Electronic signature method

• US 7,039,805 B1
• Filed: 05/20/1998
• Issued: 05/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: John H. Messing
• Inventors: Messing, John H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Caldwell, Andriew
• Assistant Examiner(s): PYZOCHA, MICHAEL J
• Application Number:
  US09/081,872
• Time in Patent Office: 2,904 Days
• Field of Search: 713/170, 713/176, 713/178
• US Class Current: 713/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/33 using certificates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/60 Digital content management, e.g. content distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3231 Biological data, e.g. fingerprint, voice or retina network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using biometrical features in a packet data network H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

An electronic signature program to create an electronic signature for documents, filings, and transactions records effectuated between computers. A computer user is authenticated by a server computer. The computer user supplies certain information to the server computer, which extracts the information, and when a signature command is received, combines certain of the user submitted information with certain predetermined elements of the system information of the server, then digitally signs this combination of information along with the document, filing or transaction record which is being signed. The digitally signed combined information is returned to the user as the user'"'"'s electronic signature of the information which was submitted for signature, together with the signed information, being the document, filing, or transaction record itself.

Claims

1. A method for signing and verifying electronic data by or on behalf of another at a server comprising:

a. an authentication step of creating a collection of records about a plurality of individuals by entering into a data storage medium a collection of at least one of the following;

i. personal information about an individual,

ii. an indicator of the reliability of the identification of the individual who is the subject of a record,

iii. whether the authentication mode is universal or whether such individual must authenticate to the server computer in order to sign electronic data using the server, and

iv. an authentication credential or plurality of authentication credentials that the individual must present to the server in order to sign;

b. an access control step of

i. receiving a request from a requester to sign and, unless the authentication mode is universal, an authentication credential or a plurality of authentication credentials from the requester, and

ii. comparing the authentication credential or credentials to the information contained in the collection of records to determine if the requestor is authorized to sign electronic data using the server;

c. a presentation step of providing to the server an electronic data set for signature;

d. a transaction identifier step of generating at the server a globally unique transaction identifier for the electronic data set that the requester intends to sign, which includes as one input an identifier associated with an identity of the requestor;

e. a signature step whereby the server encrypts, as the signature of a signer, each electronic data set with a unique encryption key generated from a symmetric cipher using the globally unique transaction identifier as character input for a password for generation of the key;

f. a recording step in which the server generates and stores in a data storage medium a record of a signature transaction;

g. a verification step whereby

i. an inquiring party seeking to validate a signature of electronic data transmits to a server electronic data that is believed to have been previously signed at a server;

ii. the server that receives the electronic data that is believed to have been previously signed at a server determines if a record or a plurality of records corresponding to the transmitted electronic data exists in the data storage medium of such records;

iii. the server retrieves a record or plurality of records corresponding to the electronic data which is presented for verification;

iv. with regard to each such record, the server performs a verification operation which includes a step of reconstructing a symmetric cipher from a record of input for a password of a key that was used to create an encryption key initially, including an identifier of the signer, and applying such symmetric cipher to decrypt the electronic data set;

v. after decryption, the server reports to an inquiring party,

1. whether the electronic data submitted for verification remains unmodified since a signature was affixed, and

2. an identity of a signer of the electronic data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic data set which is symmetrically encrypted during signature and decrypted upon verification at a server consists of one of the following:

a. a message digest of the electronic data;

b. a crypto-transformation, created using a private key, of the message digest of the electronic data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic data submitted for signature consists of one of the following:

a. form input of a signer;

b. a combination of form input of a signer and standardized words, clauses, or phrases.