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Major documentation restructure to improve discoverability and reduce duplication. ## Changes **Deleted (Archived/Consolidated)**: - Removed duplicate getting started guides - Archived outdated planning documents - Consolidated corpus and configuration docs - Removed obsolete vision/spec files (superseded by vision.md) - Cleaned up scrapyard and old PDFs **New Structure**: - docs/about/ - Project overview and introduction - docs/guides/ - User guides (moved from root) - docs/specs/ - Technical specifications - docs/sdk/ - SDK documentation (Go) - docs/references/ - API references - docs/archive/ - Archived historical docs - applications/aphoria/docs/advanced/ - Advanced topics - applications/aphoria/docs/reference/ - CLI reference - applications/aphoria/docs/archive/ - Archived aphoria docs **Updated**: - README.md - New root README with clear navigation - CONTRIBUTING.md - Contribution guidelines - CLAUDE.md - Updated paths to new structure - roadmap.md - Added recent completions ## Files Changed - 57 files changed - 1,977 insertions(+) - 961 deletions(-) **Net change**: +1,016 lines (added CONTRIBUTING.md, README.md, reorganized content) Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
131 lines
3.9 KiB
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131 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
# Legal Documentation
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Patent and intellectual property documentation for Episteme (StemeDB).
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---
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## Patent Documentation
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Episteme's core innovations are documented for patent purposes. These documents describe the technical inventions and their implementation.
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### Documents
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- **[Patent Disclosure](./patent-disclosure.md)** - Formal invention disclosure document
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- **[Patent Specification](./patent-specification.md)** - Technical specification and claims
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- **[Patent Figures](./patent-figures.md)** - Visual diagrams and illustrations
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---
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## Overview
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### Core Innovations
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1. **Content-Addressed Knowledge Graph**
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- Append-only Merkle DAG for conflicting assertions
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- BLAKE3 content addressing for deduplication
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- Cryptographic signature verification
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2. **Read-Time Conflict Resolution (Lenses)**
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- Multiple resolution strategies without data mutation
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- Source-class aware authority hierarchies
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- Time-travel queries via materialized views
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3. **Probabilistic Materialization**
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- O(1) reads via pre-computed consensus
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- Background compaction and staleness detection
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- Weighted voting with TrustRank integration
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4. **Epistemic Provenance**
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- Full audit trail of reasoning chains
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- Invalidation cascades via DAG structure
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- Source retraction with downstream impact analysis
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---
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## Key Claims
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### 1. Multi-Truth Storage
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**Problem Solved:** Traditional databases force resolution at write time, losing disagreement.
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**Innovation:** Assertions are immutable proposals; resolution happens at read time via Lenses.
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```
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Traditional DB: Episteme:
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Write → Overwrite Write → Append
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Read → Single Value Read → Lens → Resolved Value
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```
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### 2. Source-Class Hierarchy
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**Problem Solved:** All sources treated equally, regardless of authority.
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**Innovation:** Structural source tiers (Regulatory > Clinical > Expert > Anecdotal) with decay curves.
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### 3. Invalidation Cascades
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**Problem Solved:** Retracted sources leave orphaned decisions.
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**Innovation:** Merkle DAG enables instant downstream identification via content addressing.
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### 4. Weighted Consensus Without Byzantine Fault Tolerance
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**Problem Solved:** Consensus algorithms require majority agreement, which fails when truth is contested.
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**Innovation:** Vote-weighted resolution with TrustRank (PageRank for agents), enabling dissent visibility.
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---
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## Prior Art Analysis
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Episteme differs from existing systems:
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| System | Limitation | Episteme Innovation |
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|--------|-----------|---------------------|
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| **Traditional RDBMS** | Single truth per cell | Multi-truth via append-only DAG |
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| **Version Control (Git)** | Branches require merge | Lenses enable coexistence |
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| **Graph Databases (Neo4j)** | No conflict resolution | Lenses + Source-Class hierarchy |
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| **Vector DBs (Pinecone)** | Semantic similarity, not truth | Authority-weighted resolution |
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| **Knowledge Graphs (Wikidata)** | Manual curation | Automated ingestion + voting |
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| **Blockchain** | Consensus required | Dissent preserved, resolution optional |
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---
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## Filing Status
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**Status:** Disclosure phase (not yet filed)
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**Next Steps:**
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1. Patent attorney review
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2. Claims refinement
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3. USPTO filing
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---
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## Confidentiality
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These documents are:
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- ✅ **Public**: Available in open-source repository
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- ⚠️ **Pre-Filing**: Not yet filed with USPTO
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- 📋 **Disclosure**: Establishes prior art date
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**Important:** Public disclosure creates prior art. File within 12 months of public release (grace period in US).
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---
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## Related Documents
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- **[Architecture](../../architecture.md)** - Technical implementation
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- **[Vision](../../vision.md)** - Product philosophy
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- **[What is Episteme?](../../what-is-episteme.md)** - Concept overview
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---
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## License
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The Episteme codebase is open-source. Patent rights are retained by the project maintainers but licensed for use with the open-source implementation.
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---
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**[← Back to Documentation Index](../README.md)**
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