows comments from first tofourth users510A through510D to be distributed to a user group for incorporation into the next revision of the PDF document duringediting process520. Such distributed release of an initial version of a document with comments returned by email exists with other applications, e.g. Microsoft Word, but within Adobe Acrobat this is extended wherein when the author opens the document to edit it inediting process520 the user sees the emails directly withinsidebar window530. Further, where a reviewer has highlightedcontent550 this is reflected inindicators540 within thesidebar window530. Also depicted inFIG. 5 are images from Grahl's “PDF Annotator”560, neu.Pen's “neu.Annotate PDF”570, and Nitro's “PDF 7”580 which represent three of the multiple annotating applications developed for annotating PDF content. These other applications provide text based annotations, either typed or handwritten, and exploit colour for associating annotations to elements of the PDF.

Now referring toFIG. 6 there is depicted a network supporting communications and interactions between devices connected to the network and a software system according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown first and

second user groups

600A and600B respectively interface to atelecommunications network600. Within the representative telecommunication architecture a remotecentral exchange680 communicates with the remainder of a telecommunication service providers network via thenetwork600. Thecentral exchange680 is connected via thenetwork600 to local, regional, and international exchanges (not shown for clarity) and therein throughnetwork600 to first and second wireless access points (AP)695A and695B respectively which provide Wi-Fi cells for first and

second user groups

600A and600B respectively. Also connected to thenetwork600 are first and second Wi-

Fi nodes

610A and610B, the latter of which being coupled tonetwork600 viarouter605. Second Wi-Fi node610B is associated withfirst building660A and having within thisenvironment660 first and

second user groups

600A and600B which are connected to thenetwork600 via wireless interfaces such as second Wi-Fi node610B viarouter605.Second user group600B may also be connected via wired interfaces which may or may not be routed through a router such asrouter605.

Within the cell associated withfirst AP695A the first group ofusers600A may employ a variety of portable electronic devices including for example,laptop computer655,portable gaming console635,tablet computer640,smartphone650,cellular telephone645 as well asportable multimedia player630. Within the cell associated withsecond AP695B are the second group ofusers600B which may employ a variety of fixed electronic devices including forexample gaming console625,personal computer615 and wireless/Internet enabledtelevision620 as well ascable modem605.

Also connected to thenetwork600 is cell tower690 that provides, for example, cellular telephony services as well as evolved services with enhanced data transport support. Cell tower690 proves coverage in the exemplary embodiment to first and

second user groups

600A and600B. Alternatively the first and

second user groups

600A and600B may be geographically disparate and access thenetwork600 through multiple cell towers, not shown for clarity, distributed geographically by the network operator or operators. Accordingly, the first and

second user groups

600A and600B may according to their particular communications interfaces communicate to thenetwork600 through one or more wireless communications standards. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that many portable and fixed electronic devices may support multiple wireless protocols simultaneously, such that for example a user may employ GSM services such as telephony and SMS and Wi-Fi/WiMAX data transmission, VOIP and Internet access.

Also connected to thenetwork600 are first tothird enterprises665 through675 which may for example represent locations for authors, publishers, software system/software application providers, and users which may exploit combinations of wired and wireless networks. First and second

primary content sources

690A and690B together withsecondary content source685 are also connected to network600 which respectively house primary content generated by authors and/or publishers and secondary content generated by users respectively. Additionally first and second

primary content sources

690A and690B together withsecondary content source685, and others not shown for clarity, may host according to embodiments of the inventions multiple services associated with a provider of the SS-SA associated with the electronic content distribution including, but not limited to, dictionaries, speech recognition software, product databases, inventory management databases, retail pricing databases, license databases, customer databases, and software applications for download to fixed and portable electronic devices. First and second

primary content sources

690A and690B together withsecondary content source685 may also host for example other Internet services such as a search engine, financial services, third party applications and other Internet based services.

Referring toFIG. 7 there is depicted anelectronic device704, supporting communications and interactions according to embodiments of the invention.Electronic device704 may for example be a portable electronic device or a fixed electronic device and may include additional elements above and beyond those described and depicted. Also depicted within theelectronic device704 is the protocol architecture as part of a simplified functional diagram of asystem700 that includes anelectronic device704, such as asmartphone655, an access point (AP)706, such as first Wi-Fi AP610, and one ormore network devices707, such as communication servers, streaming media servers, and routers for example such as first and second servers175 and185 respectively.Network devices707 may be coupled toAP706 via any combination of networks, wired, wireless and/or optical communication links such as discussed above in respect ofFIG. 1. Theelectronic device704 includes one ormore processors710 and amemory712 coupled to processor(s)710.AP706 also includes one ormore processors711 and amemory713 coupled to processor(s)711.

Electronic device

704 may include anaudio input714, for example a microphone, and anaudio output716, for example, a speaker, coupled to any ofprocessors710.Electronic device704 may include avideo input718, for example, a video camera, and avideo output720, for example an LCD display, coupled to any ofprocessors710.Electronic device704 also includes akeyboard715 andtouchpad717 which allow the user to enter content or select functions within one ofmore applications722 that are typically stored inmemory712 and are executable by any combination ofprocessors710.Electronic device704 includes aprotocol stack724 andAP706 includes acommunication stack725. Withinsystem700

protocol stack

724 is shown as IEEE 802.11 protocol stack but alternatively may exploit other protocol stacks such as an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) multimedia protocol stack for example. LikewiseAP stack725 exploits a protocol stack but is not expanded for clarity. Elements ofprotocol stack724 andAP stack725 may be implemented in any combination of software, firmware and/or hardware.Protocol stack724 includes an IEEE 802.11-compatible PHY module coupled to one or more Front-End Tx/Rx &Antenna728 as well as IEEE 802.11-compatible MAC and LLC modules together with a network layer IP, transport layer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) module and transport layer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) modules.

Protocol stack

724 also includes session layer Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP), Session Announcement Protocol (SAP), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) modules. Also shown are presentation layer media negotiation and call control modules together with one or more audio and

video

752 and754 respectively.Applications722 may be able to create maintain and/or terminate communication sessions with any ofdevices707 by way ofAP706.

It would be apparent to one skilled in the art that elements of theelectronic device704 may also be implemented within theAP706 including but not limited to one or more elements of theprotocol stack724.

Now referring toFIG. 8 there is depicted aflowchart800 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA for electronic content comprising publishing primary content and associating user generated secondary content to the primary content. In step805 a publisher releases content to a software system according to an embodiment of the application. Publisher released content may be formatted according to an electronic publishing standard including, but not limited to, EPUB and PDF, or according to the standards of a desktop content processing and/or publishing system including, but not limited to, Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Publisher, Adobe PageMaker, and Apple Pages. Next instep810 the received publisher content is processed to provide the published content in a format compatible with the software system/software application which may include, but not limited to, removing pagination and converting format to generate the primary content. At this point the title of the primary content, publisher information, retail sales price, licensing conditions etc are generated and posted to a database upon a retail server forming part of the software system wherein users may browse and identify primary content to access.

Subsequently instep815 the released content is indexed by the software system wherein the index is then stored in association with the primary content instep820. In step825 a user logs-in to a software application that accesses the software system allowing the user to search and identify primary content of interest. Accordingly instep830 the user accesses the primary content and utilises it wherein at some point they subsequently decide instep835 to annotate the primary content. Instep840 the secondary content is posted by the software application to the software system wherein it is indexed and added to the secondary content stored in relation to the title and the user, or a file pointer stored to where the secondary content is stored in relation to the title and the user. As will be evident in relation to secondary content in other embodiments of the invention pointers to stored content have benefit in allowing pointers to be added to multiple users or published openly.

Next instep840 the process checks to see if the user has finished their current session with the primary content wherein if not the process loops back to step835, otherwise it proceeds to step850 and the secondary content closed along with the primary content. Subsequently, the publisher issues a new release of the primary content, for example the next year's edition or a revised edition, instep855 which repeats the sequence discussed above in respect ofsteps805 through820 in publishing, processing, indexing, and storing the new primary content. Accordingly, the next time the user logs-in instep860, which repeats

steps

825 and830 discussed above, the process now retrieves the previously stored secondary content associated with the user instep865. The SS-SA being aware of the up-issued primary content checks instep867 whether the user has a license to the up-issued primary content. If not the process moves to step800A and terminates, otherwise it proceeds to step870 wherein the software system automatically correlates the secondary content of the user with its associated index data against the new index data of the newly released primary content and automatically associates the secondary content to the new primary content where the correlation exceeds a predetermined threshold. Next instep875 the process determines whether all secondary content has been re-associated to the new primary content and if so proceeds to step800A and ends, otherwise the process proceeds to step880 wherein the system software obtains best “guesses” for locations of the secondary content. These are presented to the user allowing them to confirm the locations instep885 wherein the process moves forward to step895 or proceeds to step to890 wherein user input to determine the new association or removal of secondary content is established after which the process moves to step895. Instep895 the process determines whether all secondary content has been re-associated in which case it proceeds to step800A otherwise it loops back tostep880.

Optionally the information generated instep810 including, but not limited to, primary content title, publisher, retail sales price, and licensing terms and conditions may be posted from the database to another system, such as for example the Publishers server systems or third party retailer server systems, e.g. Amazon™. The servers, remote servers and associated systems can therefore provide discreetly or in combination the sales vehicle (eStore) for the primary content so that the primary content may be purchased from one or more of the software system, the Publishers systems, and third party systems which may be within an entirely other system such as the Publishers server collection. These remote servers can therefore handle the purchase transaction (sale) based on the licensing conditions and then communicate to the software system through asynchronization server via web based services to create and execute the licensing steps. These web based services may additionally require a password/key unique to the publisher or third party retailer which may be generated and used according to one or more of the well known key/password techniques in the prior art.

It would be evident that rather than requiring users to log-in through the software application to initially identify primary content that an initial search may be performed by the user through an Internet browser wherein upon the user first selecting an item of primary content to access the user when entering personal credentials, financial credentials etc to establish their user account downloads the software application to their electronic device. Subsequently upon logging into their user account from another electronic device that does not have the software application installed this will be downloaded as part of the process. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that the software application may be a light application requiring low memory requirements on the electronic device in order to support use upon a wide range of electronic devices and facilitate rapid transfer in conditions of low connectivity. In other instances a standard application may be downloaded and installed by the user to their electronic device or electronic devices. Optionally such installations may be performed by the information technology department of an enterprise wherein use of the software application will be relatively widespread or in other instances it may be pre-installed upon a range of electronic devices.

It would also be evident to one skilled in the art that the automated re-association of secondary content to updated primary content allows the software system to maintain the preceding work of the user(s) thereby enhancing the benefit to the user. It allows the publisher to consider a different publishing model for updates, errata etc as rather than an annual release or new edition to minimize lost entries from the user. Accordingly a publisher may release the primary content whenever they wish, such as chapter by chapter for example as revised and available. In fact multiple small releases rather than a single large release could provide improved efficiency in handling associated secondary content. Additionally, the continuous release of content from a publisher in respect of a title should negatively impact piracy as the title rapidly and frequently obsoletes. It would be evident that where multiple releases have occurred that the SS-SA may provide the reverse of this process allowing the user to “unwind” or “go back in time” with respect to a particular release and/or date in time to establish the primary and secondary content at that point. This being particularly appropriate in fields such as law where, in many instances, the applicable statute is defined as that at a particular time.

Referring toFIG. 9 there is depicted aflowchart900 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA rendering published primary content and filtered secondary content to a user. Accordingly, the process begins atstep905 wherein a user logs-in to the software application and/or software system and selects the primary content that they wish to access which is then retrieved instep910 according to the title and/or user settings. Instep915 the SS-SA retrieves the private secondary content of the user associated with the primary content before proceeding to step920 to retrieve public and team secondary content, which will be discussed further in respect ofFIG. 13 below where secondary content may be considered as being within multiple classes such as private, team, project, enterprise, and public for example or alternatively being published with different rights requirements of the user to access.

Instep925 the software application and/or software system prompts the user where the retrieved secondary content has multiple classes as to whether they wish to refine the secondary content which will be rendered with the primary content. If not the process moves to step935 wherein the process determines whether there is priority content that has not been previously viewed by the user and prompts the user as to whether they wish to view this priority content or not. If the user elects to apply a filter on the secondary content then the process moves to step930 wherein the software application and/or software system presents the user with a list of classes relating to the secondary content and receives their selection before proceeding to step935.

Instep935 the user determines whether to view this priority content or not, where if not the process proceeds to step960 and the primary and secondary content are merged and rendered to the user. If the user determines to view priority secondary content then the process moves to step940 wherein an item of primary content and its associated priority secondary content are merged and rendered to the user and the process moves to step945. At this point the user may comment on the priority annotation or not, if not the process proceeds to step970 to determine whether additional items of priority secondary content remain to be presented to the user. If the user determines to add a comment then the process moves to step950 wherein the user adds any comments that they wish to make which are then processed by the SS-SA such that they are fed back to the author and added as secondary content extension to the priority secondary content wherein the process moves to step970.

If remaining priority secondary content remains the process returns to step940 otherwise it proceeds to step960 wherein the primary and secondary content are merged and rendered to the user and the process stops. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that user actions in respect of the secondary content may be logged as part of the monitoring activities of the SS-SA. Accordingly where the user elects not to view priority secondary content that this decision is stored as are any activities with respect to secondary content. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that atprocess step960 where the primary and secondary content are merged, rendered and presented to the user that this may be performed in accordance with settings of the SS-SA which are either the default settings of the system, those of the publisher in relation to the primary content, or those established by the user. For example retrieving “War and Peace” may result in the content being retrieved and rendered to place the user as the location they previously stopped at whereas accessing “Consolidated Intellectual Property Statutes and Regulations with Related Materials 2012” may place the user at the table of contents.

Optionally, the user may be presented with information relating to priority annotations upon entering the software system and/or software application rather than specifically accessing the primary content to which they relate. Accordingly, the user may be presented with those titles to which they have licenses that have new priority annotations together with information such as quantity it etc. A user may then access the secondary content relating to one or more primary content sources in isolation of retrieving each primary content source as well as performing other functions such as flagging all priority annotations as read etc. It would also be evident that some priority annotations may be established as very high priority, for example, such that the user cannot flag these as read or otherwise without actually opening them. The ability to create such very high priority annotations may be restricted to specific users and/or curator.

Now referring toFIG. 10 there is depicted a flowchart1000 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a software system and/or software application wherein a user selects secondary content filtering to be applied in association with primary content for rendering to the user. In step1005 a user logs-in to the software application and/or software system and selects the primary content that they wish to access which is then retrieved instep1010 according to the title and/or user settings. Instep1015 the SS-SA retrieves the secondary content of the user associated with the primary content before proceeding to step1020. Instep1020 the software application and/or software system determines whether there are multiple categories of secondary content relating to the primary content, if not the process proceeds to step1055 wherein the primary and secondary content are rendered with the secondary content to the user.

If there are multiple categories of secondary content then the process proceeds fromstep1020 to step1025 wherein the list of these is presented to the user. These multiple classes may include for example:

- Private—the secondary content is reserved solely for the user creating it;
- Team—the secondary content is associated with a group of users defined by a user and/or “curator” wherein the secondary content of a user within this group of users relating to a primary content is visible to the others within the group, for example such a group may be all “real estate lawyers” within a law firm or all current Bachelor of Arts students at University of California in Los Angeles studying philosophy;
- Project—similar to a team but wherein the group of users may be subject to more dynamic association/disassociation as it relates to a specific activity within an enterprise and may be associated with a wider range of titles than a team;
- Enterprise—the secondary content may be accessed by any members of an enterprise granted a license to the title to which the secondary content pertains; and
- Public—the secondary content is accessible to any user having rights to the primary content.

Such team, project, and enterprise classes may be established and managed by a curator within the software system and then licensed titles assigned to the team, project, enterprise rather than requiring these be established for each title. Optionally, it may be considered that users are granted multiple access rights to secondary content. It would also be evident that the user may be presented with one or more additional filter options within the SS-SA including, but not limited to, specific users, specific time ranges, specific keywords, and annotation type. For example, a user may wish to search within a user manual for a 2011 Toyota Corolla for secondary content in video format relating to spark plug or another user may wish to search for audio annotations relating to John Lennon in an anthology of “The Beatles.” Optionally, secondary content presented to a user may be converted according to preferences of the user such that for example in the instance of a user with sight impediment all text based content is processed via a speech convertor and secondary content availability in relation to an item of content denoted by a tone or a plurality of tones. Alternatively, where content in the team, project, enterprise, and public classes may originate from multiple geographic locations a user may elect to have the secondary content to be automatically translated to either a preferred language of the user or the language of the primary content that they are accessing for example.

Referring toFIG. 11 there is depicted aflowchart1100 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein a second source of primary content provides update citations to secondary content of a user associated with a first source of primary content. At step1105 a first publisher issues a first item of primary content, primary content A, which is then processed by the SS-SA instep1110 to generate a citation index in dependence upon the structure of the primary content A and predetermined keyword(s) and/or alphanumeric content(s). For example, if the primary content A was the Canadian Patent Act then the citation index may be generated based upon the numeric structure of the Patent Act which is of format XX.Y(Z)(A) wherein XX, Y and Z are positive integers and A is a character starting at A. Accordingly sections may be for example 28.1, 1,2,3, . . . , 28.2(1), 28.2(1)(a), 28.2(1)(b), 28.2(1)(c), 28.2(1)(d) etc and terminated at predetermined depth in the structure such that for example 28.2(1)(d)(i)(A) is not processed but 28.2(1)(d) is.

Next in step1115 a second publisher issues a second item of primary content, primary content B, being for example the “Canadian Patent Reporter” which is issued weekly, and is processed instep1120 to generate a further citation index in dependence upon the structure of the primary content B and predetermined keyword(s) and/or alphanumeric content(s). Next instep1125 the process proceeds to correlate the citation index of the first primary content A with that of the secondprimary content13 wherein the process proceeds to step1130 and determines whether any matches have been found. If no matches are found the process proceeds to step1150 and ends, otherwise it proceeds to step1130 wherein a decision is made instep1135 whether to add the citations from the second primary content B to the secondary content of the user relating to the first primary content A. If not the process proceeds to step1150 and ends, otherwise it proceeds to step1140 wherein the correlated citations from the secondprimary content13 is added to the secondary content of the user so that the citations are visible to the user when accessing those sections of the primary content A. Instep1145 formatting is added to the citations added to the secondary content so that these are distinguishable to the user and the proceeds then moves to step1150 and ends.

Optionally the correlation could also take place with an external collection of information, either within the secondary content itself or via features that are part of an applet added to the software application. For example, the SS-SA may store user account information for a Publisher may then code links within the Title (primary content) that generate auxiliary viewpane(s) on the user's electronic device that link to the Publishers web server, or another web service identified in the code link. The software applet could then pass along the necessary login information and the desired information would be returned by the Publisher, or other, server and displayed within the auxiliary viewpane(s) (e.g. browser window(s)). For example, a coded link within the document may relate to another Title published by the Publisher, a commentary, or an update for example.

Alternatively, users creating secondary content who have the software applet installed may also be able to create these types of coded links within their secondary annotations. These coded links would then be active to others users with the applet installed and would proceed (be resolved) in a manner similar to that described above. In the instance that a user did not have the applet installed, they would be directed to a download/marketing page where they could register for the service and acquire the applet. It would also be evident that such coded links could provide users with the ability to add links to their secondary content which refer to other locations which may be within the same Title or within another Title or Titles. Following such a coded link would either open the Title(s) or would present the user with default information regarding that Title(s) that would allow them to acquire the Title(s), for example through a link in an auxiliary viewpane to a marketing page.

As discussed supra in respect ofFIG. 9 these correlated citations that are added may further be marked as priority such that the next time the user accesses the primary content these are presented to them for review. It would be evident that the predetermined keyword(s) and/or alphanumeric content(s) may be determined by the user. For example, the user may determine them directly from terms specified by the user in isolation of other prompting, by the user from terms presented to the user based upon the processing of the primary content A, by the user from terms presented to the user from the generation of one or more indices relating to the primary content A or secondary content associated with the primary content A, or by the user from terms presented to the user based upon those selected by the published of the primary content A. It would be further evident that the predetermined keyword(s) and/or alphanumeric content(s) may be determined by a coordinator of a team, project, and/or enterprise which may include the curator. It would also be evident that such features may be a value added feature of the SS-SA which may require an additional subscription fee. Optionally, the second primary content B may in fact be secondary content generated by another user or users relating to the first primary content A.

Referring toFIG. 12 there is depicted a flowchart1200 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein secondary content generated by a user under a first license may be de-activated and re-activated under a second license in association with the source of primary content to which the secondary content relates. Accordingly in step1205 a user generates secondary content which is associated with the primary content they are accessing and subsequently instep1220 leaves the first organization, Organization A, which possesses the licenses to the primary content that they are accessing. Upon their departure the curator of Organization A disables the user's rights to the primary content instep1230 and assigns a new sub-license to a new employee of Organization A.

Subsequently instep1250 the user joins another employer, Organization B, wherein instep1260 the curator of Organization B assigns the user a new license to the same primary content. Instep1270 the secondary content previously generated by the user when with Organization A is re-associated with the new license to the primary content so that it is now available to the user in their new employment. It would be evident that the curator of the first organization, Organization A, may limit the secondary content that may be re-assigned, for example, to only their private secondary content and restrict team, project and enterprise. Public content released by the user would be automatically re-associated as it is public and hence available to all licensed users of the primary content to which the secondary content relates.

Now referring toFIG. 13 there is depicted aflowchart1300 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein secondary content generated by a user in association with primary content may be associated with different levels of publication by the user. Accordingly the process begins atstep1310 wherein the user logs-in to the software system and/or software application, accesses an item of primary content instep1320 and generates an item of secondary content instep1330. Next instep1340 the user is prompted to select a category of available categories to which to assign the secondary content as. As depicted inflowchart1300 these categories are “Private”, “Team”, “Enterprise”, and “Public.” Based upon the decision of the user then the process proceeds to one of first to fourth category steps1350A through1350D wherein the required associations of the secondary content to the appropriate content indices are made and the process proceeds to the respective one of the first to fourthcontent merging processes1360A through1360D associated with the selected first tofourth category step1350A through1350D and proceeds to step1370 and ends.

It would be evident that the user may select two or morecategories process step1340 such as for example “Team” and “Project” so that other members of the user's team can see the secondary content relating to a specific aspect of the “Project.” Additionally, electing two categories allows such content to be available to the user when, in this example, the “Project” terminates and the curator removes that access to the users forming the project team. It would also be evident that there are potentially a plurality, N, of categories and that each category may be individually indexed under both the ‘Category’ index and the name index associated with category “N” and hence these N categories may be searched either collectively or independently.

Now referring toFIG. 14 there is depicted aflowchart1400 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein multiple sources of primary content may be employed by a user in association with secondary content to generate new primary content for publication. The process begins atstep1405 wherein the user logs-in to the software system and/or software application, accesses an item of primary content instep1410, and selects in step1415 a predetermined portion of the selected primary content that they wish to re-publish. Instep1420 the user is prompted whether they wish to add available secondary content to the predetermined portion of the selected primary content wherein if they do the process proceeds to step1425 allowing user to add selected secondary content and then proceeds to step1430 which is accessed directly if the user does not wish to add secondary content. Instep1430 the publisher rights associated with the selected primary content are stored and the process proceeds to step1435. These publisher rights being those associated with the primary content and those selected by the user in respect of the secondary content also being published with the primary content. Instep1435 the user determines whether they are finished selecting primary content wherein if not the process proceeds to loop back tostep1410, otherwise the process proceeds to step1440 wherein the stored rights for all primary and secondary content are accessed in order to generate and compile the new publication rights for the content to be included in the new publication.

Next instep1445 the new publication is compiled from the primary content selections of the user and then instep1450 the secondary content selections of the user are compiled to generated publishable secondary content. The process then proceeds to step1460 wherein a revenue flow model for the new publication is generated based upon the publisher rights and percentages of the new publication. The new publication is then published instep1465 such that another user then may purchase a license to the new publication instep1470 and then may instep1480 elect to also purchase the secondary content generated by the user previously instep1425 when they compiled the publication. Then instep1490 the revenue arising from the new licenses to the primary and/or secondary content is distributed according to the revenue model generated instep1460.

It would be evident to one skilled in the art that a variant of theabove process flow1400 is one wherein a user generates a new publication for purchase by other users which is solely comprised of secondary content. In this manner a user may generate annotated secondary content relating to primary content and publish this themselves through the SS-SA. One such example is that of well recognized individuals within a particular field issuing essentially their own editorial to a work of primary content or alternatively a publisher may commission specifically secondary content from one or more individuals to act as associated editorial content to their primary content. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention provide publishers with a new distribution mode wherein a user may select one or more editors from a plurality of editors for an item of primary content.

Referring toFIG. 15 there is depicted aflowchart1500 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA with crowd sourcing of secondary content with respect to an element of primary content. As depicted afirst process sub-flow1530A comprisessteps1505 through1525 wherein a user logs-in to the software application and/or software system, accesses an item of primary content, adds an item of secondary content, identifies the added item of secondary content as public, and the secondary content is added to the appropriate secondary content databases. Also depicted inflowchart1500 are additional content process sub-flows1530B through to1530N which are similar to first process sub-flow1530A and relate to secondary content added by multiple other users to the same item of primary content.

The secondary content of the multiple process sub-flows1530A through1530N is then merged instep1540 with the associations to the primary content. Subsequently instep1545 another user, User B, logs-in and accesses the primary content instep1550 wherein the SS-SA retrieves the secondary content associated with the primary content instep1555. Instep1560 User B then establishes settings for the public secondary content group, represented by the users within each of theprocess sub-flows1530A through1530N such that instep1565 the primary content and filtered secondary content are merged and rendered for presentation to the user.

It would be evident to one skilled in the art that the filtering options presented to the user in respect of the content made public by the users represented by theprocess sub-flows1530A through1530N may include, but not be limited, filtering based upon geographic location, demographic data, psychographic data, date, time, organization(s), affiliation(s), and user identity. Such filtering may be many instances to view annotations with users having particular viewpoints, such as for example in one instance all litigation lawyers employed by the State of Nevada licensed to access “The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act” (Mine Act) in Nevada and in another all commercial litigation lawyers licensed to access the Mine Act in Nevada employed in non-state or non-Government positions.

Accordingly, it would be evident to one skilled in the art that according to embodiments of the invention that according to a preference established by the user secondary content published by third parties, be they members of a team, project, enterprise, public, etc, relating to a section of primary content may be aggregated to the user's secondary content. For example, a user may elect to aggregate all comments relating to Section 28 of the Canadian Patent Act which relate to priority, anticipation, obviousness, and claim date for patent applications rather than those in only Section 28.1 Claim Date, Section 28.2 Anticipation/Novelty, Section 28.3 Obviousness, and 28.4 Priority. Accordingly the merged aggregated content in this format appears more as a bulletin board, blog or micro-blog associated with these aspects of the Canadian Patent Act. However, this public posting of secondary content and filtering to form an effective bulletin board, blog or micro-blog (depending upon effective rate of annotations from the user group) is unlike other blogs, micro-blogs, and bulletin boards relating to this particular subject matter in that the users posting the public annotations are licensed individuals to the primary content to which their secondary content is associated.

Now referring toFIG. 16 there is depicted aflowchart1600 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein a user publishes primary and secondary content to a social media application for subsequent user review. Accordingly the process begins atstep1605 wherein a user logs-in to the SS-SA, then instep1610 accesses an item of published primary content together with their secondary content. Instep1615 the user then selects a predetermined portion of the primary content and associated secondary content which they then post instep1620 to a web based/social media application. Next in step1625 a second user,User 2, accesses the web based/social media application and reviews the content posted by the user instep1620 and then reviews this instep1630.

User 2 is then blocked instep1640 from accessing further primary content, secondary content, and making any amendments to the information posted by the user, however, the user is presented instep1650 with options regarding the SS-SA wherein instep1655 they are presented with the option to purchase the SS-SA. If they decide not to purchase then the process proceeds to step1660 and ends, otherwise the proceeds to step1665 whereinUser 2 registers with the SS-SA,step1670 whereinUser 2 purchases the primary content, and then instep1675 requests access to the secondary content posted by the user originally instep1620 and reviewed byUser 2 instep1625. If the user does not allowUser 2 to access then the process proceeds to step1660 and ends, otherwise the process proceeds to step1685 wherein the allowed released content from the user is merged withUser 2's secondary content and the process ends instep1660.

Accordingly it would be evident to one skilled in the art that the primary and second content posted to the web based/social media application may be maintained unlike a posting of a link to a website using a URL as the SS-SA maintain the content and what is actually posted to the web based/social media application is a markup language, such as XML or HTML, with links to the stored primary and secondary content. Alternatively, the content itself is posted with restrictions on copying and modifying the primary and secondary content. In this manner a user may engage a wider community with respect to the primary content and their secondary content without requiring addresses for any other user accessing their content. Examples of such web based/social media applications include, but are not limited to, blogs, bulletin boards, user websites, enterprise websites, Twitter™, FaceBook™, LinkedIn™, WordPress, and MySpace™.

Now referring toFIGS. 17A through 17C there are depicted first tothird flowcharts1700A through1700C according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA wherein a publisher publishes primary content which is subsequently purchased by an enterprise wherein a license and sub-licenses are issued and associated to the primary content. Within the descriptions of embodiments of the invention described with respect ofFIGS. 6 through 21 there are described a SS-SA which provides an overall content delivery system and the security aspects surrounding the process are discussed. Amongst the desirable features of the distribution system are:

- that can supply a fingerprinted version of the primary content for download;
- minimal delay between request for primary and/or secondary content and the transfer of data;
- no obvious transfer of keys between the system;
- encryption of content may occur within the distribution server application;
- methods for tracking user metrics;
- no requirement for direct association between the users, clients and publishers as well as customers and the marketplace; and
- no restrictions on membership to the software system and/or software.

Within embodiments of the invention reference may be made to the following:

- CogniUser ID, a unique identifier for a user independent of licenses or sub-licenses issued to the user;
- CogniSync, the server(s) synchronizing the primary and secondary content generated by publishers, users, etc and providing the merged/rendered content to the user(s);
- Market Place, being the portal (Market Place) through which users may purchase a Title, acquire and manage licenses etc; and
- CogniStore, the server(s) providing the storage repository where primary and second content is stored and which may also be linked to “Market Place”, Publisher and/or third party eStores such that these may simultaneously sell eBook “shells” wherein primary and/or secondary content is retrieved from the CogniStore in use.

A user may therefore access the “Market Place” to procure a Title, which within the instance of the descriptions relating to embodiments of the invention is the “shell” of a Title rather than the fill Title. This purchase may also be made through the Publisher, a third party retailer, or a device tied store such as for example Apple's “App Store” for iPhones, iPads etc or the Android Marketplace for other devices. This “shell” contains no actual content at the time of purchase, but the potential to be populated with the primary and/or secondary content once a valid login and product key has been provided to the user. This account provisioning may be through either a physical generation by the publisher via the SyncServer website wherein the key is then transmitted by SyncServer to the user's registered e-mail address or automatically through an tertiary eStore which post success on authorization i.e. credit card transaction, communicates directly with the SyncServer using a unique publisher/product ID to generate the account, which then sends the key to the user's registered e-mail address as a part of the communication with the web service. Once the user has the valid login and product key they then access the software application upon accessing the Title retrieves primary and secondary content from CogniStore which is then rendered, merged and provided to the software application for display to the user.

Accordingly, withinFIGS. 17A through 17C the main process steps from initial release of a publication (primary content) by a publisher to downloading of the publication by the user (client) are presented. Withinfirst flowchart1700A five steps are depicted, these being:

1. Publishing Process: wherein the Title is submitted to CogniSync using a valid CogniUser ID for that Publisher publishing the Title. During this stage the information is divided into four distinct parts and stored within appropriate locations on the servers of the software system. These being:

i. Title Reference—generated and given to all locations;

ii. Title Content—the primary content is generated and stored on CogniStore;

iii. Title Container—generated and stored on CogniStore;

iv. Title Template—packaged with Title Reference and stored on the Market Place

2. Licensing: is performed or authorized using the Title Reference and a Title Request for a license set (which can consist of a single license) could take place through a number of mechanisms:

- 1) based on an “analog” process, i.e. salesperson reports a sale back to the billing team, the publisher's representative accesses CogniSync through an interactive dashboard and enters in all of the elements required to create a license, including the license set contact's e-mail address. CogniSync creates all of the necessary license set information and send a welcome message to the contact (curator).
- 2) similar to above, except based on the billing representative's entry of the sale, an automated process transmits required information to the CogniSync web service on a secure link (along with the publisher's ID and password information). CogniSync creates all of the necessary license set information and send a welcome message to the contact (curator)
- 3) the sale is based on a digital process, i.e. a publisher or reseller's web store) which collects the necessary information. The webstore then triggers an automated process which transmits required information to the CogniSync web service on a secure link (along with the publisher's ID and password information). CogniSync creates all of the necessary license set information and send a welcome message to the contact (curator)

In all cases, the curator then uses a link and instructions within the message to assign the license. Accordingly, it would be evident to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the invention therefore support sales and licensing being issued by the publisher (e.g. Thomson Carswell, Academic Press, Random House, and HarperCollins), the SS-SA, or another third party (e.g. Amazon•™, Chapters Indigo™, Barnes & Noble™).

3. Generate License: uses the Licensing Data in conjunction with the Title Content and Title Container to generate a customised version of the Title Content and Title Container that has fingerprinting embedded within both structures where the customization relates to one or more aspects of the Licensing Data. In some embodiments of the invention this part of the process may be transparent to both the user and the publisher by providing security through obfuscation, in others encryption, encoding and other obfuscation techniques are utilised. Generating the license additionally creates the License for internal tracking and an external License Reference. The external License Reference is then sent on behalf of the publisher to the Customer's specified email(s) used when registering their account and may be an individual user or an enterprise's curator for example.

4. Registering License: is the next step which taken by the Customer supplying CogniSync™ with the CogniUser™ ID of the Curator at the time of acceptance of the License, thereby accepting delivery of the content. There is a differentiation according to embodiments of the invention between a license set (which contains one or more licenses) and individual licenses (which are granted to a user) which may be considered insteps 4 through 7 inclusive.

When a sale takes place the curator contact, which may end up being the same person as the user, receives an e-mail from the CogniSync system with instructions, a link to the CogniSync dashboard, namely the control panel for a content management system, and a license set key (betweensteps 3 and 4). The curator contact then uses this information to accept the license set and associate it with their CogniID (step 4). If necessary, they setup a new CogniID, along with their organization during this process of which they are granted “Curator” status for that organization wherein account consolidation tools may be provided (step 5). They can now assign the license(s) to users that they create through the dashboard, they are automatically the first user, ensuring that the user's contact information is indicated (step 6). At this point in time, the CogniID information for the user's is not shown, it is not populated (and may not exist) until the user accepts the license betweensteps 7 & 8.

5. Set License Manager: is the following process in which CogniSync officially delivers the License to the Client recording the association, and allowing the Publisher to track delivery as the Accepted License. Additionally the License Details are now sent to the CogniUser ID for confirmation.

Withinsecond flowchart1700B a further five steps are depicted, these being:

6. Key Allotment: is the next step for a Curator who has successfully received the License Details to assign Client access to the Title. The Customer Curator supplying the Client must then register the Key Assignment with CogniServ™. Within the specification and description where License Details are referenced that this may be associated with a License Set and that a Key may be associated with a License.

7. Generate Key Reference: is the software system process, for example as operated by CogniLore Inc., in which the Key is associated with the Customer's Accepted License and the use of the Key is stored as a Reserved Key. Additionally the Key Reference is sent on behalf of the Customer to the Client's identified email account(s).

8. Title Request: is the stage where the Key Reference is used by the Client who has already retrieved from the appropriate Market Place the Title Reference and its associate Title Template, who can then contact CogniSync using the Title Template which will supply the Device ID and then require the user to supply a CogniUser ID. For clarity, the Key may not be entered through the software but may be entered through the CogniSync dashboard. An e-mail may be sent by the CogniSync system to the user containing instructions, a link to the CogniSync dashboard, and their Key Reference. The title is accepted through the CogniSync dashboard, and not from within the software.

9. User Provisioning: starts with the confirmation of the Reserved Key and stores the Device Usage for later use and then two sub-processes are started.

- A. Immediate Transfer: is used so that the user is presented with low delay or wait period in accessing initial content; and
- B. Content Encoding: requires the Device ID so that the encryption key can be derived and begins queuing data for transmission in process instep 11 Encrypted Content Transmission.

10. Book Building Stage 1: where the Title Template integrates the License and Title Container into itself and then reports back to CogniSync that it is ready to receive the Encrypted Content.

Withinthird flowchart1700C a further two steps are depicted, these being:

11. Encrypted Content Transmission, which is performed in conjunction with continuation of 9B Content Encoding: as the title of this process implies there is both an active Encoding process going on as well as the transmission of parts as they are completed. This allows embodiments of the invention to exploit a buffering process and ensure that there is a constant flow of data and perceivable progress to the user.

12. Book Building State 2: wherein individual Device Specific Encrypted content is added to the Content Template eventually completing the entire process and providing the Client with the completed Title ready for use.

As described within respect to embodiments of the invention in respect ofFIGS. 6 through 21, and particularlyFIG. 19, the primary and secondary content are provided to the user in a manner supporting the scrolling of the combined content by the user such that unlike other prior art applications the discontinuity in scrolling is minimized as the content retrieved and rendered is adjusted according to the actions of the user. Accordingly, such embodiments generally comprise the primary content remaining at the software system servers and a predetermined portion of the merged primary and secondary content being provided to the user such as described below in respect ofFIGS. 18 and 19 and then removed upon the user closing the selected title. Such an approach supporting, for example, reduced memory requirements for devices the user uses to access the content, provide flexibility in users accessing the content from any electronic device, and reduction in the content released as complete copies of the primary content are not released. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that alternatively the complete primary content may be provided to the user and accordingly the user license for a particular primary content is a predetermined limited number of licenses tied to particular electronic devices, i.e. in a manner similar to that employed in Apple iTunes™.

It would be apparent to one skilled in the art that according to an embodiment of the invention this simplified delivery of a title to a single user shows that they act as both curator and user. From their perspective the process flow may be perceived as:

- I receive an e-mail from the CogniSync server announcing my new purchase, which contains a license set key, a link to the CogniSync Dashboard, and instructions;
- I click on the link to access the CogniSync Dashboard;
- I login to my CogniID account, or create a new CogniID account;
- I click on the register new license within the CogniSync Dashboard and enter my license set key. This activates the license set, the details of which I can now see within the CogniSync Dashboard in an area titled “My License Sets”, and am prompted if I want to associate a license key with my CogniID;
- I click on “Yes” and the relationship is made;
- The purchased Title now appears under another area entitled “My Titles”, along with the Title restrictions. Clicking on the Title loads additional information relating to the Title. I al also provided instructions on how to acquire the software, for example single user or library version, to download the title to the various devices;
- I can now assign the other keys purchased (if any) to other users via the “My License Sets” interface, entering their e-mail contact information. The users are added to a list, which also includes their status (which is Pending until it has been claimed) and their CogniID (which is blank until populated when claimed);
- When each assignment of the key is confirmed, a user welcome e-mail is sent to the user with instructions, a link to the CogniSync Dashboard, and their License Key. The user accesses the CogniSync Dashboard as above, and enters the License Key. This activates the product for them under “My Titles”. The site now provides them with information on downloading the software.

It would also be evident to one skilled in the art that the licensing approach described in respect ofFIG. 17 allows a curator to purchase multiple licenses for an enterprise, for example a law firm, and then assign licenses to lawyers, administration staff etc. The curator may then terminate licenses and/or re-assign them to other lawyers, administration staff in dependence upon staff changes, requirements etc. Further, as the SS-SA tracks the usage of the users against the licenses it provides the curator with increased metrics with which to manage the licenses required within their enterprise and accordingly their budget plus justification for the licenses purchased through usage data. It would also be evident to one skilled in the art that licenses may also be established according to embodiments of the invention for either full or partial primary content with or without published secondary content with predetermined limited validity so that a curator may adjust licenses to reflect short-term requirements and/or license primary content to address particular requirements of the enterprise.

It would also be evident to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the invention with respect to licensing content, issuing sub-licenses, and re-assigning licenses may be applied to alternate forms of content other than those primarily considered within this specification for electronic publications. As the primary content may be any multimedia content then the licensing of content, issuing sub-licenses, re-assigning licenses, etc may be applied to audio content, audiovisual content, and multimedia content. Examples of such content including for example music, films, videos, computer generated graphics, animation, computer generated animation, and games.

It would also be evident to one skilled in the art that the preceding description in respect ofFIGS. 17A through 17C is described with respect to a single title publishing solution. However, it would be evident that the method described above in respect ofFIGS. 17A through 17C also relates to a SS-SA managing a library of titles for at least one of a publisher, a retailer, a curator, and a user. Accordingly, for example, a publisher may provide multiple titles which are published and some of which are purchased with single licenses and others with multiple licenses. Likewise a curator may manage multiple titles some of which are purchased with single licenses and others with multiple licenses or a user may purchase licenses themselves, therefore making themselves a curator for that title, as well as being allocated licenses for other titles from a curator. Hence, the SS-SA may include support for a library interface.

For example, according to an embodiment of the invention, a software package is posted to a distributing marketplace for an appropriate platform, for example Apple Application Store for the Apple iOS operating system, Android Marketplace for Google's Android operating system, and Publisher website for Microsoft Windows. The software package contains an application and an e-book title shell. When launched, the software requests the user's CognilD information and then checks to see if they have been granted access to the associated title. Upon validation of the user access rights the e-book title shell is populated with the predetermined contents which may, for example, be the entire e-book or the first chapter of the e-book.

According to another embodiment of the invention, a software application for library is purchased from a software provider directly or through a distributor such as one of the marketplaces listed above, and installed to a device. The library software then requests the user's CogniID information and checks to see which there are titles that they have access to. Optionally a list of titles may be presented to the user allowing them to determine which ones should be downloaded to a particular device, with a function existing within options to retrieve and update this list. The software application then downloads the e-book title shell for each, or each selected, title, and then sequentially populates the title shell(s) with the predetermined portion of the e-book contents determined for e-book.

According to another embodiment of the invention the software system and/or software there is a “blind forward” and no owner relationship between the Client (User) and Customer. Within another scenario the Customer (Curator) would review the licenses and would make a change in the license assignment, including the contact information (e-mail). This would both cancel the first license, which would remove the title from the first licensee on the next product access to CogniSync, the details of which would be available to them in their ‘My Titles’ section of the CogniSync Dashboard, and would send a welcome message to the new user with links and instructions such as described above wherein they would procure the software, setup/login to their CogniID account, register their product via the CogniSync Dashboard etc as described above. If, the user already had access to a particular title, the CogniSync Dashboard would present them with a set of options, including for example accepting the new title assignment which would break the existing license relationship and notifying the curator of the current title that a license has been freed, and rejecting the new title assignment and notify the assigning curator that the title assignment was rejected.

Alternatively, the encryption described in respect of content transmittal withinFIG. 17 may be implemented through different protocols including for example, exploiting Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) to encrypt automatically content data being transmitted from CogniSync™ to the Client and encrypting this content data on the Client's device automatically with the reader software upon receipt so that the content is encrypted on the Client's device. Optionally, containers for data transmission, such as Licensed Title Container may be generated dynamically rather than being stored within CogniStore™ Optionally, the DeviceID rather than being employed to lock the Title to a specific device may be used for analytios.

Now referring toFIG. 18 depicts aflowchart1800 according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA relating to the rendering of merged primary and secondary content to a user. Accordingly the process begins atstep1810 wherein a user logs-in to the SS-SA and then in step requests a Title instep1820 wherein the SS-SA retrieves content from theprimary content storage1870 andsecondary content storage1880 which is them merged instep1830, rendered instep1840, and presented to the user. Next instep1850 the user elects to change their location (viewpoint) in the Title which as depicted below in respect ofFIG. 20 triggers the retrieval of additional primary and secondary content from theprimary content storage1870 andsecondary content storage1880 respectively which is then merged and rendered wherein it is transmitted to the electronic device and displayed to the user.

It would be evident to one skilled in the art that the process steps1850 and1860 may be repeated as the user browses, reads, or moves through the Title. Additionally, secondary content may be added as described in respect of the embodiments of the invention described in respect ofFIGS. 6 through 21. Now referring toFIG. 19 there is depicted a dynamic migration of a user's viewing window within retrieved merged primary and secondary content in response to a characteristic of the user according to an embodiment of the invention to provide improved continuity of the user movement through the Title over the prior art. Accordingly, infirst view1900A a user is accessing thesoftware system1930 from an electronic device, not shown for clarity, wherein thesoftware system1930 retrievescontent1940 from theprimary content storage1910 andsecondary content storage1920. Of thecontent1940 retrieved, merged, rendered, and transmitted to the user's electronic device the viewer is presented withwindow1960A representing that portion of the merged and rendered content that can be displayed in the display of the user's electronic device. The remainder of thecontent1940 is depicted byprior portion1950A andsubsequent portion1950B representing portions of the content that precede and follow the content displayed within the window.

Next insecond view1900B the user has elected to scroll through the content such that the electronic device now displays firstnew window1960B to the user, being part of the subsequent content. Accordingly, the software application on the electronic device transmits a request for additional content to thesoftware system1930 which triggers additional requests to theprimary content storage1910 andsecondary content storage1920. This is merged, rendered and transmitted to the electronic device asnew content1990A whilst the software application deletes dumpedportion1980A, and displayssecond window1960B. Remaining portions of theprior portion1950A andsubsequent portion1950B infirst view1900A are depicted as first and second

residual portions

1950B and1970B respectively.

Second view

1900B representing a slow scroll by the user through the Title, whereasthird view1900C represents a faster scrolling process. Accordingly, the software application on the electronic device transmits a request for additional content to thesoftware system1930 which triggers additional requests to theprimary content storage1910 andsecondary content storage1920. This is merged, rendered and transmitted to the electronic device asnew content1990B whilst the software application deletes all preceding portions of the content and displaysthird window1960C to the user. In thisthird view1900C there is no remaining portion of theprior portion1950A andsubsequent portion1950B infirst view1900A is depicted as thirdresidual portion1970C. Accordingly, as the user increases an aspect of scrolling, such as for example, speed of finger motion on a touch sensitive display or multiple repeated scrolling motions, the software application adjusts the requests to the software system and essentially slides the viewer window, depicted by first tothird windows1960A through1960C respectively, within the retrieved content1900.

It would also be evident to the user that the amount of content retrieved between first, second andthird views1900A through1900C respectively may be varied according to characteristics of the user's scrolling as well as in dependence of other factors including but not limited to, device display characteristics, characteristics of rendered content in the direction of scrolling, and transmission data rate between the software application and the software system.

Now referring toFIG. 20 there is depicted anindex2030 according to the prior art together with aflowchart2000B according to an embodiment of the invention relating to a SS-SA for indexing primary content and subsequently generated index of secondary content. Referring tofirst view2000A abook2010 according to the prior art is depicted wherein this comprises thebody2020 of thebook2010 andindex2030. Within the prior art theindex2030 is generated by the author and/or publisher and comprises those aspects of thebody2020 of thebook2010 that the author and/or publisher defined. Within electronic content according to the prior art, not shown, such as PDFs, EPUB based eBooks, websites, word processors etc an index may be generated in a similar manner using terms defined by the author and/or publisher.

Additionally, such electronic content presentation tools provide the user with a variety of text based search tools for particular words or phrases. However, such searches are performed discretely and in isolation each time the user elects to perform them.Flowchart2000B presents an indexing method according to an embodiment of the invention which begins with the software system receiving a new title for publication. Instep2045 this new primary content is parsed for keyword occurrences to generate a table of contents followed bystep2050 wherein the primary content is parsed for occurrences of words to generate an index wherein the resulting occurrences of these keywords and words are stored within a data file associated with the primary content. In according with an embodiment of the invention parsing the primary content for words may be performed for every word and the resulting data file contains an entry for the word together with location data within the primary content for every occurrence of the word. An exemplary database of word occurrences for primary content being provided in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1

Exemplary Database of Parsed Word
Occurrences in Primary Content

	Anticipation	50; 135; 275; 2450; 11024
	Canada	1; 25; 75; 466
	Novelty	110; 450; 3455; 10866; 14602
	Patent	2; 26; 80; 100; 130; 2440; 3452; 10870; 11023
	Trademark	194; 360; 520; 860; 1187; 2046

Subsequently, in step2060 a user retrieves the primary content by obtaining a license to the Title together with the generated table of contents and index data and then subsequently instep2065 the user generates secondary content in respect of their activities with the primary content. Accordingly, the SS-SA parses instep2070 the user generated secondary content and instep2080 the occurrences of words within the secondary content are added to a database of word occurrences associated with the secondary content. Instep2085 the process determines whether the user has finished with the primary content, which if they have results in the process proceeding to step2090 and stopping, otherwise it loops back tostep2065.

It would be evident to one skilled in the art that accordingly the user has access to index data for each of the primary and secondary content. It would also be apparent that the table of contents may be generated as discussed above in respect ofFIG. 11. Additionally, as the search index has occurrence locations for all occurrences of words within the primary and secondary content new searches are enabled that would otherwise not be possible within prior art approaches to searching such as shown below in (1) wherein the search only returns results when the words “Patent” and “Canada” occur within 3 words of one another. Modified search (2) further requires that “Patent” occurs within 3 words of “Canada” and after it. It would also be evident that activities of the user such as highlighting and annotating may be identified through the word occurrence data such as outlined below in respect of (3), (4) and (5) respectively.

(Patent) and (Canada) and [|L_(PATENT)−L_(CANADA)|<3] (1)

(Patent) and (Canada) and [0<−3≦|L_(PATENT)−L_(CANADA)|<0] (2)

Highlight{Blue, Static, Start[Patent,80], Finish[Anticipation,135]} (3)

Annotate{Text(01-01-2012;20:15:20),BEG[Patent,80], END[Anticipation,135],PVT} (4)

Annotate {Multi(01-01-2012;20:17:55),BEG[Patent,80],END[Anticipation,135],PBC} (5)

In the examples shown the annotations (4) and (5) are associated with a portion of the primary content defined by an occurrence of “Patent” at the 80^thlocation and “Anticipation” at the 135^thlocation. In (4) the annotation is noted as “Text” generated on Jan. 1, 2012 at 20:15:20 and being “Private” (PVT), whilst in (5) the annotation is noted as “Multi” representing multiple media and generated on Jan. 1, 2012 at 20:17:55 and being “Public” (PBC). It would be evident to one skilled in the art that many other formats for the database, entries therein, and identifications of annotations, highlights, etc may be possible without departing from the scope of the invention.

Now referring toFIG. 21 there is depicted an example of a user adding an annotation as a pseudo-primary element of a primary content so that the secondary content is displayed to subsequent users as if it was an element of the primary content when published by the user. Withinfirst view2100A anelectronic device2130 is shown with apage2110 from a “Honda S-2000 Workshop Manual” within an application “Cogn-e-Pub” from CogniLore Inc.Page2110 relating to wheel alignment and containing animage2120. The user has elected to add an annotation and is accordingly presented with pop-up2140 wherein they select an item to add from the web or a defined location, in this instance from a location on their C: drive, and may define the annotation as being “pseudo-primary”. The video the user wishes to add being denoted byvideo image2150 infirst view2100A.

Another user subsequently accessing the primary content on anotherdevice2170 is presented withpage2110 but now the image is hidden by embeddedvideo annotation2160. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that a user creating the secondary content with the pseudo-primary content may have different rights to other users who subsequently access the primary content with the user generated secondary content. For example, the primary content may be a manual released by a manufacturer, inFIG. 21 Honda, relating to a product, S-2000, but that the licensee, e.g. US Autoparts Inc, WalMart™, and Meineke™, wishes to provide its employees with a video of performing the wheel alignment rather than the image within the manufacturer released content. Other scenarios would be evident to one skilled in the art that do not depart from the scope of the invention.

Specific details are given in the above description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, well-known processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages and/or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, scripting language and/or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium, such as a storage medium. A code segment or machine-executable instruction may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a script, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures and/or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters and/or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing the methodologies described herein. For example, software codes may be stored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor and may vary in implementation where the memory is employed in storing software codes for subsequent execution to that when the memory is employed in executing the software codes. As used herein the term “memory” refers to any type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or other storage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memory or number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.

Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may represent one or more devices for storing data, including read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/or other machine readable mediums for storing information. The term “machine-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and/or various other mediums capable of storing, containing or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

The methodologies described herein are, in one or more embodiments, performable by a machine which includes one or more processors that accept code segments containing instructions. For any of the methods described herein, when the instructions are executed by the machine, the machine performs the method. Any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine are included. Thus, a typical machine may be exemplified by a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. Each processor may include one or more of a CPU, a graphics-processing unit, and a programmable DSP unit. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM. A bus subsystem may be included for communicating between the components. If the processing system requires a display, such a display may be included, e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD). If manual data entry is required, the processing system also includes an input device such as one or more of an alphanumeric input unit such as a keyboard, a pointing control device such as a mouse, and so forth.

The memory includes machine-readable code segments (e.g. software or software code) including instructions for performing, when executed by the processing system, one of more of the methods described herein. The software may reside entirely in the memory, or may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the RAM and/or within the processor during execution thereof by the computer system. Thus, the memory and the processor also constitute a system comprising machine-readable code.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other machines, in a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment. The machine may be, for example, a computer, a server, a cluster of servers, a cluster of computers, a web appliance, a distributed computing environment, a cloud computing environment, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. The term “machine” may also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The foregoing disclosure of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.

Further, in describing representative embodiments of the present invention, the specification may have presented the method and/or process of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on the particular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process should not be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, other sequences of steps may be possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth in the specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims. In addition, the claims directed to the method and/or process of the present invention should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.