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Description  |
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a computer-based system and method for
the electronic distribution of information, and more particularly, for the
distribution of information via the Internet to authorized recipients.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which
is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection
to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent
disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or
records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Financial research providers such as brokerage and investment banking firms
spend large sums of money creating, printing and distributing thousands of
graphic-rich research reports to investors (e.g., customer's, remote sales
offices, investment advisors, brokers, portfolio managers, etc.). Research
providers seeking to reduce costs may consider distributing these reports
electronically, from computer to computer. Electronic distribution is
generally cost effective when compared with hard copy distribution
methods. Global computer networks, such as the Internet, enable
information to be distributed to a wide range of people at locations
around the world. One of the many advantages of the Internet, particularly
the World Wide Web ("WWW"), is that the communication protocols used are
non-proprietary, thus enabling end users to access and use the Internet
without the need for customized hardware or software.
Often, research providers wish to provide information to investors or users
on a controlled basis. In particular, research providers may wish to
provide reports only to particular people, while ensuring that other
people (such as, for example, competitors) are not provided with such
reports.
Additionally, research providers may wish to control access to reports due
to laws or regulations under which the research providers must operate.
For example, a research provider may wish to prevent particular users from
accessing particular documents in order to comply with certain SEC
regulations. When a research provider has a current banking or financial
interest in a public company that is the topic of a research report (i.e.,
a "restricted company"), the research provider may be required by law to
restrict its private internal clients from accessing the report. More
specifically, SEC laws restrict research providers from influencing the
research providers' private clients in any way with regard to a restricted
company.
Accordingly, there is a need for a procedure that allows a research
provider to restrict research related to restricted companies from being
accessed by private clients and investors.
Additionally, when an external event occurs, i.e., a "news" event, a
research provider may believe its "opinion" (as reflected in a report, for
example) about a particular public company, may change. Accordingly, the
research provider may wish to indicate to its investors that the company
is "under review." That is, some news event has occurred that is believed
to materially affect a public company's financial performance, and
therefore the research provider's opinion. For example, assume that a
research provider issues a report regarding a particular public company,
and that company relies on the availability of a natural resource from a
foreign country. If a war breaks out in that supplier company, and thus
the public company can no longer acquire that natural resource from the
supplier country (due to an embargo, for example), the research provider's
opinion regarding the public company may change. Accordingly, there is a
need for a procedure that provides a research provider with the ability to
indicate to its clients and investors that a particular company is under
review.
Also, when a research provider has "no opinion" about a particular public
company on which the research provider previously issued an opinion (in
the form of a research report, for example), the research provider may
wish to indicate to its clients and users that the particular company is
under "extended review." This would indicate that previous research
reports (and therefore opinions) related to the public company are no
longer valid, i.e., the research provider is not "covering" the public
company for events that might impact previously rendered opinions.
Accordingly, there is a need for a procedure that allows a research
provider to filter or restrict earlier-rendered opinions and reports, or
somehow indicate to clients and investors that a company is under
"extended review."
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an method and system for controlling the
distribution of electronic information based on, in part, an identified
relationship between the electronic information provider, e.g., a research
provider, and the company or companies that are the subject matter of the
electronic information. In a representative embodiment of the present
invention, a central repository server is coupled to one or more remote
contributor workstations. The information that is stored at the repository
server is received from the contributor workstations in electronic form.
According to the representative embodiment of the present invention, the
information received from the contributor workstations are files
comprising one or more documents. These documents typically would contain
text, data, charts, graphs, spreadsheets and the like, or combinations
thereof, and may be in many formats. It will be appreciated that any
information that can be stored in digital form, such as photographs,
videos, sound recordings, etc. may be stored in the files received from
the contributor workstations. Files received from the contributor
workstations are converted at a central site into predetermined format,
e.g., for printable documents, a common viewing format such as, for
example, PDF format, and thereafter provided to the repository server.
Each document submitted to the repository server is accompanied by a
document profile comprising information organized according to predefined
fields relating to the document. Information in a document profile may
include, for example, a list of ticker symbols of the companies that are
related to the subject matter of the document.
In the exemplary embodiment, a restriction subsystem server is selectively
coupled to the contributor workstation. The restriction subsystem server,
which includes, for example, a restriction database, manages and stores
"restriction" and "review" information of companies, relative to
contributors. In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a
contributor identifies (via electronic communication or otherwise) to the
restriction subsystem server a "restriction" and/or "review" status of a
company relative to the contributor. For example, a particular company may
be identified as "RESTRICTED" if the contributor has a current banking or
financial interest in the company. Additionally, a company may be
identified as "UNDER REVIEW" if the contributor believes its opinion about
the company may change based on a news event. Moreover, a company may be
identified as "UNDER EXTENDED REVIEW," if, for example, the contributor is
not presently "covering" that company.
According to the representative embodiment of the present invention, each
user has a user computer, such as, for example, a personal computer with
an Intel Pentium processor and a fast modem that the user can use to
connect to the Internet. The user computer has one or more local storage
devices. In the representative embodiment, the user computer executes
Netscape's Navigator browser program. However, other browser programs,
such the Mosaic browser or Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser could
also be used. As used herein, the browser programs executed by the user
computer will be termed "Internet browsers." When the user initially
accesses the web server, the user is required to provide a user
identification code ("ID") and a password. The web server submits a login
request to the CGI program to verify that no other user is using the same
ID. According to the present invention, a user is permitted to access the
web server from a different user computer or using a different Internet
browser; however, the present invention prevents the user (or other users)
from "concurrently" accessing the web server from more than one computer
or Internet browser using the same ID.
Once the user has provided the ID and password, the repository server will
determine what information that user is authorized to receive. According
to the present invention, each user has authorization to access all or a
subset of the information stored at the repository server.
In the representative embodiment, the repository server can provide the
user with a list of new documents that have been recently received by the
repository server and which that user is authorized to access. The user
may also request a list of documents that fit certain user-specified
search criteria. A list of the documents that match that search criteria
and which the user is authorized to access is provided to the user
computer. The user can then select, request and view documents from these
lists.
In the representative embodiment, the repository server also includes a
procedure for controlling the ability for a user to display and access a
document based on, in part, the "restriction" and/or "review" status
(relative to the document contributor) of the company (companies) that is
(are) the subject of the document. In the exemplary embodiment, the
repository server stores a copy of the restriction database in high speed
memory such as, for example, RAM or SRAM. Each time the repository server
is queried for a list of reports or documents (i.e., document titles or
headlines), the repository server determines whether to provide a
particular title to the viewer workstation (via a viewer server or web
server) to the user based on the information in the "in memory"
restriction database.
In response to a request for a list of documents, the repository server
retrieves a list of titles of documents to which the user is "entitled".
Additionally, the repository server retrieves any ticker symbols
corresponding to the subject matter of each of these documents (such as,
for example, those ticker symbols that are provided in each document's
corresponding document profile). Each retrieved document title (and
corresponding list ticker symbols) is then processed.
The repository server "aggregates" the restriction information for all of
the ticker symbols associated with first document. That is, since a
document may have a number of ticker symbols associated therewith, the
repository system combines the restriction information in order to form
aggregate restriction information.
Next, the aggregate restriction information for the title is processed in
order to determine whether or not the title should be provided to the
user. If the user is an "Internal Private Client" (e.g., an employee of
the contributor), the following rules are applied:
If any ticker symbol associated with the document is under restriction and
the release date and time of the document is prior to the restriction date
and time, the title may be displayed to the user but the title is marked
as "restricted." That is, the user can display the title of the document
but cannot access the corresponding document.
If any ticker symbol associated with the document is under review or
extended review and the release date and time of the document is prior to
the review date and time, the title may be displayed to the user, and the
title is marked as "under review" or "under extended review." The user may
access the corresponding document.
Otherwise, the title may be displayed and the document corresponding to
that title may be accessed.
If, instead, the user is an "External Private Client" (e.g., an
investor-client of the contributor), the following rules apply:
if a ticker symbol associated with the document is under restriction and
the release date and time of the document is prior to the restriction date
and time, the title may not be displayed by the user and the user cannot
access the corresponding document;
if a ticker symbol associated with the document is not under restriction,
but the a ticker symbol associated with the document is either under
review or under extended review AND the document release date is prior to
the review date and time, the title may not be displayed by the user and
the document associated with that title cannot be accessed by that user;
otherwise, the title may be displayed and the document corresponding to
that title may be accessed.
This process is repeated for all titles in the list.
The present invention is ideally suited for providing investment research
reports to investors and investor advisors. Brokerage and investment
banking firms create mounds of investment research reports on a daily
basis concerning thousands of companies and industries. These reports are
provided to investors in electronic form. At present, these reports are
distributed either by messenger or by mail, or over proprietary networks,
requiring the installation and maintenence of expensive hardware, software
and communication lines. Because of this expense, the number of users who
have access to these proprietary networks is limited. In the
representative embodiment, the present invention enables investment
research reports to be securely distributed to investors over the
Internet. The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of a
proprietary network and enables investment research reports to be
distributed to a wider range of investors who are authorized to receive
such reports.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a diagram of the overall system architecture of the present
invention.
FIG. 2 is an example bulletin board screen display.
FIG. 3 is an example document query form screen display.
FIG. 4 is an example query results screen display.
FIG. 5 is a system architecture diagram of an enhanced system according to
the present invention.
FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of an on-line entitlement/report
subsystem.
FIG. 7 is an example initial menu of the entitlement/report subsystem.
FIG. 8 is an example of a subscriber selection criteria page (for
entitlement status viewing/modification).
FIG. 9 is an example of an entitlement status viewing/modification page.
FIG. 10 is an example of an entitlement report parameter specification
page.
FIG. 11 illustrates the overall system architecture of an exemplary
restriction subsystem.
FIG. 12 is an example of an initial menu presented to a contributor
accessing the exemplary restriction subsystem.
FIG. 13 is an example of a selection/modification displaying or modifying
information in the restriction database of the restriction subsystem.
FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary procedure for displaying,
at a contributor workstation, the status of a particular company (relative
to the contributor).
FIG. 15 is s flowchart of an exemplary procedure for modifying
restriction/review information in the restriction database.
FIG. 16 is illustration of an illustrative restriction status report page.
FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a process for processing a list of titles in
accordance with the exemplary embodiment of the present invention
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
For ease of description, the embodiment of the present invention described
herein is that used for the electronic distribution of investment research
reports and morning meeting notes ("reports") to investors via the
Internet's World Wide Web ("WWW"). However, the invention is not so
limited, and can be used, where appropriate, for the electronic
distribution of other types of information via other types of networks.
As used herein, the terms "investor" and "user" include any end user who is
permitted to receive or access information via the present invention, such
as, for example, customers of brokerage and investment banking firms,
employees of brokerage and investment banking firms, investment advisors,
brokers, bankers, portfolio and fund managers, journalists, analysts,
economists, university professors, MBA students, etc.
Referring now to the drawings, and initially FIG. 1, there is illustrated
an overall system architecture according to the present invention. A
central repository server 2 is coupled, via a central site 1, to one or
more remote contributor workstations 14, 16, 18, 19. The contributor
workstations 14, 16, 18, 19 are used by brokerage and investment banking
firms to submit reports to the repository server 2. Optionally, the
contributor workstations 14, 16, 18, 19 may be coupled to the repository
server 2 via a proprietary network comprising a plurality of contributor
servers 20, 22. Alternatively or additionally, a contributor workstation
24 may provide reports to the repository server 2 via the Internet.
In the representative embodiment, the contributor workstations execute a
program called Multex Contributor.TM., described in detail in the user
manual titled "MX Contributor--User Guide" available from Multex Systems,
Inc. of New York, N.Y. and expressly incorporated herein by reference. The
Multex Contributor.TM. program is a real-time Windows-based document
indexing and transfer program used to disseminate reports to the central
site 1. The contributor simply completes a form (a document profile)
displayed on the screen of the contributor workstation 14, 16, 18, 19,
and, at the specified time, the Multex Contributor.TM. program transfers
the report, along with the information in the completed form, to the
central site 1.
At the contributor workstation 14, 16, 18, 19, the contributor completes a
form relating to the report. First, the contributor selects a report for
distribution. The report is stored, usually as a file, in electronic form
on the contributor workstation 14, 16, 18, 19 or on a server or network
drive coupled to the contributor workstation 14, 16, 18, 19. The report
may be in any standard electronic format, for example, Pagemaker,
Microsoft Word for Windows, Corel WordPerfect, etc. The form has fields
relating to the report, for example, title, author, subject, date and time
of creation, distribution level (setting distribution to a default group
of investors or one of a set of predefined groups of investors) and
expiration time. Optionally, the contributor can enter additional
information in the form, such as, for example, ticker symbol(s), industry
group, synopsis, country, region, currency, etc. Once the report has been
selected and the form completed, the user issues a "contribute" command to
the Multex Contributor.TM. program and the report and all the information
in the form is electronically transmitted to the contributor server 20, 22
or directly from central site 1. In the representative embodiment, the
reports are "pushed up" from the contributor servers 20, 22 to the central
site 1.
In an alternative embodiment, an "auto-contributor" program may be used to
automatically contribute reports. The auto-contributor program executes,
for example, on a contributor workstation 14, 16, 18, 19 and provides a
mechanism for automatically contributing one or a number of documents.
This mechanism is particularly well suited for "high volume" contributors.
In an exemplary embodiment, the auto-contributor reads a file (or a number
of files), stored at, for example, the contributor workstation 14, 16, 18,
19 or at a contributor server 20, 22) which provide information related to
each report to be automatically contributed. The information may include
the same information that a contributor would enter into the form
described above, e.g., title, author, subject, date, and time of creation,
distribution level, expiration time, ticker symbols, etc. Additionally,
the information includes the location or address of the file containing
the report (or reports), e.g., file path. After reading the file (or
files), the auto-contributor program transmits the file (or files), and
the corresponding report files to the central site 1.
At the central site 1, the reports are processed. Typically, the central
site comprises a network of computer processors. At the central site 1,
each report is converted to a predetermined format. In the representative
embodiment, all reports received at the central site 1 are converted at
the central site 1 into a format that can be read by the Acrobat Exchange
program, available from Adobe Systems. The reports are then provided by
the central site 1 to the repository server 2.
Where desired, the repository server 2 can also receive, store and enable
the distribution of other useful information, such as, for example, news
reports received from wire services, government reports, product reviews,
etc.
The repository server 2 comprises or is coupled to at least two database
servers 11, 13. Each database server is coupled to a database storage
device 10, 12. A relational database 10, 11 allows field searching. In the
representative embodiment, the relational database 10, 11 is an SQL
database server 11 coupled to a storage device 10. A full text database
12, 13 allows word or text searching. In the representative embodiment,
the full text database 12, 13 is a full text search database server 13
(for example, a full text search engine available from Fulcrum of Ottawa,
Canada) coupled to a storage device 12.
The information contained in the form is indexed in the relational database
11 to allow retrieval of the report by searching on such fields, e.g.,
searches by author, date, industry, etc. Where necessary, information in
the form received from the contributor is mapped into "common" terminology
as used by the relational database 11. For example, the terms "sports
utilities" and "minivans" may be mapped and stored as the term
"automobile." ASCII text is extracted from the report and stored in the
full text database 12, 13 for full text searching.
The repository server 2 provides investors with lists of reports received
from the contributor workstations 14, 16, 18, 19 and allows investors to
request lists of reports that fit certain criteria. The investor can
select reports from these lists to down-load, view and/or print.
Generally, lists of reports can be generated by the web server 4.
The contributor of a report can be notified that a particular investor has
accessed that report. The repository server 2 maintains for each report a
list of those who accessed that report. The repository server 2 can
transmit that list to the report's contributor on a regular basis and/or
when requested by the contributor.
The repository server 2 is coupled to a web server 4 which in turn is
coupled to the Internet via, for example, a T1 or ISDN connection. The web
server 4 is a high powered server computer that runs a web server program.
In the representative embodiment, the web server 4 executes, for example,
Netscape's Commerce Server program. The web server program allows web
pages (in HTML format) to be accessed by investors. The web server 4 also
executes other programs and subroutines as required.
Each investor has a user computer 6, 8, such as, for example, a personal
computer with an Intel Pentium processor and a fast modem. The user
computer 6, 8 can connect with the Internet via, for example, a commercial
Internet Service Provider. In the representative embodiment, the user
computer 6, 8 executes an Internet browser program, such as, for example,
Netscape's Navigator browser program. The Internet browser can read HTML
format, and can also communicate with other programs. This communication
is via a program extension called a plug-in. In the representative
embodiment, the plug-in is the Acrobat Exchange Interface program,
available from Adobe Systems that directs Acrobat Exchange or Acrobat
Reader to load and display downloaded ".pdf" files.
The web server 4 includes a web server helper application, which in the
representative embodiment is the CGI (common gateway interface) program,
that is activated by investors through web pages provided by the web
server 4. CGI provides a method for web pages to interact with programs on
the web server. CGI lets those other programs process HTML forms and other
data coming from Internet browsers, and then lets the other programs send
a response back the web server 4 to be delivered to the Internet browser.
The response can be HTML files, GIF files, PDF files or any data that the
Internet browser can view. Thus, generally, when an Internet browser
requests a document from the web server 4, the web server 4 server program
finds the document and sends it to the Internet browser. However, if the
Internet browser requests a CGI program, the web server 4 server program
acts as a middleman between the Internet browser and the CGI program.
Other web server helper applications (or interfaces), such as, for
example, BGI, NSAPI, ISAPI, or ASP (Active Server Pages) can be used in
place of CGI within the principles of the present invention. These
applications are extensions to the web server 4.
Access to the web server 4 begins from an investor's Internet browser.
Initially, the investor can access "public" web pages generally describing
some of the features of the document delivery service of the present
invention. If the investor chooses to proceed, the investor selects the
"log-in" option from the initial web page.
User Verification
The first step the web server 4 takes in handling an investor request is
verifying that the investor is permitted to access the information stored
at the repository server 2. This is accomplished using the standard
verification procedure built into the communication protocol between
Internet browsers and web servers.
The web server 4 uses Netscape's Commerce Server's ability to call custom
verification subroutines when a user tries to access CGI's and web pages.
The web server 4 executes a subroutine and, using Netscape's NSAPI,
receives the ID and password that the investor is asked to provide by the
server/browser, and then verifies the ID and password against a database
of authorized users (the user database) maintained at the repository
server 2. If the user is verified, the Internet browser will be given a
verification signature. An investor who is not in the user database, or
enters an incorrect password, is denied access to CGI's and web pages on
the web server 4 by simply having the subroutine return an "Access Denied"
flag to the web server 4. This subroutine maintains an open connection to
the user database to improve performance.
Whenever an investor makes a query for a list of reports, the investor's
Internet browser sends an HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) request that
represents what the user wants to the web server 4. If the request does
not have a verification signature attached to it, the web server 4 sends a
command back to the Internet browser, causing it to prompt the user for an
ID and password. The Internet browser will then return this information to
the web server 4, which will verify that the user is entitled to access
the reports stored at the repository server 2. If the user is verified,
the Internet browser will be given a verification signature. If not, the
user will be prompted again for his ID and password. Once access is
verified, the web server 4 will start the CGI program named in the
original HTTP request, along with any run-time parameters that are
specified in the request. The CGI program first verifies that the user
making the request (whose ID is passed to the CGI program by the web
server 4 through, for example, an environment variable) is the only one
using that ID at that moment. This is done by the following method:
a. The CGI program gets the value of the Internet browser "cookie", and
extracts the value for the named pair "mxauth" from the cookie.
b. If the value is empty, the CGI program indicates that this user is
accessing the web server 4 for the first time since starting his or her
Internet browser. This user then becomes the designated "current user of
this ID". A new random value for the "mxauth" part of the browser cookie
is generated, stored on the web server 4 under this user's ID, and sent
back to the Internet browser, so that the Internet browser can send it
back next time.
c. If the value is not empty, the CGI program indicates that this user has
previously already accessed the web server 4 since starting the browser
program, and has been given an authorizing cookie. If the "mxauth" value
of the cookie does not match the value stored on the web server for this
user, then this user has been superseded by another user using the same
ID. The CGI does not perform the requested task, and tells the user that
access is denied. If the "mxauth" value of the cookie does match, then
this user is authorized to continue, and the CGI performs the requested
task. Each time the user is authorized to continue, the time of the access
is stored on the web server 4.
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