Vivisimo Granted Patent for Clustering
August 1, 2011
Great news for Vivisimo! A news release titled “Vivisimo Receives U.S. Patent for Clustering System and Method” reproted:
“Before remix clustering, Vivisimo was the first tech firm to introduce on-the-fly clustering, which allowed users to see their search query results arranged in topic folders. This unique feature gave users the ability to review a list of similar results associated with their search. The invention of remix clustering took enterprise search to a whole new experience, allowing both consumers and employees to see what other subtler topics are connected to their search.”
If you haven’t had the pleasure of receiving neatly, categorized search results courtesy of remix clustering, check out Yippy (formerly Clusty).
Rattling off a client list including Cisco Systems, NASA, the German Intelligence body, the Institute of Physics, the National Library of Medicine, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, et al lends some serious credibility for Vivisimo; needless to say these aren’t your everyday Google users or trend surfers. If remix clustering is preferred by those in the business of information, that’s as good an endorsement as any.
So well done and congratulations, Vivisimo. I look for the clearing of this hurdle to spawn more innovation in the future or litigation, which seems to be important to many organizations.
Never hurts the ol’ pockets, either.
Sarah Rogers, August 1, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
Comments
4 Responses to “Vivisimo Granted Patent for Clustering”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
The “patent number” 11/774,908 mentioned in that article is actually the control number. In mid June 2011, there was a Notice of Allowance issued to the patent attorney from the US Patent Office. It is a semantic question whether that means, as the press release claims, that a patent was “awarded”. That would seem premature procedurally. As far as I can ascertain, the only current relevant patent document available right now in the public domain is Patent Application 20090019026 available for viewing since January 2009. Note: The USPTO patent database says today that it is updated through July 26, a week after the the date of the press release – and the alleged patent is still not searchable as a patent. So, perhaps in the next upload and perhaps not.
Very interesting article and patent. I’m not as up-t-date on patent law as many, but the line
“…allowed users to see their search query results arranged in topic folders”
sounds remarkably like Verity Topics and the old Agent Server code. Topics were, of course, fixed; but users were able to see results in folders.
What’s your take, Steve?
For the record, the Vivisimo patent application 20090019026 “Clustering system and method” patent number 8,019,760 was published September 13, 2011.
Traintalk,
Thanks for the correction via the comments. We do make errors and are pretty upfront out them. See http://www.arnoldit.com/wordpress/about. My Vivisimo posts don’t get much action, so your comment is wlecome..
Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2011