a system , method , and medium supports analyzing intellectual property documents by linking and annotating patents , copyrights , trademarks , license agreements , and other intellectual property documents . it can be used by intellectual property professionals in memorializing thought processes , work products , and reasoning , in preliminary or final form , and can support development and use of a rich linked set representing complex relationships in an intellectual property portfolio . optionally , marked up , linked documents are divided into data streams ; one contains the original document for mark - up , and one contains annotation data . the marked - up document may be further revised and / or annotated even by multiple users . the same document such as a patent may be centrally stored but independently marked - up by different users . the system extracts from a marked - up document annotation data with any changes , and provides one or more data streams , containing the annotation data for storage and or later use .