IP Library Granted Patent US 7,444,351
Granted Patent B1
US 7,444,351 · App. 11/958,868 · Granted Oct 28, 2008

Systems, methods and computer products for name disambiguation by using private/global directories, and communication contexts

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 7,444,351
App. No.
11/958,868
Granted
Oct 28, 2008
Kind
B1
Abstract

Name disambiguation by using private/global directories and communication contexts. Exemplary embodiments include a name disambiguation method, including identifying a plurality of names of persons in text received in the computer system, each of the plurality of names including a start and an end position, a family name and a given name, for each of the plurality of names of persons in the text, retrieving personal identification information from a global directory as a candidate for a name match, retrieving personal identification information from a private directory as a candidate for the name match, comparing the private directory personal identification information with the global directory personal identification information, eliminating the personal identification information from the private directory, retrieving frequencies of communications associated with the personal identification information from the private directory and displaying related information for each of the plurality of names of persons in the text.

Claims (9)

1. In a computer system, a name disambiguation method, comprising:

identifying a plurality of names of persons in text received in the computer system, each of the plurality of names including a start and an end position, a family name and a given name;

for each of the plurality of names of persons in the text;

retrieving personal identification information from a global directory as a candidate for a name match;

retrieving personal identification information from a private directory as a candidate for the name match;

comparing the private directory personal identification information with the global directory personal identification information;

in response to an inability to obtain the name match with the personal identification information retrieved from the private directory eliminating the personal identification information from the private directory as a name match candidate;

in response to a determination that there still exists ambiguous names in the plurality of names, retrieving frequencies of communications associated with the personal identification information from the private directory;

displaying related information for each of the plurality of names of persons in the text wherein displaying related information for each of the plurality of names of persons in the text comprises sorting candidates by the frequencies of communications; and further comprising, in response to a determination of multiple candidates of personal identification information from the private directory for one of the plurality of names in the text, using a hierarchical structure found in the global directory, which represents a hierarchical structure of an organization for which the global directory exists, to calculate an organizational distance between a user of the computer system and each candidate of the plurality of the names of persons in the text, and determining a best candidate based on the calculated organizational distances.

Assignments (3)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Aug 26, 2014
From: SAP AG
To: SAP SE
Reel/Frame 033625/0334 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 12, 2012
From: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
To: SAP AG
Reel/Frame 028540/0522 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 18, 2007
From: NOMIYAMA, HIROSHI
To: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 020265/0442 →