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Archiver > APG > 2007-11 > 1196437855


From: Katherine Flynn <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Ancestry Patent: How to see full image with drawings
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:50:55 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <7.0.1.0.2.20071130020715.090790d0@whollygenes.com>


Dear All,

The USPTO version of the full image (with drawings) is not the most user friendly or accessible. However the European Patent Office (EPO) offers a free, open site called ESPACENET where one can see almost any patent publication ....

The link to the pdf version of the Ancestry patent on ESPACENET is:

http://v3.espacenet.com/origdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US2005149522&F=0&RPN=US7249129&DOC=dcb65d04ab6922dd9d550ece9750f7c76e

All the best,
Kathy Flynn

Bob Velke <> wrote:
Donn said:

>Some of the concepts listed seemed straight out of the GENTECH data model of
>a few years back--with no acknowledgement.. Anyone closer to it than I was
>recognize them?

The GENTECH Genealogical Data Model (GDM) project was sponsored by
APG, FGS, NEHGS, NGS, ASG, and BCG. The resulting document promotes
certain terminology (e.g., persona, assertion, attributes, etc.) and
offers a data-centric description of the research process, especially
insofar as tracking evidence through the reiterative conclusion
process in order to construct a person(a). It doesn't presume to
have "invented" anything (by my layman's understanding of that term)
but merely to have _documented_ the research process that is employed
every day by professional researchers.

The influence of the GDM *is* strongly evident in Ancestry's patent
application and I think that's (at least) a measure of the GDM's
success in positively affecting the thinking of genealogy software
developers. As you say, attribution for the terminology and concepts
from the GDM would have been nice.

I am not a patent attorney and I'm further crippled by an inability
to see the figures that are referenced in the text (the "Images" link
doesn't display anything for me). However, while Ancestry's patent
description leans heavily on the GDM, it doesn't seem to be making a
claim to the same process. Rather, I think that the patent focuses
on how to make conclusions of unity. That is, the GDM details the
process of combining conclusions but Ancestry seems to claim a patent
on a process of _making_ those conclusions, employing certain
specific weights and measures to decide whether two specific pieces
of data apply to the same person(a).

I don't claim to know whether the patented process by which Ancestry
reaches genealogical conclusions really employs any original
"invention." But if not, it represents an assault not on the GDM but
on the entire genealogical community.

Perhaps those organizations mentioned above should get together and
have Ancestry's application evaluated by a professional patent
attorney in the interest of all researchers.

Bob Velke
co-author of the GENTECH Genealogical Data Model
and NGS Board Member


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