Methods and systems for establishing and enforcing document visibility rights with an electronic signature service

• US 9,323,937 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2014
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Follis, Benjamin David, Aloni, Eran
• Primary Examiner(s): RAHIM, MONJUR
• Application Number:
  US14/493,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20150013019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: 726/28
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/605 Copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

Techniques for generating and enforcing document visibility rights associated with a document in use with an electronic signature service are described. Consistent with embodiments of the invention, document visibility rights can be established for each person designated to sign and/or receive a copy of a document, and on a per-page, per-document section, or per-source document basis. Additionally, visibility rights may be conditional, such that various events (including the signing of a document) may modify visibility rights making a previously un-viewable page or document section viewable to a particular person.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving at a server operating an electronic signature service a request to view a document package, the server generating document visibility rights defined for one or more persons based on metadata defining visibility rights and signature requirements for at least one source document of the document package;

identifying document visibility rights associated with a person having invoked the request to view the document package, the document visibility rights defining a portion of the document package that the person is allowed to view;

generating an image of an instance of the document package with only the portion of the document package the person is allowed to view, as indicated by the document visibility rights; and

providing the image of the instance of the document package with only the portion of the document package the person is allowed to view to a remote device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the person having invoked the request to view the document package.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the person is identified using an identifier included with the request to view the document package.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to view the document package is initiated based on a user selection of a customized link to a webpage at which the document package can be accessed.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user selection of the customized link causes the request to view the document package to be communicated to the server with information identifying the person invoking the request to view the document package.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the document package the person is allowed to view comprises one or more pages of the document package, one or document sections of the document package, one or more source documents of the document package, or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a second person has a second set of document visibility rights associated with the document package.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the document visibility right for the person that requested to view the document package is based on a conditional rule such that at least one or more pages are not viewable to the person until one or more other persons have signed, with the electronic signature service, a source document of the document package.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the document visibility right for the person that requested to view the document package is defined based on the person being a member of or associated with a group.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the document visibility right for the person that requested to view the document package is defined based on the person being a member of or associated with a domain.

11. A system comprising:

a hardware processor for executing instructions stored in a memory device, the instructions, when executed to cause the system to;

receive at a server operating an electronic signature service a request to download a copy of a document package, wherein the server generates document visibility rights defined for one or more persons based on metadata defining visibility rights and signature requirements for at least one source document of the document package;

identify document visibility rights associated with a person having invoked the request to download a copy of the document package, the document visibility rights defining a portion of the document package that the person is allowed to view; and

generate an image of an instance of the document package with only the portion the person is allowed to view, as indicated by the document visibility rights.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising identifying the person having invoked the request to download a copy of the document package.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the person is identified using an identifier included with the request to download a copy of the document package.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the portion of the document package the person is allowed to view comprises one or more pages of the document package, one or document sections of the document package, one or more source documents of the document package, or a combination thereof.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the document visibility right for the person that requested to view the document package is defined based on the person being a member of or associated with a group.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the group is defined by an account established with the electronic signature service.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the group is defined by a domain name of a message address of persons to receive and/or sign a source document in the document package.

18. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a hardware processor, a first request to view a document package, wherein the hardware processor generates document visibility rights defined for a plurality of individuals based on metadata defining visibility rights and signature requirements for at least one source document of the document package;

identifying a first set of document visibility rights associated with a first individual having invoked the first request to view the document package, the first set of document visibility rights defining a first portion of the document package that the first individual is allowed to view;

providing an instance of the document package with the first portion the first individual is allowed to view to a first client device, as indicated by the first set of document visibility rights;

receiving a second request to view the document package;

identifying a second set of document visibility rights associated a second individual having invoked the second request to view the document package, the second set of document visibility rights defining a second portion of the document package that the second individual is allowed to view; and

providing an instance of the document package with the second portion the second individual is allowed to view to a second client device, as indicated by the second set of document visibility rights.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second set of document visibility rights are modified upon the first individual signing at least a portion of the document package.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the first portion of the document package that the first individual is allowed to view comprises a set of one or more pages, a set of one or more sections, or a set of one or more source documents.