a computer - enabled system , method , and medium is provided to support analyzing intellectual property documents by linking and annotating patents , copyrights , trademarks , license agreements , and other types of intellectual property documents . the invention is suitable for use by intellectual property professionals in memorializing their thought processes , work products , and reasoning , whether in preliminary or final form , and is flexible to 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 of the data streams containing the original document for mark - up , and one other data stream containing the annotation data . the marked - up document may be further revised and / or annotated , even by multiple users . the system provides that the same document such as a patent may be centrally stored but independently marked - up by different users . the system further extracts from such a marked - up document such annotation data with any changes thereto , and provides one or more data streams , containing the annotation data for storage and or later use .