US 6314420

Analysis of U.S. Patent No. 6,314,420

Date of Analysis: April 26, 2026

An analysis of United States Patent 6,314,420, titled "Collaborative/adaptive search engine," has been conducted based on information from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and a review of its claims. A search of the 2026 dockets for the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) revealed no pending litigation specifically involving this patent.

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Patent Overview

Title	Collaborative/adaptive search engine
Assignee	I/P Engine Inc (Current Assignee); Lycos Inc (Original Assignee)
Inventors	Andrew K. Lang, Donald M. Kosak
Filing Date	December 3, 1998
Issue Date	November 6, 2001
Abstract	A search engine system is provided for a portal site on the internet. The search engine system employs a regular search engine to make one-shot or demand searches for information entities which provide at least threshold matches to user queries. The search engine system also employs a collaborative/content-based filter to make continuing searches for information entities which match existing wire queries and are ranked and stored over time in user-accessible, system wires corresponding to the respective queries. A user feedback system provides collaborative feedback data for integration with content profile data in the operation of the collaborative/content-based filter. A query processor determines whether a demand search or a wire search is made for an input query.

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Plain-Language Summary of Independent Claims

This patent contains two independent claims, which define the core of the invention.

• Claim 1: This claim describes a search engine system that uses two different methods for handling user queries. The first method is a standard "demand" search, which finds immediate results based on the content of a user's query. The second method is a "wire" search. A "wire" is a continuous, long-term search for a specific query. The system decides whether to perform a "demand" or "wire" search. A key feature is that for "wire" searches, the system improves its results over time by incorporating feedback from other users. This "collaborative feedback" is combined with the original content-based filtering to determine the relevance of the search results.

• Claim 9: This claim outlines a method for operating a search engine. It details the process of receiving a query from a user and then deciding to perform either a "demand" search for immediate results or a "wire" search for ongoing, continuously updated results. The method involves filtering information from a network (like the internet) on a continuing basis. For at least the "wire" searches, the system combines feedback data from multiple users with the content of the information to determine what results to provide to the user. This allows the search results for "wire" queries to become more refined and relevant over time based on the collective input of users.