Cascaded digital signatures
First Claim
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1. A method, comprising:
- generating a digital contract term identifier of a digital contract term using at least the digital contract term;
generating a digital contract clause identifier of a digital contract clause using at least the digital contract term identifier;
generating a digital document identifier for a digital document using, as input for a transformation, at least one of the digital contract clause identifier of the digital contract clause and the digital contract term identifier of the digital contract term;
generating a digital contract identifier for a digital contract using, as input for a transformation, at least the digital document identifier; and
forming a digital signature using at least the digital contract identifier;
wherein;
generating the digital contract term identifier comprises hashing at least the digital contract term to generate a contract term hash value for the digital contract term;
generating the digital contract clause identifier comprises hashing at least the contract term hash value to generate a contract clause hash value for the digital contract clause;
generating the digital document identifier comprises hashing at least the contract clause hash value to generate a document hash value for the digital document; and
generating a digital contract identifier comprises hashing at least the document hash value to generate a contract hash value for the digital contract.
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Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for methods and apparatuses for generating digital signatures of digital contracts, such as digital health care contracts. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for generating and using cascading digital signatures to identify a digital contract, enabling the digital contract'"'"'s integrity to be assured, and rendering the digital contract non-repudiative.
28 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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generating a digital contract term identifier of a digital contract term using at least the digital contract term; generating a digital contract clause identifier of a digital contract clause using at least the digital contract term identifier; generating a digital document identifier for a digital document using, as input for a transformation, at least one of the digital contract clause identifier of the digital contract clause and the digital contract term identifier of the digital contract term; generating a digital contract identifier for a digital contract using, as input for a transformation, at least the digital document identifier; and forming a digital signature using at least the digital contract identifier; wherein; generating the digital contract term identifier comprises hashing at least the digital contract term to generate a contract term hash value for the digital contract term; generating the digital contract clause identifier comprises hashing at least the contract term hash value to generate a contract clause hash value for the digital contract clause; generating the digital document identifier comprises hashing at least the contract clause hash value to generate a document hash value for the digital document; and generating a digital contract identifier comprises hashing at least the document hash value to generate a contract hash value for the digital contract. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system, comprising:
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a processor; an identifier module operated by the processor to generate a digital contract clause identifier for a digital contract clause using a digital contract term identifier, to generate a digital document identifier for a digital document using, as input for a transformation, the digital contract clause identifier or the digital contract term identifier, and to generate a digital contract identifier for a digital contract using, as input for a transformation, at least the digital document identifier; and a signature module operated by the processor to form a digital signature for the digital contract using at least the digital contract identifier; wherein the identifier module further comprises a hash function adapted to hash one or more contract clause hash values to generate one or more document hash values for the digital document, further comprises a hash function adapted to hash one or more of the document hash values to generate a contract hash value for the digital contract, further comprises a hash function adapted to hash at least one or more contract term hash values to generate the one or more contract clause hash values; and
further comprises a hash function adapted to hash one or more digital contract terms to generate the one or more contract term hash values. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. An apparatus, comprising:
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a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions designed to implement a first execution thread equipped to generate a contract term identifier for a digital contract term by hashing the digital contract term to generate a contract term hash value for the digital contract term;
a second execution thread equipped to generate a contract clause identifier for a digital contract clause by hashing the contract term hash value to generate a contract clause hash value for the digital contract clause;
a third execution thread equipped to generate a digital document identifier for a digital document by hashing the contract clause hash value to generate a document hash value for the digital document;
a fourth execution thread equipped to generate a digital contract identifier for a digital contract by hashing the document hash value to generate a contract hash value for the digital contract;
a fifth execution thread equipped to form a digital signature for the digital contract using at least the contract hash value; anda processor coupled to the storage medium to execute the programming instructions.
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Specification