SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING AND EXECUTING DATA-DRIVEN LEGAL CONTRACTS

• US 20170287090A1
• Filed: 03/31/2017
• Published: 10/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: DocuSign Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Clause, Inc.
• Inventors: Hunn, Peter Geoffrey Lerato, Shadab, Houman Brian
• Application Number:
  US15/476,791
• Publication Number:
  US 20170287090A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/12 Use of codes for handling textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/805 Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3239 involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

A system and method that includes providing a contract management platform; constructing a data-driven contract with a set of programmable clauses by: receiving specification of a programmable clause, configuring programmable logic of the programmable clauses, mapping a set of integrations to the programmable clause, wherein at least one integration is a blockchain/distributed ledger integration, and adding at least one clause with natural language content; and executing the data-driven contract.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a contract management system;

through the contract management system, constructing a data-driven contract with a set of programmable clauses which comprises at least;

receiving specification of a programmable clause that comprises configuring programmable logic and mapping at least one integration to the programmable clause, and

adding at least one clause with natural language content, and

executing the data-driven contract.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping at least one integration to the programmable clause comprises mapping at least one external input integration and at least one external output integration, wherein executing the data-driven contract comprises receiving data inputs through the least one external input integration, processing a programmable clause based in part on the data inputs, and executing actions that result from the processing of the programmable clause.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein executing actions comprises:

a first programmable clause updating an external integration endpoint, a second programmable clause updating at least one programmable clause that is not the second programmable clause, and a third programmable clause executing a transaction with at least one distributed ledger system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one integration is an external integration that establishes an outside resource as an input or output of the programmable clause.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the external integration is to a network-connected device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one external integration establishes connection to a first external distributed ledger system.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising mapping at least a second external integration with a second external distributed ledger system, wherein the first external distributed ledger system and the second external distributed ledger system are distinct systems.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein configuring programmable logic comprises configuring a distributed ledger script configured to be deployed to the first external distributed ledger system through the external integration.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one integration to the programmable clause is an internal integration with a second programmable clause, wherein executing the data-driven contract comprises the first programmable clause updating the second programmable clause through the internal integration.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the programmable logic comprises a contract rule;

and wherein executing the data-driven contract comprises storing versioned data records of an event data stream connected through the integration, executing complex event processing on the event data stream according to the contract rule, and storing a versioned data record of changes to contract state.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising accepting execution authorization by at least two parties and applying an electronic signature of the two parties to the data-driven contract.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring programmable logic comprises configuring a legal logic importing data from a legal reference.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a dashboard of analytics relating to the data-driven contract.

14. A method comprising:

providing a contract management system;

at the contract management system, constructing a data-driven contract that comprises a set of programmable clauses, wherein constructing the data-driven contract comprises at least;

configuring programmable logic and natural language content of the set of programmable clauses,

mapping a first external integration of a network-connected device to a first programmable clause of the data-driven contract,

mapping a second external integration of an API-based platform to a second programmable clause of the data-driven contract,

mapping a distributed ledger integration to a third programmable clause of the data-driven contract,

mapping an internal integration between a fourth programmable clause and a fifth programmable clauses,

configuring at least one natural language clause in the data-driven contract, the natural language clause comprising natural language content; and

accepting execution authorization by at least two parties and applying an electronic signature of the two parties to the data-driven contract;

after accepting execution authorization, executing the data-driven contract, which comprises;

receiving device data through the first external integration and processing programmable logic of the first programmable clause based on the device data,

transmitting a communication to the API-based platform through the second external integration in response to processing programmable logic of the second programmable clause,

processing the third programmable clause and interacting with a distributed ledger system through the distributed ledger integration, and

updating the fifth programmable clause in response to processing programmable logic of the fourth programmable clause.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein at two of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth programmable clauses are the same programmable clause.

16. A system comprising:

a contract management system;

a data-driven contract created and managed within the contract management system, the data-driven contract comprising a set of programmable clauses, wherein a programmable clause comprises natural language content, programmable logic, and at least one integration;

wherein at least a subset of the set of programmable clauses comprises an integration with a distributed ledger; and

a processing engine that executes the data-driven contract and facilitates interactions between a programmable clause and a resource.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the contract management system comprises a contract editor interface.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the set of programmable clauses comprises at least one integration to a network-connected device and at least one integration to an API-based platform.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the set of programmable clauses comprises a first programmable clause with a distributed ledger integration, and the programmable logic of the first programmable clause comprises a distributed ledger script that is deployed to a first distributed ledger system through the distributed ledger integration during execution of the first programmable clause by the processing engine.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the first programmable clause comprises at least a second distributed ledger integration to a second distributed ledger system, wherein the second distributed ledger system is distinct from the first distributed ledger system.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the set of programmable clauses comprises:

a first programmable clause that is mapped with a first external integration and, during execution by the processing engine, receives device data through the first external integration and processes programmable logic of the first programmable clause based in part on the device data,

a second programmable clause that is mapped with a second external integration and, during execution by the processing engine, transmits a communication to the API-based platform through the second external integration in response to programmable logic of the second programmable clause,

a third programmable clause that is mapped with a distributed ledger integration and, during execution by the processing engine, interacts with a blockchain system through the distributed ledger integration in response to programmable logic of the third programmable clause, and

a fourth programmable clause that is mapped with an internal integration and, during execution by the processing engine, updates a fifth programmable clause in response to processing programmable logic of the fourth programmable clause.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the processing engine is an event stream processing system that includes a complex event processing engine.

23. The system of claim 16, further comprising a state transitioning system.

24. The system of claim 16, the contract management system comprises a distributed ledger system.