Document Graph for Content Reuse and History Tracking

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing productivity applications face challenges in tracing the history of original content, determining who created or modified it, and efficiently reusing content across multiple documents and users.

Innovation Solution

A document graph is generated and updated to track relationships between content, documents, users, and actions, allowing for the identification and reuse of relevant content components, and enabling classification processes to categorize users and content based on their interactions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If content is reused and modified in multiple different documents by multiple users, then content reuse capability is improved, but it becomes cumbersome to trace the history of the original content and determine who created, contributed, and/or changed the content

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent reuse capabilityVSAvoidcontent history information
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments content into reusable components that can be independently tracked. Each content component is extracted from documents and stored as a separate entity in the document graph, allowing individual tracking of its usage history across multiple documents and users while maintaining the ability to reuse the same component in different contexts.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a document graph as an intermediary data structure that mediates between content components and their usage instances. The document graph stores and manages the relationships between original content, reused content, and user actions, serving as a central repository that preserves complete content history while enabling efficient content reuse operations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If a document graph is generated and updated to track relationships between content, documents, users, and actions, then content tracking capability is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent tracking capabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The document graph serves multiple functions simultaneously: it stores content components, tracks user actions, maintains document relationships, and enables content retrieval. This multi-functional design reduces the need for separate systems for each tracking requirement, managing complexity through consolidation while providing comprehensive content tracking capabilities.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent transitions from traditional flat document storage to a graph-based multi-dimensional structure. The document graph adds relational dimensions by connecting content components to documents, users, and actions through nodes and edges, enabling precise tracking of content provenance and usage across multiple dimensions without linearly increasing system complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

3Loss of information

If actions of a user with respect to a document or the content therein are aggregated and normalized to an action class, then data organization is improved, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation organizationVSAvoidprocessing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary aggregation and normalization of user actions as they occur during document editing. By normalizing actions to action classes in real-time and storing them in the document graph alongside content components, the system organizes data during the natural workflow rather than requiring post-processing, thus improving information organization without significant additional processing time.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3311307B1Document storage for reuse of content within documents
Publication Date: 2025.05.14 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC
  • EP3311307B1 patent drawingFigure 1A~1B
  • EP3311307B1 patent drawingFigure 1C
  • EP3311307B1 patent drawingFigure 2~3

AI summary

A system for reuse of content within documents can include storage media on which a document graph is stored, and labeler software that, when executed by a processing system, directs the processing system to at least: aggregate, for a window of time, a plurality of actions carried out by a user on content associated with a document within a productivity application; normalize the plurality of actions into at least one predefined action class; determine a label of the user in relation to the document or a portion of the content associated with the document based on the at least one predefined action class; and store the label associated with the user and the document or the portion of the content in a document graph. A search of the document graph for reusable content can then be directed to related content associated with a user having a particular label.