4. An apparatus for indexing patent related prior art citations, comprising: means for obtaining one or more electronic documents from a patent information system; means for performing an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process on the one or more electronic documents; means for identifying a plurality of citation fields within the one or more electronic documents based on a result of the OCR process; means for calculating a most likely candidate including: means for comparing the plurality of citation fields to a primary trusted records list, wherein the primary trusted records list consist of a database of trusted data received via a text based format from the patent information system; means for returning a matching record in the primary trusted records list based on the plurality of citation fields; means for setting the most likely candidate to the matching record; means for categorizing the most likely candidate into one or more predetermined categories, wherein categorizing includes determining whether the most likely candidate was provided by a patent applicant or an examiner; and means for outputting the most likely candidate and a corresponding one or more categories.
4. An apparatus for indexing patent related prior art citations, comprising: means for obtaining one or more electronic documents from a patent information system; means for performing an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process on the one or more electronic documents; means for identifying a plurality of citation fields within the one or more electronic documents based on a result of the OCR process; means for calculating a most likely candidate including: means for comparing the plurality of citation fields to a primary trusted records list, wherein the primary trusted records list consist of a database of trusted data received via a text based format from the patent information system; means for returning a matching record in the primary trusted records list based on the plurality of citation fields; means for setting the most likely candidate to the matching record; means for categorizing the most likely candidate into one or more predetermined categories, wherein categorizing includes determining whether the most likely candidate was provided by a patent applicant or an examiner; and means for outputting the most likely candidate and a corresponding one or more categories. 5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the means for categorizing the most likely candidate includes means for determining whether the most likely candidate was characterized by the examiner.