Signing Ceremony System And Method

• US 20090249191A1
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Topaz Systems Inc
• Original Assignee: Interlink Electronics Incorporated
• Inventors: Chronopoulos, Paul, Benoit, Nathalie, Rauscher, Tomlinson G., Lan, Oliver, London, John, Leoutsarakos, Nikos
• Granted Patent: US 9,286,596 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

A system and method for conducting an electronic signing ceremony is provided. The electronic signing ceremony may include a number of defined steps performed by one or more people on a number of documents in a predetermined order. An activity, such as providing a digital signature, may be associated with each document and/or page of each document. The electronic signing ceremony system and method consolidates and streamlines the process of originating, organizing, signing, verifying, storing, and retrieving multiple documents requiring multiple signatures from one or more people virtually anywhere and at any time.

Claims

1. An electronic signing ceremony system comprising:

a ceremony execution module for conducting a ceremony session, the ceremony execution module configured to receive a signing ceremony input defining a plurality of steps to be performed by one or more users in a predetermined order and generate at least a first graphical user interface (GUI) for display on a display device, the first GUI including a first ceremony pane and a first page pane, the ceremony pane configured to display a plurality of documents having one or more pages, each document corresponding to one of the plurality of steps and arranged in the ceremony pane to provide a stepwise progression of the signing ceremony in the predetermined order, the page pane configured to display a ceremony page of an active document, the ceremony execution module further configured to receive user input corresponding to an at least one activity associated with the active document and executed by the one or more users on the ceremony page, the ceremony execution module further configured to generate an executed ceremony container containing data corresponding to the executed ceremony session.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a ceremony template module operable to access a ceremony template for generating the signing ceremony input defining the plurality of steps to be executed during the ceremony session, the ceremony template including one or more ceremony template documents having one or more blanks and at least one input for collecting and organizing the ceremony template documents, identifying signers, identifying signing devices, and identifying the one or more entities involved in executing the ceremony session.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the ceremony template module further includes functionality to generate a ceremony template.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more blanks are filled by the entity building the signing ceremony.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more template documents is a portable display format (PDF) document.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a ceremony validation module operable to conduct a signing validation, the ceremony validation module configured to receive the executed ceremony container and validate the steps and activities performed during the signing ceremony based upon the data contained in the executed ceremony container.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the data contained in the executed ceremony container includes each document in the signing ceremony, digital signatures contained within at least one of the plurality of documents, a date and time of each digital signature, and a date and time at which a viewing of the one or more pages begins.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the ceremony validation module is configured to generate at least a second GUI including a ceremonies panel and a selected ceremony panel, the ceremonies panel including a list of executed ceremony sessions for the one or more users of the signing ceremony system, the selected ceremony panel having a second ceremony pane and a second page pane, the second ceremony pane displaying each document of a selected signing ceremony, the second page pane displaying a second ceremony page corresponding to the one or more pages of each document.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the ceremony validation module is configured to display only the executed ceremony sessions of the user that is currently logged in to the signing ceremony system.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein each document in the second ceremony pane includes a status icon generated from a plurality of icons depicting the status of the at least one activity associated with each document based at least in part upon the data contained in the executed ceremony container corresponding to the selected signing ceremony.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of icons includes at least a first status icon, a second status icon and a third status icon, the first status icon denoting that the document has been viewed and the activity associated with the document has been performed in the predetermined order, the second status icon denoting that the document has been viewed but the activity associated with the document has not been performed in the predetermined order, and the third status icon denoting that the document has been viewed but the activity associated with the document has not been performed.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one activity includes digitally signing the ceremony page of the active document displayed in the page pane.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the ceremony pane includes a scroll bar for scrolling the plurality of documents displayed the ceremony pane in the predetermined order.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the ceremony execution module is configured to selectively display one or more of the plurality of documents in the ceremony pane in an expanded view so that each page of the one or more documents is displayed in the ceremony pane, the ceremony execution module further configured to selectively display the one or more documents in the ceremony pane in a collapsed view so that only a single page icon corresponding to each document is displayed.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein each document or page of the document displayed in the ceremony pane includes a header portion identifying the at least one activity to be performed on each document or page of the document.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one activity identified in the header portion includes an instruction to read the document or page, an instruction to read and sign the document or page, or an instruction to read and initial a document or page.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the ceremony execution module is further configured to display a status icon over each document or page of the document in which the at least one activity has been performed indicating completion of the at least one activity associated with the document or page of the document.

18. A method for conducting an electronic signing ceremony comprising:

receiving a request to conduct a signing ceremony;

initiating a ceremony session based upon the request;

receiving a signing ceremony input corresponding to the ceremony session, the signing ceremony input defining a plurality of steps to be performed by one or more users in a predetermined order;

displaying a first graphical user interface (GUI) including a first ceremony pane and a first page pane, the ceremony pane displaying a plurality of documents having one or more pages, each document corresponding to one of the plurality of steps and arranged in the ceremony pane to provide a stepwise progression of the signing ceremony in the predetermined order, the page pane displaying a ceremony page of an active document in the ceremony pane;

receiving user input corresponding to an at least one activity associated with the active document and executed by the one or more users on the ceremony page; and

generating an executed ceremony container containing data corresponding to the executed ceremony session.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

providing a signing ceremony hierarchy for conducting the signing ceremony, the signing ceremony hierarchy comprising;

the electronic signing ceremony including the plurality of steps to be performed by the one or more users in a predetermined order;

the plurality of documents including information in an electronic format, wherein each step corresponds to one document and defines an activity to be performed on the one document;

the one or more pages associated with each document containing one or more actions in at least one of the pages of each document; and

the one or more actions corresponding to the activity to be performed on each document;

wherein the one or more actions and the one or more pages are collectively associated with the plurality of steps, and the one or more actions, the one or more pages and the plurality of documents are collectively associated with the electronic signing ceremony.

20. An electronic signing ceremony system comprising:

a ceremony template module operable to access a ceremony template for generating a signing ceremony input defining a plurality of steps to be executed during a ceremony session, the ceremony template including one or more ceremony template documents having one or more blanks and at least one input for collecting and organizing the ceremony template documents, identifying signers, identifying signing devices, and identifying the one or more entities involved in executing the ceremony session;

a ceremony execution module for conducting the ceremony session, the ceremony execution module configured to;

receive the signing ceremony input defining the plurality of steps to be performed by one or more users in a predetermined order and generate at least a first graphical user interface (GUI) for display on a display device, the first GUI including a first ceremony pane and a first page pane, the first ceremony pane configured to display a plurality of documents having one or more pages, each document corresponding to one of the plurality of steps and arranged in the ceremony pane to provide a stepwise progression of the signing ceremony in the predetermined order, each document or page of the document displayed in the ceremony pane including a header portion identifying an at least one activity to be performed on each document or page of the document, the first page pane configured to display a ceremony page of an active document;

receive user input corresponding to the at least one activity associated with the active document and executed by the one or more users on the ceremony page;

display a status icon over each document or page of the document in which the at least one activity has been performed indicating completion of the at least one activity associated with the document or page of the document; and

generate an executed ceremony container containing data corresponding to the executed ceremony session; and

a ceremony validation module operable to conduct a signing validation, the ceremony validation module configured to receive the executed ceremony container and validate the steps and activities performed during the signing ceremony based upon the data contained in the executed ceremony container, the ceremony validation module further configured to generate at least a second GUI including a ceremonies panel and a selected ceremony panel, the ceremonies panel including a list of executed ceremony sessions for the one or more users of the signing ceremony system, the selected ceremony panel having a second ceremony pane and a second page pane, the second ceremony pane displaying each document of a selected signing ceremony, the second page pane displaying a second ceremony page corresponding to the one or more pages of each document, each document in the second ceremony pane including a status icon generated from a plurality of icons depicting the status of the at least one activity associated with each document based at least in part upon the data contained in the executed ceremony container corresponding to the selected signing ceremony.