A system for tracking the lineage of data in a database. Data within the tables are tracked by attaching lineage information to the data, preferably, by adding a lineage identifier to each row in a table. Data that share a common lineage can be identified by virtue of sharing a common lineage identifier....http://www.google.de/patents/US6343295?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6343295 - Data lineage
