Database Patent Prior Art Research(repost)

This project involves both research and knowledge of databases particularly in the area of searching and identification. It requires writing skills and a strong ability to hunt down ideas that are abstract. You can not present any hint of the idea to any person to help you find it, other than to say it has to do with searching using visual aids. I have a program that uses a new approach to searching for information using a visual metaphor. We need to know if our algorithm/approach and the software product we have built using the idea is unique and not known, or just another technique taught in computer science, or has been written about or discovered before. I have a patent attorney; we have done a search and found a few patents that are somewhat similar to our idea, but do not use our key approach. I need an expert programmer in database technology who is also a good researcher to look for prior art, looking in books, information on the net, articles, newsgroups, etc. I do not need you to go over patents, only to look for art in other sources. YOU WILL NEED TO PROVIDE ME WITH A DETAILED LIST OF SOURCES YOU FIND, INCLUDING BOOK OR MAGAZINE NAMES, TITLES, PAGE NUMBERS AND DATES, WEB LINKS (URLS), AND ANY OTHER REFERECNE THAT YOU FIND. I need to assure myself that the idea has not been written about, or that there is not or hasn&'t previously been a product that embodies the idea, that is not described in a text book, etc. The candidate for this job must have good writing skills and be able to summarize there findings clearly and succinctly in the English language. This is not an easy job, but it is creative in that you are being a detective of technology. In your bid I need to hear why you are the right person for this job, what prior experience makes you qualified. You will need to sign a non disclosure agreement before I can send the exact description of the product and the algorithm works, but you don&'t need that to make a bid. ## Deliverables 1) Clear and concise list of software, articles, or other information that is similar to our idea, and a clear concise explanation of why it is similar. 2) Accurate references, book titles, page number, date of publication, author, magazine articles name of magazine, title of article, author, date of publication, web URL links (bookmarks) that are active and can be loaded into a browser. 3) Complete ownership and distribution copyrights to all written work purchased. The NDA handles the ownership of the idea itself and has legal penalties if the terms are violated. ## Platform Windows XP