Method and system for time-stamping and managing electronic documents

• US 6,839,879 B1
• Filed: 05/07/1999
• Issued: 01/04/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Xilinx, Inc. (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xilinx, Inc. (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hwang, L. James
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Sanjiv
• Application Number:
  US09/307,620
• Time in Patent Office: 2,069 Days
• Field of Search: 715/511, 715/501.1, 715/513, 707/7, 707/501.1, 707/513, 707/511, 707/203, 707/204, 713176-178, 380/51
• US Class Current: 715/256
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting

Abstract

A method and system for time-stamping and managing electronic documents are described. A document manager obtains time-stamp certificates for the electronic documents. Document identifiers and associated certificate identifiers for the documents and certificates are used to build a database, and the documents and the certificates are stored for future reference.

Claims

1. A method for time-stamping and managing electronic documents, comprising:

obtaining respective time-stamp certificates for a plurality of documents, the documents and the certificates having associated identifiers;

building a database of document identifiers and associated certificate identifiers; and

storing the documents and the certificates.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising chronologically linking related documents by date and time of certification.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising constructing chronologically ordered sets of documents in accordance with user specified relationships.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising associating a time-stamp with the document identifiers in the database.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading textual description information pertaining to the documents; and

associating the description information with the document identifiers in the database.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a subject with the document identifiers in the database.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining the certificates from an outside agency.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising soliciting from a user a document identifier for a document to certify.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising presenting a browse mode to a user for selection of the document to certify.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising soliciting from a user a description of the document to certify.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising soliciting from a user a subject to associate with the document to certify.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising presenting a browse mode to a user for selection of the subject.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising creating a new subject in response to user input.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising soliciting from a user a thread identifier to associate with the document.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising presenting a browse mode to a user for selection of the thread.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising creating a new thread in response to user input.

17. A system for time-stamping and managing electronic documents, comprising:

a document manager configured and arranged to generate requests for time-stamp certificates for electronic documents, store the documents and corresponding time-stamp certificates, and generate document identifiers and certificate identifiers that respectively correspond to the documents and time-stamp certificates;

a certificate generator coupled to the document manager, and configured and arranged to generate time-stamp certificates in response to the requests from the document manager; and

a database coupled to the document manager and including associations of document identifiers and certificate identifiers generated by the document manager.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a certification interface coupled to the document manager and further coupled to the certificate generator via a network, and configured and arranged to transmit the requests from the document manager to the certificate generator and the time-stamp certificates from the certificate generator to the document manager.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the database further includes associations of subjects with the document identifiers.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the database further includes one or more threads indicating chronological relationships between the documents.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the database further includes:

associations of subjects with the document identifiers;

one or more threads indicating chronological relationships between the documents;

textual descriptions of the documents; and

time-stamps for the documents.