Cascaded digital signatures

• US 20070204340A1
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: K2.0 Inc.
• Original Assignee: Enli Health Intelligence Corp. (Cedar Gate Partners Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: Sponaugle, Jeffrey, Karamchedu, Murali
• Granted Patent: US 8,122,252 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3825 Use of electronic signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/389 Keeping log of transactions for guaranteeing non-repudiation of a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40975 using encryption therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for methods and apparatuses for generating digital signatures of digital contracts, such as digital health care contracts. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for generating and using cascading digital signatures to identify a digital contract, enabling the digital contract'"'"'s integrity to be assured, and rendering the digital contract non-repudiative.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating one or more digital document identifiers for one or more digital documents using one or more contract clause identifiers of one or more contract clauses and/or one or more digital contract term identifiers of one or more digital contract terms;

generating a digital contract identifier for a digital contract using the one or more digital document identifiers; and

forming a digital signature using at least the digital contract identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising

generating at least one of the one or more contract clause identifiers of the one or more digital contract clauses using at least one of the one or more contract term identifiers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein

generating one or more contract term identifiers for one or more digital contract terms comprises generating one or more contract term identifiers for each of the one or more digital contract terms;

generating the one or more contract clause identifiers for the one or more digital contract clauses comprises generating the one or more contract clause identifiers for each of the one or more digital contract clauses; and

generating one or more digital document identifiers for one or more digital documents comprises generating one or more digital document identifiers for each of the one or more digital documents.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

generating one or more contract term identifiers comprises hashing the one or more digital contract terms to generate one or more contract term hash values for the one or more digital contract terms;

generating one or more contract clause identifiers comprises hashing the one or more contract term hash values to generate one or more contract clause hash values for the one or more digital contract clauses;

generating one or more digital document identifiers comprises hashing one or more contract clause hash values to generate one or more document hash values for the one or more digital documents; and

generating a digital contract identifier comprises hashing the one or more document hash values to generate a contract hash value for the digital contract.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said hashing the one or more contract term hash values comprises:

combining the one or more contract term hash values to form one or more aggregate hash values for the one or more digital contract clauses, wherein the one or more digital contract clauses comprise the one or more digital contract terms; and

hashing the one or more aggregate hash values.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said hashing one or more contract clause hash values comprises:

combining the contract clause hash values to form one or more aggregate hash values for one or more digital contract clauses, wherein the one or more digital contract clauses comprise one or more digital contract terms; and

hashing the one or more aggregate hash values.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein said hashing the one or more document hash values comprises:

combining the one or more document hash values to form one or more aggregate hash values for the one or more digital documents, wherein the one or more digital documents comprise one or more digital contract clauses; and

hashing the one or more aggregate hash values.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating one or more digital rate identifiers for one or more digital rates; and

generating one or more digital rate sheet identifiers for one or more digital rate sheets using the one or more digital rate identifiers.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein

said generating one or more digital rate identifiers comprises hashing one or more digital rates to generate one or more rate hash values for the one or more digital rates;

and

said generating one or more digital rate sheet identifiers comprises hashing the one or more rate hash values to generate one or more rate sheet hash values for the one or more digital rate sheets.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said generating one or more digital document identifiers for one or more digital documents further comprises generating one or more digital document identifiers using the one or more digital rate sheet identifiers.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said forming a digital signature using at least the digital contract identifier further comprises forming a digital signature using one or more of the following elements of the digital contract:

characteristic data for one or more parties to the digital contract; and

one or more values interpolated into the digital contract.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising attaching the digital signature to the digital contract.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital contract comprises a health plan provider contract.

14. A method, comprising:

facilitating a user in selecting one or more of the following elements of a digital contract;

a digital contract identifier for a digital contract;

characteristic data for one or more parties to the digital contract; and

one or more values interpolated into the digital contract;

combining the user selected contract elements to form a contract value; and

forming a digital signature using the contract value.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said forming a digital signature comprises hashing the contract value to generate a hash value.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising attaching the digital signature to the digital contract.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the digital contract comprises a health plan provider contract.

18. A system, comprising:

a processor;

an identifier module operated by the processor to generate one or more digital document identifiers for one or more digital documents using one or more contract clause identifiers and/or one or more digital contract term identifiers, and to generate a digital contract identifier for a digital contract using the one or more digital document identifiers; and

a signature module operated by the processor to form a digital signature for the digital contract using at least the digital contract identifier.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the identifier module is further operated by the processor to generate one or more contract clause identifiers for one or more digital contract clauses using the one or more contract term identifiers.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein:

the identifier module further comprises a hash function adapted to hash the one or more contract clause hash values to generate one or more document hash values for the one or more digital documents, further comprises a hash function adapted to hash the one or more of the document hash values to generate a contract hash value for the digital contract, further comprises a hash function adapted to hash at least the one or more contract term hash values to generate one or more contract clause hash values for each of the one or more digital contract clauses; and

further comprises a hash function adapted to hash the one or more digital contract terms to generate a contract term hash value for the one or more digital contract terms.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the identifier module is further operated by the processor to generate one or more digital rate identifiers for one or more digital rates;

and to generate one or more digital rate sheet identifiers for one or more digital rate sheets using the one or more digital rate identifiers.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein

the identifier module further comprises a hash function adapted to hash the one or more digital rates to generate one or more rate hash values for the one or more digital rates, and further comprises a hash function adapted to hash the one or more rate hash values to generate one or more rate sheet hash values.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the identifier module is adapted to generate the one or more digital document identifiers for each of the one or more digital documents using at least the one or more digital rate sheet identifiers.

24. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a selection module operated by the processor to facilitate a user in selecting one or more of the following contract elements;

a digital contract identifier for the digital contract;

data characteristics of one or more parties to the digital contract; and

one or more values interpolated into the digital contract;

an assembly module operated by the processor to combine the user selected contract elements to form a contract value; and

a signature module operated by the processor to generate a digital signature using the contract value.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the signature module comprises a hash function adapted to hash the contract value to generate a hash value.

26. The system of claim 24, further comprising an attachment module to attach the digital signature to the digital contract.

27. An apparatus, comprising:

a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions designed to implement a first execution thread equipped to generate one or more contract term identifiers for one or more digital contract terms;

a second execution thread equipped to generate one or more contract clause identifiers for one or more digital contract clauses using the one or more contract term identifiers;

a third execution thread equipped to generate one or more digital document identifiers for one or more digital documents using at least the one or more contract clause identifiers;

a fourth execution thread equipped to generate a digital contract identifier for a digital contract using the one or more digital document identifiers;

a fourth execution thread equipped to form a digital signature for the digital contract using at least the digital contract identifier; and

a processor coupled to the storage medium to execute the programming instructions.

28. An apparatus, comprising:

a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions designed to implement a first execution thread equipped to facilitate a user in selecting one or more of the following contract elements;

a digital contract identifier for the digital contract;

data characteristics of one or more parties to the digital contract; and

one or more values interpolated into the digital contract;

a second execution thread equipped to combine the user selected contract elements to form a contract value;

a third execution thread equipped to generate a digital signature using the contract value; and

a processor coupled to the storage medium to execute the programming instructions.