Signing ceremony system and method

• US 9,286,596 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Topaz Systems Inc
• Original Assignee: Topaz Systems Inc
• Inventors: Leoutsarakos, Nikos, Lan, Oliver, London, John, Benoit, Nathalie, Rauscher, Tomlinson G., Chronopoulos, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cortes, Howard
• Application Number:
  US12/414,893
• Publication Number:
  US 20090249191A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,541 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4, 705/80, 705/1.1, 705/7.21, 705/7.22, 715/700, 715/200, 715/210, 715229-233, 715780-781
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

A system and method for conducting an electronic signing ceremony is provided. The electronic signing ceremony may include a number of defined steps performed by one or more people on a number of documents in a predetermined order. An activity, such as providing a digital signature, may be associated with each document and/or page of each document. The electronic signing ceremony system and method consolidates and streamlines the process of originating, organizing, signing, verifying, storing, and retrieving multiple documents requiring multiple signatures from one or more people virtually anywhere and at any time.

Claims

1. An electronic signing ceremony system to execute a ceremony session at one or more user sites on a plurality of documents stored at a server site, wherein the plurality of documents remain at the server site at all times, at least some of the documents comprising multiple pages, at least one of the pages being a ceremony page to have an activity executed by one or more users located at the one or more user sites thereon as part of the ceremony session, the system comprising:

(a) a ceremony execution module for conducting the ceremony session at the one or more user sites, the ceremony execution module configured to (i) receive a signing ceremony input defining a plurality of steps to be performed by the one or more users located at the one or more user sites with regard to the documents stored at the server site, (ii) a predetermined order in which the documents are to be arranged for execution, and (iii) generate at least a first graphical user interface (GUI) for display on a display device located at the one or more user sites;

(b) the first GUI including a first ceremony pane and a first page pane, the first ceremony pane configured to display the documents locally at the one or more user sites, each document stored at the server site corresponding to one of the plurality of steps and arranged in the first ceremony pane to provide a progression of the signing ceremony in the same predetermined order as provided by the signing ceremony input, one of the displayed documents being an active document, the first page pane configured to display a ceremony page of the active document locally at the one or more user sites;

(c) the ceremony execution module further configured to (i) selectively display one or more of the plurality of documents in the first ceremony pane in an expanded view so that each page of the displayed document is displayed in the first ceremony pane and (ii) selectively display one or more documents in the first ceremony pane in a collapsed view so that only a single icon is displayed;

(d) the ceremony execution module further configured to receive user input corresponding to an at least one activity associated with the active document and executed by the one or more users on the displayed ceremony page until all required activities are performed on all ceremony pages in the predetermined order to execute the ceremony session, wherein the active document remains at the server site at all times and the required activities are performed locally at one or more user sites;

(e) the ceremony execution module further configured to generate an executed ceremony container containing data corresponding to the executed ceremony session; and

(f) a ceremony validation module operable to conduct a signing validation, the ceremony validation module configured to;

i) receive the executed ceremony container and validate the steps and activities performed during the signing ceremony based upon the data contained in the executed ceremony container;

ii) generate at least a second GUI including a ceremonies panel and a selected ceremony panel, the ceremonies panel including a list of executed ceremony sessions for the one or more users of the signing ceremony system, the selected ceremony panel having a second ceremony pane and a second page pane, the second ceremony pane displaying each document of a selected signing ceremony, the second page pane displaying a second ceremony page corresponding to the one or more pages of each document, wherein each document in the second ceremony pane includes a status icon generated from a plurality of icons including at least a first status icon denoting that the document has been viewed and the activity associated with the document has been performed in the predetermined order, a second status icon denoting that the document has been viewed but the activity associated with the document has not been performed in the predetermined order, and a third status icon denoting that the document has been viewed but the activity associated with the document has not been performed.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a ceremony template module operable to access a ceremony template for generating the signing ceremony input defining the plurality of steps to be executed during the ceremony session, the ceremony template including one or more ceremony template documents having one or more blanks and at least one input for collecting and organizing the ceremony template documents, identifying signers, identifying signing devices, and identifying the one or more entities involved in executing the ceremony session.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the ceremony template module further includes functionality to generate a ceremony template.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more blanks are filled by the entity building the signing ceremony.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more template documents is a portable display format (PDF) document.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data contained in the executed ceremony container includes each document in the signing ceremony, digital signatures contained within at least one of the plurality of documents, a date and time of each digital signature, and a date and time at which a viewing of the one or more pages begins.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the ceremony validation module is configured to display only the executed ceremony sessions of the user that is currently logged in to the signing ceremony system.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one activity includes digitally signing the ceremony page of the active document displayed in the first page pane.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first ceremony pane includes a scroll bar for scrolling the plurality of documents displayed in the first ceremony pane in the predetermined order.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein each document or page of the document displayed in the first ceremony pane includes a header portion identifying the at least one activity to be performed on each document or page of the document.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one activity identified in the header portion includes an instruction to read the document or page, an instruction to read and sign the document or page, or an instruction to read and initial a document or page.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the ceremony execution module is further configured to display a status icon over each document or page of the document in which the at least one activity has been performed indicating completion of the at least one activity associated with the document or page of the document.

13. A method for conducting an electronic signing ceremony comprising:

(a) receiving a request to conduct a signing ceremony;

(b) initiating a ceremony session based upon the request;

(c) receiving a signing ceremony input from a user site corresponding to the ceremony session, the signing ceremony input defining a plurality of steps to be performed by one or more users in which a plurality of documents stored on a server site are to be arranged for execution, the plurality of documents having one or more pages, wherein the plurality of documents remain at the server site at all times;

(d) displaying a first graphical user interface (GUI) including a ceremony pane and a page pane at the user site, the ceremony pane displaying the plurality of documents, one of the displayed documents being an active document, each document corresponding to one of the plurality of steps and arranged in the ceremony pane, the page pane displaying a ceremony page of the active document in the ceremony pane, at least one of the documents in the ceremony pane being displayed in an expanded view so that each page of the expanded document is displayed in the ceremony pane, and at least one of the documents being displayed in the ceremony pane in a collapsed view so that only a single icon is displayed;

(e) receiving user input at the user site corresponding to an at least one activity associated with the active document stored on the server site and executed by the one or more users on the displayed ceremony page until all required activities are performed on all ceremony pages to execute the ceremony session, wherein the active document remains at the server site at all times and the required activities are performed locally at one or more user sites;

(f) generating at least a second GUI including a ceremonies panel and a selected ceremony panel, the ceremonies panel including a list of executed ceremony sessions for the one or more users of the signing ceremony system, the selected ceremony panel having a second ceremony pane and a second page pane, the second ceremony pane displaying each document of a selected signing ceremony, the second page pane displaying a second ceremony page corresponding to the one or more pages of each document, wherein each document in the second ceremony pane includes a status icon generated from a plurality of icons including at least a first status icon denoting that the document has been viewed and the activity associated with the document has been performed in the predetermined order, a second status icon denoting that the document has been viewed but the activity associated with the document has not been performed in the predetermined order, and a third status icon denoting that the document has been viewed but the activity associated with the document has not been performed; and

(g) generating an executed ceremony container containing data corresponding to the executed ceremony session.