JOINT OWNERSHIP OF PROTECTED INFORMATION

• US 20150379294A1
• Filed: 06/26/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cohen, Yair, Winter, Nir, Soudry, Nir Shalom
• Granted Patent: US 9,609,032 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2147 Locking files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/10 Usage protection of distributed data files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a system and method for managing a collaborative document that is owned by two different users who belong to different organizations. The users first create a document that will be owned by both users. Both users are also granted full ownership rights in the document. The users then contribute to the document by providing information that may be confidential to their organization. The users want to ensure that they can cut off access to the confidential information if and when the relationship between the users or organizations sours. When one of the users with full ownership privileges decides to end the cooperation with the other users, that user simply revokes access to the document to the other user. As a result of the revocation all users are no longer able to see or access the entire document. In this way the confidential information of all parties is protected.

Claims

1. A method for creating and managing joint ownership of a document, comprising:

creating a document on a computing device;

indicating that the document is owned by at least a first user from a first organization and at least a second user from a second organization; and

accessing the document by the first user and the second user where the first user and the second user can access the entire document;

wherein the preceding steps are executed by at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein creating a document on a computing device, creates the document on a collaborative working portal.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein indicating further comprises:

designating a first administrator for the document in the first organization and a second administrator for the document in the second organization.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the first administrator and the second administrator can revoke access to the document from any user currently having access to the document.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

editing the document by either the first user or the second user.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

designating at least a portion of the document as containing proprietary information.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

revoking access to the document to the first user from the first organization by the second user, wherein revoking access results in all users being denied access to at least a portion of the document.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the portion comprises the entire document.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

displaying the document following revocation of access to the first user and the second user in a redacted format, wherein the redacted format redacts proprietary information of the first user from the document when displayed to the second user and redacts proprietary information of the second user from the document when displayed to the first user.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

alerting the first user that the second user has revoked access to the document; and

permitting the first user to revoke access to the document from the second user.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

adding a third user from a third organization as an owner of the document, wherein the third user has equal ability to revoke access to the document from the first user and the second user.

12. A system comprising:

a first user associated with a first organization;

a second user associated with a second organization;

a collaborative working portal configured to allow the first user and a second user to access a collaborative document; and

an access control component configured to control access to the collaborative document based on a set of permissions placed on access to the collaborative document by either of the first user or of the second user.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the collaborative working portal further comprises at least one application configured to permit the first user and the second user to modify the collaborative document.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the set of permissions may be modified by the first user and the second user.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the modification of the set of permissions is a revocation of access for the first user to the collaborative document by the second user.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the access control component is further configured to deny both the first user and the second user access to the collaborative document when the second user revokes the access to the collaborative document for the first user.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the access control component is further configured to redact the collaborative document in response to the revocation of access to the collaborative document by the second user.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the access control component is further configured to notify the first user of changes to the set of permissions made by the second user and notify the second user of changes to the set of permissions made by the first user.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein the access control component is further configured to permit the first user or the second user to download the collaborative document and wherein the set of permissions require that access to the collaborative document is only available for a predetermined period of time.

20. A computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions that when executed cause a computer to perform the steps of:

identify a collaborative document in a collaborative working portal that is subject to joint ownership by a first user from a first organization and a second user from a second different organization;

determine that the second user has revoked access to the collaborative document for the first user;

add the second user to the revoking owners list;

block access to at least a portion of contents of the collaborative document to both the first user and the second user;

receive instructions from the second user to restore access to the collaborative document for the first user;

remove the second user from the revoking owners list; and

allow access to the collaborative document to all users when the revoking owners list is empty.